Fighter pilot dreams

[tattywelshie]

I take it that most people on here dreamt of being a fighter pilot when they were growing up? All I wanted to do when I was a kid was to be a fighter pilot. I had really bad anxiety when getting into my teenage years and it stopped me from ever really pursuing a career in it, it's one of the biggest regrets of my life that I never gave it a go, not saying I'd have ever made it, but still regret not bothering to try. 

 

Would love to see if anyone actually followed their dreams and become a fighter pilot? 

[Trooper117]

My eyesight stopped me from going down that road... however, it didn't stop me from learning to fly real aeroplanes.

[tattywelshie]

1 minute ago, Trooper117 said:

My eyesight stopped me from going down that road... however, it didn't stop me from learning to fly real aeroplanes.

Ah, that's annoying, I never got as far as any sort of medical tests. I'd love to learn how to fly for real! 

[cardboard_killer]

I get motion sick in a car unless I'm driving. So, never wanted to be a fighter pilot.

[SCG_Tzigy]

My eyes too.. this was during the times when you had to be perfect, there was no way around. It now hone could get a waiver w PRK. Still, flew gliders for little bit at the end of high school.  Then the path took me completely different direction only later to come back to becoming a flight surgeon for few years... It was great but still did not get it out of my system completely - that is why this current and ongoing flight sim obsession...

 

Looking back I think I would have made a horrible fighter pilot judging by the decisions I make routinely online... lol. 

 

May be a cargo plane, I can fly those resupply missions on Finnish like no one else...

 

Seriously, though, at best I could be probably a decent backseater..  ?

Edited November 3, 2022 by SCG_Tzigy

[tattywelshie]

16 minutes ago, SCG_Tzigy said:

My eyes too.. this was during the times when you had to be perfect, there was no way around. It now hone could get a waiver w PRK. Still, flew gliders for little bit at the end of high school.  Then the path took me completely different direction only later to come back to becoming a flight surgeon for few years... It was great but still did not get it out of my system completely - that is why this current and ongoing flight sim obsession...

 

Looking back I think I would have made a horrible fighter pilot judging by the decisions I make routinely online... lol. 

 

May be a cargo plane, I can fly those resupply missions on Finnish like no one else...

 

Seriously, though, at best I could be probably a decent backseater..  ?

Haha I don’t think I’d had ever made it, I’m not very calm under pressure ?

[ST_Catchov]

I tried to join the RAAF as a 19 year old, passed the aptitude tests but failed the medical. High blood pressure. Got a haircut 'n' all. To mask my disappointment I smoked a packet of cigs and got pissed.

 

Anyway ultralights were the new thing back in them days and no medical required. Chocks away! So I buzzed around in them for a bit before I was forced to become responsible. I don't think I ever particularly wanted to be a fighter pilot. I just wanted to fly for free because I'm cheap. Civil aviation was way too expensive back then.

[Lusekofte]

Had some sort of sound in my hart discovered when I was a kid

it was never heard again. Medical pass fir being a sailor was hard to pass and I did at age of 15. I guess I was to old at age 23 when I went ashore. 
But that sound , heard only once stuck and military refused me for pilot training. 
being a civil pilot never really appealed to me

and was a very costly path. 

[busdriver]

On 11/3/2022 at 10:33 AM, tattywelshie said:

Would love to see if anyone actually followed their dreams and become a fighter pilot?

 

Yep...back in the Jurassic Era

 

Edited November 6, 2022 by busdriver

[tattywelshie]

3 hours ago, busdriver said:

 

Yep...back in the Jurassic Era

 

That’s awesome! What did you fly?

[busdriver]

From 1980 to 1986, I flew the reconnaissance version of the Phantom. I spent my formative years posted to Zweibrucken Germany. That was more fun than a bachelor should be allowed to have. Got to ride in the backseat of the Jaguar with No. 6 Squadron. Definitely had to have your head on a swivel because every kind of NATO fighter would jump you (or you jumped them) whilst flying around at 500’ AGL. Then I got very lucky and was the first guy from the RF-4 to convert to the F-16. I flew that from 1986 to 1989. Correction, I was very lucky for the entire experience.

[ST_Catchov]

So not a busdriver then. Kudos man.

[busdriver]

20 minutes ago, ST_Catchov said:

So not a busdriver then. Kudos man.

Most definitely a busdriver, as in Airbus 319/320 Captain. 

[Snakeye]

On 11/3/2022 at 11:33 AM, tattywelshie said:

Would love to see if anyone actually followed their dreams and become a fighter pilot? 

yep!

[Guest deleted@83466]

Late-ish Typhoon with RAF roundel over what looks like Austrian flag colors?  What’s the story there?

[DEDMANcjp]

2 hours ago, busdriver said:

Most definitely a busdriver, as in Airbus 319/320 Captain. 

 

Sorry they spelled'd it wrong.

Edited November 6, 2022 by DEDMANcjp

[busdriver]

1 hour ago, SeaSerpent said:

Late-ish Typhoon with RAF roundel over what looks like Austrian flag colors?  What’s the story there?

That’s just the squadron colors, or more correctly colours.

[RAY-EU]

 

[Mtnbiker1998]

I definiteyl had the fighter pilot dream but I didn't want to do more school as an 18 year old and opted to enlist instead, still ended up with wings but flying in the back of a cargo plane as a loadmaster certainly isn't as romanticized... Oh well. Got my taste of the military and decided it wasn't for me, so its probably for the best I didn't go all the way and follow the "dream"

 

The military has a way of sucking the fun out of things anyway. From what I heard, even flying an F-16 gets old after awhile when you take into account all the extra junk you get forced to do.

[busdriver]

55 minutes ago, Mtnbiker1998 said:

I definiteyl had the fighter pilot dream but I didn't want to do more school as an 18 year old and opted to enlist instead, still ended up with wings but flying in the back of a cargo plane as a loadmaster certainly isn't as romanticized... 

 

My dad was a Loadmaster. Most of his time was on the C-130 (C-124, C-141, C-123 and the XC-99 in order of flight time). During our time at Clark 1971-74 he worked at 13 AF HQ and kept his mission qualification with local C-130 Wing. In the summer of 1972 he went on what was supposed to be a three day trip to Vietnam. He came home over a week later, simply saying they had a mechanical issue. However the Squadron CO was the aircraft commander and his son was on the soccer team with me. The son spilled the beans. "Did you hear what happened to our dad's? They almost got shotdown at a place called An Loc, airplane got shot all to hell during a supply drop (LAPES)." That night I started my private conversation with dad, "Dad, Col Hoppengarden's son says that you guys..." and his finger went to his lips and he shushed me, "Don't say a word to your mother...not a word."  He never told mom. He retired in 1974 with a line number for Chief, but he said he had enough. My dad was a great guy!

[Snakeye]

21 hours ago, busdriver said:

22 hours ago, SeaSerpent said:

Late-ish Typhoon with RAF roundel over what looks like Austrian flag colors?  What’s the story there?

That’s just the squadron colors, or more correctly colours.

Busdriver's absolutely correct - UK Roudel with the squadron colours (red and white) on either side (No 41 Sqn).  That was my 3-yr tour in Typhoons on an RAF exchange.