Personal Introduction

Good day, Eagle pilots and managers!

My name is Jeff Phillion, and I have been in the EMU AVT program for 3 years now. I grew up in the almost-Thumb of Michigan, in a town called Romeo. I have always been a lover of the outdoors and anything to do with exploring. I will be honest though, and admit that flying has never really appealed to me as a career until I found the EMU program 3 years ago. I have never had anything against flying, and I actually thoroughly enjoyed the few times a year I got to fly to go see extended family, but I never considered it as something I could do full time to earn a living. Only after my first two years as a Mechanical Engineering student at Michigan Tech (and subsequent two years of a Mechanical Engineering internship), did I realize that I most definitely did NOT want to be a Mechanical Engineer. After a summer working as a trail ride wrangler in Montana, and other odd jobs here and there, I found the Eastern flight program on a Google sidebar ad, and...well here I am.

As evidenced by my blog title, I am a huge hockey fan and player. After living in Michigan for most of my life, it just became a part of me. For 4 years during high school, my fathers job took us down to North Carolina. Now, I don't know how many of you have lived in the south, but apparently they just don't know what hockey is down there. I even moved there in 2006, the year that Carolina won the Stanley Cup! Still, nothing. I couldn't stand for it. I pressed my school to start a hockey club, I tried to skate at the one local rink we had within 2 hours drive, and I tried to join the different Men's Leagues there, despite being 4 years too young for the age requirement at the time.

I am a goalie at heart. I skated for exactly one season as a child, before my coaches realized that not only does the fat kid take up the most room in the net, he's actually pretty good at the position as well!! I have been a goalie ever since.

Thanks to that one Google sidebar ad, I have found a new passion, and something that is a lot easier to make a living at than hockey. I am excited to wrap up on the 3 years I have done so far at EMU, and continue down the path of aviation. And I look forward to seeing all of my fellow Eagles in the field years down the road!