Any Other Pilots Here?

[jobog]

I have almost 2,000 hours in jet fighters but I gave up flying when I got out of the Air Force in 1977.  Just not the same putzing around at 100 knots instead of mach 1 or higher.  Plus the cost is not worth it.  While I was stationed in Florida I could rent a 172 from the base aero club for $9.00/hr wet and fly the family, wife and 2 small kids, back home to Indiana for a week with the only requirement that you paid for a minimum of one hour per day.  That wasn't a problem since it took about 11 hours to get there.  Sure beat 2 days in the car for the same trip.  I sure miss it though.

[rx8pilot]

You need an Extra 300L doing a roll rate of 400 deg/sec and 9+G's without a G-suit. That bird will keep even an F-16 pilot busy.

[sleemanj]

I used to call myself a student pilot a decade or more ago, I did a handful of solo hours in a RANS S6 and then time, and various problematic circumstance got in the way.  Due T1 Diabetes I was effectively limited by legislation at the time to what in NZ we call microlight class - which in the US is closer to light sport aircraft except we can also have adjustable props, retracts etc - eg the Titan T51 Mustang replicas can be Microlight class here, so actually not much of a limitation recreationally speaking.

I could have started flying again long ago, time and money could be found, but truth be told, even microlights are too expensive to operate for this skinflint, I can't justify spending a hundred bucks plus an hour on something with so little point, not to mention the 1/2 hour on the road each way to the strip, mucking about on the ground, the obligatory hangar chat with other people on the field...

That said, if somebody should happen to start doing gyrocopter training with a modern enclosed machine in my area, I would be sorely tempted to twist the doctors arm to give me a fresh medical.

[Psi]

Which person is the real skilled pilot?

A 787 pilot where everything is automatic?

Or the FPV pilot in this video?

[BradC]

Which person is the real skilled pilot?

A 787 pilot where everything is automatic?

Or the FPV pilot in this video?

Depends on what happens when a turbine disc cuts loose and blows a hole in the wing. The successful one is the one who gets it down in one piece with minimal extra damage.

[Howardlong]

Which person is the real skilled pilot?

A 787 pilot where everything is automatic?

Or the FPV pilot in this video?

I wonder how many crashes the FPV guy took to be that good?

Edit: by the way, even a 787 can't take off by itself.

[tggzzz]

Which person is the real skilled pilot?
A 787 pilot where everything is automatic?
Or the FPV pilot in this video?

Why not do it for real? Don't forget they don't have an engine.



BTW, everything by balleka is worth watching, and his other plane is a 747.

UK cost: ~£25/hour, including instruction.

[KG7AMV]

Umm, silly question, but how do you get one of those piddy things across the Pacific pond?

USA to China in this one.


We remove the interior and install auxiliary fuel tanks in the cabin. California, Hawaii, Tarawa, Guam, Philippines, China!

[SeanB]

I worked on these....

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mirage+f1



A lot of old friends there from featherfoot farm.

[nctnico]

No question - just not on a commercial flight system referred to by nctnico. Super awesome and convenient at great cost - whether you or someone else is pushing the buttons.

But surely way less cost than owning your own plane and/or getting and maintaining a license and hiring your own plane to fly?

It really depends.  For example, when I was out west, I seriously considered living over the mountains, and commuting into work with an airplane.  It depends on the plane, the area, and a lot of other things.  It wouldn't have cost much over simply driving, especially if it's a plane you build yourself and you can do all of the maintenance on it yourself.

This reminds me of one of my (not so long a ago) former bosses. His neighbour in France has a self build airplane which he used to travel through the country. At one time he had engine problems so he send his son with the bus and flew the plane home... If you have time on your hands you can do things like that.

[Howardlong]

The other problem is weather, particularly here in the UK. It's unwise to plan a trip more than a day or so in advance unless you have a contingency plan.

You can mitigate by having a fully IFR equipped plane with anti icing boots etc, but it's not a cheap option both in terms of initial cost and ongoing maintenance. And if you can't get on top, it's also pretty boring flying in cloud, there's not much scenery.

I'm off to see my folks tomorrow, flight time is 45 minutes. Plus 40 minutes to get to the airfield, half an hour to plan, ten minutes to check over the aircraft and get it refuelled, and ten minutes taxiing. That's 2hr15mins, I can drive it in 2 hours.

[SeanB]

Here in SA flying is still an option, seeing as you can fit the UK in one province. In the USA flying is very common, seeing as South Africa will fit into Texas with room left over for all the Texans to have a few acres each still.

[Howardlong]

Here in SA flying is still an option, seeing as you can fit the UK in one province. In the USA flying is very common, seeing as South Africa will fit into Texas with room left over for all the Texans to have a few acres each still.

Indeed, I rented a 172 for a couple of days from one of the schools at Grand Central near Joburg last May, great weather, but you know you're at 5,000', the performance of the aircraft isn't great so you do need that nice long strip. Leaning the mixture on the ground due to altitude was new to me. Coming back in on approach it needed plenty of power too. But it was also about 40% cheaper to rent than the UK too, and the skies are a lot emptier than here around London.

[KG7AMV]

Here in SA flying is still an option, seeing as you can fit the UK in one province. In the USA flying is very common, seeing as South Africa will fit into Texas with room left over for all the Texans to have a few acres each still.

SeanB, In the past i used to deliver aircraft to a dealer in Port Alfred, South Africa

Here is a photo of me at the dealer in Port Alfred!

[jobog]

You need an Extra 300L doing a roll rate of 400 deg/sec and 9+G's without a G-suit. That bird will keep even an F-16 pilot busy.

The closest I'm going to come to an Extra 300 is if I buy a model to go with the rest of my RC planes.  RC is the only flying I'm doing these days.  Very obvious with my models is that my current reaction time would make me dangerous in a jet.

For just outright fun flying nothing I flew was more enjoyable than the T-38.  Small, fast, and extremely maneuverable.  There was a warning to never do full side stick rolls.  I don't recall the deg/sec but it would wind you up in an instant.  7+G's with a G-suit was more than enough for me.

[tggzzz]

For just outright fun flying nothing I flew was more enjoyable than the T-38.  Small, fast, and extremely maneuverable.  There was a warning to never do full side stick rolls.  I don't recall the deg/sec but it would wind you up in an instant.  7+G's with a G-suit was more than enough for me.

For adrenaline, you might like to try flying gliders - but adrenaline isn't necessary.

All gliders will do +3.5,-0.5G, and some will do +9,-6G. No G suit! Normal flying involves +2.5,0G.


Ground-hugging



0-1500ft in 35s.

Deliberately enter spins at 1000ft AGL before going solo


Loose formation flying with many other a/c


Typical cost ~£25/hour

But the roll-rate is much slower!

[firehopper]

I only fly rc airplanes. never flown a full size. I've ridden in a few, just never flown one

[IO390]

Here in SA flying is still an option, seeing as you can fit the UK in one province. In the USA flying is very common, seeing as South Africa will fit into Texas with room left over for all the Texans to have a few acres each still.

Indeed, I rented a 172 for a couple of days from one of the schools at Grand Central near Joburg last May, great weather, but you know you're at 5,000', the performance of the aircraft isn't great so you do need that nice long strip. Leaning the mixture on the ground due to altitude was new to me. Coming back in on approach it needed plenty of power too. But it was also about 40% cheaper to rent than the UK too, and the skies are a lot emptier than here around London.

Leaning on the ground is actually not a bad idea anywhere, helps stop the plugs fouling at low power.

Anyway, we had a bit of a scare today. Flying to Prague, at FL160 in solid IMC and the engine just about stopped. The plane isn't turbonormalised so out indicated airspeed was only about 100kts, plus we were heavy, so the speed dropped very quickly. Disconnected the autopilot immediately and descended, with the EDM700 helpfully displaying 'BAD PRBLM". Pulled the alternate air and the power came back up, but the EGT probes for cyl 1 and 2 gave funny readings to the EDM which chose to block them, so for a while it looked like 1 and 2 had stopped producing power, which was worrying. Checked the CHT which was normal so clearly all was well. Reset the EDM on the ground and the EGT readings came back so it had just blocked them instead of showing possibly false readings.

Anyway, was a bit exciting. OAT was -14C which is usually too cold for icing, but evidently we got water behind the air filter which then froze. Remember your alternate air guys!

[LabSpokane]

IO390,

Glad you're OK.  Generally it's good practice to pull the alt. air / carb heat on periodically during a long flight and watch the RPMs or manifold pressure as applicable - even if you don't think there's a possibility of icing.  I learned to fly in the wet, so this was standard practice. 

We used to have guys from California come up north to fly-ins in very rainy areas who had no idea if their carb heat even worked.  They have never tested it on runup since they felt there was no need for it flying in the desert.   

[SeanB]

For all those who fly cattle class, you should listen to this podcast.

http://betty.libsyn.com/

She is always interesting, and there are some gems in the older podcasts.

http://betty.libsyn.com/top_guns_blonde_moments_

[Howardlong]

I took my folks up today for their first spin for a $100 slice of cake. They have just turned 80, and are not in bad condition, but they are 80. Getting them into and out of a PA28 was an exercise in logistics in itself, although their second flight on the way back was about an order of magnitude easier in that respect, they knew what to expect.

Quite unbelievably, my mother, a perennial old fashioned kinda person from a time past, particularly enjoyed it it appears - she has a story to give her mates at the octogenarian tea parties she frequents.

The old man quite enjoyed it too. He's ex-RAF but just National Service in the 50s, no practical flying experience. We got into talking about managing power on decent, and how you aim for an airspeed, and somewhat counterintuitively adjust throttle for altitude, and pitch for speed, although after a while it appears to blend into one: you know what the runway should look like, and adjust accordingly.

I was surprised, I suppose I've been so used to the risk averse culture that so pervades our lives these days that I wasn't quite expecting such a positive response.

[IO390]

IO390,

Glad you're OK.  Generally it's good practice to pull the alt. air / carb heat on periodically during a long flight and watch the RPMs or manifold pressure as applicable - even if you don't think there's a possibility of icing.  I learned to fly in the wet, so this was standard practice. 

We used to have guys from California come up north to fly-ins in very rainy areas who had no idea if their carb heat even worked.  They have never tested it on runup since they felt there was no need for it flying in the desert.   

The engine (TB20 GT) is an IO540 so no carb heat to worry about, obviously in carb aircraft then its another matter to consider.

Usually in icing conditions we leave the prop TKS on, the excess fluid flying off the blades sprinkles the front of the aircraft and clears the windshield and the air filter, but we didn't have it on as we assumed it was too cold for ice. Either way it seems the ice built up behind the air filter as the alt air door was a little sticky, if that had blocked up fully then we'd have had no power until 6kft or so when the ice melted. Flat terrain and plenty of airfields close by so could be a lot worse, but still not ideal. So moving the alt air door every few mins is not a bad idea at all. Some like to leave it open but the issue with this is that if it gets blocked up then you lose your backup option.

[Wytnucls]

Flew this one years ago in the US. Attracted a fair bit of attention.

[LabSpokane]

IO390,

Glad you're OK.  Generally it's good practice to pull the alt. air / carb heat on periodically during a long flight and watch the RPMs or manifold pressure as applicable - even if you don't think there's a possibility of icing.  I learned to fly in the wet, so this was standard practice. 

We used to have guys from California come up north to fly-ins in very rainy areas who had no idea if their carb heat even worked.  They have never tested it on runup since they felt there was no need for it flying in the desert.   

The engine (TB20 GT) is an IO540 so no carb heat to worry about, obviously in carb aircraft then its another matter to consider.

Usually in icing conditions we leave the prop TKS on, the excess fluid flying off the blades sprinkles the front of the aircraft and clears the windshield and the air filter, but we didn't have it on as we assumed it was too cold for ice. Either way it seems the ice built up behind the air filter as the alt air door was a little sticky, if that had blocked up fully then we'd have had no power until 6kft or so when the ice melted. Flat terrain and plenty of airfields close by so could be a lot worse, but still not ideal. So moving the alt air door every few mins is not a bad idea at all. Some like to leave it open but the issue with this is that if it gets blocked up then you lose your backup option.

The real drag about flying in Europe is that any non-airfield landing is classified as a accident. Here in the US, you can land on a road if need be, fix your plane, and the police will generally just block traffic so that you can take off and leave. My father followed highways for this reason.

[Wytnucls]

One for SeanB: