How and why we got started.

I grew up around aviation.  My father, a Vietnam veteran, earned his private pilot certificate when I was in the second grade.  Soon after he became a fractional owner of a Cessna 172 and our adventures began.  Ever since then, I've been passionate about all aspects of aviation.  I joined the Air Force in 1996 and started working on my private pilot certificate a few years later.  I'll never forget the first time I took my father flying and I was the pilot in command.

I spent 14 years in the Air Force.  The first four years I repaired targeting and navigation equipment on F-16s and for the remainder I was a Special Agent with the Office of Special Investigations.  When I separated from the military, I had 100% of my post 9/11 GI Bill and intended to use it to add further ratings to my pilot certificate.  I had always read and been told you could use your GI Bill for flight training although there were "some limitations."  As I began to research these limitations, I grew increasingly frustrated as every flight school I talked to lacked experience in processing GI Bill students and they could not answer my basic questions.  When I did find people that could answer my questions, I quickly discovered that one flight school would explain the process one way, when another flight school would explain a different process.  

It was during this time that I realized there was not a lot of information readily available that explained how to use your GI Bill for flight training, and just how limiting the limitations were!  That is when I decided to create Veterans Take Flight.  I'm hoping to create a community where veterans can get all the information they need to successfully receive flight training using their GI Bill and remove a lot of the mystery out of the process.  I also hope this community can grow to the point where we are helping veterans get into the cockpit and find creative ways to assist veterans in becoming pilots either for their own personal growth or as career aviators.