How It all began

It all started when I was 15 years old and was introduced to the taste of flight. I knew right after my introduction lesson that I had a new appreciation towards life and also a new addiction that changed my perspective on how I viewed earth and gravity. I was born into aviation. I have memories when I was just a kid of eating breakfast out at the airport diner at the Wayne county airport with my dad and twin brother Saturday mornings. My dad at one time was a professional pilot long before my years. I remember him telling me stories when I was younger about flying over Lake Erie in the dead of winter in an old Beech18 in the middle of the night delivering freight. His route was from Youngstown, Ohio to Detroit, Michigan back to Youngstown while everyone else was sleeping.

I took a few flying lesson’s over the years before I turned 15 but I knew I had to wait until since the legal age to Solo an aircraft is 16. I passed the time by flying the original Mircosoft Flight Simulator on our Tandy computer we had in our downstairs. I knew just by flying the flight simulator that I had a natural ability of flying. Looking back on it now I’m amazed how much of a tool that Simulator really was. It helped me with the basic fundamentals of flying.

My first real flying lesson was on cold and cloudy October Saturday morning at the Ashland County Airport. Since I was now 15 I could seriously pursue flying lessons. I couldn’t drive myself to the airport since I didn’t have my drivers license yet so I had my dad take me to the airport. I was introduced to my flight instructor who later helped me obtain my private pilot license, and my instrument rating. My flight instructors name was Tim McCleary. As a student pilot, the knowledge from a flight instructor is worth a million bucks. We went over the general walk around of the airplane and what to look for. The airplane that I took lessons in was a Cessna 152, N40977. This airplane would soon share both my blood, sweat and tears.