I have been flying since I was young, 16 years old and absolutely love it. This always brought me to do various jobs in aviation such as baggage handling and various services for major airlines. As I was working on the “ramp” and not actually flying, I was training and accumulating hours so that one day I could get paid to fly. Aviation requires you to accumulate hours in order to fly bigger and faster aircraft, and having a junior jump from zero experience to anything remotely fast, is unheard of.

I eventually landed a job handling private and corporate jets on the ground. I absolutely loved the job and went up into the cockpit every chance I could get. All I wanted more than anything was “to fly a jet” and I had it written that down as exactly that. Every other night I envisioned myself flying it and even downloaded sounds and noises I could listen to while visualizing. If I shared that dream with anyone, they simply brushed it off as a pipe dream. There is a belief in the industry that you must “climb the latter” and accumulate experience to get paid well and fly well maintained aircraft.

One day while at work I got a random call from a pilot I hadn’t heard from in over a year. Not only did they want me to come fly their business jet, they wanted me to come work for them! Fast forward six months later, I am now a fully qualified and trained First Officer of a small corporate jet at the age of 25.