What inspired you to fly?

[admin (Simon W)]

I have created this Poll as I wondered how many people here had been inspired by You tube, the TV, a mate and so on.

Please click an option and share the link. 

SW

 

[Tracey Johnson]

Watching my dad 

[gordon_dunn]

72Sqn Wessex, 230Sqn Pumas, AAC Gazelles/Lynx, etc, and the occasional Chinook...  constantly in the skies as I was growing up, always wanted to fly after seeing them!!!!

[philip edwards]

Dreamt of flying , now I have the mind to do it and the right people to learn from .?

[andyy]

I have always wanted to fly since I was a kid. I had some fixed wing microlight lessons, Glider taster lessons and they didn’t really fit the bill of what I wanted. I saw someone flying a paramotor when on holiday in Cyprus and thought “that’s what I’m looking for” flexibility to store it at home and travel with my kit to different places and fly. Also I wasn’t looking to fly to get anywhere in particular but rather to bimble around and enjoy the view. So the slower speeds and ability to fly at lower altitudes than most fit the bill perfectly.

[noddyc]

I always  dreaming of flying , yust stretching my arms and jump of the second floor walkway at school. This went away when I start flying.I remembered  seeing a picture of a handglider in my science book in school. Growing up it seemed that flying was only for the rich and I would never be able to afford  it.

Saw an advert and clicked it for more information  brought me to paragliding. 

[Sooty100]

Dreamt of flying since being a kid 

[admin (Simon W)]

I need to add: Always dreaming of flying....

SW

 

[admin (Simon W)]

Bums.... I cant lol 

SW

 

[JulieD]

It was a dare which I accepted. 

Now I'm hooked. 

[alan_k]

I'm in the none of the above.

I went up in a couple of microlights, a 3 axis and a delta, as my mate had a licence. I thought I want some of this but didn't like the cost. Did some research and found PPG, first started training in 2000 then life got in the way, flying full time since 2008.

[norbertflyer]

From 4 mins.

Richard

[cianpars]

Ive always been interested in flying and technology. I flew gliders in the 80's and early 90's then got my PPL A in 1997 after flirting with microlights for a while.

My dream was being to fly something autonymous and I discovered paramotoring from the internet,but it always seemed a bit hairy and perhaps a bit too physical.

After considering it, on and off for a few years, I started watchin Youtube videos.  Tucker Gott was most definitely an influence, but I took a lot of his stuff with a pinch of salt and looked at more objective stuff.

Eventually, I took the plunge and forked out a load of dosh to learn paramotoring at Membury with the intention of buying a full set of kit and enjoying the autonomy of the sport, though hope to maintain close links with the Membury lot into the future.

If only we had the same weather as they do in Andalucia and Florida

 

Edited March 10, 2018 by cianpars

[paul2289]

Similar to the above I had always dreamed of flying but did not have the money or people around me to advise what routes there were available. 

In my 20s I started to learn to paraglide in exchange for designing a website for the school, unfortunately the school shut a few hours into my training. 

I few years after that I started a RAPS skydiving course and soon realised that I did not enjoy jumping out of the plane (in fact it terrified me!) But I did enjoy the canopy control. After 14 jumps and a bad exit that spooked me (I briefly blacked out while opening) I decided to give up skydiving. 

Then in my 30s a Paramotor flew over my house and I thought "I have to do this" I now had the cash so did a BHPA course and bought my kit. A year later I did my hill course as well.

Three years later I am now half way through my PPL and am obsessed with any form of aviation. I still paraglide and Paramotor but want to go on some longer adventures in a light aircraft.

My only regret is not starting sooner.

[AndyB]

In the 80's I was hiking over Snowdon and one flew past me. It turned out to be Bear Grylls in his early testing phase!!!!

[Guy]

Much like most of the above I suppose. I never wanted the feel of a light aircraft around me, so I tried a flexwing microlight. Much as I prefer a motorcycle to a car.

I got as far as second solo, but it was prohibitively expensive and with a young family I had to quit.

I tried paragliding but got tired of the 'parawaiting'. I then tried a paramotor in the mid 1990's but only got 1 solo before I crushed a disc on my second supervised launch............end of flying for a long time.

Got back to it 3 years or so ago, but could never have done it without the use of a trike. Altogether the closest I can get to a flying motorcycle 

[Casper]

I remember a travel program showing free flying when I was a kid, but then I forgot about it. When I was 20, winter 2009 I found a video showing Emilia Plak and Mathieu Rouanet. After that I was obsessed, spent my student loan on training and PPG equipment. This was the first video, then I watched about everything that was on youtube back then. 

 

[Diyan]

None of the above. I was interested in flying since I was 8. My father played a big part in it. As he was a colonel at the military he was heading a parachute brigade. They were doing practice jumps every week whenever the weather was good. Once he got me with him on an old Antonov plane. I was totally hooked afterwards but been keeping it inside until I was about 18 when I found out there were actually realistically possible and affordable ways to be flying. As I'm originally from Bulgaria it seemed practically impossible with regards to budget hence why I've been suppressing it for so long. As the country has been a bit behind overall it seemed just as distant as becoming an astronaut. Now every time I'm up flying no matter how I feel just as happy and excited as it's the first time I'm doing it. I really hope it stays this way until the very end.

[cianpars]

1 minute ago, Diyan said:

None of the above. I was interested in flying since I was 8. My father played a big part in it. As he was a colonel at the military he was heading a parachute brigade. They were doing practice jumps every week whenever the weather was good. Once he got me with him on an old Antonov plane. I was totally hooked afterwards but been keeping it inside until I was about 18 when I found out there were actually realistically possible and affordable ways to be flying. As I'm originally from Bulgaria it seemed practically impossible with regards to budget hence why I've been suppressing it for so long. As the country has been a bit behind overall it seemed just as distant as becoming an astronaut. Now every time I'm up flying no matter how I feel just as happy and excited as it's the first time I'm doing it. I really hope it stays this way until the very end.

I certainly wouldn't fly in an Antonov without a parachute

[Diyan]

1 minute ago, cianpars said:

I certainly wouldn't fly in an Antonov without a parachute

I did and it was breathtaking (in a good way). It was in July 1997 and I remember it all just like it was yesterday. We got to my town's airport 2.5 miles away from where we lived at about 9:00 AM. The small to medium size Antonov airplane was having its engine warmed up. My dad helped me up in the "cargo" area through the only door in the middle of the plane on the port side - it was completely empty apart from a small wooden bench going through the entire length of the fuselage at the end of the inner starboard side. That's where the parachute troops were sitting before they were called by name, one by one to make their jumps. You could tell the plane looked tiredly on the inside yet again it was surprisingly neat. Thoughts of how it would feel being there in the air gave me butterflies. The sparkles in my eyes were ignited when I was introduced to the cockpit though. It looked surreal. Totally out of this world. Then I was briefed and strapped up in the starboard seat of the airplane. I was so fascinated with it all that I was hearing the pre-takeoff checks well in the background. Before I could "chew up" all information of the surroundings we were on the roll. Butterflies in the stomach again. I was thrilled. I remember the captain telling me not to hold to the belts so hard because my knuckles were gonna pop out and he laughed. It was just a routine for him, clearly, as he's done that so many times. He didn't realise it was my introduction to a whole new World.

Sorry for probably being a bit too sentimental on it all and if you managed to read through it all - congrats! I hope it helped you understand better on what inspired me to learn how to fly.

[Capotec2015]

None of the above. My dad took me to a public park around the age of 2 (1970) and I have the clearest memory of what I found out later to be a wessex military helicopter landing in front of me. For some reason I always remembered the exhaust slats at the back. As a toddler I was terrified of the noise but I developed a borderline obsession with anything that flew, especially helicopters. My toys were always model planes, balsa rubber band gliders, those propeller things that you pulled a string to get them to fly. It continued right through into adulthood with remote controlled heli's , drones. I was constantly looking up at the sky.

Even now, my wife and daughter will be in the living room and on them hearing a helicopter or plane, will shout through "Helicopter!" if I am in another room -but I have usually heard it before them - we have a medevac heli lands at the football field..just up the hill from me.  I sometimes go to the field just to look at the heli but I get mixed feelings when that happens. It goes from "what an absolute beast of a machine - to -I hope the person being transported is ok" -and then jealousy when I see that the pilot looks like he's 12.

Then came the first day I decided to get paragliding lessons. A flying machine in a rucksack! I then discovered paramotoring. Big Boys toys!! To be able to take off from a field with my own flying machine is a dream come true. Now with a new wing on the way courtesy of Clive Mason and my Kobra/polini machine, I am looking forward to more practice  -just need the weather to co-operate!!

[Shorehambeach]

Skydiving brought me here. Paramotoring is a quick way to get in the sky 

[cianpars]

Jumping off a cliff is quicker

[phil_r]

I fancy Tucker Gott!!

 

OK that's a lie. The truth is I was mad keen on planes when I was a kid & I used to daydream about what it would be like to fly.

Fast forward a few years, in my teens, I was flicking through an aviation magazine one day & saw an article on Paramotoring & it caught my imagination big time. That thought never really went away.

I then moved to a job in Pirbright in 2010 & a Paramotor flew right over me one day.  Time, circumstances & money were right & I went straight onto Google & found that there was a school that was only 10 minutes away. I signed up straight away & was flying 6 months later.

Never looked back & still love flying now as much as I did then!

[TONYPARAMOTOR]

HMMMM