As with most of us. The aviation bug started at a very young age. Saving up enough of my weekly pocketmoney to buy my first very simple Airfix kits. Assembling them in matter of hours. Before hanging them up from the ceiling in my bedroom. Eventually gravity took over, crashing them to the floor. And if not repairable, the proces started over again.
Later on I started to go to a airshows and museums to see and learn more about the aircraft I built in scale. Yes in those days there was still a large variety of different aircraft to be seen at airshows. In museums I took a lot of detail pictures for later reference to be used in the more serious modeling projects. Which mostly stayed in the planning fase.
This later evolved in the spotting scene. Taking pictures of aircraft in operational circumstances was another step in my photographic timeline. Even so that visiting museums was no longer the main trigger for my travels. Travels which brought me to many countries. After a recent year of non aviation travels. I found a new balance between spotting and museums.