metaruss

Aviation

Aviation has been a major interest of mine for as long as I can remember. I have many fond memories from the years of flying radio controlled airplanes with my dad and trying to get old versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator working on severely under-powered PCs. However, none of those compared to the two short moments when I experienced real flight with a yoke or stick in my hand. Although I was just a young teenager at the time, actually controlling an airplane and feeling it respond beneath me was something that I never forgot (thanks for that, Mike).

I had a lot of preconceived notions about becoming a pilot and dismissed it very early on as a possible career choice and especially as a hobby. It wasn’t until much later in my life that I actually sat down and investigated all of the details involved and realized that a lot of the conventional wisdom about becoming a pilot is not entirely true. The moment that sparked my curiosity was actually a YouTube video. Now I had watched countless aviation-related videos before then, but for whatever reason Steve Thorne’s (aka “Flight Chops”) videos really resonate with me. He is not your typical cocky pilot or youtuber looking for attention and “thumbs ups”. Initially, he was just posting videos to solicit feedback on his flying and he had a humbleness about him that I could really relate to. His channel and ambitions have grown since then, but I still really enjoy his style and it was his parallels with my life that rekindled my interest in possibly becoming a pilot myself.

I’ve shared what I’ve learned here:

• Misconceptions – things I wish I knew decades ago
• Where to Start – the first bites out of the learning curve
• Flight Training – my journey towards my PPL