What got you interested in aviation?

[Adam the Akrodude]

Thought it could be interesting to hear what got you all interested in aeroplanes. Here's what got me hooked.

First toy aeroplane I remember was a plastic one piece Mirage - loved it! I used to zoom all around the yard - must have amused my parents.

Father bought me what I think was a Frog kit including a Hurricane IIc and a Stuka. He pretty well built them for me, but these were the first plastic model aeroplanes I'd ever seen - so cool!

We did a school excursion to Tulla when it opened. There was a display centre with a diorama of the airport which I thought was so cool - I think where the Mercedes show room now is.

I fondly remember the Wirraway and the great scratch build aircraft models at the Melbourne museum way back when. Pity there is nothing aviation related at the museum these days. There is though a temporary WW1 exhibition at the moment and I paid a small fortune to see Baron Von Richthofen's engine from his Fokker Dr.1 on the weekend - kids didn't understand why Dad was so interested.

Walking home from school in I think 1972, I saw the Concorde fly right over the top of me on approach to Tulla. I've loved delta wings ever since.

First "big" jet right was a family trip to Tassi in I think a DC-9. Entry was via the rear fold down stair. This must have been around 1970.

First "little" aeroplane flight was when I was 11 in Scouts. It was in a Cessna 172 and probably from Pakenham strip. This was a activity at a big Jamboree at the time and we all got to have a "go" - changing seats in-flight!

Perhaps I'm getting nostalgic, but I thought it might be enlightening to hear how we all became "hooked".

Cheers

Adam

[VH-WAL]

My parents house, my primary school and my high school were ALL immediately under the Essendon Runway 35 approach path, apparently as a toddler I would crawl out the door to watch constellations et al overflying, at primary school I recall DC-3s and Bristol freighters overflying the latter surprisingly often with only one engine turning and the other smokin! AT Essendon High School you could count every rivet as the planes including the early 727s screamed over.

EHS was 1.2 NM to touch down, home 2nm and primary school just a tad more so they were at between 300 - 400 ft on final over the high school, teachers had to pause between flights.

just had to be really

[Cap'n Wannabe]

My interest most likely came about because my dad had his PPL. He hasn't flown in probably 40 years now, which is a shame, and I haven't yet had the opportunity to take him flying...which is an even bigger shame!
One of my earliest memories is of being in a C172, crawling over my mum to find the way out. Good thing I didn't (some may think otherwise....I'm lookin' at you, Paul!) because we were cruising at 2500 feet..
I used to watch the Argosy, Bristol Freighter and F-27 regularly flying almost over my house in Moonee Ponds, and to this day, I always look to the skies whenever I hear an aircraft in flight.
My dad used to play ATC with me - he gave me a 1970's version of the AIP, and would issue clearances for my toy planes and walk me through all the radio calls. He'd also build wooden aircraft for me, my favourite being a profile DC-3, VH-ANH. The paint job wasn't all that accurate, but it was fun to play with

[F-27pax]

I reckon that I must have been born with an interest in aviation because I can't remember when I wasn't interested in it. My father helped it along by being a little interested, having been ground crew on Beaufighters during the war. I can recall being put in the back seat of an Auster on one occasion when I was very small (though not in flight) and watching a Tiger Moth in a paddock another time. What really cemented the interest was discovering Airfix kits, that meant I could have as many aeroplanes as my pocket money would allow.

My mother's parents had a house under the flight path of the east-west runway at Essendon, on the Pascoe Vale side. When we were there on holidays I spent hours sitting in their bay window with binoculars watching aeroplanes come and go - and getting annoyed when my aunt decided that we should go to Port Melbourne to look at the ships. When I was old enough I was given a packed lunch and allowed to walk over to the airport and spend the day watching the aeroplanes from the observation deck. Boy oh boy! My grandparents were really upset when the 727s and DC-9s used to fly overhead, particularly the noise they made on final approach. I couldn't understand their problem, I loved it when the whole house shook from the noise and remember fondly listening to DC-9s landing late into the evening while i was tucked up in bed drifting off to sleep.

So, when I passed the Third Division exam to get into the Commonwealth Public Service and was told I had a choice between going into the Tax Office or Civil Aviation, my fate was sealed.

Leigh

[Adam the Akrodude]

Seriously enjoying hearing of how others were "bitten" by the aviation bug! Keep 'em rolling in! Interesting that Essendon has featured quite a bit here. I used to love seeing and hearing the Argosy's and the Catalina flying around Melbourne. Was the Cat doing survey work I wonder - I'm talking late 70's/early 80's here?

[tor lives]

What a wonderfully nostalgic thread Adam
I guess I have always been a raving aerosexual, and that probably stems from growing up next to RAAF Base Amberley. Some of my earliest memories are of jets (that I now know would have been F-4s, Canberras, Mirages etc), screaming low over my house, which, even as an infant, I apparently took great pleasure in. When I was a young bloke, me and my best mate used to take a cut lunch and ride our bikes out to the back fence at Amberley, and watch the comings and goings of aircraft all day long. My first taste of the big jets was when TAA, Ansett, and Qantas used to use Amberley as a "circuits" and "touch and go" training base, (I'll never forget seeing the crashed TAA Fokker F-27 at Amberley after a simulated emergency became very real.....she sat by the rear fence, with an abandoned and derelict Neptune, for a very long time). I also clearly remember the day that a Navy A-4 landed on it's jugs in a sea of foam and sparks. Me and my aeroplane-loving mate used to play "planes" every lunch time at school, as the "real things" flew over head. The first time I ever saw an F-14 was when a visiting USN Tomcat screamed low and fast, with wings back, straight over our school....I was in absolute stunned awe!!!!, (as were most of the kids and teachers). I was constantly in trouble for "day dreaming" by my teachers, because I was always looking out the classroom window watching F-111s, Canberras, Chinooks, Iroquois etc in the Amberley circuit. When ever any family member went to Eagle Farm Airport for a drop off or pick up it was simply a given that I would come too, (it was on one of these many Brisbane Airport family trips that I first laid eyes on the beautiful Boeing 707, that I have had a life-long love affair with ever since.....who knew then that I would end up crewing them later on as an adult). As a teenager I joined the Air Training Corps as soon as I could which saw me attending our weekly parades every Saturday morning at Amberley......I loved every minute of my RAAF cadets days. It was therefore no surprise that I joined the RAAF and had the privilege and honour of crewing 33SQN 707s and 34SQN BAC 111s, HS-748s, Falcon 20s. This I did for over a decade until I joined Qantas as Cabin Crew in 1993. I have been with Qantas ever since in a variety of operational crew and management roles, (although I am just about at the end of my Qantas career). You can be assured that what ever I do after Qantas will also be aircraft-related, I simply could not imagine not having aviation in my life.
As to aircraft modelling.....I got my first model when I was 4 or 5, and my mum and me built it on the kitchen table. Call me lame but I still have the horrible little thing:




And here is my first "serious" attempt at modelling, (which I also still have). By this stage I was 8 or 9. The only time I have not been modelling ever since was when I discovered girls


So.....that's my aerosexual story in a single snap shot.
Thanks again Adam for a great thread.
TOR

[Adam the Akrodude]

We're all aviation tragics it seems. None of my first modelling attempts survived, but they all went to a fiery death in model "Valhalla"! The titanic wars fought out at my mate farm were epic! Huge battles ensued at his dam involving faming aeroplanes and battleships (in scale form), various accelerants and air rifles. Years later when walking around this dam, flotsam from these titanic wars could still be found encrusted in the mud by the side of the dam. Horrific waste of models, yes. Damn fun at the time though! For a primary school library project, we both scammed our parents into buying Airfix models - we doing Battle of Britain as a topic. I do still remember building that Airfix Stuka and thinking surely Airfix could have done a little better on that prop and the wheels/spats! The very foundation of my model quality/detail requirements I think started with that Airfix Stuka! Ray, your skills were far in advance of mine back then. I didn't even bother to paint mine, such was the rush to get it finished and hung in the school library!

Oh and as commented on previously, so envious of your vision/forethought to keep your modelling "treasures". I've kept some I made when I was a teen, but nothing prior which is a shame - air rifle and various accelerants ended many a model . These models of ours do define a time in our lives. Bloody nostalgic topic, but still interesting I think to learn the origins of our deep passion for things with wings (and bloody big engines!).

[tor lives]

Hi Adam,
I had one of those plastic Mirage's as well. I loved that little toy, and I distinctly remember it being red with black wheels and missiles under the wings . It also had RAAF roundels cast into the upper wing surfacers. Isn't it funny what you can recall from your childhood, but yet not remember what you had for lunch yesterday .
TOR
PS: Yeah....I was pretty proud of the thickly hand-painted Stuka. You can still see the brush strokes with embedded paint brush hairs and all

[Cap'n Wannabe]

And here is my first "serious" attempt at modelling, (which I also still have). By this stage I was 8 or 9. The only time I have not been modelling ever since was when I discovered girls

That's the exact same kit I first started with, paid for with pocket money earned by mowing the lawn one Saturday morning. Couldn't wait to get up to 100 Puckle St and spend $2.49 out of the fiver I was paid! Had it for many years until it went to the great plastic air base in the sky.

[VH-WAL]

I got my Airfix Stuka from Anderson's newsagent on Holmes Rd (between Darling and Bowen Sts), 4 shillings and 9 pence. When that shop closed I used to buy kits from Sims Sports Store in Puckle St

so many modellers come from those parts.. must be something in the water