Any Pilots On Here??

[fried1765]

Seems like you have a good overall perspective.

My opinion: For a low time pilot,....... stay away from actual IFR, and particularly night actual IFR ,.... and all weather!
Do not fly, or continue to fly, unless you are 110% comfortable with All conditions.
DO NOT fall victim to.... "gotta get there syndrome"!

Though I am long retired from flying, (30,000+ hours) I think I am reasonably well informed on most flying issues.
You have a very nice little airplane.....use it wisely/safely!

 

[Old Red]

Seems like you have a good overall perspective.

My opinion: For a low time pilot,....... stay away from actual IFR, and particularly night actual IFR ,.... and all weather!
Do not fly, or continue to fly, unless you are 110% comfortable with All conditions.
DO NOT fall victim to.... "gotta get there syndrome"!

Though I am long retired from flying, (30,000+ hours) I think I am reasonably well informed on most flying issues.
You have a very nice little airplane.....use it wisely/safely!

Thank you, that is excellent advice! I will do my best to not let the get there itis get me, but it is a real thing...and it is powerful. I have 100 thousand Southwest Airlines points in savings. So I can fly back home from my destination or to a destination commercial with no financial barriers.

I will however fly through a layer of clouds. I have flown IFR and I keep eyes inside. My plane wants to fly straight and level....my digital glass cockpit is much easier than the old 6 pack.

One of the biggest threats is to get behind the aircraft flying in the IFR ATC system. I saw one of my CFIIs do this in my own plane and it scared me badly. I fired him and never used him again. From then on I trained with a platinum Cirrus Standard Instrument Trainer who has 25,000 hours and all he does is teach IFR.

I know my flight management system very well and can program it to do what I want it to do without thinking about it. That was one of the first things I made sure I understood very early on in my instrument training after watching the CFII fumble around and we look up and saw some terrifying things after I took my foggles off. I have completed several video and book learning courses on the Avidyne IFD flight management system.

I am not sure how familiar you are with these systems, but these new airplanes avionics and my avionics make flying IFR almost see like cheating. If you are an old school pilot then you will think it is cheating. For example, being assigned a hold...piece of cake..2 buttons...Any crossing restriction, STAR or SID....that is all programmed into my database easily accessed with a few buttons. I just have to verify it is accurate before I press the execute Botton. The way you guys learned to fly instruments old school with the tech you had to assist you was incredibly hard. Much harder than what we have avaialalbe to us today. Not sure I would have been a pilot back in the day...or at least an IFR pilot.

I am not an overconfident flyer. I am confident in my ability to control my systems. Also, I use a little common sense as well. For example. I flew to Chicago Midway a couple months ago. Not a chance in Hades would I do that in an IFR situation EVER. That place was busy and way too many things can happen. I will not fly at night IFR over mountains. I will fly over a layer at night, but will not take off at night into IFR conditions. If I finish the flight in those conditions that is another thing, but will never launch night IFR. Never mess with ice...and steer way way way clear of thunderstorms. Clouds do not bother me...I respect them....but I am not afraid of them.....T-Storms and Ice are terrifying and I will avoid them at all costs.

I bought this plane and went through training to answer and live the things I asked about in post #1 of this thread. It turns out you can do all those things I was interested in doing. It is a wonder fuel thing. I got my pilots license to travel and go places with my family. I am not plane poor, I am hotel poor. We go somewhere at least 2 times a per month. I quickly found out after a short few months of ownership the 182 was not going to serve my mission requirements. After thanksgiving I flew from Disney to home and it took 6.7 hours on the hobbs...not including fuel stop. I was flying about the same speed as traffic. In my Cirrus I got home from Disney in 3 hours 41 minutes on the hobbs, no fuel stop.

I had no idea, but the airplane is the cheapest part of ownership. The actual travel, hotel rooms, hunting trips, disney tickets, resterautants, beer, bicycle rentals, activities...are making me a poor man...draining me dry....but the time I spend with my wife and 7 year old doing these actives at 45 years old is priceless....I would pay double what I'm paying! Anyone ever think about doing it! DO IT!

 

[fried1765]

Thank you, that is excellent advice! I will do my best to not let the get there itis get me, but it is a real thing...and it is powerful. I have 100 thousand Southwest Airlines points in savings. So I can fly back home from my destination or to a destination commercial with no financial barriers.

I will however fly through a layer of clouds. I have flown IFR and I keep eyes inside. My plane wants to fly straight and level....my digital glass cockpit is much easier than the old 6 pack.

One of the biggest threats is to get behind the aircraft flying in the IFR ATC system. I saw one of my CFIIs do this in my own plane and it scared me badly. I fired him and never used him again. From then on I trained with a platinum Cirrus Standard Instrument Trainer who has 25,000 hours and all he does is teach IFR.

I know my flight management system very well and can program it to do what I want it to do without thinking about it. That was one of the first things I made sure I understood very early on in my instrument training after watching the CFII fumble around and we look up and saw some terrifying things after I took my foggles off. I have completed several video and book learning courses on the Avidyne IFD flight management system.

I am not sure how familiar you are with these systems, but these new airplanes avionics and my avionics make flying IFR almost see like cheating. If you are an old school pilot then you will think it is cheating. For example, being assigned a hold...piece of cake..2 buttons...Any crossing restriction, STAR or SID....that is all programmed into my database easily accessed with a few buttons. I just have to verify it is accurate before I press the execute Botton. The way you guys learned to fly instruments old school with the tech you had to assist you was incredibly hard. Much harder than what we have avaialalbe to us today. Not sure I would have been a pilot back in the day...or at least an IFR pilot.

I am not an overconfident flyer. I am confident in my ability to control my systems. Also, I use a little common sense as well. For example. I flew to Chicago Midway a couple months ago. Not a chance in Hades would I do that in an IFR situation EVER. That place was busy and way too many things can happen. I will not fly at night IFR over mountains. I will fly over a layer at night, but will not take off at night into IFR conditions. If I finish the flight in those conditions that is another thing, but will never launch night IFR. Never mess with ice...and steer way way way clear of thunderstorms. Clouds do not bother me...I respect them....but I am not afraid of them.....T-Storms and Ice are terrifying and I will avoid them at all costs.

I bought this plane and went through training to answer and live the things I asked about in post #1 of this thread. It turns out you can do all those things I was interested in doing. It is a wonder fuel thing. I got my pilots license to travel and go places with my family. I am not plane poor, I am hotel poor. We go somewhere at least 2 times a per month. I quickly found out after a short few months of ownership the 182 was not going to serve my mission requirements. After thanksgiving I flew from Disney to home and it took 6.7 hours on the hobbs...not including fuel stop. I was flying about the same speed as traffic. In my Cirrus I got home from Disney in 3 hours 41 minutes on the hobbs, no fuel stop.

I had no idea, but the airplane is the cheapest part of ownership. The actual travel, hotel rooms, hunting trips, disney tickets, resterautants, beer, bicycle rentals, activities...are making me a poor man...draining me dry....but the time I spend with my wife and 7 year old doing these actives at 45 years old is priceless....I would pay double what I'm paying! Anyone ever think about doing it! DO IT!

You are quite correct.
I am an "old school pilot" (I retired in 2000).
That said, I do have many thousands of hours in glass cockpits, including nearly 5,000 on the 747-400.
Your airplane is very sophisticated for a light A/C, and that is a wonderful thing.
Instrument sophistication though, is no substitute for just plain "stick and rudder" flying.

One of the most important bits of aviation information I ever read, was written in black grease pencil, ( on each of our old USNR DC-4's ) on the forward panel, just above the instruments.
FTFA ......
When everything is going to he** ....don't get distracted!
To translate.....don't forget to..... FLY THE Fxxxxx AIRPLANE!

I like your attitude!
Keep yourself and your family safe,....... with good/conservative decisions!

Info: I found it interesting to learn that those very same old (FTFA) DC-4's that we flew in the Navy reserve, had many years earlier, actually hauled coal during the Berlin crisis.
I am old,....but not me in the Berlin crisis....I was only 8 years old then!

 

[Old Red]

You are quite correct.
I am an "old school pilot" (I retired in 2000).
That said, I do have many thousands of hours in glass cockpits, including nearly 5,000 on the 747-400.
Your airplane is very sophisticated for a light A/C, and that is a wonderful thing.
Instrument sophistication though, is no substitute for just plain "stick and rudder" flying.

One of the most important bits of aviation information I ever read, was written in black grease pencil, ( on each of our old USNR DC-4's ) on the forward panel, just above the instruments.
FTFA ......
When everything is going to he** ....don't get distracted!
To translate.....don't forget to..... FLY THE Fxxxxx AIRPLANE!

I like your attitude!
Keep yourself and your family safe,....... with good/conservative decisions!

Info: I found it interesting to learn that those very same old (FTFA) DC-4's that we flew in the Navy reserve, had many years earlier, actually hauled coal during the Berlin crisis.
I am old,....but not me in the Berlin crisis....I was only 8 years old then!

Yes sir, thank you for reading that and responding encouragingly. I wish I had more opportunity where I live to get to fly with some old buzzards! Instead I have to rely on Internet forums and what not. You bring up an excellent point. I learned to fly on a grass strip in a Cessna 150. The owner of the 150 also owned a 172. I could choose either. My physical size and my instructor allowed us to choose the 150. He encouraged me to train in the 150. When I asked why he said "because it will teach you to fly". I had no idea what he meant. How could a 150 teach me to fly better than a 172? What does he mean? Well after transitioning from a 150 to a 182 to now a Cirrus, I totally get it! The control inputs in a 150 to make it fly straight and level were oftentimes full deflection on the controls. You had to fight that thing down to the runway. Rudder and aileron inputs in the March, April, and May weather I trained in taught me stick and rudder. The cirrus my first time out I was greasing max X wind landings at 19knots. Super easy to fly, very stable. All landings are smooth. The 150 on the other hand....wow...good thing I learned on grass!

On the other hand on my first go around in the 150 as a student pilot and second or third time out solo, there was a turkey in full strut right out there in the middle of that grass strip. I was at 40 degrees of flaps, and I added full power and dumped all my flaps at once......my rear got very tight as she keep decending when I should have been climbing. The electric flaps and their non instantaneous movement from full to no flaps saved me along with a very forgiving aircraft that will just keep on flying. In my cirrus if I did that you might be reading about me in the papers. Not as forgiving with those types of errors.

I cannot imagine how hard it is to fly an airplane all the way into a crash. Beautiful flat fields off to your left and trees in front of you. You have to consciously fly into the trees cause you will not fly to the field. I think if I am ever faced with that decision it will be so tough to FTFA!!

 

[fried1765]

Yes sir, thank you for reading that and responding encouragingly. I wish I had more opportunity where I live to get to fly with some old buzzards! Instead I have to rely on Internet forums and what not. You bring up an excellent point. I learned to fly on a grass strip in a Cessna 150. The owner of the 150 also owned a 172. I could choose either. My physical size and my instructor allowed us to choose the 150. He encouraged me to train in the 150. When I asked why he said "because it will teach you to fly". I had no idea what he meant. How could a 150 teach me to fly better than a 172? What does he mean? Well after transitioning from a 150 to a 182 to now a Cirrus, I totally get it! The control inputs in a 150 to make it fly straight and level were oftentimes full deflection on the controls. You had to fight that thing down to the runway. Rudder and aileron inputs in the March, April, and May weather I trained in taught me stick and rudder. The cirrus my first time out I was greasing max X wind landings at 19knots. Super easy to fly, very stable. All landings are smooth. The 150 on the other hand....wow...good thing I learned on grass!

On the other hand on my first go around in the 150 as a student pilot and second or third time out solo, there was a turkey in full strut right out there in the middle of that grass strip. I was at 40 degrees of flaps, and I added full power and dumped all my flaps at once......my rear got very tight as she keep decending when I should have been climbing. The electric flaps and their non instantaneous movement from full to no flaps saved me along with a very forgiving aircraft that will just keep on flying. In my cirrus if I did that you might be reading about me in the papers. Not as forgiving with those types of errors.

I cannot imagine how hard it is to fly an airplane all the way into a crash. Beautiful flat fields off to your left and trees in front of you. You have to consciously fly into the trees cause you will not fly to the field. I think if I am ever faced with that decision it will be so tough to FTFA!!

Are you a gambler?
If you go straight ahead into the tree tops, you may have a 50/50 chance of survival.
If you try to stretch it for one of the fields just out of range to the side, you will run out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas, all at the same time.
You will stall,.....and have a nearly 100% chance of being dead.
Many have tried stretching, and are not here to talk about it.