My brother is 88 and still dreams of being healthy enough to build a small plane and learn to fly. He’s never been a storyteller but one of the few stories he’s willing to share is of mother taking him to the airport and letting him have a flight lesson. It seems flying can get into the blood even when you never really fly.
When I searched for genealogy information on my grandfather, I learned that, besides being a rare earths prospector, he wrote newspaper articles and I found a series of his stories from 1923 of the WW I pilots who became the early airmail flyers doing the Reno/Verdi NV to Oakland CA route that became official in 1918. Among my favorites:
https://iment.com/maida/family/father/jackbell/Jack-Bell-Prospector-and-Naturalist-39.htm#shipstoodstill
When Winslow’s Ship Stood Still in the Heavens
https://iment.com/maida/family/father/jackbell/Jack-Bell-Prospector-and-Naturalist-39.htm#whirlpool
Ships Caught in a Whirlpool
https://iment.com/maida/family/father/jackbell/Jack-Bell-Prospector-and-Naturalist-39.htm#songsters
The Songsters of the Altitudes
Nice stories at the link!