PASSION By Matt Ferrari One thing I’ve learned in all of my years in aviation is that it is passion that keeps me going. This love of aviation has brought me great joy and helped to satisfy an intense sense of wonder that I have for Me in the B767, I’m currently flying 767. this world we share and the sky above it. We all became involved in this life style as a result of an initial spark that ignited a curiosity. Something or someone planted an aeronautical seed which has sprouted. One of the first sparks I can remember came when I was maybe six or seven years old. I was digging around in the basement of my grandmother’s house. My grandfather was in England during World War Two with the 8Th Air Force. I opened an old trunk that grandma kept his uniforms in and I put on his hat which was too big for my head, his jacket or a uniform shirt and pants that I would pull up to my armpits with several inches of leg to spare. I sat on the edge of the trunk and pretended I was flying a B-17 over Germany. I didn’t realize at the time that the flag I had wrapped myself in to celebrate my successful bomb run was the flag that covered his casket at his funeral. After returning home from the war he adopted my mother and her sister, which is another story in itself. Another testament of the man whose uniforms felt so good on me. Unfortunately he died before I was born and I never got the chance to know him, but my hero he will always be. Another early memory I have is laying in the grass with my childhood dog Sam. We would watch the clouds drift past and wonder what it would be like to ride on one. I would imagine Sam and I sitting on the edge of
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a cloud looking down as the world passed below. That sense of wonder has never left me. These are just a couple of mine, but when I think about it, I can place several memories or events that lay themselves out, footstones along my path. I’ll bet that if you would look back you might find a few memories that stand out for you too, markers along your aeronautical journey, strung together like pearls bringing you here, today. Hints from heaven maybe? Part of this passion I speak of is dreaming. And I mean dreaming big! Where would we be if it wasn’t for the likes of Orville and Wilbur Wright, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Bob Hoover, Jimmy Doolittle, Steve Wittman, Burt and Dick Rutan, Paul and Audrey Poberezny, Julie Clark, Sean Tucker, Patty Wagstaff, Lloyd Stearman, Clyde Cessna, William Piper, Bill Boeing, and the brothers Alan and Dale Klapmeier? These are just a few of the many we owe our thanks to for getting us this far. Take these as examples of people, just like you and me, who weren’t afraid of following their dreams. They worked hard and accomplished so much with their lives. I find it truly inspiring! It’s up to you and me to keep dreaming and forging ahead. I remember the days when my dream of learning to fly was so far out in front of me, it seemed unreachable in so many ways. I never let go of the dream though. Eventually the fears and doubts, one by one, were laid aside and something inside of me knew that one day I would fly. Even with the frustrations and obstacles along the way that tested my resolve, a sense of calm would return and I knew that if I stayed the course, I would make it. As I wandered along my aeronautical journey, I found that flying helped me to make sense of the world around me. What I mean is, most everything that I had learned in school, even the things that didn’t seem to apply, made sense with airplanes and the sky. Today I think they refer to it as STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. I’ve also noticed a new acronym STEAM with the addition of the “A” for Arts. Back when I was in school, though, they just called it the three R’s - “readin’, ritin’ and rithmatic”.
