[EricD]

Hello everyone, my name is Eric. I’ve been a career college dabbler, which unfortunately made my GPA suffer, and have been a project manager for my entire professional career. I moved to Denver about 2 years ago and got fascinated by the constant air traffic overhead, including the Buckley F-16s. In the course of looking into how to become a pilot, I found Bogidope and have been singularly focused on getting my life together in order to hopefully secure an ANG spot at one of the units along the Front Range (the MAFFS mission with the Wyoming ANG looks amazing, but I’d also love to be in one of the F-16s screaming over Denver one day), and hopefully dedicate my life to flying important and fulfilling missions.

So, I have built a home gym to get into shape, and reenrolled in college in order to finally finish in order to make this dream a reality. I have age against me, as I just turned 31 last week, but I couldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t at least give it my all and let the chips fall where they may.

I see so many driven and dedicated people on this forum, and truly wish everyone the best! And thank you to all of the mentors that consistently dedicate time to providing guidance and insight to us all!

[EricD]

That’s amazing, WAS! Congratulations; it seems that you are a dedicated and hard worker and earned everything you’ve achieved. I sure wish I had everything together when I was college age. Best of luck to you moving forward!

[EricD]

@SLAP Unfortunately, I have about 1.5 years left, so hoping to start be able to start rushing this summer (thanks to the advice of @CHAOS ) and then start legitimately sending packets next year. That unfortunately only gives me one year of being qualified and sending packets before I’m 33, so working on a very compressed timeline, but the positive of that is that it’s keeping me laser focused. Just hoping that drive and intensity is enough for a unit to pick me up!

And @SLAP thanks for founding BogiDope and bringing awareness to such an amazing and unique life path and providing the tools to achieve it.

[EricD]

Thanks for the replies, gentlemen! I’m glad to see that someone with your experience has seen people take the scenic route, because I thought for sure that would be my downfall. The advice is much appreciated and I will get to work on implementing it.

I also see that you flew in New Orleans! Some of my earliest memories of being enamored with aviation are going fishing at Shell Beach with my dad and seeing the F-15’s come roar over us.