Originally Posted by jasonb

Hello all,

Private pilot out of the Twin Cities working on my Commercial, Instrument, and CFI. Got bitten by the aviation bug as a kid at Kona International (back when it was still Keahole) where I spent many a summer just hanging out.

Built up quite a few fond memories there, including summer plane rides around the island, seeing the Concord up close and personal, getting a tour of an at the time "Experimental" 777 by a Boeing test pilot, and being invited onto a 747 flight deck by a JAL captain who proceeded to let a then 10-year old me punch in waypoints for the next flight on the CDU (under his close supervision of course!).

Some years later, after going through a few career changes (Tech support at a "fruit" computer company, EMT-B, etc) an encouraging wife bought me a few flight lessons for my birthday after she found out I had years before gotten 10 hours into my Private pilot only to drop out due to high costs at the time. Needless to say, I got hooked again, and thanks to her, got my certificate.

Lots of dividends to pay between now and wide body captain at a major, but still looking forward to the road ahead!