Decision to Become a Pilot

Hi all,

This is question is geared towards the mentors and even current or former students. Do you remember the moment in your career or training when you realized that you made the right choice in becoming a pilot and that all of the hard work and training was worth it? Was it during a flight, a job hiring, at a destination, or just a feeling?

Christopher

Christopher,

I never had that moment, because I always knew that I had made the right decision, right from the beginning. I will say though that one particularly memorable moment was when a captain took me to the Top of the Mark in San Francisco for dinner on my birthday. The view is amazing up there and it did occur to me that I was getting paid to be there :slight_smile:

Chris

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Christopher,

For me there were a few moments.

  1. My first solo
  2. Taking my family flying for the first time
  3. The Crew Cross Country phase of ATP’s program
  4. My first paycheck as a CFI
  5. And now, being at a regional, I wouldn’t trade this job or the lifestyle
    that comes with it for anything else. I’m looking forward to making it to
    the majors someday.

Tory

4 Likes

I often tell the story when I was new at ExpressJet. Beautiful day and the family was away so I was alone. I was struck with a strong desire to go flying but I hadn’t flown GA for a few month and there was no local FBO I could rent a plane from (not to mention I was starving on first year pay). I checked open time and there was a very nice easy EWR-JAX-EWR day trip. I called and picked it up. Next thing I knew I was flying south in a shiny new RJ with a very cool crew BUT I was getting paid for the day vs paying for it! It was that day I concluded I did in fact have the greatest job on the planet.

Adam

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Chris,

May I ask you another question? When did you know you wanted to be a pilot? Was it a moment or just a culmination of things that let you know where you wanted to go?

-Christopher

Christopher,

There wasn’t one particular moment for me, it was something that I had always thought about doing and just decided to do while I was in college.

Chris

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Tory, how many hours do you currently have?

About 2,100.

Tory

2 Likes

Awesome