What are you most passionate about?

America. What we've done,especially over the last 100 years or so - the big, obvious things, like defeating imperialism, facism, and communism. Also the less dramatic wins - the world bank, IMF, WTO, etc., that have advanced economic development, and driven major improvments in political stability.

We ain't been perfect, but we've done better, far better, than the dominant cultures and empires that came before us. Our parents were staring into a return to the dark ages, middle of the last century. And changed that trajectory - and followed with the Marshall Plan to clean it up.
 
I was going to say “nothing, and that’s what worries me” but it isn’t true.

Aviation certainly is but lies dormant while living in Germany. Family history research is another and has hit another level while living here (my wife’s family is German and I have had to learn how to read old German handwriting to read the records - most Germans can’t even read them). I wish I could make a living being a flying family historian but that ain’t happening. :)
 
I don't view myself as a passionate person. I really like my dog. Does that count?

Retirement, doing something different than what I am doing now. I guess I am passionate about that.
 
Flying and airplanes are what I am most passionate about. There really isn't an airplane I wouldn't want to own. I find everything exciting from a Funk to a Baron. I love the people of aviation and the challenges that go with it. I get bored quickly with things and my attention seems to fade on everything but airplanes. Flying keeps my mind busy, thinking, evaluating, planning. Owning a plane also satisfies my desire to tinker and fix things.

Cars would be a close second. I enjoyed them more when they were more affordable. You could build a stout 350 15 years ago for 3k. 70's and 80's Camaro and Firebirds were about given away. It seems now even the rattiest of examples still bring 3k. Like Ted I have a very acute sense of what I like in a car. It's not limited by drive type or engine, just the way they feel and drive. I don't mind an automatic for daily driving as long as it's programmed properly to the engine. I dislike transmissions that shift out of over drive on every hill and I like engines tuned for TQ not revs.

Like most passions there are things in both categories that get under my skin. I would be perfectly content never see another P-51 or T-6 or T-28, RV... They just do nothing for me and are almost as common as a Cessna. The sound of a Mustang or a Jeep Cherokee with exhaust makes my skin crawl. Probably the most annoying though is the drone of a straight piped cummins, or the wail of an uncorked street bike. I absolutely will not own a car with the stupid looking free standing screen sitting on the dashboard and it will be a cold day in hell before I ever spend a dime on a Toyota product.
 
saddletramp said:
I also love motorcycles. When I was in high school I rode my 250 Honda to the airport to take flying lessons. I always enjoyed the ride to & from the airport. I've owned a slug of motorcycles over the years. My present bike is an FJR1300. I liked that model so much I've owned two of them.

I think you hit on something important there, which is the involvement during high school/when young. That's probably part of why I remain so passionate about cars, but motorcycles and airplanes (which didn't come into my life until late college and then after graduation) less so.

We didn't have a car growing up until I was 14, but I was fortunate enough to get a few very memorable rides in some very interesting cars. I always had the strong interest anyway, but some of those rides in interesting cars as well as some of the high school antics my friends and I did with cars probably cemented it for me. Add in college basically being one giant road trip for me in my Jaguar and then other vehicles, and it's solidly in my brain. Motorcycles I've enjoyed but overall fewer memories with those, especially at a young age, and

What has changed over the years has been some of my favorite manufacturers. I was into Jaguars for a number of years, but now Mercedes is a household favorite for our daily drivers and I'm now building the Cobra. I have a number of other ideas for future cars but I suspect building will become a more common thing in my house vs. buying, at least for the fun car(s) in the stable. Maybe some restorations. I've put a lot of wrenching into all my fun cars, but not so much restoring them.
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Outside of aviation, I would say bicycling, but it's a love/hate relationship at this moment.
 
I’m very similar to you Ted. I love aviation and airplanes (and they were my first passion, starting at age 3-4) but I’m mostly into the utility of flying vs just flying anything and everything just to fly. I used to daydream about renting a 172 to go for a $100 burger but I wouldn’t do that any more.

Cars are more every day accessible and cheaper. I’m also a RWD/manual guy but I am limited in garage space. Although, I’m looking at installing a lift in the garage which will require structural roof work but will give me room for 5 cars instead of 4. And I don’t even have a track car right now so I need to fix that! Unfortunately, the closest tracks are hours away despite living in a high population density area and one of the downsides of being both a car and plane guy is that I don’t relish long highway drives to get to a track since I’ve gotten used to flying for any trip >100 miles.

I’m also into guns, amateur photography, tech (kind of) and working out but all of those are secondary to cars and planes. I’d hate to have to give up my guns but if I haven’t shot them in a couple of months, I don’t break out in hives the way I would if I didn’t drive a sports car or fly for a few weeks.
 
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RudyP said:
I’m very similar to you Ted. I love aviation and airplanes (and they were my first passion, starting at age 3-4) but I’m mostly into the utility of flying vs just flying anything and everything just to fly. I used to daydream about renting a 172 to go for a $100 burger but I wouldn’t do that any more.
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I've never been into $100 hamburgers in aviation, I've always wanted to go someplace while flying. I think that doing flying with my kids in the Cub will help change that when it comes, because it can be a real one-on-one activity and bonding time. I'll be curious what our kids will think of flying as they grow up. They all really love the plane and want to fly now.

We have 3 cars now, building the Cobra, and I have my eye on other cars to build after the Cobra is done. Right now the Cobra is the only vehicle indoors. We need more space.
 
I love aviation... but mostly because it allows me to go on epic adventures and make it to places no one else in the world gets to go. That adventure is what inspires all of the choices I make in life:

Mountain Biking,
Bush Plane,
Off-road vehicles.

I don't care about speed, I care solely about utility. All of that being said... I still LOVE aviation, but really because it allows me to a higher degree see the world in a better way than the previous methods mentioned. There's nothing like the solitude and solidarity you can feel with nature (No I'm not a hippy, I promise) by taking a bike, off-roader, or bush plane to somewhere nearly completely devoid of human contact, untouched.

A completely separate passion of mine is machining. I absolutely love it, and can't wait until I have a shop of my own and I can use my manufacturing engineering skills and put them to good use making plane parts. The smells and sounds of a machine shop just bring me to a happy place.

Guns? Meh I own a few, mostly because I think they're really cool mechanical systems. I could take or leave them.
 
My wife and family, faith, friends, flying, motorcycles, cars, R/C planes, bicycling and woodworking. I like to create and build and lose track of time when involved in a project. Even keeps me awake at night figuring out a detail or different approach to a problem. I lose a lot of sleep...
 
I have always been a car guy. Its the little things that cars do that make me smile. Starting a healthy V8 and the car twists from the torque, same with a Harley. Idling through a parking lot with that V8 exhaust just noticeable. Big cars, even with the handling being crap, makes me smile. Wranglers are always great looking cars to me. Land Cruisers are just about perfect. I spent a lot of years in sports (or sporty) cars, Camaro's and a CTS-V, but when I climb into my full size body on frame V8 SUV, its a great place to be.

If I couldnt or didnt want to fly anymore, I would get either something low and fast or a Harley. Being near Chicago it takes me a solid 30-45 minutes of just dumb traffic to get anywhere good, and knowing I have to fight that back to my house makes pleasure driving not so fun. Thats why I love flying. 20 minutes to the hangar and then I am in the air and not worried about red lights or construction.
 
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Never been a car guy tbh
 
CC268 said:
Never been a car guy tbh
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Me either. They are kinda just a PITA and driving them is even more PITA. If I could get those hours back... I used to like driving, (still not into cars) but too many dicks and *******s on the road that look like they haven't bought car insurance for a decade. Some of the hit-and-runs in the news lately, wow.
 
bnt83 said:
Me either. They are kinda just a PITA and driving them is even more PITA. If I could get those hours back...
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I grew up in motorsports. Still love motorcycles (road and dirt) and love trophy trucks, class 1 buggies, RZRs, etc. But road cars? Meh.
 
charheep said:
If I couldnt or didnt want to fly anymore, I would get either something low and fast or a Harley. Being near Chicago it takes me a solid 30-45 minutes of just dumb traffic to get anywhere good, and knowing I have to fight that back to my house makes pleasure driving not so fun. Thats why I love flying. 20 minutes to the hangar and then I am in the air and not worried about red lights or construction.
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There's a lot to that. I rode a lot more when I lived in Pennsylvania, surrounded by some truly fantastic motorcycle roads. Part of why I bought the house I bought was the drive to it "I get to drive this road every day?" Lots of twists and turns, lots of fun. PA was largely a good place to ride.

When we moved to Ohio, we basically quit riding because the drivers were so terrible. I don't think my wife rode at all in the 3 years we lived there, and I only rode a few times more than anything because I felt like "I should" since we had the bikes. It wasn't very enjoyable. A few ok roads, but Ohio is Ohio and just a generally boring and rotten place to drive. Really, the logical thing to do would've been to sell them all, but they were paid for and set up the way we wanted. We sold my wife's Triumph and kept the Harleys, which we still have.

We live on roads that are just fine to start and end rides on - middle of farm country, no traffic. But they aren't interesting right off the bat and we have to ride a little bit (maybe 15 minutes) to get to roads that start being interesting. Between that and kids, we still don't ride.
 
I can’t say that I don’t have a passion for flying because our company website says they are looking for professionals who have a passion for flying. So yeah, I don’t want to get fired. I have a passion for flying...the professional part is pushing it though.
 
Velocity173 said:
I can’t say that I don’t have a passion for flying because our company website says they are looking for professionals who have a passion for flying. So yeah, I don’t want to get fired. I have a passion for flying...the professional part is pushing it though.
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I still have a passion for flying, but moreso for cars.
 
Passionate? Hmmmm..... Cigareets & whiskey & wild wild women!


:D

Actually,....

I'm passionate about my faith and have been most of my life. My wife and I take active roles in our church and serve voluntarily in church and other faith-based activities. We've hosted home study groups, I've been involved in church music (guitarist, vocalist, audio tech), I've served on comittees, I've been an overseas missionary (and will do more after I retire), I'm an ordained deacon,..... Just after Thanksgiving, my wife and I will spend a week or so volunteering for Samaritan's Purse, working at a collection center in Atlanta.

I'm also passionate about my profession of engineering. In my 34 years of practice, I've occasionally hated my job, but there's never been a day when I haven't loved being an engineer. The combination of science, art, intuition, and creativity used to solve real problems and make practical products has intrigued and pleased me since I was a kid. I'm proud of what our profession has accomplished and its impact on all our lives, and I'm proud of the things I've accomplished as an individual practicioner. I've played a key part in developing some our military's most sophisticated technology and feel quite fulfilled in my career.

Beyond that, I have many interests and float from one thing to another. Like Rushie, much of the fun for me is in learning something new, and I dig into new hobbies and experiences all the time. In addition to flying, I ride motorcycles (Triumph Daytona 675), I used to race SCCA, I'm a ham radio operator, amateur photographer, scuba diver (including cave diver), guitarist, fly fisherman (tie my own flies), bird hunter (I love SxS double barrel shotguns), and many other things. Part of what makes me a good engineer is having a broad knowledge of many subjects and an ability to learn new things quickly.
 
60 days ago I took a gut punch to my flying passion with a fatal accident in my Arrow...I have flown twice since and both times to check out potential problems with my Warrior that's in a club...maybe .6 total...and only to get the problem sorted. My Decathlon has not moved with me in it. I just took the month of October off and renewed a lifelong passion of Offshore sailing I've done close to 2500 Kt miles of Open Ocean (STT to NYC then NYC to Bermuda) and just back from the BVI/SXM with the wife. Nice to be at sea again away from the rat race...got another trip planed for June...Tortola to NYC...something I did extensively to help pay for school when I was younger...maybe its time to change paths back...sort of in a low spot in my Aviation life.
 
Warlock said:
60 days ago I took a gut punch to my flying passion with a fatal accident in my Arrow...I have flown twice since and both times to check out potential problems with my Warrior that's in a club...maybe .6 total...and only to get the problem sorted. My Decathlon has not moved with me in it. I just took the month of October off and renewed a lifelong passion of Offshore sailing I've done close to 2500 Kt miles of Open Ocean (STT to NYC then NYC to Bermuda) and just back from the BVI/SXM with the wife. Nice to be at sea again away from the rat race...got another trip planed for June...Tortola to NYC...something I did extensively to help pay for school when I was younger...maybe its time to change paths back...sort of in a low spot in my Aviation life.
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Very sorry to hear. I think when it comes to thinks like aviation and motorcycles, where we know there is an inherent risk, a fatality that hits close to home is something that makes it hard to get back in the saddle.

After my MSF instructor died in a motorcycle crash, I did ride the next day because I knew that's what he would've wanted, but I haven't ridden much since. In fact, I might not have ridden at all since.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
"What are you most passionate about?"

My apathy.



Sorry, couldn't resist lame attempt at humor. I blame the brandy.
Carry on.
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That is the way I describe my political leanings - “passionately apathetic”.
 
Fighting the never-ending battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
 
Surfing, running boats in, and just generally being in or on the ocean. Have surfed since i was a kid and have ebbed and flowed on how frequently I surf over the years based on life, location, etc, but as someone mentioned, my attention goes away from other hobbies, but it always seems to come back to surfing, or just being in the ocean. I like offshore fishing and have owned boats capable of the 70nm trip to the gulf steam (if only barely capable) since I was 19. I've come to realize I am much happier and engaged with the running of the boat than the actual fishing, which makes me think in another life, I'd have been happy as a charter captain.

That said, cars/bikes take a close second. I've been accused of being "unreasonable" about how particular I am in what I want in a car. Searched for months and eventually found in Maine my first crew cab, longbed, diesel manual transmission Ford with the lariat trim package. When that was totaled, search took even longer for a replacement and no one in my circle of friends could understand why I wouldn't yield on a single requirement... I just won't. I enjoy driving what I enjoy driving. I have a foot clutch, jockey shift bike that I'm working on now. It's a lot of fun. Not real practical.
 
Things change it’s time and experience, including our passions.

I loved cars and the driving experience. I’ve had well over 52 cars in my life (at 51 years of age now), and I enjoyed different aspects of the various cars. I’ve had 4 cylinders, 5 cylinders, 6 cylinders (inline and V configurations), 8 cylinders. I have had Japanese, Italian, German, American cars. Roster included Audis, BMW, Chevrolet, Ferraris, Fiat, Fords (including Saleens), Hondas, Isuzu, Lotus, Mercury, Nissans, Oldsmobile, Volkswagens... lots of cars.

I even pursued racing at one time in my younger years. I worked at a racing school that used NASCAR SouthWest Tour cars in an attempt to pick-up a ride. No luck there. But it was fun while that lasted.

In the last ten years, I’ve had a job with an awful commute (2.5 hours each way) and a pretty regular 10-12 hour work day. That pretty much sucked the passion for cars out of me.

This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the occasional trip up and down a winding mountain road, especially with a fun vehicle. My BMW 328d (diesel) is surprisingly fun in this regard with its balanced chassis and diesel torque. And I recently bought a 2002 Ford Explorer 4x4 with the 4.6 V8, added a full high flow exhaust (to the rebuilt engine and transmission that gave out 2 months into my ownership.) But she’s been surprisingly fun for family hauling, parking anywhere, and listening to a good old American V8 exhaust note. The Explorer’s name is Dora (get it?) and she’s my choice of vehicle for the daily commute.

Used to love riding my motorcycle as well. I’ve had a few, but my commute is early in the AM or late at night, usually with a lot of angry and/or tired LA commuters which makes riding a bit more dangerous than usual. This led to my lack of riding, which deteriorated my skills. So I sold my bike.

Flying is a passion, but sometimes poor experiences changes that a bit too. I won’t get too much into it, but the parameters of an aircraft partnership left a lot to be desired and really soured my taste for aviation. I luckily bought my own aircraft at a great price, so that’s been keeping my passion for aviation alive.

Firearms is a passion as well, but it’s largely limited in California. I still have what I want, but just lack the time to exercise my tools. (See commute paragraph above.)

Above all... my family is my passion. I try to spend time with them as I try to work toward retirement.
 
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Checkout_my_Six said:
so....what are you hunting for? Contact lenses? o_O
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Usually my glasses.
I used to have many interests but with family business and life many of those have been stopped.
In my past I used to do a little bit of auto racing, loved to stream fish, racing karts was fun when I was a kid, skiing quit that years ago, had a nice dark room at one time, flew 40% RC haven't done that in years.
Now I fly a little, work, do my family duties and still hunt, elk, deer quail, pheasant, duck, grouse etc. Oh I quit hunting the two legged dear about 25 years ago.
 
1RTK1 said:
Usually my glasses.
I used to have many interests but with family business and life many of those have been stopped.
In my past I used to do a little bit of auto racing, loved to stream fish, racing karts was fun when I was a kid, skiing quit that years ago, had a nice dark room at one time, flew 40% RC haven't done that in years.
Now I fly a little, work, do my family duties and still hunt, elk, deer quail, pheasant, duck, grouse etc. Oh I quit hunting the two legged dear about 25 years ago.
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I enjoyed quail hunting when I was a kid, but Florida quail hunting has been almost wiped out. I discovered snipe hunting a few years ago (yes, they are real birds, related to woodcock) and it’s a blast. The birds are fast, flush explosively, and juke and dart like crazy. Gave me an excuse to get reacquainted with my old LC Smith.
 
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