Max Weldon (CitationMax)

Max Weldon is a pilot, and a popular aviation YouTuber.

He has more than 250K subscribers on his YouTube channel, ‘CitationMax’.

Introduction-

Max Weldon was born on 4 October 1996 in London, England, United Kingdom and grew up in England.

His father is a businessman and runs his family business.

His mother, Jane, is an animal lover.

Max grew up with animals and much like his mother, he too is a dog lover, and they have animal sanctuaries in the United States.

Love for aviation-

In England, Max’s house used to be underneath the Heathrow arrival path and at a young age, he used to watch planes by standing in the garden expecting his father’s plane and this started his love for aviation.

His father has been an avid flyer for a very long time.

Since 7, Max has been playing with the flight simulators which later proved helpful when he became an actual pilot.

He spent all the money that he received for his 8^th birthday to buy Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004.

Initially, he started simulation with a default airplane and then upgraded to British Airways flights for a more immersive experience.

Max also watched the flight simulation streams online which helped him.

At 18, he streamed his simulator flights on Twitch.

An interesting fact- Daniel Goz (Nonstop Dan), a popular YouTuber and flight reviewer, also grew up near the Heathrow arrival path.

Moving to U.S. & determination to become a pilot-

At 10, Max moved to the United States.

While in high school, he always wanted to obtain a pilot’s license, but he refrained himself as he assumed that flying an airplane would be very difficult.

At 17, in his final year of high school, one of his friends obtained a pilot’s license and gave Max a ride which impressed him.

And this inspired him to later obtain his pilot’s license.

At 17, Max wanted to try his hand at flying as he did not want to remain as a simulation pilot.

Even though he was not confident of himself, he wanted to give flying a shot.

Education-

Max studied Political Science from The New School in New York City.

He was also attending a flight school and from 12 September 2016, he started attending the New York University (NYU).

But eventually, as his desire to fly full-time became stronger, Max dropped out of NYU in 2018.

He did an Associate Degree in Aviation from Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology, New York.

Flight school-

At 17, Max along with his mother visited a little airport in Farmingdale where a few Cessna 172 aircraft were present.

Even though he wanted to fly one of them, his mother objected as she felt those aircraft to be tiny and unsafe.

And so, they left the place.

Later, Max started Googling safest planes and stumbled upon Cirrus aircraft and believed it to be safe as it had a parachute.

So, Max and his mother visited Performance Flight in Harrison, New York and here, he convinced his mother to let him fly in the Cirrus aircraft.

His mother agreed to allow him to fly once a week as the flying lessons were expensive and they were doing this without the knowledge of Max’s father as they feared that he would not agree to let him take flying lessons.

As Max started flying, his love for aviation cemented and eventually, he informed this to his father, who supported his decision.

At Performance Flight, he was instructed by Kevin.

Here, he started training in a Cirrus SR20 aircraft and after completing 250 hours, he flew a Cirrus SR22.

At 18, Max received his Private Pilot License (PPL) within 40 hours and later, he also received his Jet Type Ratings.

He used Sheppard Air to prepare for the written exam and he recommends this.

Max also used PilotEdge.net, and this helped him to grow as a pilot.

After receiving his type rating, he did supervised operating experience (SOE).

Career-

Max worked at Flight Club, a footwear store.

Then, he worked as a coach at Chelsea Piers Field House, a sports complex in New York City.

At the time, Max did his instrument and commercial training but had no flight time, so he joined Angel Flight Northeast organization to gain flight time.

Here, he flew four flights per week (each flight was for 6-8 hours) and likewise, he flew part-time for Angel Flight Northeast for six months flying sick patients.

At that time, he changed from full-time to part-time studying at NYU and later, dropped out of NYU.

Max also worked as a pilot for Performance Flight.

Thanks to flying for Angel Flight and rental flights, he accumulated a total of 700 hours of flight time (500 hours with Angel Flight and the remaining with rental flights).

Flying for his family-

At the time, Max was renting Cirrus SR22 aircraft to build time and the rent was expensive at around $500 for the aircraft per hour.

When he was around 900 hours (he flew commercial, single and multi-engine planes by the time), his father decided to employ him as a pilot for his business.

Max’s father was confident of him even though he was never piloted by him.

So, they bought a Cirrus SR22 aircraft as buying this aircraft was more financially viable than frequently renting it.

Max is an ATP-rated pilot.

Later, his family sold Cirrus SR22 and purchased a Cirrus Vision jet and he flew this too and in order to fly this aircraft, he took type rating in Knoxville.

Max’s father uses the plane for business purposes and his mother uses it for animal and children charity purposes and Max pilots both his parents.

As Vision jet was loud for his father, he used to wear a headset, and this prompted his father to sell the Vision jet to buy a Cessna CitationJet/M2 by Textron Aviation.

Later, they upgraded from M2 to Cessna Citation CJ3+ aircraft.

He is the only pilot in his family.

Max is tall at 6’4 and enjoys flying aircraft.

YouTube channel-

On 2 October 2016, Max started his YouTube channel, ‘CirrusMax’ which he later renamed to ‘CitationMax’.

On 10 October 2016, he published the first video titled ‘CIRRUS SR-22 FULL IMC ILS 22L AT BOSTON LOGAN INTL WITH ATC’.

Initially, he used to record his training videos and publish them onto his channel and used to watch them to learn about his mistakes.

Max’s first video to get viral and get millions of views is titled ‘Cirrus Vision Jet Departing Chicago O’Hare Airport (KORD)’. This video was published on 4 November 2018.

On his channel, Max regularly publishes videos of him flying aircraft and shares his processes, experiences and beautiful sceneries.

As of January 2024, he has 257K subscribers on his channel and 71K followers on Instagram.

Max earns from advertisements on his channel, affiliate marketing, and merchandise.

He also has a website, ‘CitationMax.’

So, how are you inspired by the success story of Max Weldon?

Share with me in the comment section below.