What Got You Into Aviation?

[cptlogue]

Hey guys, one thing we share on this forum, is that we all have the love for aviation. But what got you into aviation?

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I will start. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio in the suburbs and I live just 20 minutes away from John Glenn International Airport. I always heard planes going by when they’re on right downwind, when landing runways 28. I always heard planes go by. This developed my love for aviation. I would have a general love for aviation, until about summer of 2019 when I decided to step up my love for aviation to the next level. I received a camera for Christmas and I have started plane photography (you can check out some of my pictures here). Then, I downloaded infinite flight. Which has made the most impact on me and my love for aviation.

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Your turn!

[Zak_Plant]

I actually dont know.I mainly think its due to my location near EGBB but at the same time i learnt where most things are in the A321. It may have been when i was lucky enough to go in the cockpit of a Monarch A321

[cptlogue]

Nice! I got to go into my favorite aircraft, the A321, when I was going to CLT-CUN. At the time I would never know I would be in the place where I am today, wanting to become a pilot.

[alberto_lopez]

When i have 8 years old was my first flight from Chile to Brazil, From there I fell in love with aviation

[Sean_McCormack]

When I was younger. I absolutely hated flying, I was terrified of it and dreaded even the thought of going on one. So about 2-3 years back. I decided I’d start to teach myself about planes and how they work. The goal was to learn about aviation so I’d know what’s going on when I was in a plane, hence easing off the fear. To my surprise, it did actually work. But I also found myself wanting to learn more and more, To a point where watching videos of plane spotting, inside the cockpit videos, documentary’s and other things actually became kind of a hobby. I started doing it everyday. That led me to find Infinite Flight in late 2018. To where I learned even more from everyone here on the IFC. I even got myself my own camera, to go plane spotting. Fast forward to now. And I’m still learning so much practically everyday. And it’s amazing 😁😁😁😁😁

[cptlogue]

That’s awesome!

[Ishrion]

DFW Airport. Lived in the area all my life.

At first, I wanted to be a pilot. Then as I flew more through DFW, I began to wonder why American Airlines is so dominant and why there weren’t many airlines flying into DFW.

So, these past years I began investing in analyzing aviation instead of flying. Watching how airlines decide how to utilize their fleets to launch new routes has been amazing.

The aviation industry is honestly the world’s best industry to be in and study. It’s always constantly in flux and there’s new developments each day. There’s something exciting happening all the time.

From airline wars to aircraft orders, new routes to suspensions and more, this is what truly got me into aviation.

[cptlogue]

That’s awesome! I love your aviation news threads!

[anon38496261]

So…

sharply inhales

My family decided to go on vacation to San Diego one year. That was my first time on a plane. A Delta 738 or 739 to KSEA, then a 717 to KLAX. The first time, I thought it was cool to be on an actual plane, but I didn’t look too much into it. The second vacation sorta changed that.

Again, we flew Delta. Same aircraft as before. After the flight back home, I thought planes were cooler, but the aviation bug still hadn’t bit.

April 8th, 2017

I flew a CAP C172. Instantly, I knew there was something about flying that was just really, really cool. A few weeks later…

April 21 and April 23, 2017

My CAP squadron won a state competition and went to regionals in Reno. The flights to and from there involved two 737 flights and three Q400 flights. The first few times I flew the Dash, I really didn’t seem to like it. Maybe it was just small or noisy or outdated, but I couldn’t wait to be on the 737 back home. (I love the Dash now). The 737 flight back home was when I really began to go crazy. Suddenly, I loved aviation. Not to the extent that I do today, but I wanted to fly for the rest of my life. I kinda decided to myself that I wanted to be a pilot, and for Alaska Airlines. I guess at that time, I just liked the name and the colors, and the service was good. Over the years, I still want to fly for Alaska, but for more reasons. After that flight back home, I kept thinking of planes for some reason. The love only grew.

Each following flight that I took only deepened my passion for aviation. I started to learn as much as I could, everywhere I could. Now, everyone I meet is super surprised at my knowledge of aviation. I even slightly annoy some people at times 😂

So, yeah. It sorta grew with each flight, especially after the Alaska flight.

[Alex_L]

When I was only 1, I always wondered what that weird shaped metal box with 2 weird metal bird parts did in the sky.

[anon38496261]

Hey, I mean, that’s where it starts 😂

Then you look into it and become amazed by it, and want to do it, right?

[cptlogue]

That’s quite the story! It’s crazy how we all remember how we got to where we are today.

[cptlogue]

Haha! Very Nice!

[anon38496261]

Thanks! :)

Here are some pictures from the Reno trip, if you want.

[KindaTartySliceOfPie]

Well, I got into it in a kinda weird way.
I’ve always been interested in aircraft and how they work, but I never really understood any of it. It was one day my dad saw me watching an X-Plane video. He told me that he actually has a checklist for the airline he flies for. I looked over it and was very intrigued. So, I got a notebook, and copied off it. I then wondered if they were any actual simulators to test my knowledge. A few months later my mom agreed to get X-Plane on the computer and Infinite Flight on my phone. I have a new desktop now, but my old one sucked. I couldn’t download X-Plane and was really bummed. But, however I could download Infinite Flight. My mom got me a subscription and I was really excited.
I flew horribly. It was until I watched some tutorials on YouTube. They mentioned IFC, and I wanted to know what it was. I talked with my parents and they agreed again to sign my up.
And here I am! What a journey that was.

[PilotDog]

Story Time!!

Before I found out about Aviation, I did not care about planes whatsoever. My main focus was Baseball in which I was a massive fan of, and I still am. I flew a lot only because I had to move a lot which basically meant I’ve flown many times.

When I lived in Jacksonville, Florida for 2 years, in the winter, my family decided to go to D.C. and one of the museums that we went to was the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The simulators they had in the museum were so fun and exciting that it got me and my twin brother hooked to aviation. A few years later after moving to Puerto Rico and back to Florida, this time in Miami, we were now in a phase of using mobile flight sims.

We “discovered” Infinite Flight which took us by storm. Infinite Flight was one of biggest reasons why we are into Aviation. About 2 years, that brings us to Alaska which has a fairly large Aviation community. I continue to get more and more fascinated by Aviation that in a way, it changed my life. 2 more years later, which brings us to now. I am now in a private pilot ground school and working my way up to become a commercial pilot while my twin brother is going to be an Air Force pilot. Aviation is a big part of our lives and has forever changed our perspective of it.

[KindaTartySliceOfPie]

Cool story!

[MJP_27]

My Grandma took me to the airport to do some spotting! Ever since then I fell in love in aviation

[NYFLFlyer22]

My family, specifically my grandfather. For years, my grandfather worked for Varig (the defunct Brazilian airline) at JFK doing cargo. Eventually he made it up to cargo supervisor or manager or something. After they went out of business, he worked for El Al cargo for a few years at JFK before he retired. Obviously having a family member that worked at an airport helped me fall in love with airplanes. Now my grandfather isn’t a huge airplane geek, but he does know his planes, his DC10s from his 747s from his A300s. So my dad growing up knew about his planes as well, but also not a huge aviation geek. Add on the stories my dad would tell me of going to JFK in the 80s and dropping my grandmother off for PanAm flights on the 747 and watching all the 747s taxi around, and I became very interested.

I started going on planes when I was really young and always thought they were cool. Just became more and more interested to the point where I can’t shut up about them. So yea, that’s how it happened, family mixed in with personal interest. Yet, I just always viewed it as a hobby and interest but nothing more, and it’s why I went to college for something completely different.

Then around a year and a half ago I told myself I was gonna follow my passion, switched colleges, and now I’m studying Aviation Business. College is a lot more fun when you study something you love :)

[anon76452118]

What I used to think of aviation, what I did when I first fell in love with it, and what I think of it now is what powers my spirit. What motivates me is that spirit, that spirit of being able to move in the most incredible way in the world. Think about it, you are moving hundreds of miles and hour tens of thousands of feet in the sky, in a enchanted beautiful sky beast called an airplane. What’s not to like? Some people think that’s scary, some people think it’s cool, and some thinks it so cool that they fall in love with it, and those people will forever think of aviation as one of the most incredible concepts in the world. They may even make it a career, a way of life.

To sum it up. If you are feeling unmotivated, think back to your most aviation spirit you have ever felt. Think about what was going through your mind at the time. For me that was June of 2017. I had just walked into the terminal at my home airport KMSO early in the morning to catch a flight to Denver. I had been there several times before but not for a while. I walked through the door glanced down the extent of terminal, and a Captain and his FO walked past me. We then checked in and went through security and as soon as I looked through the windows and out onto the tarmac and saw our plane, and something happened that I had never felt once.

That was the planting of the seed. My first rush of the spirit of aviation. So just think and remember why you love aviation. If you truly have the seed, that spirit won’t be hard to find.