Fall in Love with Aviation: Valentine's Day Edition

No two stories of how people discover aviation are alike, but the joy and passion that so often steams from a first encounter with aviation, an aircraft, and/or flying, is remarkably similar. And there is a reason for that—flying is simply freeing and breathtaking. How could one not feel anything but enthusiasm and be left with total admiration after this inspiring discovery?

For Valentine’s Day this year, we wanted to bring you back to the moments that started it all and launched you head-over-heels for aviation. So, we asked some AOPA members “how did you fall in love with aviation?” And boy did they deliver. Enjoy some of the few responses below.

Jan Greenberg
I was living in New Orleans and heard a radio ad offering an introductory flight. The ad said if I didn't like it, I wouldn't have to pay for it. I thought "Why not?" An instructor took me up in a Cessna 152 for a 30-minute flight. They had to pry my happy butt out of the plane. I started lessons the next day and I've been flying for over 30 years!

Noel Thomas
My parents split up when I was young, and I often flew on the airlines by myself during school breaks to stay with the other parent. I thought it would be so very cool to pilot an aircraft because it is kind of like a time machine because people are able to travel so far in so little time. I fell in love with the idea of flying and knew that was what I wanted to do with my life when I started reading books about flying adventures and watching movies including The Right Stuff.

I wanted to learn to fly in high school but there were no schools close to my home in San Francisco and it was very expensive, so when I attended college studying Aerospace Engineering at San Diego State University I used some of my student loan money to pay for flying lessons. That led me to working as a flight test engineer and a pilot flying all kinds of aircraft, gliders, and helicopters over the world and in combat in the military. I feel so blessed that I have the opportunity to pass on my skills and knowledge to new generations of pilots and engineers as an instructor here in America. 

Russell Hernandez
I remember the first time I flew very vividly; it was over ten years ago when I was just a few years old. I remember my grandmother was in the hospital and we had to have family flown in quickly before she sadly passed, so my family decided to borrow an airplane. I, of course, wanted to sit in the back and feel like an executive; it was a piper Saratoga with the club seating where sitting in the back is way more comfortable. My father insisted I sit up front instead and ever since we left the ground I was hooked. On the way home, the pilot handed me the controls and showed me how everything worked. Now I probably wasn’t flying but it was all the same to me. I was hooked from that point on. Now I am 17 years old with a private license, I have my instrument check ride at the end of January, and I have accumulated 300 hours over the past year.

Jose Fuentes
It all started in 1970 when I went on my first flight at the age of 5 leaving the beautiful island of Puerto Rico en route to New York City. It was March and cold with snow everywhere, and I recall smelling the engine fumes when departing down the stairs onto the runway (yes dating myself here but I did mentioned 1970) and looked back at the plane to see a blue round logo. I later found out that it was a Pan-Am 747.  It was huge and I instantly fell in love since I had never seen anything like it!  Well Godzilla came close but, he wasn’t as beautiful!  From that day on, I received model airplanes on my birthday and at Christmas. I knew that I either needed to fly or build planes, so I wound up attending Aviation High School in Long Island City, NY where I learned to fly at Farmingdale NY Republic Airport and learned to train as an airframe mechanic only to wind up with my Avionics FCC license. I was shortly hired by Lockheed after graduation but the folks though it would be best for me to attend college. Post college, I became an Accountant but worked with Trans World Airlines (TWA)! Well it's still aviation, right?  Anyways, I still fly as IFR private pilot and hope to continue when I'm not too busy with work!  The passion in me will always exist for Aviation! I simply live for it and love it!

Now we encourage you go share your aviation love story with someone close to you. Maybe you will inspire them to discover a love for aviation, too.