What drives your passion?

My Grandfather built Corsairs during WWII, and another grandfather was involved in early B-17 missions over Germany…I picked up my love of aviation and warbirds from them I was trying to draw the Corsairs from photos and artwork my grandfather had from his days with Vought when I was very young, always studied and drew all the planes from WWII as I got older, read more about them, got into a fight with Jimmy Felderworth over which was the better plane, the P-51 or the Corsair, in third grade….built all the models I could get my hands on (loved the Revell 1/48 Hurricane with folding landing gear) Saw the movie ‘Always’ back in the late 80-‘s and thought ‘I can do that’ and used the remainder of my college money soloing a Cessna 172 and bouncing it down the runway 4 times on my check ride before smoothing it out and finally settling the plane onto the runway…accumulated 35 hours in Cessnas and pipers before the money ran out, about that time started photographing at airshows and a whole new world opened up…I did’nt have to fly the plane, and the plane alongside me in the back seat of my T-6 camera ship was from WWII! Got in some T-6 stick time too, but moreover loved photographing the planes, and to this day, even though I’ve flown with the Corsair, my best photo mission was with the CAF’s P-40N Warhawk at Breckenridge, Texas back in the mid -90’s….
As for what drives me….the hope of a better photo….of seeing something I have’nt seen before…of keeping the memories alive…the sights, sounds, smells….the people I’ve met (including LOTS of folks and friends in the UK)….and just the sheer FUN of it all.

Mark

I think I can identify where things started. Much is down to my father, who grew up in the States in the 20’s and early 30’s until the depression forced the family to return to the UK. His many tales of watching the various flying circuses and flying displays in the US, added to stories of seeing flying and gliding around Luton and the Dunstable downs, lit the flames of a lifelong interest in aviation.

These flames were fanned by my eldest brother Charles. He is 12 years older than me, so as a toddler I was surrounded by his teenage obsession. An idea of how dedicated he was then is his story from the late 60’s of driving overnight from Glasgow down to Old Warden for a Shuttleworth Collection flying day, arriving about 9am. Spending the day investigating the collection and watching the flying, then immediately driving back to Glasgow without any sleep.

There are lots of byways in between, including air spotting at Glasgow Airport as a 10 year old, teenage years in the ATC, studying aeronautical engineering at Glasgow Uni (and dropping out), plastic kits, visits to many airshows, and a lot more.

The engineer in me wants to find out how things work and are built, so I read a lot about the aircraft. This then leads to finding out about the people who designed, built and flew them; man and machine can’t be separated. The artist in me wants to record images of these magnificent machines.

Now I have a decent job, in the future I hope to start flying lessons, then I can finally touch the sky.

Ken

Hmm…

I dunno what really ignited my passion, but I suppose my earliest memory was being at the Spitfire anniversary airshow at Eastleigh in 1986, when ML407 had her landing accident, and being hoisted up to see the Spit looking a bit sorry for herself in the hangar.

Either that, or it was being seated in a single-seat fighter of some kind (possibly another Spitfire), but I can’t remember where or when that was. I DO have a photo of me at a VERY young age standing in front of a Miles Magister with my mum – you can tell how long ago it was by her hair! 😉

I also remember vividly watching 633 Squadron in my grandparents’ house one night – that theme tune has stuck with me ever since! 😉

I suppose my passion really took off when I found an old die-cast Spitfire at the bottom of a box in my bedroom cupboard, in amongst all the other crap that I had. A while after that I built a couple of models, badly, and then bought a book on the Spitfire by Mike Spick. I read it over and over, got more books for Christmas, and it’s just been snowballing ever since. Reading about the people who flew and fought in these aircraft is still as exciting and awe-inspiring now as it was when I was 10.

Like probably a lot of people I joined the ATC, having had my first taste of flight in a Cessna 172 when I was 12, and have wanted to fly ever since. I plan on learning to fly just as soon as I pass the driving test!! 😉

My real warbird “thing” is to have my own, but realising that I probably won’t be able to afford my own, genuine aircraft, I thought I could build a replica instead – I saw one of these in a Spitfire book by Jeremy Flack (the Isaacs 6/10ths scale Spitfire) and got hooked on that idea ever since! And that’s what I’m working toward now – a half-scale Spitfire! 😀

(btw – the Spit in the photo is Ed Johancsik’s 60% MkXIV ;))

Interesting question, I suppose I got into this aeroplane thing seriously in 1984 when following a visit to Duxford as a teenager I joined the DAS to work on the Viscount. At that point I still didn’t really have an interest in aicraft but it was something to do at the weekends. My interest developed as the private collections developed. 5 years later I got to hear about a private collector locally who was having a Yak 11 built so I popped down there and ended up helping out one evening a week down there plus the occasional weekend, but most weekends were still spent at Duxford, now helping out with one of the collections there. This continued until the mid 90’s when I was offered the chance to do this sort of thing on a full time basis with a restoration company about 10 miles from home. I’ve since left there and taken up a normal job again but am lucky in that a friend of mine owns a collection of vintage aircraft so from time to time I pop up to his airfield and lend a hand.

I guess my earliest memory of aviation came from the 4 years I spent living a mile from the end of East Midlands runway and seeing the aircraft fly overhead on the approach, once a year they would have a display by the Red Arrows Gnats and they would overfly the village.
My first flight was a pleasure flight in a helicopter from East Midlands I suppose around 1975, my last (so far) was yesterday in a 172 to and from North Weald

What drives my passion? I honestly still don’t know.

Something somewhere made me decide at a very early age that I would fly. Like Moggy, my goal was to fly fast jets for the RAF. As I travelled along that particular road, I spent eight years with the ATC, where I experienced flight for the first time. And on that first flight in a Chipmunk over Kent in the summer of 1982, I was handed the controls. 42 years after The Few, I was in uniform, flying a single piston engined RAF aeroplane in THEIR patch of sky. A dream fulfilled. Later that week, Bob Stanford Tuck inspected us on our final parade, and the great man stopped and spoke briefly to the youngest of us. Me. Another dream fulfilled. And I was only 13.

During the next few years, my goal of becoming a fighter pilot consumed pretty much everything I did. I read the histories of the RAF, tried to understand how / why every single veteran managed to do what he did, and realised that if I were ever to fly, I would have to meet their standards. I don’t like the word ‘heroes’, but that’s what they were becoming. They all still are. By the time I left the ATC and went to Cranwell, I’d learned to glide before I could drive a car, and also had a Flying Scholarship under my belt. At Cranwell, every day, the fresh young faces of Bader, Learoyd, Cunningham, Cheshire and countless others stared at us from their course photographs. Inspiring us. But for me, the dream died at Cranwell.

The passion stayed though. I went and achieved my first PPL a year later, and since the mid eighties I’ve visited countless air displays and never yet found myself unmoved by the sight of a second world war aeroplane. I’d like to think that I now know what they stand for, how important they were at that moment in time, how important they are as memorials now. Which is why I answered an advert and spent a few years helping on the Beau; I wanted to give something back to aviation.

Is it a passion? Well, yes, I suppose it is. I love flying, because as a species, we shouldn’t be able to do it. Every time I fly, I feel that I’ve been able to laugh at Mother Nature. That really does appeal to my slightly irreverent sense of humour. And I love the veterans, both human and mechanical. Because without them, as Kev says, our world would be very different.

Sorry if I’ve bumbled on a bit with this, but as you can see, I still don’t have one final definitive answer on what drives me with all this. But I do know that I owe a great debt of thanks to those who make it possible for me to indulge my passion. 🙂

I grew up near Biggin Hill during the 70s and 80s and in those days we often saw more than just a Learjet or anything flying club,Was taken to a airshow at Biggin in 1977 at only 3years old and then in 1979 when King hussien of Jordan covered me mum and dads pizza with grass with his helecopter,My first real memories came from 1982 when saw Ray Hanna display MH434 i had been helping my uncle make a Matchbox spitfire and was so excited i was going to see a real one,i was left amazed by how Ray flew and went away that day having found a new hero.

When at school we often had aircraft from airshow at Biggin flying over us i remember a Lightning formation when i was around 5 and the Red Arrows always used to fly over the school if they left on the Monday after the show,During the 80s i went to several airshows at Biggin and when turned 16 in 1990 i managed to go Biggin every year up until now,Warbirds always intrested me and i always was reading books on the Battle of Britain and WW2 and did have the privilege to chat to a ex Blenhiem pilot who even in his 80s went to Redhill airfield every day to help out there men like him and so many others help save our country many never made it home and for that reason i want younger people than me to hear these stories and see these aircraft and will do anything to help this happen.

I know what drives me now, but I can’t really say what started it all. No connections with the RAF or aviation in general. I started reading at a very early age and my dad said I always chose books about aeroplanes. By the time I saw Battle of Britain (aged 8) I could already recognise most of the aircraft in the preview film which was about an airshow. Built lots of models (badly) still do (still badly:) ). Four years in the ATC in which I flew in Chipmunks, Bulldogs, Sedbergh’s, Kirby Cadets, a Hercules, a Dakota, a Sea King and a CH53. First airshow was Shuttleworth aged 13. Been to many shows, seen too many accidents, but have started going again now.

But the real passion, for me, is the people. I love seeing displays, would never have imagined I could or would see nine Spitfires airborne at once. It made the hairs stand up at the back of my neck and tears roll down my cheeks. But it’s what it stands for. The courage, endurance and sacrifice of all those who put their lives in danger so I can sit here sixty years later typing this. Now having the chance to meet, correspond with and talk to these veterans is what it’s all about for me. Their stories deserve to be told, their experiences shared. Someone once said on here, can’t remember who, “next time you meet a veteran, shake his hand and say thank you.” So, for me, that’s what it’s about, repaying the debt in any way I can.

On a personal note, (you’ve got this far, stick with it), a number of people on these forums have done much to enrich my life over the last couple of years. They know who they are. I have learned so much from people and have received help in ways I would never have imagined. In turn I hope I have been of some help to others. The spirit on this board makes it a very special place, long may it continue.

Sorry for rambling.

Regards,

kev35

That’s easy.

I was born far too close to the end of WW2. It was an accepted fact of life. Bomb-sites were our playground. Spitfires and Mosquitos flew overhead every day, largely ignored. The only thing that would excite us savvy five-year olds was a JET!

My father was newly discharged from the RAF (I think I might have been a demob present for my mum) and could be persuaded to talk about life as groundcrew on a Pathfinder airfield or with the training wings in Canada.

I just knew I wanted to fly.

To be a jet fighter pilot.

Nothing else would do.

I’ve never lost the fascination with flight. Though my dreams of piloting a Hunter or Javelin came to nothing, I still fly; all be it at a leisurely 80 knots across E-Anglia and at some expense to myself.

I never lost that dream, I made it come true.

Moggy