Even in my early school days I had a definite opinion on what I would become when I grew up. Later, in older grades †    I started seriously considering all possible ways of how I would get into a real flight school; i.e., how to make my dream true.

Sitting in class, I used to get so absorbed into my deep thoughts that I would fail to follow a teacher. Or I used to start drawing the various breath-taking scenes of aviation and flying that spontaneously emerged from the core of my overly excited mind. And I did it right in my writing books -no matter what these books were of - math, or physics, etc. Some teachers would not be happy having such freely illustrated books as I showed them for test marking. Though, they eventually gave up telling me off and let me continue with that way of mine.

I have always liked to make some casual drawings, and still do it on the first suitable scrap of paper coming to my hand.

For instance, this pencil drawing was made on some draft papers I usually use for sketching future pages of my web-project. I then scanned it and slightly enhanced it in an image editing program.

Pictured here is the Yakovlev-18T single engine four seater. This is the type of airplane I first lifted off without an instructor sitting on board. Read more about this memorable event in the comments next to following image.