TMAY
I am Justin Padgett. I grew up in Carrollton, GA. It’s a suburban city about 45min west of Atlanta.
I developed my passion for flying at the local airport there as a senior in high school. Other than being a thrill seeker at the time, I don’t know what drove me to it, but I just sought a discovery flight one day and fell in love. I immediately offered my senior trip that was already paid for to other classmates who weren’t able to book when there was time and found one to purchase it. That along with working the summer after graduation is what paid for my initial flight training in the fall of 1997.
I initially started training at a 141 flight school in Lawrenceville, GA by day and taking college classes at night. Not being able to handle the financial burden, I returned home and transferred to the University of West Georgia after that first semester. This allowed me to save money on housing but took me away for a 141 pathway. Once back and settled in with stable employment, I started looking for a replacement instructor and ended up running into an old high school friend who was a couple years older than me who became that instructor and my flying mentor to this day.
I worked with him to train and build time until graduation, but by that time, 9/11 had happened and had significantly affected the airline industry. I then made the most regrettable decision of my life and took my marketing degree into sales rather than sticking to my passion. Though quite successful in the business world, it was never what I really wanted to do.
After being laid off in 2018 due to mismanagement during a decline in industry demand, I decided that I would quit being at the mercy of someone else’s poor decisions and would start a company in business consulting. It was during this time that I got married and my wife started asking questions about why I was doing what I was. When I told her that it was because I was good at it, she asked if there was something else that I’d rather be doing.
With her support, it was then that I told that mentor that I wanted to start transitioning back to my first love. He linked me with the right people to give me the opportunity to get my commercial single through ATP multi including my instructor ratings and found me an opportunity with a company looking for a pilot to fly and manage their 414A. The time has seemed to go by really fast between Aug of 2021 when this started and now, but I’ve been blessed to find the right opportunities at the right times along with being able to teach and run my business consulting company on the side.
As much as I like what I do now, I’m just a guy with an extensive business career who wants to fly for an airline that preferably has an ATL base and can get me to the retirement finish line with a stable enough schedule to be a parent to my two little girls that are less than 1yr and 3yr old.
