How did you get into Aviation?
- Thread starter Tomcat
- Start date
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One of the first things I ever said was "umburger", while pointing to an airplane flying over. I may not have known the word for it, but even then I knew that I loved them.
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
I must've been about 4 when my aunt bought me a tin(?) airplane. It was painted these beautiful greens and browns. I couldn't understand why they would put "bullseyes" on it, though. About a year later. I got another one from my aunt after the original was written off for salvage. She told me it was something called a "Spitfire". I finally understood what the cat in a Warner Brother's cartoon meant when he said "Look at me. I'm a Spitfire!"
special ed
1st Lieutenant
- 6,162
- May 13, 2018
My father told us that while living in Washington D.C. from 1941 - 1945, our apartment was under the flight path of Boling Field. He claimed I would sit on my tricycle in the rear yard and watch P-40s landing. He said I would look up at them until I fell over backward hitting my head. I don't think there was any permanent effect, as I'm all right ....I'm all right .. I'm all right.
Thumpalumpacus
Lieutenant Colonel
My grandfather was KIA over Germany in WWII. When I learned that, I started reading up on both airplanes and the war. Eventually I enlisted in the USAF and was assigned to the Mighty 8th as a fire-fighter.
I blame my parents, my Father served in WW2 British army. Not long after I was born My Father and Mother would take me up to the back of a local airfield where they were filming something called "The Battle of Britain" so I saw Spitfires, Hurricanes, Buchons and CASA 2.111s....
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
I guess I was possibly born with a love of aircraft, and then really got the bug when my older brother took me to the local airport in the late 1950's, when I was around 7 years old. He was a member of the enthusiasts group there, and they were allowed access to the hangars, ramp and most areas, in the days when airport security didn't really exist.
Great to see the civil aircraft of the time, mainly Dakotas, Vikings and Ambassadors, with the odd "exotic" types, such as Viscounts, Constellations, Bristol Freighters, and maybe even a Britannia, alongside light aircraft such as Austers, Proctors, Tiger Moths and so on.
Even better was being able to get up close, and even be allowed access inside many of the aircraft, with the ultimate excitement being when I sat in the co-pilot's seat of a Dakota (an ex-RAF, WW2 veteran) and "helped" to taxi it.
Great to see the civil aircraft of the time, mainly Dakotas, Vikings and Ambassadors, with the odd "exotic" types, such as Viscounts, Constellations, Bristol Freighters, and maybe even a Britannia, alongside light aircraft such as Austers, Proctors, Tiger Moths and so on.
Even better was being able to get up close, and even be allowed access inside many of the aircraft, with the ultimate excitement being when I sat in the co-pilot's seat of a Dakota (an ex-RAF, WW2 veteran) and "helped" to taxi it.
My early childhood was in the hills above a railroad town, and I was all about trains. When I was 11 we moved to our state's capital town, which had an airport 4 miles away, and my fickle fancy fixed on flying. It stayed there until I retired from my second career, and now I'm playing with trains again.
I really got into flying when I graduated boot camp and got sent to avionics school at a Naval Air Station that had a flying club. $12/hr for a Cessna 150 (wet) and $4/hr for an instructor, what's not to like? By the time I got out of the Nav I had 450 hours, Commercial, Multi Engine, and most of my Instrument and CFI completed. When I had to give up flying (medical) 20 years later, the logs totalled 13,000 hours.
I really got into flying when I graduated boot camp and got sent to avionics school at a Naval Air Station that had a flying club. $12/hr for a Cessna 150 (wet) and $4/hr for an instructor, what's not to like? By the time I got out of the Nav I had 450 hours, Commercial, Multi Engine, and most of my Instrument and CFI completed. When I had to give up flying (medical) 20 years later, the logs totalled 13,000 hours.
Glider
Major
I also had been interested in aircraft from a very early age. My father remembered me asking him when I was about four why one aircraft couldn't go faster than another when it had two engines instead of one.
What turned me to gliding was a combination of three things:-
a) I still believe that they are simply the most elegant machines you can find in the air.
b) Flying them is the purest form of flying. Powered aircraft conquer the air, gliders feel and use the air, like a yacht compared to a power boat.
c) Its cheaper
That is the right order. The last just enabled me to learn and take it up.
What turned me to gliding was a combination of three things:-
a) I still believe that they are simply the most elegant machines you can find in the air.
b) Flying them is the purest form of flying. Powered aircraft conquer the air, gliders feel and use the air, like a yacht compared to a power boat.
c) Its cheaper
That is the right order. The last just enabled me to learn and take it up.
cvairwerks
Staff Sergeant
Had one uncle that was a L-bird pilot with the 1st Air Commandos, another that was with VP-74, flying PBM's and a third that was part of setting up JAL after war, and was Chief Pilot for a while there. Mom's dad was a pilot for a bit, until a terrible wreck put him physically unable to get into the cockpit. Had a cousin that was a crop duster for many years as well. Got my first flight when I was about 7, in a family friend's Piper Apache and it really got me started. Really got me going, when we were in South America and I got a chance to right seat a Super DC-3 while island hopping. Was 10 years old and had a ball.
Started doing restoration work while in tech school in 1979, and started my PPL in 1981 while starting a career in another industry. Started back to school working on an Aerospace degree a few years later, with a focus on transonic and hypersonic design and testing, but Diff Eq reared it's head and made mine explode...
Ended up in the aircraft production world after that and have continued to do restoration work since '79. Planning on going back in restoration and supporting that industry when I retire in another 2 years or so from the production world.
Started doing restoration work while in tech school in 1979, and started my PPL in 1981 while starting a career in another industry. Started back to school working on an Aerospace degree a few years later, with a focus on transonic and hypersonic design and testing, but Diff Eq reared it's head and made mine explode...
Ended up in the aircraft production world after that and have continued to do restoration work since '79. Planning on going back in restoration and supporting that industry when I retire in another 2 years or so from the production world.
special ed
1st Lieutenant
- 6,162
- May 13, 2018
I understand completely the problem comprehending differential equations and analytical calculus. That's what wiped me out of the Air Force Academy. I envy those on this forum who explain the formulas of aerodynamics so easily. Also, a factor was a 19 yo discovering the Academy library had Jane's AWA issues from 1926 and the official history of WW2.
cvairwerks
Staff Sergeant
My problem with Diff Eq was learning to set things up for solutions. Once it was set up, then I really didn't have any problem solving for the required information. We used them in my Electronics Tech coursework for things like solving for time constants in circuits, but those were fixed equations and we didn't have to figure out how to generate them.
When I was helping run a transonic wind tunnel lab and doing hypersonic tunnel design, if I couldn't find a formula for what I needed, I could get the PHD student I was running the lab for, to come up with it.
MIflyer
Captain
They had this rolling staircase that allowed you to climb up and get into a C-54. That is how I got in.
Viking1066
1st Lieutenant
my story is very boring compared to all of your excellent recounts. As a young lad at seven, I developed an avid interest in history in general. When I started to read about world war 2 at eight, I wanted to know more. One of my brothers girl friends, Dawn, bought me two Hasegawa H6K and H8K model kits. That really began my fascination with Japanese aviation. When I began to develop an interest in Medieval Japan at 12, the interest in he Navy and Army took off. I have learned much the last 10 years, especially discovering much information I never really had an opportunity to read about as an 8 year old.
Dad was secretary to the boss at a company engaged in iron ore mining, ship building, steel production and used to make the arrangements for visitors, when the company aircraft came to town the pilots visited home for dinner, beginning when I was about six years of age. In my teens they would take me along on a ride if able, started with a Lockheed 12, then Heron, F-27, Gulfstream 1. Ended up joining the navy as a helo pilot, Vietnam then off shore oil. Photos of the aircraft.
MIflyer
Captain
My problem with Calculus was it seemed you have to be able to look at it and know the form of the solution. I took one class in summer session in order to get caught up, where we went to TWO class sessions a day, one at 0800 and one at 1300, by which time you were supposed to have done all your homework given that morning, and we had a test each Friday. I ended up making an A on all the tests and exempting the final, which I asserted was a very good thing because otherwise I would have flunked the class.
When I got to be a working engineer in the USAF I only derived two equations. One was on mach number versus pressure ratio (which I already should have known, even though we did not derive it in college) and the other was air flow rate through a test fixture. The only reason I examined the flow rate equation was that the electrical engineers asserted it could not be THEIR equipment that was screwing up so we mech types must have been calculating the flow rate wrong. This was stupid because those same equations were used for EVERYTHING we tested and if they had been wrong NOTHING would have worked - but we had to shut them up as peacefully as possible. Turned out that the sensing device for the F-106 required a potentiometer that exceeded industry's ability to manufacture in that package size.
I must admit that in retrospect I am not very pleased with the way I got my education, especially math. Mostly it was taught by people who were paid to teach it without knowing what good it was for in engineering. Thus the courses were based more on Math Dept caraeer objectives than providing useful tools for engineers.
