It’s happening at the airport!
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It’s happening at the airport!
For those who are eager to be involved with aviation, and learn to fly, the best place to be is at the airport! Now, this would seem to be a self evident truth, but I’ve been seeing a shift in recent years.
In the old days, people would go to the airport, and hang around for the day. They’d do their hour or so of training or flying, and otherwise hang around, chatting with other pilots and owners, cleaning and fixing, and otherwise helping out. It’s certainly the way I started.
More recently, I go to the airport, and other than the dispatch desk, and the flight planning room, things are pretty quiet. The restaurant is crickets, unless it’s lunch time. It seems that if people are not flying, they’re not there at all. I guess there are many other things to do besides flying. That’s fine, but if flying is your dream, you should be where the dream happens!
I can trace back so many excellent advancements in my early flying to simply being at the right place (the airport) at the right time. Generous pilots would offer me a flight, and later as I progressed, offer me their plane. Further into my career in aviation, I was given ferry and maintenance check flight jobs, because when the boss looked around for someone to do it, I was there! I may not have been the most experienced pilot who could be found, but I did not need to be found, I was there.
Sure, you can read about aviation here, and in an odd way, this is a club. But, the people you get to know while you’re typing on your computer at home are rather removed from taking you for a flight, or hiring you for an aviation job. If you’re at the airport, you have put yourself several steps closer to where you need to be, it just may take some patience there, it won’t go click immediately upon your arrival! Spend your money at the airport café. Maybe it’s not the best coffee ever, but it’s where you want to be, and you want that place to stay open, so the person who might take for a flight might meet you there while they’re buying their coffee! If they drove away in their car, you lost out.
Every now and then, as family life permits me, I fly back to one of my old haunts, for lunch, and to hang around a bit for old time’s sake. Nearly all the people I knew when I was there decades ago are gone now, so not much chatting with the old gang anymore. I’d happily take an eager new pilot for a fly in a unique type – but the new eager pilots don’t seem to be there.
So, for those who are eager in aviation, hang around the airport, invest your time there. Be charming and accessible to other pilots, be willing to help out with jobs, cutting grass, pumping gas, cleaning planes, volunteering at the museum. You’ll learn, and you’ll meet aviation people. Some of those people might be looking for a person to hire in the future. You’d like to be met, and remembered. I’ve been working steadily in aviation since 1975, and for all the jobs I have held, I have never prepared nor submitted a resume, I have been hired by someone I got to know around airplanes. Put yourself where the future you are looking for begins.
In the old days, people would go to the airport, and hang around for the day. They’d do their hour or so of training or flying, and otherwise hang around, chatting with other pilots and owners, cleaning and fixing, and otherwise helping out. It’s certainly the way I started.
More recently, I go to the airport, and other than the dispatch desk, and the flight planning room, things are pretty quiet. The restaurant is crickets, unless it’s lunch time. It seems that if people are not flying, they’re not there at all. I guess there are many other things to do besides flying. That’s fine, but if flying is your dream, you should be where the dream happens!
I can trace back so many excellent advancements in my early flying to simply being at the right place (the airport) at the right time. Generous pilots would offer me a flight, and later as I progressed, offer me their plane. Further into my career in aviation, I was given ferry and maintenance check flight jobs, because when the boss looked around for someone to do it, I was there! I may not have been the most experienced pilot who could be found, but I did not need to be found, I was there.
Sure, you can read about aviation here, and in an odd way, this is a club. But, the people you get to know while you’re typing on your computer at home are rather removed from taking you for a flight, or hiring you for an aviation job. If you’re at the airport, you have put yourself several steps closer to where you need to be, it just may take some patience there, it won’t go click immediately upon your arrival! Spend your money at the airport café. Maybe it’s not the best coffee ever, but it’s where you want to be, and you want that place to stay open, so the person who might take for a flight might meet you there while they’re buying their coffee! If they drove away in their car, you lost out.
Every now and then, as family life permits me, I fly back to one of my old haunts, for lunch, and to hang around a bit for old time’s sake. Nearly all the people I knew when I was there decades ago are gone now, so not much chatting with the old gang anymore. I’d happily take an eager new pilot for a fly in a unique type – but the new eager pilots don’t seem to be there.
So, for those who are eager in aviation, hang around the airport, invest your time there. Be charming and accessible to other pilots, be willing to help out with jobs, cutting grass, pumping gas, cleaning planes, volunteering at the museum. You’ll learn, and you’ll meet aviation people. Some of those people might be looking for a person to hire in the future. You’d like to be met, and remembered. I’ve been working steadily in aviation since 1975, and for all the jobs I have held, I have never prepared nor submitted a resume, I have been hired by someone I got to know around airplanes. Put yourself where the future you are looking for begins.
There are of course those who are supposed to be at a job, from time to time, or take care of relatives or friends, or even animals, and have to balance their time. It does make flying much more difficult, yes, because indeed at the airfield I feel looked at (by some) as a foreigner, almost an intruder.
Meaning: it is all too easy to say "spend your time at the airfield" - the more so if one lives a one-hour ride distant. Nice for those who can, of course.
Meaning: it is all too easy to say "spend your time at the airfield" - the more so if one lives a one-hour ride distant. Nice for those who can, of course.
There are more complex forms of entertainment that are instantly gratifying and don’t require leaving your home.
When I grew up we had 3 tv channels and programming didn’t start till 4-5pm.
When I grew up we had 3 tv channels and programming didn’t start till 4-5pm.
Yes, I worked but it was easy to be at the airfield as that's where I worked. Unfortunately, I had to actually work so it was only at lunchtime that I could meet pilots. At first I didn't have my own transport so had to leave the field to catch the daily bus home. Then I managed to buy a motor bike which meant I could stay on in the summer evenings. Got my PPL in 1980 and yes, networking got me some ferry flights. Quite often had to hitch a ride home from some isolated places. But it was free, and I hadn't got any money so that's what I did. Still flying after nearly 40 years, despite a bit of a blip when I had some medical problems last year. A Stern Vega now, the Cub is giving aerotows to vintage gliders at Lasham. Getting used to twice the speed and four times the landing run on the same engine model.
Still haven't got any money, but I have a microlight, a balloon, and half a Vega. And an MGB but no motorbike.Sad old git.
Still haven't got any money, but I have a microlight, a balloon, and half a Vega. And an MGB but no motorbike.Sad old git.
As Woody Allen said, the secret to success is, "Just turn up." I have seen this validated many times in life, often too late to capitalise on it myself, but in general aviation it is still very true.
Guys who hang around being useful may get some stick and teasing initially, but they soon get to understand the language and culture of aviation. And then they start to fit in. The phrase "sweeping the hangar floor" is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago when it was one of the few ways into aviation. These days you may need to go and do an H&S course in Sweeping to be allowed near the hangar, but in a strange way that makes you more useful.
I loved just being around aircraft in 1965 as a teenager, and hung around the local gliding club trying to be helpful. It worked, I was encouraged by good people and gained a grounding and understanding of that level of flying which helped me greatly in my aviation career. At interview at Biggin Hill, when the team saw that I had been flying gliders since the age of 14 they knew that I was not just interviewing for the glamour or the chicks, I was a "Total Aviation Person" as Flight Magazine put it.
And I still am totally enthralled by aviation, and when I see a keen but hesitant person hanging around I will try to give them something to see or do, some experience that they can take forward as a building block for their future. Guys did it for me, I shall keep on the tradition.
Little aside, recently we had an airshow near here, and a friend took a couple of his young staff along to watch. One of them said it was the best day of his life, and he is mid twenties.
Guys who hang around being useful may get some stick and teasing initially, but they soon get to understand the language and culture of aviation. And then they start to fit in. The phrase "sweeping the hangar floor" is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago when it was one of the few ways into aviation. These days you may need to go and do an H&S course in Sweeping to be allowed near the hangar, but in a strange way that makes you more useful.
I loved just being around aircraft in 1965 as a teenager, and hung around the local gliding club trying to be helpful. It worked, I was encouraged by good people and gained a grounding and understanding of that level of flying which helped me greatly in my aviation career. At interview at Biggin Hill, when the team saw that I had been flying gliders since the age of 14 they knew that I was not just interviewing for the glamour or the chicks, I was a "Total Aviation Person" as Flight Magazine put it.
And I still am totally enthralled by aviation, and when I see a keen but hesitant person hanging around I will try to give them something to see or do, some experience that they can take forward as a building block for their future. Guys did it for me, I shall keep on the tradition.
Little aside, recently we had an airshow near here, and a friend took a couple of his young staff along to watch. One of them said it was the best day of his life, and he is mid twenties.
"Guys who hang around being useful may get some stick and teasing initially, but they soon get to understand the language and culture of aviation. And then they start to fit in"
Guys need a security pass to go airside. They need a reason to get one, and it costs money. Not a chance.
Just after the Seattle turboprop theft and suicide, I was kept waiting in the hangar beside the aircraft I shared with a senior airport manager who had an "access all areas badge".
Security had refused to let him through as he was not scheduled to be working that evening.
(He had to contact the duty manager to get in.)
Guys need a security pass to go airside. They need a reason to get one, and it costs money. Not a chance.
Just after the Seattle turboprop theft and suicide, I was kept waiting in the hangar beside the aircraft I shared with a senior airport manager who had an "access all areas badge".
Security had refused to let him through as he was not scheduled to be working that evening.
(He had to contact the duty manager to get in.)
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Dear Pilot DAR,
It's the same in the UK. When I started to learn to fly, back in the early eighties, there were already qualified pilots hanging around to chat to and to learn from, as well as my instructor. We used to get the job of updating manuals, checking out the weather, operating the 'company' radio. If it was a fine afternoon, we'd get the old 35 gallon oil drum out from behind the hangar (we called it a barbecue) and set light to some firewood in it. One of us would go down to the store and get burgers and buns and a few beers and stay 'til dark. In the Winter, we'd go down the pub when night fell. On Sundays, the pub wasn't allowed to open 'til 7pm (to make sure everyone had gone to church first) so we'd hang around the clubhouse, showing slides of last summer's airshow or maybe someone had a 16mm projector and some old USAF training films ('Get On Gages!' was my favourite). Anyhow, we all became friends and shared flying trips together, keeping down costs and gaining experience. Now, we're going to each other's funerals. Today, as you say, younger folk just turn up for their lesson, then dash away. I have to pay a student to wash the aircraft, back then we'd have done it together without a thought.
Well, I think we've lost something and I don't know how to get it back.
TOO
It's the same in the UK. When I started to learn to fly, back in the early eighties, there were already qualified pilots hanging around to chat to and to learn from, as well as my instructor. We used to get the job of updating manuals, checking out the weather, operating the 'company' radio. If it was a fine afternoon, we'd get the old 35 gallon oil drum out from behind the hangar (we called it a barbecue) and set light to some firewood in it. One of us would go down to the store and get burgers and buns and a few beers and stay 'til dark. In the Winter, we'd go down the pub when night fell. On Sundays, the pub wasn't allowed to open 'til 7pm (to make sure everyone had gone to church first) so we'd hang around the clubhouse, showing slides of last summer's airshow or maybe someone had a 16mm projector and some old USAF training films ('Get On Gages!' was my favourite). Anyhow, we all became friends and shared flying trips together, keeping down costs and gaining experience. Now, we're going to each other's funerals. Today, as you say, younger folk just turn up for their lesson, then dash away. I have to pay a student to wash the aircraft, back then we'd have done it together without a thought.
Well, I think we've lost something and I don't know how to get it back.
TOO
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Having done most of my flying in the USA (Florida) I found I could be an "airport bum" for most of the day on any given day chatting and passing the time of day with many pilots if I had had the time, In fact many a day my wife had to call me up to remind me I had a home to go too ...lol. Granted many there were retired and passed the time tinkering in their hangers, or going and blowing some holes in the sky for an hour or so.
Since I now spend most of my time in the UK I joined a flying club at my local airport, but unless there is something planned going on I rarely see any one hanging around socalising, it's usually just the odd instructor and any students who happen to be in for a lesson.
Since I now spend most of my time in the UK I joined a flying club at my local airport, but unless there is something planned going on I rarely see any one hanging around socalising, it's usually just the odd instructor and any students who happen to be in for a lesson.
Maoraigh, I commiserate with you on the airport from which you fly. There are many similar around the world (my experience of tabard wearing jobsworths whose job it is to curtail aviation is Australia) and it may well be a contributory factor in why we do not see so many people hanging around. They are not allowed to.
I am in another country now and by judicious choice of airport I have found one where I can drive in without gate staff, take my dog, drive across a usually quiet apron and get to my aircraft. The reduction in stress for me after 40 years of security stupidity is amazing. Well perhaps 20 years, pre 9/11 at an international airport we could still walk from the aircraft across the runway threshold to the aviation club which was landside.
Glory days, by Bruce Springsteen sums it up
I am in another country now and by judicious choice of airport I have found one where I can drive in without gate staff, take my dog, drive across a usually quiet apron and get to my aircraft. The reduction in stress for me after 40 years of security stupidity is amazing. Well perhaps 20 years, pre 9/11 at an international airport we could still walk from the aircraft across the runway threshold to the aviation club which was landside.
Glory days, by Bruce Springsteen sums it up
