I just got back from the doctor and tested positive...

[PhilDernerJr]

...for aviation enthusiasm.

I was involved with so many people, I really don't know where I got it from.

I definitely contracted it from any one of the following:

Tom Turner
Art Brett
Joe Pries
Chris Sheldon

I was either hanging out with or looking at their pictures without protection. It was just a matter of time I guess. Their pics are just so good.....I couldn't control myself.

Do any of you have aviation enthusiasm? If so, who'd you contract it from?

[Mellyrose]

I must have gotten it from Phil Derner, Jr. I got everything else from him. :?

But seriously, he brought it out in me. Taught me that there was a hobby surrounding that strange fascination. :)

[SengaB]

I gave it to myself......

Senga

[engine46]

Born with it.

[LGA777]

Even though I have no close family with ties to aviation (only an uncle with only aviation interest, not airline) I know I had to be born with it. Very much fueled by two very supportive parents during childhood !

Thanks Mom and Dad !

LGA777

[RDU-JFK]

I was also born with it, and symptoms got worse with family vacations as a kid. I suppressed the disease by going to a non-aeronautical school but now I work in the industry so it's back, full steam ahead.

[Nonstop2AUH]

Not from any one person did I catch this, but from some experiences, so I guess to avoid it one must limit exposure to the following sorts of things.

Initially-traveling as kid with Pan Am, Eastern and TWA. All gone, but then so is my youth.

Interest waned a bit in high school and college, then came back when I was working on Wall Street and got to fly with the CEO of a newly-IPO'd company who had bought himself a single pilot CJ, he offered me the right seat for the return leg of the trip (back to NY from his factory) and it all came back to me.

Then, interest waned a bit until I ended up working in the Middle East and flying with Gulf Air, Emirates, and other then-charismatic airlines that made flying the sort of special experience I had remembered as a kid from the defunct airlines mentioned above. They used to allow in-flight cockpit visits, and on one occasion, actually with BA into DXB, the crew let me stick around for the landing. One of those things in life I'll never forget, and for you spotters it was G-ZZZA which was I think BA's first 777.

Interest waned a bit again until I moved back to NYC and found myself discovering things like a.net, this site, etc. I doubt it will ever go away again as I have less distractions from it than I used to have. In fact, last year I interviewed for a business development job with a small airline, which would have been very cool, but the management team I interviewed with got sacked during the process so it kind of ended with that. If something like it came up again though, I'd be very tempted!!!

[lijk604]

got it from my dad. He was already working at UAL when I was born. I think the jet fuel was infused at that time.

[emshighway]

You all need to take a few shots.

Side effects could result in over-exposures, strap neck pain and shutter finger.

[MarkLawrence]

Herediatary - got it from my parents both of whom had just given up flying for Hunting Clan - a charter company in England.

[PHL Approach]

Im with Senga on this one. I caught it from myself.

[mirrodie]

I know I had to be born with it. Very much fueled by two very supportive parents during childhood !

Pretty much says it all here.

[JZ1]

I got it somehow when i was 13 or 14. First I was fascinated with military side of the things. Then after my first flight on a CA 747SP, arriving in SFO and witness the busy US civil aviation scene, I shifted to the civil side.

[Futterman]

Side effects could result in over-exposures, strap neck pain and shutter finger.

Don't forget the possibility of coming down with HoBes (Type A and B) as well as impaired vision, which can result in the condition known as Planeview.

For me, I contracted aviation enthusiasm from an airline back in 2002. After two 13-15 hour flights, it was probably the recycled cabin air or the galley food that did me in.

Brian

[hiss srq]

Defineately got it from hanging out with my dad (stepdad) at JFK when he would go there to watch them load helicopters he shipped. That and an in flight incident I was on board a plane for.

[PhilDernerJr]

You got it from your Dad? That's ****ing gross.

lol. I always love hearing stories about how people got into it. :)

[nwafan20]

I'm with Senga on this, I cought it myself.

[Mateo]

Spent my 2-10 years in the right seat of a Bonanza. Haven't been in a cockpit since 1991, but aviation is tough to shake!

[FlyingColors]

Got it at EWR!

[Iberia A340-600]

I got it from a lovely lady named St.Marteen when I was 2. ;)

[AndrewM]

Excerpts taken from an issue of Modern Disease Weekly Magazine-

During a prenatal exam Andrew's parents were given the bad news that he had AGS.

Airplane Geek Syndrome was not a concern when they decided to have a baby, but they knew they would find a way through it. His mom and dad spent endless days up with him, at fence lines around NY, reading magazines while he stared at planes for 6 hours at a time.

"What could we do? I mean I guess we could have drowned him.." said Rick Marino, regarding his son’s illness.

"You just have to nurture them along and hope they find acceptance somewhere in this cruel cruel world" said Andrew's mother.

"I tried to hide my affliction when I was younger since no one shared any of my conditions -- JetA Blood, Chain link fence hand disorder, headturnedskyward disease-- but as I grew older I began to understand that they were others like me."

Andrew did learn to live with his disease and now spends his weekdays managing an airport and his weekends visiting other ones.
"I guess I'm pretty lucky…you know? I found a place where I am accepted...oh and I'm also lucky ‘cause I have huge junk..."

[stuart schechter]

I got it from sitting on planes too long. I don't want to know what was in those cushions! I always had a fascination with planes and I guess that it grew on me. I can't stay away. Should I seek help? :D

[flyboy 28]

Got it at EWR!

You can contract a lot of diseases around Newark. You have to watch yourself. :lol:

Personally, I'm pretty sure I got infected with it when I was four, at my first air show at NAS Willow Grove.

[Mellyrose]

Personally, I'm pretty sure I got infected with it when I was four, at my first air show at NAS Willow Grove.

That's where my first airshow (and last, so far) was too! :)

[mirrodie]

Is that near DC ?


Before age 5, my parents would take me to some airshow, somewheres near DC.

I have pics of me climbing into C5s and C 130s as well as....F111s.

This was in the later 70s to no later than 80.

[VikHathi]

As a kid growing up in Hong Kong - I got it at the observer's deck when I was 4 or 5 years old at the infamous Kai Tak. Waiting by my Mom's side, many times till late nite, for my Dad's flight to arrive on the checkerboard 13 approach on either a Northwest-Orient or Pan-Am from the US. The smell of jet fuel on humid summer nights still brings back the memories.
-Vik

[flyboy 28]

Is that near DC ?

Willow Grove? It's just north of Philadelphia actually.