Went to an airshow and got a flight in a T-33 T-Bird last weekend. It was awesome. Real touchy in roll.
Also, the company told me to take a plane out solo for the next two weekends and burn five hours a day to round out the fiscal year budget.
How 'bout y’all?
Aaarrgh. I envy. I green with envy.
But as long as we’re braggin’
I’ve got a little bit of left seat time in this ol’ gal. A lovely 1944 model B-17G
Next?
Oh yeah? Well, I’ve… er… got an hour in my logbook? :o
Hell, I’m envious of pilots who are current! 
That’s more than I got last weekend!
You and me both.
Most exciting airplane I’ve flown: Glasair III. An amazing airplane.
Was it Larry Salganek from New Mexico who took you up in it? If so, I’ve flown that same airplane - I wrote about it in a thread a while back. Great experience.
Congrats on starting your flight training by the way! I was a little late to post on your thread over the weekend . . . Fun, huh?
No, it was a couple T-33 pilots I’d met at another airshow earlier in the year. Before this weekend, I’d never met so many guys who owned their own vintage jets . . . verrrrry interesting pasttime, but a bit steep for my pocketbook.
Nice! Envy back at’cha . . . I miss big airplanes.
Nothing real impressive for ne to relate.
Just a lot of hours over the years…
One time when I had less than 100 hours, a guy I knew told me to go with his wife in a plane they had just bought as he had a student to fly with. His wife just had gotten her PVT. ( She was about 47 then. ) That was my first time at the controls of a Stinson 10A two place with a 75 HP engine. Easiest flying airplane I have ever been in. She ( the wife ) did not want to fly and so asked me to do the flying … *:: make my day ::: *
When we were ready to come back, I just shut my eyes, pulled the power back and that little thing found the airport and made a perfect landing with no help or imput for either of us. What a neat little plane.
One time I silenced the Riverside ( Now J. L. Jones airport in Tulsa ) airport tower for 5 minutes… by just landing ::: er ::::::: arriving :::: six times in one attempt in an 85 HP Swift. Found out a year later why no one would answer my calls to ground control for taxi permission. Everyone in the tower was rolling on the floor laughing… :: sigh ::: Well, at that time I had about 3 hours in that airplane and a total of about 66 hours total time… and no one had yet showed me how to fly it… I got better after HKB took me under his wing… 1967 I believe it was…
I haven’t flown in anything quite as nippy as a T-33 but you may find these ones interesting from an historical point of view:
I have about 40 hours in Harvard 1066 (aka ZK-ENE) and another Harvard (T6 to Americans) who’s side number I’ve forgotten. Harvard 1066 is seen here back in her working days as an RNZAF trainer.
A lot of the flying I did in 1066 was as a camera ship pilot for Phil Makanna. I have had a formation of a Spitfire, Hurricane, and Polikarpov sitting of my wingtip, not to mention the P40 Warhawk and Polikarpov I-153 on this page. I was also flying a Harvard as the camera ship for this rare formation of four Russian Polikarpov I-16s.
I would sometimes get to be on the other side of the camera. This is a photo of Tiger Moth ZK-CCH flown by yours truly.
I’ve spent half an hour strapped into the back seat of this P51 Mustang. It has dual controls and I flew it for a bit. The colour scheme in that photo is a temporary one applied for an airshow. It normally looks like this.
Most of my flying until fairly recently had been in a Pitts Special, but I can’t find a picture of it on the net.
Well, that’s about as much bragging as I can do without getting myself into trouble :).
I should mention that although some of those photos aren’t explicitly marked as such, they are all copyright to someone somwhere.
Don’t be shy, that’s more than most people have! Like it or not, that makes you part of the SDMB Pilot’s Squadron (currently flying in a very loose formation due geography) :).
I’ve, um, soloed a C-172. Several times now, in fact.
I once had a ride in a Ford Trimotor, too.
caligynephobia (very interesting name, too), what kind of company pays you to fly without doing anything productive with it? And where do I apply?
ElvisL1ves it’s Uncle Sam’s Flying Club that you want to sign up for - I believe the contract now is pilot training +10 years.
And color me jealous of the T-33, P-51 and B-17 time in other people’s logbooks.
Well as long as we’re all bragging…
I love going to checkrides and having the examiner peruse my logbook. Their eyebrows go up when they see my favorite page, on which I have time logged in a 1946 J-3 Cub and a 1953 MiG-15.
Both ends of the spectrum right there in one page of my logbook.
:eek:
Sadist.
Best time I’ve had in a plane without an electric system was a 1946 J-3, when I was working on my tailwheel endorsement at Poplar Grove, IL. On one of my takeoffs, my instructor covered the panel (well, what few gauges you have in a J-3) and told me to take off, and fly a pattern solely by the feel of the airplane and the view outside. Amazing how the signt picture and the sounds of the engine can tell you everything you really need to know about VFR flying – at least, enough to grease a wheel landing.
Done that in a Skyhawk, too - it’s amazing how closely you can tell your airspeed just by the pitch of the sound of the air passing over the doorframe. The engine does a great job of telling you RPM, too.
At least I got my instructor friend jealous by nailing a panelless landing the first time - she says it took her forever. Actually, I’d been doing it all along, with only a quick check of the airspeed on base leg.
I’ve ridden in “Chuckie” before, at an airshow. At least I think it’s the same plane, I’d have to dig out my photos. The year before, several of us paid $25 ea for a 30 minute trip in a B-25. The year Chuckie was there, we each had to pony up $75 ea for a ride in it, and some of the guys also paid $35 ea to ride in a TBM (I didn’t go on that one). Last time I heard, they were getting $350 a head for a ride in a B-17, so we lucked out.
While we’re all bragging.
I’m learning to fly hot air balloons, and someone else is paying for it.
By next summer I should be able to fly almost every type of non-high performance land aircraft in Canada, except for helicopters. Basically all general aviation aircraft, except for helicopters and gyroplanes, I’m not too sure about airships, nor the single ornithopter registered in Canada.
Of course, this balloon stuff has adjusted my plans, so I have to put off the float rating I had intended to get, and I’ll probably wait until next summer before getting any taildragger time (doesn’t require a ‘rating’ in Canada). And plans for my helicopter licence are also planned… I have no idea where I’ll every be able to find instruction in a gyroplane.
Basically, I want to be able to say “yeah, I can fly that.” About everything… And I’m a good chunk of the way there… Not bad for a 21 year old.
But as far as the most interesting thing I’ve been in, it’s a Fleet Finch.
On the other hand, the coolest thing I’ve ever scrubbed down: Thruxton Jackaroo
