If you Ask a pilot how they started flying, They’ll most likely Begin BY SAYING:
“I always wanted to fly.”
Every pilot has a first hour in their logbook.
Here you’ll find links to resources for inspiration, self study, flight training, and career path exploration: podcasts, YouTube channels, books, ground school programs, websites, TV and movies, and more.
Is today the day you take your first steps?
“A Real live pilot!”
When I began exploring a mid-life career change to aviation, I cast a wide net for information about becoming a professional pilot. I devoured library books and read years of back issues of magazines about flying cover to cover. I searched Internet forums. I asked everyone I knew if they had any connections to a “real live pilot!” so I might interview them about their experiences.
I soon discovered that I was lucky to be among the first generation of wannabe student pilots in the social media age. Many of today’s most popular and prolific content creators of aviation YouTubes and podcasts were just getting started.
As I advanced through my training on the way to becoming a flight instructor, a charter and medevac pilot, and then an airline pilot at regional and mainline carriers, I kept adding to my list of online and offline resources.
Paying it forward, I e-mailed my curated list to anyone who asked me, a “real live pilot!”, for information about flying.
This site is mostly about helping you find resources to further your aviation interest and education. But the CFI in me insists on sharing the same advice I gave my flight students:
EAT WELL
SLEEP WELL
CHAIR FLY
Chair flying is focused thinking, practicing procedures, staying “ahead of the airplane” while you’re on your couch and not burning fuel or money.
Most of being a pilot happens between your ears.
My own instructor always says, “Fly good. Don’t suck!”
So there’s that, too.