What inspired you to become a pilot ?
 

Thread title say it all and I,ll ask Fred to also post a response in here when he gets back home .


Ally

chicks, shiny jets too

Like many others I have had this conversation with: My Dad.

I'd have to say the chemtrails over my house when I was a child. Nothing like sitting in a backyard full of grass while staring up at an inbound from the west coast.

Also all the flights I took as a child. Whenever anyone asks me why I chose to become a Pilot, I reply asking if they ever remembered the vacations they took when they were younger. They usually reply yes and ask me how that has anything to do with their question.. Then I tell em that I barely remember any of the trips or vacations, but I remember every single flight I've ever taken, the Airplanes I flew on, the Airlines I flew with, and the Pilots who flew us.

born under the canarsie approach,enough said.

The IMAX movie "Speed" - It had a scene with the Blackbird in it and that was it, I was hooked

I still remember my first flight in an airliner at about 3.5 years old. Got to visit the cockpit, and got hauled back out by the head steward after pushing some buttons I shouldn't have :p.
After that, I was in a kindergarten situated right under the approach for Norway's primary airport.

I've always loved airplanes and everything about aviation, always will.

runs in the family

Dad was a pilot, his dad was a pilot...

I think it stems more from growing up in Seal Beach. 1/4 mile away from SLI so jets would blast of every morning, international arrivals for LAX flying right over my house, and in my backyard was final for LGB.

Kind of surrounded by it...

As a kid flying as an unaccompinied minor with my brother on TWA. If my memory serves me correctly it was a DC-10, I only remember it having two isles and 4 lavs in the back, and more seats then I had ever seen on airplane. We were brought onboard prior to the boarding process and let in the cockpit (I dont think they had flightdecks in the 70's...lol) with the pilots, prior to the flight. Im sure I talked their ears off..... That was way cool...:D My Grandpa, one Aunt, one Uncle and Dad, all private pilots, non instrument rated.

Beats milking cows
 

A low number in the 1969 draft lottery. :p

Actually, that just gave me a legitimate excuse to join the USAF, which I'd wanted to do ever since seeing this picture 12 years earlier:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-1234S-001.jpg

star wars!

First, my parents bought me Flight Unlimited and a joystick when I was 5, and nothing has thrilled me more than controlling an airplane since then. Second, my uncle was an astronaut and a great man who inspired my love for aviation. Third, family trips to Jamaica as a kid. I have many vivid memories of walking off chartered Tristars onto the sunny ramp at Montego Bay and looking down at the Caribbean Sea from my window seat, and not so many vivid memories from the resorts we stayed at.

Grew up in the flight path of BOI. Would sit for hours and watch all the planes coming in and going out. It was the F-4's from Gowen Field that sank the hook in me. I joined the AF, figured if I couldn't fly em, I'd fix em. Well I've fix them for 20 years and now I'm flying and loving it.

It was cheap, I was bored.

Growing up near Marine Corps Airstation Beaufort (NBC)
F4s, A4s, and AV-8s, (now Hornets). I could tell what was flying overhead based on the engine noise.

Also going to airshows at NBC and CHS.

I grew up near an AF base and one of my childhood memories was being terrified at age five by a B-52 on static display. I climbed up into it anyway on that rainy day and it opened a whole world up for me. Spent a lot of lazy afternoons watching F-105s, B-52s and F-4s land at the local AF base. My Mother would drive us out there , no doubt to get us out of the house for a while.
Got to fly GA with friends and family at an early age. I liked the sound and the speed. I found it difficult to decide what to do during my school years. I found that I had a tendency towards "Lawsickness" and philosophy didn't provide any meaningful handles. I happened to come across the notion that when building a weapon, an aircraft, a building or a bridge that there was little room for vague notions of what was right. I enjoyed this idea and I enjoy flying some of Man's most beautiful creations in one of natures most beautiful environments.

If you can ignore or avoid the many ups and downs of the business it is a great way to make a living and a very nice way to live.

I eventually flew those F-4s and served as a pilot in two branches of the military, and still wander the globe with a childlike sense of awe. It has been very good.

Grew up near the ATL airport and was surrounded by men who flew in WWII. Mentors before anyone came up with the idea of mentors.

ATL at that time also had its own version of corrosion corner and a freight ramp. It was awesome. No fences and no one stopping you. Different time but more often than not the only restriction was "Kid.. don't flip any of the switches" and I could climb in and out of just about anything on the field. We had a couple of outfits retrofitting Mustangs and Corsairs for second careers. I could sit in the cockpit of a refurbished P-51 or F4U.

You could get up close and in airplanes then.

Saw an AF recruiting poster while eating lunch on campus. Glad I didn't blow off classes that day.

Skyhigh's informative aviation career posts.

We very highly value a dry sense of humor here.:D


"Another example is in the 1993 film Falling Down, in which the main character William Foster (played by Michael Douglas) is insulted by a man who has been waiting to use the phone booth previously occupied by Foster. He voices his irritation at Foster's prolonged use of the booth by saying "People have been waiting to use the phone." Foster responds to this by saying "Well, you know what?", and using a submachine gun to destroy the phone, added "I think it's out of order."

Watching Turkey Buzzards thermaling, and a ride in a Convair 440.

I just wish the round engines were still flying (in places that don't get 20 below).

I got to ride with my Dad in an old Piper on Saturday nights. My Dad's friend
was REAL old, and he would fly up to Wichita to get a few bundles of the
Wichita Eagle newspaper. He liked company, and often invited Dad and I along.
(I sat on my Dad's lap!)
Not much to look at in northern Oklahoma,or southern Kansas at night, but the sounds, smells and feelings of being aloft never left me.

south florida,opa locka especially,and san juan,pr are the last stand for the old recips south of anc.

I was at a small airport this past weekend and on the ramp was a Stinson Reliant with a 300hp radial. Great machine that is slow but will lift 3 small states or 1 large one. Anyway I mentioned what a great sound an old radial made and he laughed saying, "Yep. 'a dollar.. a dollar.. a dollar.. a dollar'." Never thought of it but at idle, it does sound like that.

Not the aircraft this weekend but a good looking Reliant.
http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviatio.../5/1271526.jpg

Visiting my family in the UK. I knew by the age of 3 that I wanted to be a pilot and I wanted to fly for "Pan Amana".
fbh

Honestly can't remember a time that I didn't want to fly. My parents say that, from the time I could walk, I was looking up at airplanes. Since I could remember I wanted to fly the Viper, and have been blessed to make it happen. Now time to move on the my next goal, the MD-11. Going to be a while...just enjoying the ride!

I'd have to say, the prospect of low pay and extended furloughs sold me. :D

My dad was an Air Force pilot and then was hired by Pan Am. He would eventually become a 747 captain for them. He was a huge inspiration for me.

When you are an Air Force brat :)you have inspiration all around you in the various people that you come in contact with on base.
I remember being at Lackland as a kid and a MATS plane with no wings on it was parked across the road from the runway , anyone remember this ?
Anyway my main inspiration came from my grandfather who served in the Navy as a pilot and he would tell me stories of flying the Hellcat and Dauntless
and what great planes they were at the time.


Fred

birth. contrails. flying when i was a kid. we have an airplane museum in my town that i grew up in... i would drag my parents there to buy me little model airplanes. i specifically remember my klm dc10 and lufthansa a300. airliners magazine. looking up. all of the generous pilots that would talk to me in the terminals and let me sit in the left seat. imagination. i don't know. it's just in my blood i guess.

I come from an aviation family. My uncle is a CFI at an airport. My other uncle used to be a US army Blackhawk pilot during the gulf war. My grandad used to fly his plane all the time.

To not be a pilot means I am missing the tradition and not being a part of my family.

When I was reading the page I was skimming fast and I saw the 'birth. contrails and flying........as birth control failed, and kept reading onward, I got to when I was a kid and realized my mistake :D:D:D