[Fitzy]

Hey All,

I’m Christian Fitzgerald (or more commonly just “Fitz”), and I started my aviation journey in the Army Guard as a back-seater. I was a full timer 15T UH-60 mechanic and progressed to crew chief, dual MOSd into a 15F helicopter electrician spot as the avionics shop lead, then went to flight instructor school to become a UH-60 NRCM FI, and also got my airframe and powerplant. After volunteering for literally everything (ranging from HAATs multiple times to hurricane Harvey to air assault) for 7 years, I began to burn out and left the guard.

I tried my hand at Microsoft, and am currently a manager in a Class A datacenter. It’s an okay gig, and not a bad job at all as far as those go, but I fear I’ve been spoiled by aviation. This year I decided to get my handful of pilot licenses, and recently after a flight building hours for commercial I happened upon a group of T-6 Texans passing through. As annoying as it was being behind them in the pattern while in my stupid little light sport make 360 after 360 after 360 waiting for everyone else to have their fun before I can go home and sleep to prep for more desk work, when they landed it was something else.

Their group was laughing and joking and BSing around, having what was apparently a grand ol time before heading to their hotel, while I got to put away my plane in isolation since nobody else at flight school wanted to fly at night for the extra hours. I started to desperately miss military aviation, so I’m pursuing a childhood dream again. I’m relatively an old geezer at 29, but I’m in great physical condition and have my commercial checkride in a couple weeks while also enrolled in college classes (90ish hours complete so far). I feel like I’m pretty well qualified as far as credentials and experience go, but my first order of business after my checkride is getting a hold of a recruiter so I can take the battery of prelim tests, and then getting into the modules on here about how to rush units.

Anyway, long story short I’m glad to be here and looking forward to at least a few years of attempts! Good luck to all, and I’ll see you folks around.

[Fitzy]

Oh no, I’m happily reformed now and have left my rotary past behind. “If it ain’t fixed, it’s broke,” as they say. I’m supremely interested in fighters, but I do realize just how competitve that can be. Regardless, I’ll give it my best shot and the worst I can get is a “no.”