What got you into avaition?

Jesus Nut

What got you interested in aviation?

For me, my early child hood was definitley influenced in a big way by the pilots in thunderbirds I believe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg05Ch-35n8

Nforce

I've mentioned this before, but my interest in aviation stemmed from growing up in the UK during the 70's. Low level F-4's (RAF and USAFE),EE Lightning's, Hawker Hunters etc etc....God I miss that!! Even had the Red Arrows Gnats pass over the house on one occasion when they were transiting to a local air show.

Pilotdude5

A few things. Playing with Lego I always built planes and airports usually.

Got my first intro flight back in 2002 for Christmas when I was 12 at Southaer in Cork.

My uncle had both fixed wing and rotary CPL's in Australia about 20 years ago but gave it up for family reasons.


When Concorde was still flying, I could stand out in my back garden down in Kerry and hear a distant rumble as it broke the sound barrier around 11 O clock in the morning. (well that's what my dad said it was!)

I was also lucky enough to see a BA Concorde at Shannon back in 2000. We were driving past I think the Aerlingus cargo terminal, and it was parked right up to the fence. We stopped and I remember thinking how small it was! Saw it overfly my Cousins house in Adare on a different day. Also got into the cockpit of her at the Intrepid museum in New york last summer.

Bearcat

My old man got me into a cigarette smoked filled cockpit of a 707 in the 70s en route to Tenerife for a visit. I was hooked, the buttons, the gauges , the aura, the atmosphere and the plane itself. I constantly doodled in school drawing nacelles of jt3ds and jt9s.....and Boeing aircraft.

By 16 I soloed capt Kennedys yellow rallye......never looked back 17000hrs later.

Right place, right time and made my own luck......dont regret one minute of what I've done and still whistle heading off to work!

Jesus Nut

Very interesting to hear stories of different influences! Keep them rolling lads

L1011

Grew up under a path in to 10 and quite near Weston.

Nissan doctor

For me it was my father, he was an aviation enthusiast since the late 60's and was centrally involved in Ryanair since they started. I grew up at airports, airshows and spent most of my teenage summers hanging around FR's HQ...This was back before FR became huge and I'd still know most of the pilots by name and could ramble up onto a jump seat whenever I wanted.

Miss those days....a lot:(

bluecode

Think it was in the blood, an uncle wanted to join the RAF during the war but ended up in aircraft manufacturing. One cousin works in Luton airport handling private jets and a brother is an Engineer. So I guess I was doomed to be a pilot. Grew up seeing the comings and goings from Baldonnel too. Already my sons are showing interest. I don't think you can beat it out of them.

Unlike Bearcat though, the pleasure of it has worn off. I frown on the way to work because work is what it is now.:(

Darby sent me solo on the yellow Rallye too. It wasn't my first solo, but he didn't know that. So in theory I had two first solos??????

That bloody aeroplane should be in a museum now for what it represents to so many people.

cocoshovel

I think it was a mix between growing up underneat the flight path for waterfords runway 21, playing bad ps1 fighter jet games, and buying a copy of FS2001 in 2001. After that my interest just greatly grew.
Although I always had a huge interest in planes anyway. I remember my first time flying on a plane in 1998. I flew on a Air 2000 757. Awesome!

donkey balls

I was never into airplanes even though I ended up working for a cargo airline my skillset was in road transport mgmt,Then one evening we had problems with the aircraft(went MX) so we got another one in so I took it upon myself to make note of the ULD nbrs and what freight was in them and e-mailed it to the control center the rest they say is history.
Soon after my e-mail I was asked if I wanted to start working in flt ops one of the lads showed me how to read the weather etc I then instructed the lads how to build freight into the ULD and do pre load inspections of the containers,Under FAA regs once a ULD is locked into place on the aircraft it is considered a structural part of the plane and needs to be air worthy.
People might think that working in a cargo airline is boring I can tell you it's not,every day was different just say a storm hits the east coast of the USA that would have major impact on flight schedules for us in europe planes going tech trucks with freight breaking down etc.
Since leaving the aviation industry some time ago the only kind of connection I have is from doing my PPL and talking to mates who are doing the MEIR or the lads working for FR.

ohigg84

My dad works for Aer Lingus, so I was bitten with the aviaition bug at a very very young age. First flew in 1984 to Jersey on an EI BAC-1-11!
I was only a baby, I dont remember my dad told me the story, but I do remember flying on the 747s countless times to JFK!
I remember planespotting with my dad when I was about 4, I used to be afraid of the 1-11's taking off! The noise- the crackle in the air, and most of all, I loved the smell of the aviation fuel..

KCAccidental

I grew up in Hounslow in the 80s, which of course is under the final approach for Heathrow. So I spent my formative years looking up at Concorde, 747s, DC-10s, 737s, 767s, A310s, Tri-stars and god know what else, just hundreds of feet above my head...

just like in this vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-HZuq_yWMs

Nforce

Bearcat wrote: »

By 16 I soloed capt Kennedys yellow rallye......never looked back 17000hrs later.

This one?

GaryIrv93

I feel that my Dad did. As a kid we built a few Airfix kits together and since then I've always had a great interest in aviation + aircaft and still build aircraft kits regulary, and I hope my future career will involve either flying or working with aircaft. I think it's a job I'd love.

bluecode

Nforce wrote: »

This one?

The very same, sad to see it so. I remember seeing it sitting in the carpark at Weston. I suppose it's long since scrapped now.What ghosts reside therein?

Lapin

The fact that mankind has conquered gravity.

We never gave up since Icarus flew too close to the sun.

It took Thousands of years for us to do it,
but in the space of a few short decades we got from Kitty Hawk to the Moon.

I still look up when I hear an aircraft flying overhead and love it.

And, since my first flight at the late age of 13 (on the old Richard Branson Viscount that hopped back and forth between Dublin and Luton in the late 80's), I have been facinated with the view from the window seat.

I've flown that route countless times since, but always sit by the window.
Looking out the window wherever I fly does it for me.

I envy those who don't like flying, although I don't believe most of them when they say it.

lisatiffany

Growing up I spent a long time traveling almost all of it by air, sometimes twice a week so I slowly started to notice a lot of interesting aircraft in different countries. I'm a photographer but its only in the last year or two that I really went out of my way to photograph certain aircraft. My boyfriend grew up next to an airport flight path so he is interested in them too. For me its less about knowing the statistics of an aircraft instead its more about capturing the image. I definitely appreciate the craftsmanship and skills that go behind getting them in the air and keeping them up there but my knowledge on certain aircraft would be very limited, its mostly all visual.

silverbullet75

Just love to fly. Still searching for a job though. Not easy as Ive only a fATPL.

bluecode

Lapin wrote: »

The fact that mankind has conquered gravity.

We never gave up since Icarus flew too close to the sun.

It took Thousands of years for us to do it,
but in the space of a few short decades we got from Kitty Hawk to the Moon.

I still look up when I hear an aircraft flying overhead and love it.

And, since my first flight at the late age of 13 (on the old Richard Branson Viscount that hopped back and forth between Dublin and Luton in the late 80's), I have been facinated with the view from the window seat.

I've flown that route countless times since, but always sit by the window.
Looking out the window wherever I fly does it for me.

I envy those who don't like flying, although I don't believe most of them when they say it.

Most of the above is true of me. I wasn't thirteen when I flew in the Virgin Viscount. But I deliberately flew that Viscount because I knew it was the end of an Era. Proper flying.

I don't like flying anymore. I hate it. Not scared of it. Just lost the enthusiasm.

Still love the whole scene, love aeroplanes. Just lost the pleasure of flying.

Nissan doctor

bluecode wrote: »

Most of the above is true of me. I wasn't thirteen when I flew in the Virgin Viscount. But I deliberately flew that Viscount because I knew it was the end Still love the whole scene, love aeroplanes. Just lost the pleasure of flying.of an Era. Proper flying.

I don't like flying anymore. I hate it. Not scared of it. Just lost the enthusiasm.

I find that its airports that turn me off flying, especially transatlantic. The actual flying will never wear off I don't think.

BeardySi

Aye, the whole rigmarole of flying anywhere is a complete pain these days, all fades away when I look out the window of the departure lounge at the pretty airplanes though....

I guess it goes back to the early years. Mum was a travel agent back in the 80's and we'd hop between galway/shannon and dublin quite a bit (shame I was too young to really remember being on an EIN 747 - first plane I have a decent recollection of is the old Shorts 360)....

Since then I've been an aircraft nut, models, flightsims, photography and a little time at the controls of light aircraft...

johnny_doyle

grew up on RAF bases (Waddington, Wittering, Wilmslow, Stafford, Tengah, Watton, Swanton Morley, Lyneham) surrounded by Vulcans, Lightnings, gliders, Hercules etc. Joined the Air Cadets at Lyneham and used to be able to get flights on the Hercules.

Later lived near Heathrow and Luton airports. Have managed to fit in flying, gliding, skydiving, helicopter flights, hot air balloon flights and regular trips to air shows. Concorde used to be a regular over my current house; the Lancaster, Hurricane and Spitfires of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight overfly us when RIAT is on.

A young Dublin flier is buried not too far from me
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1057578

Interested in WW1 and just doing some more delving into the old aerodrome at Tallaght.