I live on an air base. When I look up and see a fighter jet shrieking past, I think “I bet that’s good work, if you can get it.”
Then I pause and wonder what those guys do all day at work when they’re not flying. Do they do paperwork? Do they rake leaves? Answer the phones? Watch TV? Surf Facebook and TVTropes like I do all day at work?
I’ve got a friend who joined the Civil Air Patrol at my suggestion, and she and her unit just did a major exercise with the Air Force, basically practicing with the two organizations working together for disaster response.
Fun trivia, but back in WWII, one of the things those little airplanes might be doing would be sub hunting. :eek: The Civil Air Patrol was responsible for, among other things, trolling around off the coasts of the US looking for U-Boats. The Germans knew that the little red and yellow airplanes didn’t carry any weapons (at first), but that if you saw one of those little yellow and red airplanes, you were likely to meet it’s bomb-laden big green brother rather soon. My understanding is that the sub hunting mission is largely a thing of the past for CAP nowadays.
Not a pilot, but I’ve been a lifelong fan of aviation. One of my earliest memories is being invited to sit up in the cockpit on a flight from Athens to Tehran. I was 3 years old. According to my parents, I spent the entire flight up there in the jumpseat!
I studied aerospace engineering in University, and had an awesome internship in the performance engineering department at Northwest (RIP) Airlines.
I must have a few hundred hours in ‘sim’ time, but due to my hearing impairment and subsequent difficulty understanding anything over radio, I never did pursue my PPL. :mad:
I saw a cartoon once, that depicted a huge panel crammed with gauges. The pilot says to someone, ‘Oh, they’re mostly just for show. But don’t tell anyone, or everyone will want to be a pilot!’
I’ve only flown with ‘steam gauges’. (Roomie says she’s spoiled after flying Black Hawks. They have glass panels and are big aircraft. Everything else seems tiny and obsolete to her now. She has no desire to get back into flying.) Some show that was playing on TV last night mentioned ‘synthetic vision’ and GPS, so I looked it up. I found this promotional video for the Garmin G600. This one shows the glide slope (as green boxes). Freakin’ amazing! New Cessnas come with the G1000 (which is sold only to manufacturers) linked upthread somewhere.
I live less than a mile from a small airfield, so I see lots of light aircraft flying over. On a gorgeous sunny day when I see them overhead circling and practising landings and so on, I think “Wish I was up there enjoying the view”. They do have a bit of a habit of crash-landing, though (usually with not-too-serious consequences, thankfully, although one did crash and burn into a factory in fog a few years ago), which puts me off a little.
I have a passing fascination with ultralights, but, having flown in my boss’s Cirrus for business a couple of times, my attitude toward normal GA is “Meh. I guess there are worse ways to get to Akron for the day.”
Reminds me of a joke: A group of pilots are gathered on the edge of an airfield on one foggy day. Up above, they can hear an airplane circling, waiting for a break in the fog so he can try to land.
One young aviator asks “Do you think he’ll be able to bring her down?”
An older pilot replies: “Nobody’s managed to keep one up yet!”
I instructed for awhile in those glass-cockpit Skyhawks. My first introduction was delivering a new one to its owner 3 years ago (discussed in this thread, post #12). It was quite a change for an old guy like me.
[stealth-brag]
If I may include an interesting note; My son just started a flying job in the Northeast last week. During his evaluation ride with the chief pilot, all the fancy gps moving map displays were switched off, and he was made to complete an entire IFR flight with one VOR. No GPS, no DME, no ILS. Just a VOR and a clock. Since he did most of his training in ancient equipment, it was easy for him. He said only 2 of the pilot’s in his hiring “class” passed. The rest were told to come back after they’d gotten remedial training.
[/stealth-brag]
Well - I’m a huge aviation fan. But when I look up and see a GA aircraft overhead - my first honest thought is disappointment that it’s not something more exotic or interesting (to my limited sensbilities) - something like an old warbird, or something similar. My second thought is also disappointment - that I haven’t pursued my lifelong dream to become a pilot myself yet.
Alas, I am still a groundling. I did chat with an instructor today though. Did a bit of ‘hangar flying’ and mentioned a cheap Grumman I found during one of my masochism sessions. He said I should buy it and he and I should go get it. Then I’d have an airplane and get my BFR on the way back. (I wonder how many stops it would be, with two of us in an AA1? Could be a long 1,400 miles.)
I’m under the approach path for the Kansas City downtown airport, which is pretty much executive and GA. When I look up, I’m checking to see if it’s one of those nifty canard-wing twin-engine pusher-prop jobs. I see one coming in overhead at least once per month, and I’m assuming it’s the same person/company. Then my thought it, “wow, that’s a neat-looking airplane.”
Someone mentioned flush rivets…I know commercial jets are flush-riveted, for the most part, as are, interestingly, Mooney single-engine GA planes.
Grumman AA1. This is a two-seater that has a payload with full fuel of about 338 pounds. Good enough for me and a lot of luggage, or two FAA ‘standard’ occupants. But me and another guy in it would mean offloading fuel.
Thanks! Approximately how far would you be able to fly normally with full fuel?
(You know, Johnny – you tried once to convince me to join your brethren. I found myself yesterday wistfully looking at the cost of flying lessons at Van Nuys and thinking, “Gee, that’s not as expensive as I would have thought…” Curse you!!!)
Possibly a Long-EZ or a VariEze (spelling changed on the former, because people kept calling the earlier aircraft ‘Vari-ease’), though there are a number of canard-configured kits out there. I’d love to have a Long-EZ so I could tell people, ‘Oh, yeah. It’s the kind John Denver was killed in.’ (Actually, I’d rather have a QuickieQ200.)
Not surprising about the Mooneys. They’re noted for their speed.
An AA1A cruises around 125 SMPH and carries 24 gallons of fuel. I don’t know how much is usable, but let’s say 22 gallons. I don’t know what the fuel burn is, but I’ve heard as low as 5 gph. At cruise? Maybe… 7 or 8 gph? Wiki says the range is 488 miles, and another source says 350 miles.
‘Not as expensive’ <> ‘not expensive’. But it should be fairly affordable for anyone making a middle-class salary.
Agreed, and I have other financial priorities at the moment. However, they do offer a two-hour first lesson for under $400 that includes an hour of ground school and an hour of flying where you apparently get to have some control over the plane, and I’m tempted to treat myself just for the experience.
I live near the Burbank airport, and don’t pay much attention to the GA planes that fly overhead. I will however, run outside if I hear a WWII plane going by. I don’t know enough about them to ID specific types, but I enjoy seeing them fly around, and there are always more than one, in formation.
The noise from helicopters and small planes is annoying, but I like the sound of the fighters, even if they are louder. They have a sound that says they mean business.
A few times a year, one of the touring B-17s will come around to give rides for the weekend, and I always enjoy seeing them take off and land.
