My father worked in the aircraft industry from age 16 and was on the preliminary design staff of a well known aircraft manufacturer by age 28…. At which point they closed down. He then bounced around in his work for a while but that provided an unusual opportunity: one of his ex-employers felt he owned my dad a favor having seen him leave in negative circumstances several years before, and he’d bought a new plane to learn to fly. So he offered the plane to use for free, and my dad finally got his license. He’d been an aircraft nut since childhood, won international rubber power model championships as a kid etc.
The guy that offered the plane eventually flew into a hill scud-running but we were in the US by that time. We had a family C150 for some years in which I solo’d on my 16th birthday. Later my dad built a composite homebuilt and flew that for a while, but then sold it when moving house to retire from both work and flying. I eventually got my pilot certificate in my own plane long after that and having been around aircraft so much earlier on, I was not intimidated by buying the plane to complete my training.
I am the first one with a pilot’s license in my family, at least in recent times. There is a distant cousin who became an ace in WWI, but that’s about it. My father and a not-so-distant cousin dreamt about flying, but no one ever got up to it. My father tried to become a helicopter pilot with the German Army, but was not accepted. He then went on to become a doctor, but contrary to the chliché never took up flying. He enjoys flying, though, and we went for a few rides with the proverbial dentist friend of his when I was little. Now, after I got my license, my parents and brother enjoy flying with me, but no one else got one.
Sounds like a lot of inherited aviation interested in here. Im no exception. My father was initially danish air force pilot flying hawker hunter and later F104, then progressed to airlines B767 ect. But he shared a passion for GA and during some periods instructing in small planes alongside. I loved airplanes since I can remember and as a kid I also built and flew RC planes…
But my own GA entry was not a smooth one. About 7YO I remember a trip where my father on retrospect was a bit too enthusiastic demonstrating a virtual rollercoster of some kind and I became airsick. Didn’t want to go on small planes for a long time.
Toward the end of his professional carrier, we got an older TB9 operating from a farmstrip and I realized that GA had a lot to offer. I remember us doing trips in that TB9 around Denmark, to Germany and Sweden, cloud surfing, sightseeing ect and my joy with flying started taking off. I later flew that TB9 myself for some years before completing my RV8 and sold it off. Today I’m interested broadly in GA both experimental, certified, and also different types of flying.
Yes I do have a totally aviation-involved family. And there are high chances that I would not be flying today without this background, at least not in the way I’m doing it. But who knows…
