How'd you start in aviation? Poll

[Planegary]

just an addendum to my flying bug. We lived near several Titan II missile silos and continuously had SAC blue trucks around and helicopters flying overhead. Did you know that a 5 year old child waving red pajamas on a Saturday morning will get the military helicoptors to hover immediately over the house at 6 am when said child waves them at the helicopters ? ask my sleeping mom and dad how I learned these things. I am sure there were some interesting bar stories about that incident

[N201MKTurbo]

11 minutes ago, Planegary said:

just an addendum to my flying bug. We lived near several Titan II missile silos and continuously had SAC blue trucks around and helicopters flying overhead. Did you know that a 5 year old child waving red pajamas on a Saturday morning will get the military helicoptors to hover immediately over the house at 6 am when said child waves them at the helicopters ? ask my sleeping mom and dad how I learned these things. I am sure there were some interesting bar stories about that incident

I stopped a nuclear missile, twice, one day.

You shouldn’t let 27 year olds have airplanes.

I used to fly between Denver and Casper Wyoming every week or so for work. The airway had a dog leg in it, but if you flew direct it rook you over a bunch of Missile sites. This is when they were replacing some of the Minute Man missiles with MX missiles. It was supposed to be top secret which ones were being replaced, but I had a Mooney and there are no secrets from a Mooney. I watched them work on this one site day after day. One day they even had the lid open when I flew over. I circled and could see the missile in the silo. They were all looking up at me a bit pissed. 
 

So, a week or so after this I see this big truck that looked like a missile hauler out on a dirt road. There was a truck full of soldiers in front and in back of the truck and a Jeep with a machine gun in front of the front truck and in back of the back truck. I figured they had the Minuet Man in that truck. I circled the truck. It stopped and all the solders got out of the trucks and lined up around the missile truck. I circled for about 5 minuets then got bored and flew on. I looked back and saw the caravan start moving again and decided that was too much fun so I went back and did it again. Same thing happened. I got bored again and continued to Casper. I was fully expecting to catch some kind of grief for that, but I never heard anything. I never broke any FARs or did anything illegal. 

My neighbor across the street at the time was a missile man. One of the guys with the key and the button. I told him about it and he said the base commander was really pissed.

[Parker_Woodruff]

4 hours ago, KLRDMD said:

One of these days I have to get my single engine ATP - just because. I only have multi now.

I think about doing that since I’m in the same boat. But then I’d be tempted to do that for my SES and MES

[N201MKTurbo]

1 minute ago, Parker_Woodruff said:

I think about doing that since I’m in the same boat. But then I’d be tempted to do that for my SES and MES

My friend Rene did it. It was exactly the same check ride as the multi, except the engine kept running the whole time.

Same DPE. 

[RJBrown]

From before I can remember I was enamored with anything that flew.

As a young child a nickel was a balsa glider. A dime had a rubber band and a propeller.

Every Church program was a paper plane.

In elementary school I sold Christmas cards off the back of the Boy’s Life magazine to earn a Cox PT19 trainer.

Every airplane related book available to me I read. Midway being a favorite. Every WW1 and WW11 aviation book I read. My 5th grade teacher lauded the amount of reading I had done but lamented my narrow topic of them.

Through jr high school it was U-control planes. There were times I’d walk to the hobby shop knowing I could find pop bottles on the way to turn in for enough money to buy small items needed to build or repair a plane.

My first job at 75 cents an hour was at Holladay Hobbies. Bought my first R/C airplane, a Royal Coachman and a Enya .19 engine. Never was able to save enough for a radio.

It was 1972 and a “Blue Max” radio was over $300. Side note a friend of mine, the spoiled son of an orthodontist, had his daddy buy him one.

5 long years later. I traded the labor to swap a manual transmission into a Datsun 260Z for a brand new “Royal” 6 channel digital proportional radio.

The Royal Coachman found its way into Cherry Creek reservoir and I was devastated. At the field that day was the owner of Royal electronics. He promised to replace the radio pieces lost. A boater found the plane and traced the name on it and returned it to me. Royal fixed it for free and I kept learning.

About that time I opened my Auto repair business and dozens of R/C planes followed its success. I became a flight instructor for the Jefco Airemodlers club out at Chatfield state park. One of the other instructors bought an old straight tailed 182 and gave me my first flight in a private plane.

The next New Year’s Day we went out to dinner with about 10 couples. Someone started a “what would you like to achieve this year” around the table. I said I wanted to get a pilots license. My now X wife blanched at the idea. She moved out June 12 and I had my first lesson June 13. The rest is history.

[aviatoreb]

42 minutes ago, RJBrown said:

was a balsa glider. A dime had a rubber band and a pro

That's the mark of a future pilot.  Me too!

Balsa wood and rubber bands.

The later balsa wood and doped paper models.

How many hear did that?  I bet a bunch of us.

Anyway I always had an irrational interest in things that fly.

[carusoam]

Selecting a career, heading to college.... selected two routes...  AFROTC and another machine based career...

Like Rick... I learned I had less than perfect eyesight... Discussions about SAC, TAC, and flying jets... turned into talking Missile silos and living underground, two weeks at a time... 

Took up flying a decade later while living in NJ and working in TX...

 

Prior life guiding experiences...

Helicopter ride at about three, in San Antonio...

Legos... building flying imaginations...

A book called anyone can fly, by Jules Bergman...

Experiments in the re-design of all things Guillow, including putting the tail on right... 

Powered flight experiments... how knotted the rubber band could be and fly the longest...

JR high school was all things paper airplane related... and the Cox plastic plane on a string, blue and yellow... with the 0.49 engine...

highschool came to the RC world... and scuba diving... scuba seemed a lot like flying...

Experience with a galloping ghost, single channel RC plane called the Comet(?)... 100% balsa and glue... it was heavy.  It’s servo was rubber band driven....  the rudder oscillated back and forth,  and stopped in one direction when you held a button down...  the plane needed to run out of fuel prior to running out of rubber band twists.... or it flew away...

next step... a Kraft brand radio with two servos... actual electric servos...   sharing the same frequencies as CB radios...

As CBs got hot... my RC days ended....  the American model airplane association couldn’t stop the encroachment... 

Back to career planning... above.

 

Follow your dreams...

Even if it takes getting to retirement before you start...

Best regards,

-a-

[Will.iam]

I think i was made in my parents private plane. Since flying privately was cheaper than 3 tickets on the airlines we flew everywhere in our plane. Dad was a chief engineer on a super tanker and would fly out to the port to meet the ship.  Mom would fly the airplane back home and repeat the process when he came back into port where ever that was months later. Having months off at a time, we flew for every vacation and to see friends and relatives from coast to coast. We averaged 200 hours a year and that was with dad gone half the year! 
They got tired of having to drive to the airport as we flew so much that when i was 7 we moved to an airpark so our airplane was next to our house. All my friends there also had planes. It wasn't until jr high school that i found out not everybody has a plane. Other kids were shocked we had a plane at our house. By high school when other kids were cruising the strip i was flying around the pattern. Top gun came out and i knew i would always fly but maybe i could do it as my profession and i wanted to fly jets. Applied to both Navy and Airforce. Airforce called first. After 8 years got out and flew for the airlines. After my parents passed away they willed me the house and I couldn’t think of a better place in the world to raise our kids so we moved back into the house i grew up in. The strange part is that i thought flying professionally would be enough as i totally can’t justify the cost of private flying since my family can fly space available on the airline but i was getting plane envy watching all my neighbors taxi by my house to go fly around the pattern besides I got tired of the same questions from friends from our old neighborhood coming out to see where we moved to and their first question was “are there airplanes taxing down the road?” Second question “do you own an airplane?” And you know what the third question would be if i had one. so i started looking for a Mooney just like what my dad had but noticed the price for a J was almost the same for a K so i found a K in the same colors as what my dad had and bought it. It’s very nostalgic for me and i hope to pass on the aviation bug tradition to my daughter that is the same age moving here as i was when my parents built their house here. 

[RLCarter]

Growing up less than a mile from the CAF headquarters in Harlingen airplanes were always flying around, that and being in the country crop dusters were all over the place too. My dad and his brother both trained in WW II but the war ended and my dad moved back to Texas, my uncle stayed in the Georgia area and stayed active flying, he would fly home to Texas every couple of years. On one of his trips I flew with him to San Antonio to pick up my sister in his Mooney. At 16 I worked 1/2 day at a local Motorcycle Shop and part-time for the Cessna Dealership, I would take my paycheck from the Cessna job and sign it over to the Piper Dealership on the other end of the field, the Tomahawk had just came out and I liked it better than the 150’s. 45 years later here I am at 3:15am still talking about airplanes, listening to it rain and wondering if I’ll be able to fly in the morning, either way I’m heading to the hangar so off to bed for me

[EricJ]

I think I just always had an innate affection for aviation.   Even as a little kid I had a little notebook and would write down airplane sightings, what it was, where it was pointed, etc.  My stepdad was an enlisted man in the Air Force, so we wound up living either on or very near Air Force bases, which was fun for me.  We got stationed in southern Germany when I was a teenager and there was a tiny Army Air Field within walking distance of our housing area that had an American flying club on it.   I hung around enough to weasel myself into the lineboy job and got paid $1/hour to use toward flying.   I solo'ed on my 16th b-day with 105 hours.   I already knew all the commercial maneuvers by then, too.   I couldn't learn to drive until we moved back to the states, so I essentially learned to fly before I learned to drive.

 

Edited March 29, 2021 by EricJ

[MooneyMitch]

11 hours ago, Will.iam said:

I think i was made in my parents private plane. Since flying privately was cheaper than 3 tickets on the airlines we flew everywhere in our plane. Dad was a chief engineer on a super tanker and would fly out to the port to meet the ship.  Mom would fly the airplane back home and repeat the process when he came back into port where ever that was months later. Having months off at a time, we flew for every vacation and to see friends and relatives from coast to coast. We averaged 200 hours a year and that was with dad gone half the year! 
They got tired of having to drive to the airport as we flew so much that when i was 7 we moved to an airpark so our airplane was next to our house. All my friends there also had planes. It wasn't until jr high school that i found out not everybody has a plane. Other kids were shocked we had a plane at our house. By high school when other kids were cruising the strip i was flying around the pattern. Top gun came out and i knew i would always fly but maybe i could do it as my profession and i wanted to fly jets. Applied to both Navy and Airforce. Airforce called first. After 8 years got out and flew for the airlines. After my parents passed away they willed me the house and I couldn’t think of a better place in the world to raise our kids so we moved back into the house i grew up in. The strange part is that i thought flying professionally would be enough as i totally can’t justify the cost of private flying since my family can fly space available on the airline but i was getting plane envy watching all my neighbors taxi by my house to go fly around the pattern besides I got tired of the same questions from friends from our old neighborhood coming out to see where we moved to and their first question was “are there airplanes taxing down the road?” Second question “do you own an airplane?” And you know what the third question would be if i had one. so i started looking for a Mooney just like what my dad had but noticed the price for a J was almost the same for a K so i found a K in the same colors as what my dad had and bought it. It’s very nostalgic for me and i hope to pass on the aviation bug tradition to my daughter that is the same age moving here as i was when my parents built their house here. 

Man, I love your story!!! 

[thinwing]

great tales all!..Mine came from flying around cook inlet,susitna,palmer ,moose lake with dad in his aeronca sedan on floats /skis when i was 4.Dad moved us back to calif and I was disappointed Dad sold the floatplane to a friend in Alaska.My uncle had a Maule M4 that I could occasionally cage flights from but it took awhile to finally train for my pvt right after grad school.Mean while..i had a paper route,built numerous balsa,tissue,silk control line and rc models.First radio ,predated proportonal control,a controlair mule  single channel ,button push 27 mhz (cb adjacent freq)with a servo called an escapement.Basically it was start the glowmoter,let go and 1 button push for right rudder 2 pushes to cycle to left rudder..3 for nuetral.Well you can imagine how long my models lasted with a control system like that!I was building sexy looking Carl Goldberg low wings instead of modifying true free flights.Finally Kraft came out with affordibe 4 chan proportional radios after Royal,White,expensive radios that i couldnt afford and I finally had a sucessful flight with an rc instructor at Mather AFB.I also became interested in chemistry with a group of friends from 7th grade ,and we became ..ahem...basement bombers.One of the groups mothers was divorced and her son easily had her sign for our REA rail shipments of Chenicals because they were far to dangerous to ship any other way.We used my older sisters old desoto as a bomb shelter testing out our various explosives because my house was rural enough that we werent braking windows at the other guys neighbors houses from shock waves.Her old puky green desoto was parked out in afield and we would dig ahole 3 or 4 ft deep and fill it with water.Our exlosives were in water proof containers and touched off using the desotos car battery with the hood up giving us additional protection from flying scrapnel.The water pit would muffle the shot but throw a tremendous geyser of mud and water .My sister wasnt too happy when she returned home from college and saw the condition of her car.OOPs..I really took a detour from how i learned to fly...sorry about that...more later

 

[MooneyMitch]

1 hour ago, thinwing said:

great tales all!..Mine came from flying around cook inlet,susitna,palmer ,moose lake with dad in his aeronca sedan on floats /skis when i was 4.Dad moved us back to calif and I was disappointed Dad sold the floatplane to a friend in Alaska.My uncle had a Maule M4 that I could occasionally cage flights from but it took awhile to finally train for my pvt right after grad school.Mean while..i had a paper route,built numerous balsa,tissue,silk control line and rc models.First radio ,predated proportonal control,a controlair mule  single channel ,button push 27 mhz (cb adjacent freq)with a servo called an escapement.Basically it was start the glowmoter,let go and 1 button push for right rudder 2 pushes to cycle to left rudder..3 for nuetral.Well you can imagine how long my models lasted with a control system like that!I was building sexy looking Carl Goldberg low wings instead of modifying true free flights.Finally Kraft came out with affordibe 4 chan proportional radios after Royal,White,expensive radios that i couldnt afford and I finally had a sucessful flight with an rc instructor at Mather AFB.I also became interested in chemistry with a group of friends from 7th grade ,and we became ..ahem...basement bombers.One of the groups mothers was divorced and her son easily had her sign for our REA rail shipments of Chenicals because they were far to dangerous to ship any other way.We used my older sisters old desoto as a bomb shelter testing out our various explosives because my house was rural enough that we werent braking windows at the other guys neighbors houses from shock waves.Her old puky green desoto was parked out in afield and we would dig ahole 3 or 4 ft deep and fill it with water.Our exlosives were in water proof containers and touched off using the desotos car battery with the hood up giving us additional protection from flying scrapnel.The water pit would muffle the shot but throw a tremendous geyser of mud and water .My sister wasnt too happy when she returned home from college and saw the condition of her car.OOPs..I really took a detour from how i learned to fly...sorry about that...more later

 

Love it!

We actually drank out of garden hoses and rode in back of pick up trucks too!  

Don’t try that stuff nowadays ! 

[carusoam]

Thanks go to ThinWing...  The Mule, escapement, and button pushing sequence... Memories I wasn’t going to get back any other way...

The Kraft proportional control was perfect... because it was affordable... 

Best regards,

-a-

[Seth]

I alway wanted to fly for the Air Force. With my asthma, I knew that would never happen. So as soon as I could I earned my PPL. It's slowly grown from there.

-Seth

[201er]

It’s no surprise that in a Mooney group we mostly have folks who got into aviation with the intent of private flying. I was just curious to see what portion of Mooney pilots was commercial or military cross overs and clearly it’s a substantial amount as well. Good stuff.

[steingar]

Total self starter.  Always wanted to be a pilot, wrote my first paper airplane book when I was in high school.  Once I had sufficient income I jumped in.  Got the Mooney because I was getting old.  Comes a point where you really shouldn't wait anymore.  Had I no airplane I'd be living in some luxury, driving a hot car and vacationing in exotic destinations.  But I prefer to be a poor Airman.

[JimB]

My Dad got me in to flying in high school. He never flew anything but I think it was a dream of his. So I went the route of going to college to be an airline pilot. Got there and met a lot of other pilots that were also on an airline pilot path. After a while of being there, I began to have second thoughts. Driving a bus full of whiny people from PHL to BOS back to PHL over to DCA down to MCO (etc.) all day every day just really didn't sound appealing. So I gave that up, got my A&P and never looked back at flying as a job again. After my kids were grown and out of the house and I could afford it, I got back in to little airplanes and flying again. 

[brad]

Like a couple of others, wanted to fly military, but failed eye test.  Enlisted after Baylor (dad received my draft notice).  Before shipping out to Accounting and Finance school, a new Commander came to Lackland from Viet Nam.  Had flown there.  TI got me a meeting with him.  Also a Baylor Graduate.  Said the F-4 was transitioning from pilots in back seat to WSOs.  Ask if that would work.  Of course said yes.  He called the flight surgeon he knew in VN.  I hiked across the base-retook the eye exam-was classified flying class 1A.  Flew as WSO, graduate, then instructor at USAF Fighter Weapons School.  Out in 78 to Reno ANG.  Retired 89.  Still fly with CAP.  Had AA1B, F, 231, and back to original F.

Was great replacing pilots - first think the front seaters did was teach us to fly!

Spider

[mattbucy]

My dad trained in the army but quit after getting into mountain wave in a 150 where he got pushed down to within a couple hundred feet of a mountainside. As a kid,  I found his sectionals, logbook, etc and became fascinated, planned imaginary flights, learned how to use his E6B, occasionally saved up the $20 required back then for a discovery flight. Thirty years later, I ended up right seat in a de Havilland Beaver floatplane in Alaska and knew as soon as we took off I wanted to get a license. I signed up at a flight school in New Hampshire, got a few lessons in, and the school closed. Knowing I was successful at my business, the owner propositioned me to take over the flight school. Thinking I might be able to get lessons and flight time nearly free, but also fully aware I might be foolishly tossing money out the window (good practice for owing an aircraft) I went for it. And indeed, I tossed a fair amount of money out the window and closed the school, which was a miserable failure. But, I got my license and eventually started a flying club from the remains of the school. I bought my Mooney in the period between closing the school and starting the club, thinking I would have no plane to fly. Little did I know the club would grow and thrive. But, I'm still glad I've got the Mooney.

[squeaky.stow]

Age 4. I am going to be a Milk Man when I grow up because he drives a cool truck and has a neat uniform. Then my parents take me to England to visit the grandparents. Bristol Britannia with BOAC. WAY cooler than the milk truck. I am hooked on airplanes from then on.

Age 14. H-Ray RC model with OS-Max .35 engine and Heathkit radio. Bought it from a high school buddy for $20. Dream of joining the RCAF and flying fighters.

Age 17. Accepted into Royal Military College. Chickened out and went to a local flying college instead. Found out years later that they had accepted me as a Naval Officer. (and no, our navy no longer had airplanes) so I guess my instincts were right.

Age 23. Flying Navajos for a little charter operation after a few years of instructing and bush flying. Decision time. Do I keep doing this until the airlines open up or give up the airlines and follow my dream of flying in the RCAF?

Age 25. Cold Lake Alberta. First low level trip in the F-5. 450 Kts at 100 feet. Holeee Craaap! Instructor is flying from the back seat and I am trying to figure out how you focus on anything when the world is going by in a blur. (It gets easier)

Age 35. Two kids. Time to hang up the helmet. Local company is looking for corporate pilot for their Westwind and Falcon 50. I guess this will see me through to retirement.

Age 39. Airlines are hiring even “old guys” like me, and wearing a pager 24/7 is no longer exciting. Joined Air Canada as Cruise Relief Pilot on the 767. Rejoined RCAF as a reservist and learned to fly helicopters.
Age 50. Line flying is fun but need a new challenge. Moved over to the management side. Still get to fly, just not as often.

Age 51. Hung up the helmet again after 11 years. Helicopters were fun, but the main job was taking more time.

Age 55. Start lobbying the Minister of Finance about why we need a Mooney to travel to the cottage. Weekends are pretty precious now.

Age 57. Minister of Finance approves my 252 purchase just to shut me up. Forgot how much fun it is flying little bug smashers. I am hooked again. Join Mooneyspace and start learning.

Age 60. COVID hits and we go to 10% capacity. Parking airplanes, laying off pilots. I catch COVID on what turns out to be my last flight. Time to step aside.

Age 61. I can fly my Mooney ANY TIME I WANT! This retirement gig is pretty good. Now if we could only travel..... Oh well. Tinkering with it is almost as much fun as flying it.

Goals for the future?

Age 62? Fly to Oshkosh, and anywhere else I like the look of.

Age 70??? After years of trying, finally take the trophy at Oshkosh for best pimped out 252 after @gsxrpilot wins it 5 years in a row.

Age 80??? Sell the Mooney and get a Champ for those calm summer evenings on a grass strip.

Age 90??? Quit flying and start a novel new business delivering milk door to door by truck. 

[carusoam]

90 is the new 70...

At 100, recently, Captain Moyer flew his Mooney, solo...  it was his birthday... 

He often flies with his son...   We would have to ask Mitch how old sonny boy is...

MS has a few flying octogenarians...

It takes so long to get everything together...   suddenly, retirement is here....  family is only a couple Mooney hours away...

I’m looking forward to the days we have many flying nonagenarians around here...

 

So...  that connects early thoughts of flying... to later thoughts of flying... 

Best regards,

-a-

 

[jlunseth]

I had an uncle who was an aviator and lived in ABQ. He used to fly up to the family cabin in no. MN, and since there was no phone either at the cabin or the airport in those days, he would fly over the lake to tell us he needed to be picked up. I flew with him in my teens, he did the takeoffs and landings and I would fly from, say, ABQ to LAX. He had a succession of aircraft, the one I flew was a C55 Baron. I took some lessons at ABQ when I was 18, but went to college and didn’t have time to finish or the money. My ex-wife got airsick, carsick, seasick, if it moved she got sick, so no flying for a long time. Then I had dinner with a friend in Chicago, we talked about the list of things you had in your head when you were in high school that you wanted to do in your life. Getting my pilot’s license was the only one I had not done, so I came back to Minneapolis, went out to Flying Cloud, signed up for lessons, got my PPL, and as soon as I had that I bought my Mooney. That was twelve years ago.

My uncle and two partners flew the Atlantic in the Double Eagle II gas balloon and landed just north of Orly Field (where Lindberg landed). They did not feel they had enough gas left in the balloon to safely make it over Paris to Orly. The gondola is in the Smithsonian Aerospace Museum. KAEG in Albuquerque is named after their craft, and the Anderson-Abruzzo museum is named for him and one of his partners, it overlooks the balloon fiesta grounds in ABQ.

Maybe someday I will take that Orly route myself, in my Mooney, but I it is not a goal of mine, I have what I want already, the freedom to fly where I want when I want. I am planning on going to the PPP at KSAF in the end of April, and then I am going to land at Double Eagle and see some family. It wasn’t there when I was flying with my uncle.

[Stetson20]

On 3/28/2021 at 5:10 PM, gsxrpilot said:

While my younger brother went off and got his Private at 17 and just kept going, I never could figure out how to come up with the money. I kept thinking if I could save up $5K or so, I could get started. By age 40, my brother was a Southwest Captain, and I still hadn't taken any lessons. The best advice I got was to quit trying to save up the money. All you really need is enough money to pay for one lesson. Go take that one lesson, and you'll figure out how to pay for the next one. He was so right. Eleven months later I passed the check ride.

Is your brother still an active SWA Captain? More importantly, did you convince him to buy a Mooney!

[Stetson20]

On 3/28/2021 at 5:35 PM, RobertGary1 said:

My father was a pilot in the Navy. He died before I was old enough to know much about flying. I remember going out to ops in the evenings and sitting in the a-7’s and f-4’s. 

So sorry to hear that. Naval Aviation is very dangerous. Is that how he died? If so, it sounds cliche but I'm sure he was doing what he loved!