This will be my first forum post here in Airline Pilot Central so I figured I'd attempt to make it a good one. Currently, I'm 32 years old, been in the USAF for 14 years, C-9A/ C-130E/H flying crew chief, currently an E-6 and have a little less than 6 years until I retire from active duty - at the tender age of 38. I'm starting my flying lessons this month, going to start out with twice a month here in Germany at Coleman Barracks in Mannheim at first and see if I can increase the frequency gradually. I'm under the impression that GI's can use their GI Bill for flight training, which will pay a certain percentage of their flight training after private pilot so if that is the case I might be able to pull this off before I'm 40 (CFI/CFII/Commercial/ME). My aspirations to be an airline pilot are quite lofty, since I am getting quite a late start in the game but I caught the bug when I was a flight engineer on C-130s back in the day, got my 'air legs' - I've been hooked ever since. I'm a grown man, been on the block for a minute now so I am one of those "oldheads" in my own right so I'm not expecting all the answers or for anyone to make my mind up for me, but it is you folks here in the forums who are there and have been there - I've been reading these forums for about 2 months now, you folks have a wealth of information to give, from the puddle jumping 16 year old in the 172, to the Navy E-2 guy flying orbits; from the CFI teaching the "puddle jumping 16 year old in the 172" to the big ballin' super duper senior 747 captains. I have a plan to get this accomplished, but I would like to hear from the professionals....

Feel free to sound off. Fly safe. Always.