Any Pilots On Here??

[1stDeuce]

I go though this same scenario every so often too. I have a friend who takes me up occasionally in his 182, and another friend back in MI who co-owns a 182 with another fella. They both fly more than occasionally, but it gets expensive...

Right now, building a house is taking most of my free time, so I don't think about it much, but I'm sure when we're finished with this project, I'll come back around to it. The expense of getting a license is really not that much considering it can be spread over a year or so, and it is a one-time thing for the most part... With no rental FBO's near me, I would need to partner or buy a very small or experimental plane... To add to the difficulty, we live on the edge of a mountainous area, so a higher hp plane would be required if we want to fly east, particularly in warmer months.

I believe I'll eventually get my license, but I think it'll be when I'm closer to 50 than 44...

 

[fried1765]

Don't be discouraged, but do be informed. Take some time to browse the NTSB's website.

By the time I graduated college, I had logged quite a bit of time. A close friend and classmate's father was a dentist in the nearby town of Tracy, and was pretty well off - enough to pursue his love of flying. He owned a beautiful Piper PA-28R. He liked to take the wife and kids to Tahoe for a day or two, when time allowed. On January 12, 1984, the good dentist loaded up the Piper with his wife daughter (son had other commitment and was staying home) and decided to take off in fog, climb out of it, and fly to Tahoe. They flew into the ground 200 yards off the end of the runway. A few days later, I was a pallbearer.

The NTSB:
Analysis
THE FLIGHT DEPARTED UNDER INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS, WITH
VISIBILITY RESTRICTED TO ONE QUARTER MILE BY FOG. THE CEILING WAS OBSCURED.
AFTER DEPARTURE WITNESSES HEARD THE AIRCRAFT MAKE WHAT APPEARED TO BE A
LEFT TURN. NEXT THEY HEARD THE ENGINE SOUND INCREASE FOLLOWED BY A LOUD
THUD. THE ACFT WAS FOUND WHERE IT HAD IMPACTED AN EMBANKMENT, NEXT TO A
ROAD ON RELATIVELY LEVEL TERRAIN, APPROXIMATELY 1/8 MI FROM THE DEPARTURE
END OF RWY 25. NO EYEWITNESSES TO THE ACCIDENT COULD BE LOCATED. AN
INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE PLT HAD CALLED THE SACRAMENTO FSS BY
TELEPHONE. AT 0771, HE OBTAINED AN IFR CLEARANCE WITH A VOID TIME OF 0730.
THERE WERE NO FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE PLT & THE FSS. BEFORE
TAKEOFF, THE ACFT WAS PARKED ABOUT 2 MIN TAXI TIME FROM RWY 25. ACCORDING TO
THE FAA INSTRUMENT FLYING HANDBOOK, AC 61-27B, 5 MIN IS NEEDED FOR GYRO
INSTRUMENTS TO BE OPERATIONAL. HOWEVER, THE ACTUAL TIME ALLOWED BY THE PLT
(FOR THE INSTRUMENTS TO BECOME OPERATIONAL) IS NOT KNOWN.

Mistakes can be disasters very quickly in small planes. Even the most experienced pilots can experience mechanical failure, metal fatigue, or mental fatigue. Pressure to perform for our significant others can alter our judgement - we feel like failures if we abort our plan, when we promised. Incidents we live through are usually expensive. Those we don't live through....

It's not like driving a car - we don't generally have nearly as much experience, we're dealing with three dimensions and lots more variables, and it's much harder to walk away from an accident.

MINDSET-SKILLSET-TOOLSET, in that order.

PLEASE REFER TO MY PRIOR POST (#13)

 

[MossRoad]

Oh, geeze. If we want to go into old pilots, bold pilots, that's fine.

I know, or should I say, knew, about half a dozen dead pilots. 4 were due to pilot error. Only 2 were caused by something out of their control. And I've met many who survived near misses.

Best one I can give of an example of how easy it is to kill your whole family in a Cherokee 180 is this...

It was a calm, foggy evening. Temps around 50. I think it was between 10& midnight. A Cherokee 180 lands at SBN and comes taxiing in. I walk out and direct him to park on the flight line with my flashlight wands. The engine stops. I chock the front wheel and walk around to my left, the right side of the plane. The door opens and a woman appearing to be in her early 30's gets out and she looks upset. She's got barf all over her front. She staggers off the wing to the ground, head sagging, and she's sniffling like she's trying not to cry. She turns around and helps get two small kids out of the plane. They're crying a bit. I think maybe someone got sick and they had a bad flight. The dad gets out of the pilot's seat and steps down. He's white as a ghost. I ask how can I help you? He asks if there's a restroom and phone inside, and asks me to tie it down for the night. I point him in the direction of the office, and tie down the right wing to the ground. Then I make my way around to the left wing, and there it is.... pine branches embedded into the leading edge of the wing!

So as required by law, I had to call the FAA. They told me to immediately throw a chain and padloc on his prop and get his information.

Turns out he lives in a small town about 30 miles south of here. He attempted to land in there in the fog. They don't have instrument landing systems at that airport. He thought he could make his way down since he could see the lights while he was above the fog. Anyhow, as he got down into it, he got disoriented, and then the pine tree tops started slapping the plane. Somehow he managed to pull it up, and then flew up here where they had instruments, a tower, and less fog.

So there you go. He had confidence in his abilities, made a poor judgement call, and almost killed his family because he didn't want to fly into another town 30 miles away and take a cab or call a friend, rent a car, etc... would have been about $30 in those days. Kill your family to save $30.

I got more.... but this is probably not a thread about death by poor judgement ( or arrogance, whatever you want to call it).

You have to stay very proficient in this activity. It's one of the reasons I never got my license. I love to go for the ride! LOVE IT!! But I don't want to spend the time and money to be proficient at it.

 

[mjarrels]

In Naval aviation, it was called getithomeites. One of the last ones was a Marine Corp pilot with a in flight problem. Could have made it to NAS North Island but tried to make it back home to MCAS Marimar and didn't make it. Crashed in San Diego.

mark

 

[Alien]

I love flying but just can't go there so I fly models instead. I know a few pilots that had to give up because of the expense trying to keep their hours up.
When I was a kid my uncle owned an Auster. We flew lots in that. It still exists but he died years ago. Rego is ZK-AWH. It has had a few owners since then and has been painted a couple of times but the memories are still fresh in my mind.
These pics were taken about 60 years ago and I am one of the kids looking at the plane.

 

[Old Red]

Great information guys.....very very good. I spoke a friend of mine. She is pilot....wife of a physician....she a lot of hours in the sky.. very conservative pilot. And this is what I am learning....you can't take any chances.

I also went with my friend to check out his two planes today. We didn't go up but he has an iPad that has a pre-flight checklist that he ticks off each and every time.....That is cool....helps you to remember to be diligent.

 

[MossRoad]

When I took my kid for the introductory flight back around Christmas, the instructor had her do the pre-flight and explained all the control surfaces on the plane, what they do, how to check them, etc... Had her start up the engine and taxi out through the hangars out to the runway. Then he had her do the run-up and check it on each of the sets of plugs and magnetos. It was fouling out on one set. So he explained what it was doing, and kept having her run it up and check again and again. Finally got both sets running good. And then he told her to point it down the runway, give it the power, we started rolling and he told her to watch her speeds. We hit about 45 and he had her pull it back just a tad and up we went. She was pretty shocked how the plane, if trimmed out right, pretty much takes itself off. Heck, it pretty much flies itself. She trimmed it out for level flight and away we went. Had her fight the controls. Had her use the rudder and feel it fight her and explained why you don't turn with the rudder much at all, but rather drive the plane into the turns. Then he had her do turns, climbs, decents, etc.. towards the end, we buzzed our house a few times and took a bunch of pictures. He let her do everything but land the last 15 or so feet down. It was pretty windy and a cross-wind, but she got the idea.

Came away with a great smile and curiostiy about flying. She'll probably do some more in the summer if time permits with her college and research tasks.

 

[Drstrangeglove]

I have been flying for about 10 years. Bad weather made me stay in Disney one extra day and a few days at my mothers.

If your not willing to rent a car and drive home, then don't do it.

One other thing, if ATC ask you if you have weather in the plane, thats code for you are likely going to die if you proceed.

 

[PILOON]

Well I have not flown for some 10-12 years now but it like a horny dog in the spring,
The urge is still there, LOL

Last spring I was at a small FBO and almost submitted to that urge but better judgement took over and I resisted.
Besides my ticket is long expired and I'd have to ground school all over again plus medical etc etc.
On the other hand bet I could even show a young instructor/check pilot a thing or so.

Back then when I'd pop in at a new to me flying club and succumb to a check ride it never took a second circuit to get the thumbs up.
LOL many hours on a tail ragger teaches U well.

Once the tower instructed me that active was rwy 28 , winds 30-40t 360 eg so I requested 24 left 'at my discretion' to which they OK'd.
Runway was wide enough that I simply used the width and never touched the grass on either side.
Tower cleared me to taxi and added 'well done'.
(runways were 6000 ft and the taxi back from 28 would have been a bear with probably multiple ground loops du to fading brakes on the C170B)

 

[plowhog]

An interesting aspect of aviation is the bigger, better equipped planes are easier to fly than the smaller ones with lesser equipment.

I had a flight director in my Malibu. I frequently flew a 300nm route for a regularly scheduled business meeting.

Prior to takeoff, I would set rate of climb at 800ft per minute to climb altitude of 18,000 ft. The entire flight plan was in the Garmin GPS navigation system. Within 30 seconds after leaving the runway, I'd engage the flight director and not touch the yoke again until shortly before landing.

The old grizzled pilots sneered at "George" (nickname for autopilot.) I was taught to always use the equipment on board, let it do the flying tasks, and I was the backup monitor watching the accuracy of everything, checking weather updates, and watching for traffic. And enjoying the view!!

To be fair, much of the time I flew the instrument approaches manually just to keep in practice. But that was only several minutes of a two hour flight.