I have been in love with airplanes and aviation since I was a little boy. It was my kinder dream to become a pilot when I grew up. However, that dream of becoming a pilot never came true, but God still led me to where I am now. I am Mond Ortiz, an aviation digital content creator and a businessman with a small online aviation shop.
This website is a place to express my love for aviation where I can feature different airplanes, talk about flight attendants and pilots, share some of my flight experiences, and more.
My short story
I was born in 1978 and grew up in a typical family of the 80s. Internet was never heard of then, and all we had were books and toys to entertain us. It all started when my uncle gave me a toy F-15 Eagle. I was about four years old at that time. For some reason, I was genuinely fascinated by it. The F-15 toy became my favorite, and I would sleep with it. This toy became my comfort zone.
My father noticed this love of mine for airplanes, so he showed me some books about them. We are talking about military aircraft books such as the F-15, which was my favorite, the F-16, the F-4 Phantom, and a lot more. I was also given more airplane toys. So for a kid who was supposed to read nursery rhymes and short stories for children, here I was, staring at books about airplanes. I would also get my toys and imagine flying them.
In elementary, I was known by my teachers and classmates who talked nothing and drew nothing but airplanes. Yes, it wasn’t delightful to some of them. Whenever I was asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up” I would always say “pilot”!
My love for airplanes grew in 1987 when I took my first plane ride from Manila to Baguio on board a Philippine Airlines Hawker Siddeley 748. This was followed by a flight from Manila to Cebu on a PAL Airbus A300B4 and from Manila to Legaspi on a PAL BAC1-11. To be honest, I was more excited to ride these planes than to go and see new places.
These teachers who I am still in touch with today keep saying “we will always remember you as that student who was obsessed with planes.”
Saying goodbye to becoming a pilot
As I grew older, going towards high school and college, I realized that becoming a pilot would be a pipe dream. I then decided to go for my second option: to have my own business. I took an entrepreneurial course at the University of Asia and the Pacific and graduated in 2002. I then entered the corporate world.
As time went by, I felt that I was no longer happy. Yes, working as a sales account manager for a telco company does help us grow; I thought I was waking up in the morning and doing something I didn’t enjoy because of money. However, while on the job, there was something I realized, aviation remained in my bloodstream.
My corporate sales job in the telco industry brought me to various clients of the company I worked for. Two of them were Air Philippines Inc. and Philippine Airlines. When I visited these clients, 20% of the time was about their telco requirements and 80% about airplanes. Every week, I made company visits because those were the only times I would get closest to an aircraft in a hangar.
An unexpected comeback
There was no chance for me to work for or with the airline industry, so I thought. In 2009 when I was heavily involved with the Manila nightlife scene as a club DJ and event organizer, I was allowed to organize a flight attendant night! Of course, I was excited not because these people are in the airline industry but because I know flight attendants are good-looking women!
From then on, I kept organizing them in 2011, 2012, and so on. I never realized that I was slowly being led closer to my aviation dream. In 2013, I placed up an FA event company named Flyhigh Manila Event Productions Inc. with a close friend Albert Alday. It never made money. However, it opened another opportunity – social media.
We would post random pictures of flight attendants on the social media page of Flyhigh Manila. Our followers grew, making it the most popular Filipino cabin crew social media page. Not only were we posting pictures, but content as well about becoming a flight attendant.
From flight attendants to the whole airline industry
As I learned more about the life of flight attendants, I also learned more about the airline industry. Due to the growth of followers, airlines began inviting us to their respective events, such as cabin crew graduations. This opened the opportunity to be a social media partner-in-industry with various airlines. I met key people from the aviation industry and was led closer to airplanes.
This was when I felt I was doing something right where my heart belonged. I connected with pilots, aircraft mechanics, engineers, and airline officials. Indeed, first love never dies, and I am thrilled I am back. While I could never achieve my once-goal of becoming a pilot, I found my way back to the sky in some other form. I am happy.
However, I felt that there was something more that I can do, and that was to share my love for aviation beyond social media.
The idea of putting up an aviation store was then born.
A pandemic brought an opportunity
The pandemic had us all quarantined at home, and there was no way for us to go out. 2020 was perhaps the worst year for me when Covid struck. A year which, to me, was a total nightmare. I almost lost my mother from Covid in August 2020. This disease brought down our whole family.
After going through tough times and as my mom recovered from covid, I thought of doing something else beyond social media. Something in which I can still share my passion for aviation. Aha! Why not sell airplane-related products?
First, I still get to share my passion for airplanes with others. Second, it was time to use what I learned during college, owning a business. Third, it even brings me closer to airplanes. I decided to open my aviation store Mond Aviation Shop.
Returning back to content creation
I had to lay low from Flyhigh Manila and AirTraveller PH until, one day, I decided to create my influencer page to continue inspiring my long-time followers. I still felt the need to serve the aviation industry through digital content in a more broad sense. This was when I decided to create my own Facebook page, Mond Ortiz.
I want it to be a hybrid between Flyhigh Manila and AirTraveller PH but more personal, more me!
However, I felt it was also time to open up my self-branded website where I could express these thoughts better without limits! Hence, the birth of this website! My benchmarks were Sam Chui and The Points Guy for me to do this.
I am just so thankful to God for leading me here, back to my first love, aviation. I now have my aviation online store and, at the same time, a self-branded website and influencer account focusing on aviation!
I hope you all get to enjoy this little page of mine!