My Dad worked for an airline for over thirty years, so I grew up around airports and airplanes. Then there were the models, control line, RC, and the movies. I never had a chance.

Goodly morning all...

Well I came from a very large family that was steeped in military tradition. 
From the trenches, the cavalry to the air.
Proper Air Force Officers wore spurs, riding boots and breeches.

We grew up in the country, a ninety minute drive to the Air Station for dad on a good day if he didn't fly in or take a boat during the summer.
The road we lived on was rough and rutted, never saw a hard top surface until the late 50's I guess.

We dairy farmed and grew most of our own food, entertainment was going to the village market on a saturday or bashing about the sky in a Tiger Moth with dad or one of the grandparents at the controls.  Later my older brothers.

At that time I was the youngest of four boys, several sisters and brothers came along later.

Yes I got all the hand me downs and talked to a lot by hand from my older brothers.

I guess when I was about six several of my older brothers wanted me to test fly their flying contraption.  We were just out of school and they had been working on this thing for a better part of a month.

The cockpit was mom's new aluminum outdoor wash tub that often served as a bath tub if one got too close to a skunk...

This was nailed, yes nailed to a sleigh with runners and a sheet of plywood was attached for a wing.
Yes, I remember a tail but not sure what it was.

One of mom's winter flannel bed sheets was also used.

White washed the thing looked pretty good.

Well my two older brothers (not teenagers yet by a long shot) hoisted this thing by rope and pulley up to the double doors on the side of the barn which was used for loading hay and straw through, also left open so the hay would not overheat when first put in.

A plank was run out with one end being nailed to the stand and the whole thing sat about sixty (60) or more feet above a manure pile waiting to be dispersed onto the fields.

Depending on what side of the barn you were on there was an excellent view for several miles up and down the river.  The stands were large enough for three good size men to stand on.  The largest silo was eighty feet (80) high and room on the top stand for two good size men to stand.

Our barn actually had six sides and four with huge double doors about sixty feet above the stone foundation giving lots of draft.
The two brains behind this thought that I would have a tail wind and would fly out past the manure pile, past the lane and land on the grass where the farm equipment sat during the summer.

My grandfather happened along just as I was doing the test flight.
He hauled me out of the manure pile, it was a fair size hole also and some of it was still frozen from the winter.

I had several loose teeth, they got better, a sprained wrist, twisted ankle, bloody nose and a few cuts and bruises.

The wash tub was a write off along with the bed sheet and the plywood.

My two brothers visited the wood shed with dad and when he left my older brother had a talk with them by hand behind the barn.

Me, well that was my first solo flight, quite an event I must say.
I played the part of the poor abused brother with aches and pains for almost two more weeks...

One thing did come about, I decided gliding was not for me like the rest of the boys and I wanted an engine out front or behind.

So that is how I really got into flying...

Oh boy...  Where on Earth did I start?
I have to wonder if it was that first flight I did with my grandfather and dad at somewhere around 3 years old or below.  I remember Grandfather in the pilot's seat and my dad in the left seat, both with those headsets on.  I don't really remember takeoff or landing (you know how memories are from when you're 3 with no reminders), but I do remember finding the big rear seat kind of uncomfertable and way to large, and I actually ended up trying to take a ap on the nice carpeted floorboard after a few looks out the window at the moving dots below.


May have been the time when he gave me his good ol' FS when I was probably about 7.  I remember I had some good fun with it for a while, but eventually got bored for a few years.
Then one day at about maybe 10 or 11, bored, I picked it up again.  I was hooked.  I don't remember how my first flight ended up, all I remember was a C172 2D panel, and Seattle-Tacoma International on a fair day.  Next thing I knew, I was soaring around in the air.  I was hooked.  Again.

Thanks again, Granddaddy.

It started when I was a kid flying back and forth from Pensacola FL to upstate NY, in all kinds of aircraft through many different airports. It took over EIGHT hours and up to three to four different aircraft to do so! We spent a lot of time watching aircraft.

Growing up in Pensacola, we had many friends in the Navy and also in the Air Force (due to the fact that Eglin AFB was just down the road). Pensacola is the home of the Blue Angels, and with it's ancillary fields around, planes were always in the air performing training flights. I remember when the F-111 first made it's appearance....All of this was in the 60's and I still wonder how many went to fly in SE Asia....and never returned. 

A lot of pilots, both the BA's and those in training were personal friends of my father, he owned a night club so he met many....Airshows were common, and we had many of an opportunity to visit both bases, and had the "back lot tour" at both bases on many occasions.

Having built many models, both static and powered I always wanted to fly, to be in control. I got FS2004, then FS9, now FSX.  It's as close to it as I can get, but I am lucky enough to fly right seat occasionally for my work tracking radio collared animals in the Adirondack Mountains of NYS. 

On top of this, my son's-girlfriends-father flies 737's for a major carrier, and also is involved with a RC club that flies model jets; incredible fast loud jets with real jet engines.......http://www.capitoljets.com..    

As the Pink Floyd song goes "Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky..." (The next line is under my avatar!)

-V

       

I was 6-years-old on a United 747-400 going from ORD to LAX, when the flight landed and we where debarking, my Dad asked the stewardess to ask to pilot if I could go into the cockpit, he said yes.  In the cockpit he let me sit in the left-seat while giving me the full tour and letting me move the throttle, press buttons on the FMC, ect.

That sparked my interest in aviation, but what really made fall in love with it and decide that becoming a pilot was the #1 thing I wanted to-do, happened many years later in 2002/2003.

As I was listening to the local radio station's morning show, they said that the first person to call-in and get this question right wins a 2-hour flight at the local flight school, well I called in and was first one to get it right (can't remember what the question was).   I remember that day like it yesterday, the temperature was bone chilling (-10 - actual temp., not wind chill), the aircraft was a Piper Cherokee, and the instructor was very friendly.  He was in control during taxi, T/O, climb, decent, landing (of course), and I was "in control" (at least that's what I like to think ) for the rest of the flight.  On the way home, the passion was born.

I have loads of Computer games:

Game....(When I grow up).

Need for speed. (I don't want for be a racing car driver!).
Grand Theft Auto. (I don't want to be a fearsome Gangster with a big gun!).
Quake. (I don't want to shoot ugly Monsters!)
Men of War. (I don't want to join the Army and get shot!).
18 Wheels of Steel. (I don't want to drive very big trucks!).
Lunar Lander. (I don't want to be a floating Astronaut!).
Rail Simulator. (I don't want to drive Choo-choo trains!).
Microsoft Flight Simulator. (I don't want to fall out of the sky!).
Tractor Driver. (I don't want to be a Farmer!).
My little Pony. (I don't want a bloody Horse!).
...etc...etc...

I just want to sit at my Computer/Games Console and pretend to do things!... ...!

Paul.... ... ...!

(I wonder how many Train Simulator Enthusiasts actually become Train Drivers?....and how many of us have purchased a Horse?)... ...!

H wrote on Jan 17^th, 2012 at 5:31pm:


actualy,i once ate a small (well tiny) piece of dried horsemeat,a treat in kenia(i have a friend who moved there),but it tasted like ####.