Where did my passion for aviation begin?

[CHICAGORANDY]

Probably back when I was 9 or 10 roughly a million years ago and my Uncle gave me something similar to this for my birthday -



Ah me, life was so much simpler back then when all we most commonly had were "D" cell batteries - lol

[skyfixer8]

I thought your main passion was for jokes on Tram. You must have listened to a lot of Uncle Milty, Buddy Hackett , et. all

[rwanttaja]

Ron Wanttaja

[CHICAGORANDY]

Yep good ol' Sky and his niece Penny. And I'll add in Comando Cody and Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe of course) for good measure - lol

[Kyle Boatright]

Multiple sources. I had one of the little battery powered airplanes like in Chicago Randy's post. I was also responsible for the demise of an entire balsawood forest via my consumption of Sleek Streak balsa wood airplanes. In addition, I was a child of the 60's and had the opportunity on endless school day mornings to watch the test pattern (anyone remember those?) change to the National Anthem, complete with F-104's and other Century series aircraft as the TV networks turned on in the morning. There was also the space program front and center during my youth. Oh, and since both of my Grandfathers and my Dad worked at Lockheed, GA, I went to a ton of open houses and airshows as a kid. I'm pretty sure I sat in one of Howard Hughes' Jetstars at some point. If you watch the video of the first flight of the C-5, I'm a little 3 1/2 year old dot standing at the end of the runway.

And my dad raised me right. The first grown up movie I remember attending was "The Battle of Britain". My dad took me to see that twice when I was 5. Still a favorite. ;-)

[steve]

My Dad was an avid plastic airplane model builder. An early memory was a B-25 hanging over my crib. Later on, I had one of those planes Randy had and a slew of 5 cent balsa gliders and sometimes the 10 cent rubber band powered planes. Dad would drive us out to Idlewild airport, now JFK, just to watch airliners on Sunday afternoon. We would build 049 powered control lines planes and then try to fly them on Saturdays down on the Brooklyn industrial area waterfront.

[Airmutt]

Gosh, I had forgotten about the battery powered airplane. Then there was my Cox .049 powered control line AT-6 that could barely get airborne but boy did I love that plane. Unlike Kyle I grew up on the NE side of Atlanta which put me under the traffic pattern of PDK. When the Navy moved over to Dobbins ARB they left the AD-1 Skyraider gate guard in place. It was an awesome day when I permitted to ride my bike with the “big kids” and play on it. It was ultimately rescued by Dave Forrest and returned to flying status. Growing up in Atlanta who can forget the C&S bank Jetrangers running around picking up the daily bank receipts. My dad was a vendor at Lockheed GA and I have to agree with Kyle the Lockheed GA and Dobbins open houses/air shows were pretty cool. Strange how the road of life would take me back to Lockheed flight testing C-130s and C-5s

[CarlOrton]

I was given a cox 049 F4U Corsair. Never was able to get it Regstarted. Didn’t have a dad in my life so I have no idea what I was doing.

Regardless of that, I swore I would never fly. Scared. In 1978 I was in NJ and my favorite aunt was near death in Palm Springs. I decided it was time to grow a pair so I booked a flight. Day of departure was snowing like a blizzard. Later found out we were the last departure out of Newark. I was freaking out as we taxied for takeoff. Seriously considered asking if they could open the cabin door and I’d walk back to the terminal.

So we take the active and the crew did a max performance short field takeoff in the 707. As soon as they released the brakes and I was shoved back in my seat I noted “ I have GOT to do this!!”

Started flight lessons 3 months later

[MEdwards]

My father and I went to an air show when I was probably 9 or 10. I remember standing under the wing and looking in the door of a Cessna 150 and even then thinking “this isn’t very big” and wondering if I could fly one someday.

I built lots of plastic airplane models, and it didn’t hurt that my hometown of Tulsa had the American Airlines maintenance base, and several companies modified B-52s at the old WWII “bomber plant,” a mile-long brick building at KTUL. So we saw lots of aircraft overhead. In junior high school I would walk the dog after school and a TWA 707 would climb out every day at 4pm enroute to Los Angeles. I’d gaze at it and think how neat it was that it would be in LA in just a few hours.

Was years later, but my first big expenditure after getting a real job was taking flying lessons at Gunnell Aviation at Santa Monica Airport. In Cessna 150s. And last month I again flew our Beechcraft from home in New Mexico to LA in just a few hours.

[cking22001]

My dad attended the last fly in in Rockford and got the bug, In 1970 (I think) he took his boys to Oshkosh, I was 8. I did not miss a year up till I was 19. I pretty much grew up dreaming of flying and building planes most of my life.

I went back 3 years ago and this year took the whole family. I have an appointment with an AME Monday and hope to finally get my pilots license before I leave this world. It took a while but I got the bug again.

My dad's Luscombe which has sat in his garage for the last 40 years (well the wings are in his shop, the fuselage is in the garage) is my first project I hope to work on so I have a lot of work ahead!