So here I was, going into my senior year, a bright student - good test scores, good grades, wanting to pursue engineering and hopefully one day work for Nike designing and tweaking their products. After I had spent countless hours poring over my college apps, I was excited - I was about to head to beautiful Keystone, CO with my family for some great skiing and much needed relaxation.
The night before our flight out from Midway, I realized I wanted a fun, new app to play while on the roughly five-hour commute from Chicago to the Keystone Resort. I was browsing the app store and thinking there wouldn't be any flight sim apps on the store, but I thought I'd give it a shot and see what came up. As it turned out, Infinite Flight popped up on my screen. I read the reviews, looked at the in-game screenshots and it seemed like for the $5 price point, it would be well worth the purchase.
While traveling the next day, I couldn't put my phone down - even though the app was relatively rudimentary. Whenever I was off the slopes, I couldn't resist the chance to play - I was hooked.
Over the course of the next few months, I still played the game quite a bit, and in the process decided to continue my academic and athletic "careers" playing football and studying engineering at a small-ish school in upstate NY. I initially applied as a materials engineer but with my interest in Nike fading and interest in aviation again growing, I figured I'd rather be an aeronautical engineer and study a field that I have great passion for instead.
During the summer leading into my freshman year, I knew that I would be getting a Windows PC for the engineering software that my school provided. Being a MacBook owner, this meant that I'd be able to pair my new Windows with the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator as well. As it turned out, I bit the bullet and decided to drop money on both the game and a joystick/throttle combo to accompany it as well. With the joystick/throttle I could fly around in my game much more realistically and, most importantly, without using arrow keys.
All throughout my freshman year, I would try to play the game and advance my skill/knowledge as much as my school/football schedule permitted while still trying to maintain a solid social life. I'd also like to thank my roommate and great friend Greg for putting up with me flying at the desk next to his while he was trying to get homework done. I know that virtual jet engines/props aren't the easiest thing to listen to, so thanks for dealing with it, Greg.
Now, in every great turning point in our life there's some sort of revolutionary moment or event that has to take place at some point or another. This moment for me came during a test review session for a class called Strength of Materials (the name just screams "fun," doesn't it?). The thought that changed everything was "Wow...I'd definitely rather fly planes for a living than sit behind a desk and design them/crunch numbers for the rest of my life." Of course, the issue of airline pay - amongst many other things - came to mind as it absolutely pales in comparison to engineering pay, which I'll touch on at a later date. But most importantly, I knew if I were to be a pilot that I would absolutely love what I was doing every single day that I went to work.
Tentatively, the plan I have at this point is to obtain my private pilot's license while I'm in college and fly on my own and build hours. After I get my degree, I'd like to get on my feet for a few years and from there obtain all of the other licenses/certificates necessary to be a commercial pilot. I can't wait to share with all of you how that plan goes.
Frankly, it seems weird to call engineering a backup plan at this point, but almost all major airlines require a four-year degree...so why not pursue this (hopefully) lucrative degree while I'm at it? I also can't say enough about the people I've met, the friends I've made, and the experiences I've had while living in a totally different part of the country. I wouldn't change a minute of it.
So, from here, we'll move on to what prompted me to start my initial training in the first place. More to come on that in my next post...
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