How did you get into Aviation?
 

After searching for a new position for the last few months, I've decided to take a step back and remember where it all began. I'd like to hear where did you start? What was your first aviation memory?

I was around 7 or 8 years old. Flying from SYR-ATL onboard a Delta MD80, still my favorite aircraft. We, my mother and I, were flying standby and were fortunate enough to be upgraded to first class! When we boarded my mother had asked one of the flight attendants if I could see the cockpit. Now I can vividly see the cockpit to this day. The beat up yoke, the yellow guard for the pressurization, the massive overhead panel with the faint ticking of the avionics fan. That moment I knew that this, aviation was my calling.

So tell me what was yours?

This sorta grabbed me.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WIP1sO9Pv50

What? Wait. This is aviation?

That explains the loud noise.

A couple of rides in Cessna 195 on floats in the Adirondacks followed by a trip to Florida in EA’s new 727 in 1964. Then, my teens working at a small airport in exchange for flight time money (KDXR).

GF

Years of stealing straws in the grade school lunch room for poles to build small hang gliders, ten million or so paper airplanes, plastic models, every book under the sun and long hours hiding out in library archives reading old air facts and flying magazines, then years as a CAP cadet. Soloed with the CAP Deputy Cadet Commander, an instructor for Delta. Went off to spray crops, tow banners, throw jumpers, pack parachutes, jump, tow gliders, spray more, give grand canyon tours, back country charter and rural air ambulance (think flare pots off dirt strips in the dark and chasing bulls off the runway with a .45), more ambulance, charter, fractional, corporate....a lot of years of firefighting, a number of years chasing around Iraq and Afghanistan, large cargo, small cargo, long haul, short haul, more firefighting, yada, yada, yada. Lots of years doing several jobs, some government, some private, some neither, some both...

Still not sure it's aviation, though, and it used to be a lot louder. Now it's loudest when late at night and everyone's asleep. Boy oh boy does it get loud. That damned ringing.

Saw this picture in fourth grade, 1957....

https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5253/5...78d4ff4c_b.jpg

About 20 years later, I met Tony LeVier when he was our guest for a Daedalians dinner at Edwards AFB. :)

My dad flew for Pan Am. A very mysterious man, God rest his soul. It always intrigued me, and my grandfather was a private pilot, had a Super Cub (which is now mine)... Some of the 1st memories I have are of flying, sitting on my grandfathers lap.

Interesting fact, my grandfather was a barely literate Italian immigrant. Not sure how he received a license, or if he even ever had one. His instrument of choice was a bolt hanging from a string. Dad on the other hand was a methodical and anal perfectionist.

I kind of split the difference between the two influences I had growing up in aviation.

$5.00 lesson in a C-150. Sold my 1971 Plymouth Roadrunner the next day. PPL 6 weeks later. Was told I would now have to go to College to get a Degree to get a Commission to get to fly a Fighter. After lot of hard work and luck. Was sitting in a F-4G.

In 1958 we were the 3rd outfit to get these slippery babies. They basically saved my career. I was up for an article 15 and had to see the boss. He punched out downward that morning to a not good end. I spent all night guarding the parts in an Ohio corn field. They forgot my badness.:rolleyes:

My earliest happy memories that I can still remember from my childhood were of flying from Portland to Butte, MT to visit my grandparents a few times when I was 2 -3 years old. I can vividly remember the bright red tail of the 727, walking or being carried out the back stairs, the distinct aroma of the cabin early in the morning, and looking out of the terminal window and trying to guess if the plane would have a black nose or a white one. There is a photo of a NWA 727 in Butte from this era on Airliners.net which I was pleased to stumble upon.

Growing up in Great Falls, MT my eyes always darted skyward when an airliner or a 120th FW Viper flew overhead. I still remember that Delta arrived from Missoula at 5:36 PM; never even had to look up to know who it was when I heard it.

I loved watching Iron Eagle, Top Gun, and both Wings programs (on Discovery Channel and the sitcom) as a kid; the story of the 747 being built was the first Discovery Channel episode that I saw.

The only thing I ever wanted to do as much as fly was drive buses for Tri-Met in Portland like my Dad.
Fortunately, my Mom, and then the Army, supported my flying dream and 21 years after making my first flight, I'm still at it.

Sadly, new airliners have lost the sensations of their 60s and 70s era predecessors, widgets were painted over the red tails in the same way most of the Republic livery was turned red white blue and grey, and Joe parked the Sandpiper Cessna for an adventurous life in DC.

Some day I may stop lurking into the 121 world and continue my dream of flying airliners, but the contracting world has me handcuffed with great pay, a good schedule, and the real ability to live anywhere in the world.

Fly Right!