Who flies?

[BRIO]

 Yesterday was a good day. I dropped my daughter off at school..I returned back home and packed my David Clarks in the Norge's side case. I rolled her outside, golden pipes and brake discs glistening in the sun. She fires up with that satisfying stumbling idle. I enjoy a French pressed freshly ground cup of coffee while she idles for a minute or two. I ride south on country roads towards North County airfield. The air is full of aromas from the surrounding cattlefields and orange groves. Upon arrival Fred is waiting for me with the keys and headset in hand. We walk out to the aircraft, a G1000 equipped C172. We do the walkaround together. Fred is treading lightly. He doesn't want to insult my knowledge. I'm a Captain for a National Airline. It quickly becomes apparent to me just how much I've forgotten about the considerations that pertain to small aircraft. The different idiosyncrasies of Fred's world stand out to me. On a couple of occasions he looks at me with an uncertain smile as if he's asking me if I'm being a smartass or serious. I try to check the movement of the rudder while stationary. Now, in a Transport category aircraft that's a normal procedure since the nose wheel isn't linked to the rudder pedals until you decide to connect it. Not so in a C172. The nose gear is always connected. Little things like these pop up here and there.

We take off, I'm at the controls. Wow does this thing move around. I start my crosswind turn and not soon after Fred taps me on the shoulder and points at the runway. I've turned beyond the 90 degrees I intended to. Climbing at 70 knots rather than 250 means the rate of turn is much greater. We climb out into the pattern. The G1000 is a surprisingly easy system to use. Ironically the part of the C172 that I have no experience with is the one I find easy to grasp. We do a couple of steep turns and stalls. Then return to the strip for a landing. I'm a little wobbly on final but I manage to plant it firmly in the touchdown zone at the correct speed. Fred laughs as I get on the brakes with purpose. He yells Speedbrakes, spoilers, thrust reverser! Yeah you don't need to be that hard on the brakes of a C172. Afterwards we chat for a bit. It's obvious that we really enjoyed seeing each other again. So long story short, I rode my Guzzi, rekindled an old friendship and flew an airplane around for a bit. Yesterday was a good day.

As a new member on here I've noticed a lot of airplane related comments. Who of you hold a a pilots license, fly a light sport, or a glider?

Which is your favorite aircraft?
What licenses do you hold?
How many hours?
Best aviation story?

Oh and if anyone in SFL wants to do a combined Ride/flight let me know.😀

[cloudbase]

Private with glider rating.

Edit:  About 300 hours +/-.  I log what I need to in order to stay current, or if I catch some super thermal so I can log the altitude gain.

The perfect plane would be a hybrid.  I'd want the flying characteristics of a Blanik L-33 with the cockpit of a Grob 103 (like sitting in a Lazy Boy) or a PW-5.

Best story would be my first landout.  It was rather exciting at the time, but quite boring in retrospect.

[Dave Bell]

Roughly 500 hours.  I've had two 172's, one was a 56 and one a 77 (I think).

[wrbix]

PPL/ASEL  About 250hrs. Own AA5B Grumman Tiger. Hangared KDCM and KVJI

[Gliderjohn]

Private rating, glider.
We have McConnell AFB near. It is always fun to watch the first few training flights when an KC-135 pilot decides to pursue a glider rating. It usually humbles them a bit, but they are fast learners.
GliderJohn

[Chuck in Indiana]

Which is your favorite aircraft?
What licenses do you hold?
How many hours?
Best aviation story?

There are fliers and fixers. Generally, they’re not the same guy. The flier sits there fat, dumb and happy thinking, “What could possibly go wrong?” The fixer sits there knowing all the things that can go wrong..
I’m an A&P, PASEL. 1000 hours logged, but I seldom log time.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have flown most commercial private aircraft at one time or another up to light twins. The twin Beech is the largest. Many homebuilts, the slowest being Bernie Pietenpol’s personal Sky Scout, a single place Model A powered parasol, the fastest being a couple of different RV10s. I’m a long time EAA tech counselor.
That said, I’m a fixer. Strictly as a hobby, though. I’ve scratch built a Sonerai 2L, Pitts special S1S, 1930 Great Lakes Trainer from the the original drawings, restored a 46 Commonwealth Skyranger from a pile of rubble, and recently ahem, 3 or 4 years ago finished a PA22-108 with many speed mods that I call a Monocolt.  My last project will be a 1930 Lambert Monocoupe that is hanging in the hanger as we speak.

Favorite homebuilt? Probably Mouser, my Sonerai. Cruises 130 at 4 gph with a VW powerplant, flies very much like a Pitts except for all the horsepower and attendant fuel burn.
Favorite factory job?  Interstate Cadet, a low production WW2 primary trainer. It just has that magical “feel” for me.
We live on our private strip in central Indiana, 2II3.
Don’t have any stories.. 

[Guzzer]

I have around 600 hours in small Cessna aircraft. I learned in a 150 & then bought a 1958 Cessna 172.  Manual flaps..old radio..and a hand held GPS. My wife also got her pilots license & we flew from Missouri to Colorado, Yellowstone, the Southeast, Great lakes, etc....then I fell in love with a sailboat and now Guzzis.  The old Cessna is sitting in the hangar now like an outgrown toy sits in the bottom of a toybox.  The sailboat is licensed but needs a really good cleaning--hasn't seen water this year.  A friend of mine calls me a serial monogamist hobbyist and right now I can only think about Guzzis from the '70s! 
I always thought I would go back to the Cessna, but it needs an overhaul...and so do I.
But I pay the hangar fees and then go out and work on the Ambo.

[BRIO]

PPL/ASEL  About 250hrs. Own AA5B Grumman Tiger. Hangared KDCM and KVJI

That's a nice looking plane!

[Chuck in Indiana]

Oh. You want pictures? 
The Skyranger when it was on skis..

the Pitts, "Footloose" in front, Sonerai, "Mouser" in back..

The Great lakes..

Oh, you mean on the ground?

The Monocoupe project

Monocolt 

Better picture of Mouser

the Aero Lario.. well it has an airplane engine innit. 

[wrbix]

That's a nice looking plane!

Thanks!
I trained, as did most, in a C172 ; just within the last few years.
Find the AA5 has much lighter/more responsive control inputs. Seems also to almost land itself - probably a low wing vs high wing effect. Grummans do tend to float on landing tho - very aerodynamically clean planes.

[wrbix]

Great paint schema Chuck!

[Shorty]

Private pilot. Single engine land.  A&P mechanic. Work 30 years  for a certain "American" airline. Always flew rentals. Learned to fly in the hills above the West Virginia Guzzi rally.      Herron airport



https://www.airnav.com/airport/7G1

[wrbix]

Herron airport



https://www.airnav.com/airport/7G1

Public road crosses runway - Oh my! What could possibly go wrong?

[Testarossa]

Private pilot, SEL and SES, instrument rating, about 1000 hours mostly in a Comanche 250 and a C182.

I began by soloing in gliders in Vermont, then got my private (power) license in Truckee, Calif, in 1987. Flew as a mission pilot for Civil Air Patrol for a few years, in the 182. Got the instrument rating in 1990, the float rating (in Seattle) in 1994. Bought the Comanche in 1999 and flew it all over the West -- loved that plane and miss it every day. Someday I may have another HP aircraft but simpler -- maybe a Grumman Tiger, maybe an RV?  Or a motorglider . . .

[MGPilot]

Private + glider.  About 830 hrs.--so fairly low time.

Flew mostly Cessna's/Piper's through FBO's & flying clubs up to 2006, when I bought one of 10 flying Fournier RF5B's (Sportavia Putzer) in the U.S.

Really enjoyed it. Would have enjoyed a slightly larger engine & prop.  Flew it from the Seattle area, over the Rockies to Ohio & back.

Options for the future might be a short field jumper (similar to a Carbon Cub), something amphibious (Icon, etc.) or a biplane (Great Lakes, etc.)

See www.rf5b.com

[Chuck in Indiana]

Great paint schema Chuck!

Thanks! It was pretty innovative uh..34 years ago.  Beechcraft borrowed it in all blues for the somethingth anniversary of the bonanza. I wanted something different than a little white airplane with a trim stripe. What I did was make copies of 3 views of Mouser, and hand them to a bunch of kids and said color them. The idea evolved from that. Nobody had painted an airplane like that before..

[Chuck in Indiana]

Now, there is a type I've never flown. What a sweetheart.  IIRC, an earlier version was ferried across the Atlantic back in the day..

[charlie b]

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far far away.....   :)

C150 and C172 for training.  Not any more beyond that.  Wife won't get in an airplane unless someone's life depends on it.

Wife's father had over 4000hrs in many different types.  Rated commercial, multi, instructor.  I don't think he ever flew a seaplane.  He was in the Navy R&D stuff (not a Navy pilot, just private) so he got to fly some other stuff, like an F8 and a C54.

I considered getting back into flying since a couple friends have planes.  Cost and time involved were just not 'right' (along with wife's feelings).

So, I ended up just flying radio control stuff, which led to building, which led to a business.

[jknight611]

ATP, Helo and FW, A&P, IA.

Chuck, I built a 2180 Soneri 2L years ago, cool airplane! 

[Shorty]

Public road crosses runway - Oh my! What could possibly go wrong?

Take off uphill normally. You can see the cars going uphill.  Downhill, use 2000 rpm til you see the road. If cars
 abort, if not, firewall it.

   PUBLIC ROAD CROSSES CENTER OF AIRFIELD; DO NOT TAXI ON ROAD, WING WILL NOT CLEAR STOP SIGN ON RD.
-    RY 04 & 22 ENDS NOT VISIBLE FM EACH END. TRAFFIC ON RD. CROSSING RY NOT VISIBLE FM RY 4 END.
-    RY 04/22 SLOPES UP FM E TO W, APRX 30 FT.
-    DEER ON AND INVOF ARPT.
-    ULTRALIGHT ACTIVITY.
-    30 FT DROP OFF AT EACH RY END.
-    RY 4/22 NUMBERS ONLY.

You learn to take off and land as short as possible. Not much room for error. Great place to learn.

[Chuck in Indiana]

ATP, Helo and FW, A&P, IA.

Chuck, I built a 2180 Soneri 2L years ago, cool airplane!

Looks like you're a working aviator. I just play with airplanes. Fuel cost has about priced me out any more. (Cheap Guzzi content)

[jdgretz]

Commercial - Airplane, Single and Multi-Engine Lane, Rotorcraft - Helicopter.  Instrument, Airplane and Helicopter.

Somewhere north of 8,000 hrs.

jdg

[Chuck in Indiana]

Hi, John! 

[BRIO]

Oh. You want pictures? 
The Skyranger when it was on skis..

the Pitts, "Footloose" in front, Sonerai, "Mouser" in back..

The Great lakes..

Oh, you mean on the ground?

The Monocoupe project

Monocolt 

Better picture of Mouser

the Aero Lario.. well it has an airplane engine innit. 

Gorgeous planes chuck. I'd like to try a ski plane someday. In my neck of the woods it'll probably be a sea plane first

[Chuck in Indiana]

Skis are a lot of fun, and easier than wheels..
Unless you get stuck down. It can be quite a bit like exercise    if you do that.

[ITSec]

No license, except what we called a 'bush permit' when I lived in the far north (Island Lake, MB back in the 70s). The pilots there would teach anybody who asked, and I got time in at the controls of a lot of aircraft over those years. I can recall flying (some for just an hour or two, some frequently):

A couple of taildragger Cessnas
Found FBA2 (amphibious floats)
Otter (floats)
Beaver and turbo Beaver (amphibious floats)
Norseman (floats)
Beech 18 and Super 18 (wheels and floats)
PBY (no flaps!!!!)
DC-3
Grumman Mallard and Goose
Short Skyvan (empty - and it was almost aerobatic)

Probably a few others I'm forgetting...

I think I should get a Fifty-Mission Cap - and a hockey card with Bill Barilko on it. Fifty bonus points to anyone who gets that reference...

[oldbike54]

 I sorta know how to fly a small AC , but would never go up in a plane piloted by me 

 Chuckie , the Mouser is just soooooo cool 

  Dusty

[rss29]

I think I should get a Fifty-Mission Cap - and a hockey card with Bill Barilko on it. Fifty bonus points to anyone who gets that reference...

Tragically Hip song. Refers to the famous Leaf who died in a Northern Ontario bush plane crash in the 50's.

[ITSec]

Tragically Hip song. Refers to the famous Leaf who died in a Northern Ontario bush plane crash in the 50's.

Here's your fifty bonus points - spend them wisely, maybe on a copy of Wide Mouth Mason's debut recording!

[oldbike54]

Here's your fifty bonus points - spend them wisely, maybe on a copy of Wide Mouth Mason's debut recording!

 Any relation to Clarence Brown ?

  Dusty