what made ya do it?
 

this may be a tough question because those in the right seat at a regional are probably still asking themselves this, but try anyways...

what made you want to be a pilot, or what got you into aviation.... ill let people post and then add my $.02

Why
 

The thing that started it was a 1957 World Book Encyclopedia picture of a guy in a pressure suit next to the new F-104. The final push came from a low draft number in 1969, giving me a legitimate excuse to do what I'd quietly wanted to do ever since then. No Regrets. :)

Grew up next to STL. My family was too poor to have vacations. I figured it would be a cool way to see the world and be around something I've been around since birth.

When I was enlisted, I was a technician on B-52 simulators and our career field was being terminated and contracted out. I went to the education office and looked at ways to finish college, and the advisor said that enlisted personnel could apply to the service academies directly and not need to go through the congressional nomination process because they were on active duty.

When I told the guys back at the shop about that, I was naturally met with some skepticism; one guy actually bet $10 that I couldn't even get accepted, so I applied...

...and the rest is history, as they say;)

As a child growing up before cable TV, when television went off at night or came on early the next morning, they would show military a/c with this guy reciting a poem named "High Glory", I believe.

Anyway, towards the end, they would have a shot of a fighter pilot with his sunshield down, looking into the cockpit from about a two o'clock position...and the narrator would say something to the effect..."and I will slip the surly bonds of earth and reach out and touch the FACE OF GOD!"

As a child, I associated being able to touch the face of God with being a pilot.


atp

atpwannabe, that was called "High Flight" written by a Canadian Spitfire pilot, who later on, bought the farm. One Saturday,when I was 6 years old my uncle took me with him out to Maxwell field, where he was a B17 instructor pilot. He had to retreve something from one of the planes (this was, BTW, 1943).I was told to stand by the right main tire while he climbed into that huge beast( I walked around one in Duxford England a few months ago..it`s about the same size as a DC3). Anyway, I stood there, smelling cosomline,115-145 av gas and hydraulic fluid and that did it for me. I joined the Navy Cadet program as a 20 year old and knew that this was what I wanted to do...and did it `till I turned 60. A great life, with the exception of a year living in a tent in Viet Nam,dropping bombs on total strangers.

Flight Sim 98' did it for me. Funny cause I never really cared for flying as kid, my ears would always bother me.

The Poem
 

This is from memory, so it may not be exact:

HIGH FLIGHT

by John Gillespie Macgee

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of--wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence.
Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting winds along
And flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delerious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew
And, while with silent, lifting mind
I've trod the high, untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God

Got a NROTC scholarship to help pay for school. Sophmore year took what was called the AQT/FAR, the naval aviaton qualification test. Scored very well. This test counted for 40% of your total service selection score if you applied for a pilot slot, and reduced the other parts of the equation, including class ranking by your advisor (I was second to last) to 60% So I did the pilot thing, got lucky in a year that they took half the amount of pilots that they usually took (early 90's), and have enjoyed the flying immensly.

I think it was Tom Cruise in 'Top Gun' that did it for me:o