Charlie Brown
My passion for flying small planes was ignited at an early age while growing up in New Hampshire when the pilot of a sight-seeing flight allowed me to hold the controls. That lead to a series of flight lessons before I turned 16, but a 40-year fuse called ‘life’ delayed my mission. When my loving wife encouraged an ‘intro flight’ at the Atlanta Peachtree-Dekalb airport in 2016, and then tolerated me squeezing flight and study time into our busy life, she assumed the distraction would fade. She had no idea that she had provided the spark to re-ignite my quest. I now enjoy the privilege of an instrument rated private pilot and find excuses to fly whenever possible, dragging my wife, children, friends, family and co-workers to adventures around Texas and beyond.
For me, general aviation is a portal to a different world. The magic of flight, the camaraderie over shared passion, the goodwill evident at each FBO I visit, and the constant engagement required to maintain proficiency is a nice distraction from the corporate world and helps me find balance between work and family. The ability to share this gateway with others through discussion, intro flights or this website seems the best way to contribute to general aviation.
While having graduated to a Cirrus SR22T, I retain my frugal ‘general aviation’ roots built on hundreds of hours in a Tomahawk, 172 and Tiger. Every take-off and landing still brings a smile to my face and the abundant challenges and continuous learning of aviation means my mission is far from over.
Stephen Milner
II have been fascinated with flight as far back as my childhood memories can take me - Gillows gliders, model airplanes, Cox .049 control line airplanes, remote control aircraft and the like. Heck, I was mesmerized on those evenings that my parents would take us kiddos to a roadside where we positioned ourselves to watch the airliners take-off and land at a nearby a busy airport…..the time passed too quickly before bedtime loomed. (By the way….can anyone really get an .049 glow fuel engine to run consistently???)
My father was certainly the biggest influence in my life related to aviation, and of course so many others things as well. He was a crew member of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in World War II. His bomber was damaged by flak and shot down on his 7th mission over Germany in November of 1944. It was skillfully crash-landed and my father was one of three surviving crew, although his back was broken with the impact. He was thrown on a hay wagon by German farmers and taken to the local authorities. Then, as an Axis prisoner, he was treated by a German Army Field Hospital and was eventually transferred to a POW camp where he spent the remainder of the war. Throughout our childhood, almost nightly, my brother and I pleaded with my dad to tell us stories of the war, flight training, gunnery school, flying missions and his post-crash experiences in captivity.
The working world dominated my time when older. Time devoted to aviation was limited to mere hobbies. Eventually I made changes in my life to make room for aviation on a larger scale. I began private pilot lessons and soon could boast a private pilot certificate. This just served to whet my appetite. After a slight detour (to refurbish the interior of my Grumman Tiger), then came my instrument rating, and a bit later, my tailwheel endorsement! As time passes and the flight hours stack up, a side benefit of my aviation passion has wondrously emerged……the plentiful opportunities for fellowship and camaraderie with other pilots, and non-pilots alike, that also appreciate the world of aviation.
My advice to myself? Never stop moving forward! “Forward” can look a lot different for each individual, but for me….it is learning, meeting challenges, growing and broadening my horizons in the sphere of aviation. But a forward slip on final still gets me excited too! I embrace the attention to detail necessary, the knowledge required and the skills a competent pilot must possess. But ultimately, aviation lets me remain a child at heart!!!! Awesome!