I decided I was going to become I pilot in the Air Force when I was in 10th grade at TA.  I took an orientation flight and I was hooked.  When I was 16 I got my driver's license and a job washing dishes at Molly's Balloon in Hanover on the weekends.  For a year I saved my money and got donations from everyone in my family.  The summer before my senior year I started taking flying lessons at the Lebanon airport.  It was an awesome experience.  I would drive my clunker car (that I had found abandoned in a hay field) to the airport.  Then I'd go fly Cessna 152's with an instructor and practice taking off and landing and all the other maneuvers you have to learn to be a pilot.  There was also a ton of other information to learn.  Stuff like controlled airspace, Federal Aviation Regulations, takeoff distance calculations, weather, aircraft procedures etc.  It was almost overwhelming at first.  Kind of like drinking from a fire hose.  But I hung in there and finished the program.  It took me 6 months of hard study and dedication and at the age of 17, as a senior, I got my Private Pilot License!  It was one of the smartest and most outstanding things I ever did.

Having the pilot license and some good grades enabled me to get a full Air Force ROTC scholarship.  So my investment of $4000 for the license paid back in a $40,000 scholarship.  I was off to the races, so to speak.  In college my pilot's license paid off again as I was selected to be a pilot in the Air Force.  I flew heavy jets all over the world for 6 years.  Then I got out of the Air Force and have flown for 1 airline, 2 cargo companies, 3 charter companies and now am in India flying business jets for some of the biggest companies here. There's hardly anywhere I haven't been.  But I owe it all to my experiences there at TA.  It's where my career began.