How did you start flying ? It is expensive… isn’it ?
I heard this question a gazillion times and then stopped counting, but I’m still happy to answer. Each time someone asks me how and why I started flying is an opportunity to transmit the aviation virus, sorry… passion. Many people think that flying is too expensive and that they can’t afford it. This is why the second question often comes together: it is expensive, isn’t it ?
My answer is always the same: “No, it is not expensive…”, immediately followed by “Well…”. A good argument is to compare with other hobbies. Bowling is not the perfect example but I know people who spend lot of money in skiing, buying and maintaining cars, travels, clothing, shoes, not to mention yachting and so on.
If you’re a long time reader of this blog you know that I live in Germany with my wife and our daughter and that we recently bought a house. The move and the restoration did cost more than my MEP rating. I have no regrets and cope with my status of “pilot flying not so frequently”. Flying on low budget is possible in almost all phases of a pilot’s life and if you don’t think so, read these two posts from Jason on www.m0a.com:
Hobbies are per definition a luxury and I know that some can not afford any. But you don’t need a mountain of money to become a pilot. As Jason wrote, glass-cockpits and powerful engines are cool (they are, indeed) but not they are not a must. I decided to use all of my budget the get an MEP rating even if this means not flying afterward because I wanted to learn something new and I like high-performance, modern planes. Someone else could decide to use the same budget to fly more on a less expensive plane…
These arguments usually reassure those who think their budget is not sufficient. This brings me back to the first point: how did I start flying ? Professionally speaking, I’m a software engineer. By the end of 2000 I joined an ATC related company. Before that I had no idea about ATC, flying, IFR, VFR and light aircraft. Several colleagues were private or even commercial pilots. I heard lots of discussions and even got some internal training about aviation. One of them took place in the theory room of Geneva’s Aero-Club. Slowly but certainly, I got contamined, sorry, passionate about aviation. I know many pilots who dreamt of flying as kids… sorry if you’re disappointed but I’m not one of them.
What about you ?
