in 1909, nesterov came into contact with aviation when he was posted to a balloon observation regiment as an observer. in 1911 he built his first glider and learned to fly it, before entering flight training at the st. petersburg aviation school at gatchina in june, graduating 11 october 1912. a short time later he also passed the examination to be a military pilot. in may 1913 he became leader of an aviation detachment in kiev, completing night flights at that time.