So How Did You Get Into Flying?

by Jason Catanzariti

DISCLAIMER: The information on this web site is not to be used
in lieu of training from an FAA-certificated instructor.

         Like many pilots, I'm often asked how I got into flying. For some, the answer is simply, "I always wanted to." Not me - anyone who has made my acquaintance for more than ten minutes will probably agree that I don't often do things the simple way. No, my route to the cockpit is an epic story with many twists and turns. The story begins at around age 12, and culminated recently when I got to meet a person who provided me with some inspiration.

Although I didn't know it at the time, the day I probably became destined to fly was the day I learned to juggle. At age 12 I found three multi-colored tennis balls in a schoolyard and decided it would be cool if I could learn to juggle them. Two months later I could, and so began my life's first major obsession. By age 16 I was juggling five balls, at 18 I turned pro. For the next ten years I would make most of my living through performing. What does this have to do with flying? Juggling and unicycling taught me how to learn challenging skills. I discovered my preferred learning methods, developed patience, and explored the limits of my physical abilities.

Little did I know, this was actually preparing me to fly later in life

While I was performing for a living I developed a taste for other, somewhat unusual skills in which I saw physical and mental challenge. I perceived nuance and subtlety in some skills that others didn't - especially when I took up the banjo. But whatever I tried, I dove in with gusto bordering on obsession. For a stretch of about six years I played volleyball as often as possible, sometimes five days a week. At my height of 5' 7", you play the setter position or you don't play at the high levels of amateur volleyball. So I used the same energy I brought to juggling on the volleyball court. I knew it was getting out of hand one night when I woke up setting the ball in my sleep.

Playing the guitar grabbed my attention for a period of time. I developed passable skills despite lacking any real talent for music, or that instrument in particular. Astronomy also made its pitch to me, resulting in the purchase of a very nice Celestron telescope. I still occasionally play volleyball, pick at my guitar and look at the planets through my scope. But the turning point arrived in the forms of a movie and a book.

Ron Howard's film Apollo 13 came out in 1995, and I was fascinated. I have a family connection to the space program - my grandfather worked at the Grumman factory on Long Island where the lunar module was built. He manufactured some of the parts on the LM, so I was always vaguely aware of the Apollo lunar landings. But like millions of people who saw the movie, I was surprised to learn that more people than Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin went to the moon. In fact, 24 astronauts traveled to the moon and 12 of them walked on its surface.

Later that year I was walking through a bookstore and noticed Andrew Chaikin's account of the Apollo program, "A Man on the Moon". I bought it and began reading while on a commercial flight to Arizona. Instantly, I was enthralled. Here were the stories of the few people to ever depart our planet. Just as the plane landed I was reading the account of Armstrong and Aldrin's down-to-the-wire lunar landing on Apollo 11, and realized that I really wanted to experience something like that.

I can't recommend this book enough - great reading, even if you're not a space buff.

So for the next few years I read about space flight - everything I could lay hands on. I traveled to space museums. I even emailed questions to lunar geologists. But most importantly, I sought to find out how I might fly in space. The answer - not likely.

NASA takes two kinds of astronauts: pilots and mission specialists. The pilots are mostly drawn from the military, leaning heavily toward those with test pilot experience. Mission specialists are usually scientists. Really, really good scientists. So it was clear that NASA wasn't likely to come calling. But if I couldn't fly in space, could I... fly?

Yes! When I had the time and the money I dedicated a summer to learning to fly. From the beginning, flying actually felt familiar to me. The psychomotor skills and multi-tasking involved in flying a plane strongly reminded me of juggling. All those years of performing had prepared me well for the the tasks of aviation. And here I am some years later, a CFI with a few hours of jet fighter time to boot.

I was reminded of my circuitous route into the air recently when I got to meet Andrew Chaikin. I teach an astronomy unit at my school, and for a few years I also did assembly programs afterward. Recently we've begun bringing in outside speakers, and I was pleased to find that Andy was available and interested in visiting with us. He spent a day at our school recently, and it was just delightful to see him speak to our kids with such an infectious passion for space, science and exploration. I had the chance to talk with him about his book and the HBO mini-series that Tom Hanks made out of it, "From the Earth to the Moon". He had some great stories to tell, and seemed pleased to hear that his book had inspired me to learn to fly.

So that's how I got here. Who knew that juggling could have a beneficial effect on learning to fly? There's a research study in there...

  

Author Andrew Chaikin surrounded by Mrs. Barasch's 1st-graders, plus yours truly