I’m rated in fixed-wing and rotary-wing, but I haven’t piloted a fixed-wing since I started flying helicopters. I usually fly a Schweizer 300CB.
So how many of you out there are licensed pilots, or are training to become a pilot? What do you fly?
Johnny LA– I sure do wish I was a pilot. One of these days…
Does it count if you’re working on a license?
I take lessons in a Piper Warrior. Due to this fact, I consider myself the coolest person on the planet.
-L
Got my license on my 21st birthday in '75. Got my instrument rating in '77. Was within 4 hours of getting my commercial ticket in October of '78, when I had a scare while out on a solo flight. I landed the plane and never piloted again. I always figured I’d get back into it, but for a while it wasn’t convenient, then it was too expensive, and now we have a sailboat…
I was signed off in Cessna 150 and 172, Commanche 180, Cherokee 140, Rockwell 112A, and Beechcraft T-34B.
All of a sudden, I miss flying…
It says right on my license:
AIRPLANE SINGLE ENGINE LAND
But I haven’t been flying for quite a while. I seem to have the time or the money, but rarely both.
I’m with Robot Arm: I haven’t had the time & money to practice lately. Graduated from high school in '83, and got my private license in Dec. of that year. PA-28-160, what a wonderful feeling! Wish I could get the time, money, energy, & inclination all together simultaneously.
Airplane, Single Engine, Land
Instrument Airplane
Also owner of a 172F
Co-pilot, first mate of a G-44A Widgeon but not rated in it.
Okay, so I’m NOT the coolest person in the world. But I’m definitely one of the two coolest people in the plane while I’m flying.
All pilots consider themselves the coolest people on the planet! 
Of course, nobody’s cooler than a heli pilot! 
How do you know if there’s a pilot at your party?
S/He’ll tell you.
How many pilots does it take to change a light bulb?
One. He holds onto the light bulb and the world revolves around him! (Or her.)
FairyChatMom: It’s not that expensive! C’mon, just one flight. One flight for old time’s sake won’t hurt! BTW: The T-34 is one of my favourite aircraft. I’ve never had the chance to fly one though.
rastahomie: Do it! (I can hear rasta on the radio now: “Dis is two-ninah-whisky, mon!” )
Oblio! Gosh, I haven’t heard from you in almost a year! I hope Arrow is doing well. C-172? With a dog named “Arrow”, I figured you’d fly a Piper!
Re: The time and money thing. Yeah, don’t I know it! It was a struggle to come up with money to fly with. (The 300CB is going for close to $200/hour.) Last time I tried to fly, one 300CB had its rotors off and the other one was booked solid.
So are we the founding members of the Straight Dope Flying Club?
I used to be a pilot.
When dad and I had to bring in wood for the stove, he’d choppit and I’d pilot.
Student pilot here, I’ve been getting my hours in a new Cessna 172 Skyhawk, N2616L. I’ve flown a 172 SP, as well, but 16L just feels better than the Sierra Pop. I can’t explain it, because the extra horsepower is nice, but 16L is just a tighter plane.
I got my license in '97 in a warrior and my instrument rating in '99 in a 172. I do most of my flying in my dad’s C model Mooney. I haven’t got a chance to fly much the past year because of school 
Learned to fly in a Cessna 150 when I was learning to drive a car. My “car buddy” was also learning to fly. So we’d scare the hell out of ourselves on the streets of southern California and then wave gleefully toward each other at Fullerton Airport as we clamored aboard our respective planes.
Then Dad got sick and we couldn’t afford it anymore. I haven’t been behind the stick since I was 17. (Dad was a pilot in WW2 - B17s. He looked at me one day after I gave him a book on flight and said “Wanna learn to fly, little girl?” I said you bet, and he found an instructor that taught me how to do spins. :))
Does the Straight Dope Flying Club take adjunct members?
Hmmmm… about 10 of us? Why don’t we make a real flying club? We can each contribute about $4,000 and buy a used Cessna 172. Here’s the brilliant part: We can base it at Van Nuys (VNY)!
Got my Private this past December in a Piper Warrior. And while I’m not one to use such phrases, goddam if wasn’t the proudest moment of my life!
I fly in upstate New York, which is a great place for it. Last week I took the Warrior on the “Hudson River Tour” down to the Statue of Liberty. It’s amazing to fly under some of the busiest airspace in the country, past one of the greatest cities in the world, at 500 feet off the deck!
Any other Dopers in my neck of the woods? Let’s go fly!
Johnny
Thanks for the welcome so soon after I posted (first post in quite a while)
[SQWK 7500]
Well, I been thru a few storms in my life recently. One of which was seeing Arrow leave the ‘Pointless Forest’ for the last time. After recovering from ‘The Accident’, he was brought down by lung cancer that had migrated to his brain.
Sudden, tragic, tearful. I still miss him. sniff
[SQWK 1200]
Never thought about the Piper ‘Arrow’ connection, I’ve had my 172 since '84 and I guess Arrow came along in '88.
Is Hawthorne (HHR) still there ? Did they move the runway ? I used to be based there, in fact that was where I found my plane.
I’m ready for my private checkride as soon as the weather clears up over Wisconsin and I can get a four hour block on the rental schedule.
I have 9.9 hours in a PA-28-181 (that would be a Piper Archer, N5360F), which I started flying after a string of problems with my FBO’s 172’s:
[ul]
[li]12/12/2000 The day after a snowstorm that shut down Dane County Regional for several hours, I was scheduled in N6454J. To make a long story short, the starter motor had literally frozen in place, then burned out when maintenance thawed and tried to start it.[/li][li]1/19/2001 Began taxiing 6454J on the ramp. Did a brake check… left brake was fine, but the other was not. Made it very difficult to turn to the right in order to taxi back to maintenance. Cause of the problem was ice in the brake line.[/li][li]1/27/2001 The final straw was an AD on an oil additive that kept me on the ground. I inquired about the other 172, which I then learned was unairworthy… the wing was bent. A student pilot hit an icy patch on takeoff roll from a narrow (30’) runway, caught a wing ona snowbank, and flipped.[/li][/ul]
[Squawk 7500]
How much money is rental sucking out of your wallet? I had been spending $62/hour on C172 rental up until Christmas; now I have to lay down $69/hour for a 177 Archer II.
[/Squawk 7500]
Correction, that should be a 1977 Archer II.
Grob G 102 Astir CS-77 Standard III
Better than sex? Different to some degree.
Five or six hours with this wench can leave the heart racing, significant dehydration, and a pleasant tingling centralized near the loins. Mostly, the brain has this wonderful sense of having succesfully completed an intricate dance with a flirtatious partner.
Afterwards, some are prone to want for a nap. Others have been known to caress her and gently towel her off before tucking her in. Somehow, a firm smack across the haunches tends to keep the relationship on an even keel.
When I was learning to fly, starting in the fall of '74 at the North Island Navy Flying Club in San Diego, I paid $11/hr for a Cessna 150, $16/hr for a 172, $8/hr for the instructor, and I earned free flight time by hanging around the club and doing stuff - handling the schedule, cleaning the classrooms, washing airplanes… I have no idea what costs are at the Jax Navy Flying Club, but I know they’re looking for instructors…
Johnny,** take a look at the part where I mention the sailboat… that’s the hole in the water where one pours one’s money. <sigh> Hubby wants to learn to fly, tho - who knows, once the kid is out of college and we no longer have to support her, mebbe we’ll give it a try…
BTW - I got my 200th hour in that T-34… that plane was such a rush!!!