Green, with Wings (Pt 1) - The Early Years

Part 1 in the Series.

Since I was a young boy, I’ve always been fascinated with flying. The sleek look of airplanes, the sound of the engines, the speed, and the incredible views out of the windows. Everything about it mesmerized me. It was when I took my first flight in a Cessna C182 on floats (aka a seaplane) when I was 10, that I was officially hooked. Of course, I had been going to airshows in the Ottawa area since I was about five, so the “aviation bug”, as we say in the industry, had already been firmly cemented in me. But it was that first trip, a short 30-minute sightseeing flight over the lake of a cottage area, that told me I belonged in the skies. And I’ll never forget my first landing in that C182 on floats: my mother in the backseat and the pilot letting do the landing on the lake. Of course he was actually flying but, I was too young and excited to realize that his hands were also on the controls and I was just shadowing his movements. It was all it took and I immediately started telling people that one day, I would be a pilot. Of course, I didn’t know that there were rules, much like driving, about becoming a pilot - I was 10, after all.

Fast forward to 2005. It’s a cliche, where someone says “I’ll never forget the day when…” but let me assure you, that it’s true. You never forget. I had decided to take summer classes to get ahead and graduate earlier than scheduled. Apparently that was the maturity my parents needed to see to convince them that I should have a shot at learning to fly. This was after years of borrowing flight training manuals from the local library and going to ground school with my Air Cadet friends (I was Army, obviously). After the last day of summer school, my mother picked me up and took me right to the airport. Ottawa Aviation Services. I was signed up for what’s known as an intro flight, where an instructor takes you flying for 30-45 minutes to give you a taste of what training is like before you actually begin. My official training would start the following week. It was July 25, 2005, and it is the first entry in my logbook that has since seen over 14 years of flights in a dozen aircraft, two countries, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. And just one short month later, on August 25, 2005, I soloed for the first time. Despite my experience now, after 14 years and a professional career in aviation, my first solo will always be the highlight of my flying career. In fact, ask any pilot and I’m sure they’ll tell you the same. In December 2005 I completed the flight test for the Private Pilots License, and in May 2006 I completed the written examination and officially became a licensed pilot. Over the next three and a half years, I would work part-time in the security field, as well as a ramp attendant and dispatcher at my flight school and paid my way through the commercial training program. Most of us start our aviation careers at the schools we train in, on the ramp pumping gas and scheduling flights for other students. This is great, as it gets your foot in the door and you can start making important connections sooner. In May 2009 I completed my Commercial Pilots License, and shortly after in 2010, earned the Multi-Engine Instrument and Flight Instructor Ratings. I was on top of the world, quite literally, and what I had wanted since I was a 5-year-old, had finally came true.