Member profile for @NWFLA8VATOR

AJ Eisenberg Airport
— Oak Harbor, Washington, United States

Pilot

I'm a 3rd generation pilot, first Navy pilot in my family, and only one (so far) to have their ATP. I took my first flight in my grandfather's 1965 Cherokee PA-28-180C in April 2000. I enlisted in the Navy in August 2000. I came in as an Aircrew AE and ended up with HM-14 in Norfolk, VA. I worked my way up to become an instructor at the AWSTS (now HM-12) and was selected for an officer commissioning. In 2005, I had a forced rate conversion to AWS, which after I saw how much harder the test was to advance to E-6, I realized that the writing was on the wall and I would likely never make a higher paygrade, so I started looking at all my options. More on that after. After my first deployment in 2002, I started taking flying lessons at Hampton Roads Executive airport near Norfolk but stopped after becoming uneasy with stalls (I had been in a helicopter crash in April 2002, and I was freezing up). In 2005, I decided to try it out again, and I earned my PPL in 2005 using some of the kickback money that I g