Any pilots here?

Ultralights are a blast, you could probably get a ride in one if there is a local grass strip flying club where you are. We have a flying club here and twice a year they have a big fly-in. If you donate to the club, one of the club members with a 2 place ultralight (lsa now) will take you for a ride. If you ask the right people, they will take you up for a ride in the glider for free.

Those one place helicopters scare me, they look hard to fly. I think a gyrocopter would be safer. If they are equipped with a pre-rotator, a single seater can be off the ground in 40 ft, but you can't do negative Gs in them or the top propeller will hit the thrust propeller.

Nice thread man.. I mite have to try this flying thing one day when I get my life in order and get richer... Thanks for sharing MrB..

MS Weekend: My introductory flight was taken in a 172. Great plane with great safety record. Only 300 hours? Very nice indeed.
Are those pics taken in Calif? Which airport?

Sam: You know a lot about aircraft my friend. I don't know how getting your license has escaped you all these years (unless you were in permanent couch lock )
The problem with a sport license is all the restrictions. being limited to a 25 mile radius around your local airport, no passengers (unless they are a licensed pilot trained in that aircraft) no night flying ect, just sucks. Personally, i think it would be a waste of money unless you have a medical condition and can't pass your physical.

My brother just got his license this year. Training in a 172, he managed to spend less than $7k total.

My mom just flew an ultra lite last month in Hawaii. It was one of those sight seeing things. She had a blast. The look like fun for around the beach and little trips in the summer but most ultra lite pilots don't fly during the winter, it just too damn cold (Yes, I'm a sissy) lol.

Madrus Rose: Yea, the 22 is a big ticket item. I thank my lucky stars everyday for being successful in life, I am truly blessed.
I didn't buy my plane new. I could never afford it. The 20% down payment on a new SR-22 is $130K (I'm not that blessed) with payments in the range of $4k a month which doesn't include maintenance.

Flying doesn't have to be overly expensive. Once you get your license you can a rent a plane at your local airport for about $145 hour which includes fuel. You can cover a lot of miles in an hour so when you think about it, it's probably just as expensive to drive your car, unless you have one of those hybrid things.

Peace everyone,

Mr-B

I did an ultralight flight over Pinatubo in the Philippines,incredible experience,you can get a decent ultralight for £14,000,I hope to start my lessons next year as we need a licence for one in the UK(f*ck,we even need a licence to fart).

I love to fly. took my intro flight in a cherokee 180... was nice but planes are boring to me... unless it's aerobatic

.. helicopters are my fav.. go take a flight in a Robinson r-22 or r-44 if you all ever get the chance.

my fav single engine planes are the areobatic ones.. like the Xtra 300L

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piIlZRR9mCI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4lDmETgYGs&feature=related

peace

I just retired after a 30 year airline career. Last 10 as MD-11 captain. Was a great gig to work at something you love! Now I want to work at something else I love, growing pot for my own use. Thanks to all for the useful info here on IC!

nice poina. congratz on a successful career in aviation... and good luck with your new hobby, it's great.

I flew a little bit for a few years. Just simple fixed wing props.
IMHO, nothing beats that first intentional wing-over stall into a 500-1000ft drop. Rollercoasters weren't that fun anymore after that.

I need to get back into it soon. Just need to get some extra money around first.

Eventually, I want to get my own small Bell copter and build out a retractable roof, underground hangar.

I'm still working on my private pilot's license. Even then I wouldn't consider myself a pilot until I was IFR. My good friend's father is a retired airline captain and would take us up and let us get our feet wet.

Hey Mr B and flying enthusiasts,
That Currus is composite, correct? I love that technology. I got the flying bug way back in the early 60s flying in my uncles plane. He was a crop duster and had a Stinson Station Wagon as a business plane.

Later I took up skydivng and eventually got my flying license while going to college in north Florida. I had a bitch of a time learning. Tried one of those speedy crash courses and found the pace was too much for me. Then I tried a local FBO but the instructor was a young dis-interested kid. Finally I found an old WWll pilot. He flew PBYs off the Alaskan coast during the war. Gnarly old dude...half deaf as many old pilots are. He taught in an aerobatic C150 and insisted in orientation training and rudimentary aerobatics as part of the instruction. Taildragger training too if desired. He lived in a beautiful setting west of Gainesville on his own grass strip. He had a nice hanger and used a Super Cub to tow gliders. Wonderful place to hang out and listen to all the airplane talk. So that's where I finished my training and got my license. Rudy's Gliderport though I'm sure Rudy is long dead.

Before doing that I had taken A&P training at a private school in Fargo ND. A very useful year and that allowed me to maintain my own airplane. I purchased a nice 1961 C-150. Bench seats...two-tone orange and white, Needed an engine overhaul so off it came and into my spare bedroom (with wife's grudging approval). Actually ended up having to buy a new engine block but eventually got it back in the air. I used that airplane for all my solo work during flight training. Saved much money. Sold the little bugger after damaging a wing smacking a Yukka tree during an off airpart landing near Peco's Texas on a cross country from Florida to California.

Now I can't really afford to fly and lost my medical but I still stay interested. It is an expensive hobby. If I won the lottery I'd buy a Sperber motorized sailplane and move to the Owens Valley in California...
Dream on...
ET

PS Tough Girl...I believe you're talking autogyros. The ones where you're sitting on a little seat right up front in the open? They do look like a blast.

Here is what I've been flying


It doesn't go very fast when I'm sitting on it though.

Flying in small aircraft looks like a blast, I've only flown commercially a couple times. I'd have to say that the takeoff and landing were the best part, I love pulling G's.

When I go flying with my uncles friend, he has a 2 seat quicksilver, we'll fly right above the corn crop fields about 5 - 10 feet from the tops. We'll jump over the trees on the border of each field and right back down on the crop tops.

It's a blast !!

It's not very safe though flying that low, some pilots would call that kind of flying a disgrace to the aviation community, but you know deep down they want to do it.

Sam-Is he a crop duster? Those guys look like they're having a great time flying.

Hey resinryder; no, he's not a crop duster. Here is a plane like his

I want to build one of those some day

I'd use it to fly into wilderness lakes, land in a field or on the lake and fish, maybe camp out and fly off the next day.

An old dirt bike racing buddy just got done building one of these, a Rans S-7 Courier

I have my pilots but don't fly too often anymore . . .

I've built 2 experimentals in the past 8 years, ultralights.

Working on my instrument rating now . . .

Sam the Caveman said:

When I go flying with my uncles friend, he has a 2 seat quicksilver, we'll fly right above the corn crop fields about 5 - 10 feet from the tops. We'll jump over the trees on the border of each field and right back down on the crop tops.

It's a blast !!

It's not very safe though flying that low, some pilots would call that kind of flying a disgrace to the aviation community, but you know deep down they want to do it.

Click to expand...

Hi Guys,
Sam, I've been around crop dusters while I went to mechanic school in the midwest. Flying a light wing-loading airplane like that isn't really dangerous. You could slow it down and land in the field in the matter of a few hundred feet if you had an engine out situation.

It's what you're used to flying and your style. I used to enjoy flying up in the midst of fair weather cumulus clouds. Illegal but the clouds were like a magical fairly land. I'd call out on the local unicom channel occasionally...but never met anyone sharing the same sky while doing that.

Hey that's a nice Courier Sam...I'm familiar with RANS designs having rebuild a Coyote. The guy that bought AVID aircraft is building a factory in Iowa somewhere...so soon they'll be back on the market.

etinarcadiaego...how goes it? Instrument rating? How's that going? I prefer to see the ground when flying! lol
Cheers,
ET

i'v been thinkin about getting one myself,does seems like loads of fun gliding around the sky lol.my first will probly be an ultralight G-1..requires no license.

Guys,
My interest in aviation began at a very early age visiting relatives that lived on a farm. Crop spraying was a part time business for my Uncle and he could usually be talked into giving us kids an airplane ride in his business plane.

So with my interest sparked, I would fly or ride in any airplane that I could. I had a part-time job helping a medical electronics service guy who would fly his single engine Mooney on the longer service calls. That was a fast but somewhat cramped plane. First one I flew in with retract. gear.

Later in my life I was bumping around Mexixo. I was hanging out in ciudad Oaxoaxa, a city south of Mexico City located in the central highlands of the state of Oaxoaxa. I heard that Air Oaxoacaquena (say that three times) had regular service to the beach resort cities on the south coast...and they fley an old DC-3!!! That was all I needed to hear. So I packed up my gear and decided to head for the beach. The airplane appeared to be rough and ready but and showed it's age. A few inspection port doors flapping open and some spots of oil under the engine. Very strange entering the plane near the rear and walking uphill to get to my seat. Windows were original and very flawed but you could still see out. We flew south toward the mountains that ringed the plateau as we skimmed over the dense "cloud forest" that forms the border between the central plateau and the south coast. I had driven the same trip before in a bus. 13 hours of switchbacks...but 45 minutes by DC-3. Once we skimmed over the mountain top, the excellent pilot performed a series of circle 8s as we dropped in altitude down to the runway at Puerto Angel which was at near sea level beside the beach. It had been 70 and comfortable in the city but ince at sea level it was 90 degrees and almost 100% humidity.

So that was my DC-3 flight. I've also flown in seaplanes, helicopters, an old Cessna 195 with crosswind landing gear, and a mishmash of single engine light aircraft.

So what was your favorite airplane flight?
ET