You can get current without a medical? I’m hoping AOPA can convince the FAA to extend driver’s licenses to 3rd class and 1 passenger.
I thought she was talking about just taking a lesson for fun, not getting back full privileges.
I thought maybe she wanted to log some time. Sounds like she wants to go on a hamburger run.
If you pick a sport plane and fly under sport rules that already applies - sport category only requires a valid driver’s license (and not having failed your last medical). Would also apply to glider pilots, who self-certify.
Yep. Just for fun - can’t afford full privileges at this point.
Logging time is nice, but it’s never been a big priority with me, as I’m strictly a for-fun pilot. No hamburger run, though - just got done losing 10 pounds, don’t want to reverse all that hard work and deprivation! Some of the stick time I could have logged in the past I just didn’t bother with, I’m not obsessed with squeezing every possible tenth out of my flight time.
ahem
“Hamburger run”?
Ha! I once had a $300 Pepsi. And I prefer Coke!
Dad and I used to fly to Las Vegas ‘for lunch’. Really, it was just an excuse for each of us to get a couple of hours of stick time.
Incidentally, pancake breakfasts are fairly popular excuses to fly.
The first article linked from the Wikipedia page was an entertaining read. I’m hoping that I get to a point in training where I can fly out to KCNO for a meal at Flo’s, which I’m already familiar with, but no longer live near. It is, by far, my favorite breakfast location (breakfast served all day, of course) in Southern California.
Sure, it would only take me about an hour to drive there from home, but where’s the fun in that? I begin to understand this $100 Hamburger concept.
The CFI logs the flight time as dual in my log book.
He loved getting to go fly someplace besides the practice area and getting to do all the sight seeing while I was flying around getting pictures I wanted with the leaves off the trees.
I got to play with steep turns, stalls, S turns, different approaches, slow flight and no one paid any attention to the AH. Once he was sure I was still able to fly pretty good he loves it when I schedule and hour or two of dual… I also got a great guy who is willing to learn from my experience as I did show him a few things that he had never thought would work that way.
I am poor now & old & this is the best way to get some flyin in except for rich friends buying me T-6 time or some other flying present for special occasions. Don’t get as much stick time & never a landing that way either.
Never was all that bold cause I prefer old…
Save your coins Broomstick and pick an understanding instructor. You will have a blast…
Shoeshine tips. I am now saving tips I get from shoeshines and emergency shoe repairs. Not that I get that many, but once in awhile.
Now that I’ve been thinking about this…
If I do buy my hypothetical hour of flight time, what should I do? I actually don’t want to go on a hamburger run or eat anything. I guess what I want to do is flight-seeing, but I’ve pretty much been everywhere locally there is to go, aside from Really Expensive Landing Fee airports and, frankly, venturing into Class B isn’t my idea of a fun and relaxing time.
I dunno… maybe it would be worth it to drive sufficiently far so as to get an hour in a new sort of airplane, but that would be about two hours each way as I’ve sort of exhausted the local choices.
An hour of rotor time? Well, half hour, perhaps… just switching to rotor would increase the cost by a factor of 2 or 3 but some chopper stick time is on the aviation bucket list. Except the spouse would probably turn green, as he’s the chopper enthusiast in the family.
What could I do with an hour I haven’t already done? Or do I need to do something different?
Folks who aren’t currently flying (and who aren’t current) what would YOU do with an hour in the cockpit?
I endorse this idea.
Generally, an R22 costs twice as much as a C172. For example, up here a C172 costs $110/hour and a Robbo costs $220/hour. A Hughes/Schweizer/Sikorsky 269/300 usually runs about $20/hour more. I’m not sure what a C150/152 rents for.
This strikes me as a difficult question to answer given some of the restrictions you’re facing (having seen all there is to see in the immediate area, particularly). If it were me, I’d likely choose, in this order:
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to make a day of it by driving the two hours each way to be able to fly something different in an area I haven’t spent much (or any) time flying previously. Two kinds of new for the price of one (plus a tank of gas); or,
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to wait and save up enough to get two hours of flying time instead of one so you’d have the time to get far enough to explore somewhere new while still flying out of your home area. Leaving the eating aside, maybe you could fly to a destination that would allow you to explore somewhere new and/or interesting on the ground as well as in the air (I don’t know where you live, so I don’t know if there are any neat spots to shop or hike or just explore that would fall within a reasonable radius).
The third option, of course, is to not do anything new at all, but just enjoy the opportunity to be in the air and in control. But I say that not having not even spent two full hours in the left seat, so I have no idea how dull it may get for someone to fly and do basically the same thing they’ve done so often before.
Aerobatics? Save a little longer and rent a pricier plane with a glass cockpit? Or some other more exotic plane that you’ve wanted to try? I think you can get a half an hour in a Mig 29 for like 10 grand. 
Hell, that makes the MiG-15 training at this place sound downright affordable!
I’ve flown that MiG - lots of fun, but save your pennies!
If I wanted something different I’d try an ultralight and fly really low and slow. Been there done that in an emergency and I’d like to try it without my wallet pulled into my large colon.
Unfortunately you just missed out on fall foliage flying. If you’re planning down the road then look for a fly-in to go to or a museum to fly to. Wright Pat allows pilots to land at the museum once a year but of course I can’t find a link. A hot air balloon event. Flying around an amusement park at night. Going to Put In Bay…
While I have thought of doing aerobatics, I suspect it would fall under the “it’s good for me as a pilot” category rather than something I’d enjoy. I don’t like the sensation of unusual attitudes (I alluded to this in the discussion where I mentioned my dislike of stalls). It took a couple weeks for me to get into a mind set for spin training and while it was pretty painless as such things go I can’t say I really liked it. The best that could be said for it is that I didn’t dislike it particularly intensely.
No, airsickness was not the problem. The only time I’ve felt the least bit nauseous or ill while flying was the time I was coming down with the stomach flu and subsequently spent a few days on the ground reviewing prior meals. I just don’t like the sensations. I don’t like being upside down or sideways. I can tolerate it when necessary but seeking it out just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you’re me.
I realize that may be difficult for some aerobatic enthusiasts to understand, but one advantage to having 10 years and several hundred hours under my belt is that I do have a pretty fair idea of what I do and don’t like about flying.
I’ve flown two different glass cockpits already.
I’ve flown a Stearman, at least a half dozen different kinds of homebuilt, a glider, a powerglider, retractable gear… I’m not sure what sort of exotic remains in my price range. Did I mention I spent 10 years flying as many different types of fixed-wing aircraft as I could get my hands on? Of course, suggestions are welcomed.
If I had 10 grand to blow on flight I’d get current again - I could probably get 18-24 months of regular flying out of that!
Well, I started in ultralights… about 40-50 hours there, although it’s not officially loggable time and I wasn’t particularly anal about tracking it.
I agree, it is MUCH more enjoyable when it’s not an emergency!
S’alright - I’ve been there done that. Actually, I prefer winter flying over snow for scenery… um, closed cockpit on that one, frostbite is no fun, and neither is hypothermia. I’ve even paid extra for pre-heats to spare the wear and tear on the airplane (also because the FBO’s required it below a certain temperature).
There are a couple museums I’d like to fly to, but the distances would be cost-prohibitive under my current finances.
Done the hot air balloon thing, in 1996 in Arizona. I’d consider it again, but I want to be in control and frankly, I don’t know how to fly a balloon. Learning would be interesting, but not right now.
Done that, too.
Hmm… that’s an idea. Distance might be a problem though, I suspect the time required would exceed my budget.
Some ideas I’ve been considering include
- another glider flight (about 110 mile drive for that)
- driving up to the northwest suburbs to fly a J3 Cub (about two hours)
- flightseeing along the Chicago shoreline, which is a good distance, something I’d want another set of eyes along for anyhow, and I could bring the spouse with a camera for pictures
- rotor intro-flight (probably only a half hour, but whatever)
- saving up for another Stearman flight, although this time I probably wouldn’t be doing any landings and it wouldn’t be on my birthday, as it’s still too freakin’ cold up there in March in this area.
My inclination is to opt for a lower-tech aircraft that is also presumably lower in cost to maximize flight time. The rotor craft half hour would be an exception, but trying new things is very attractive to me, and is actually how I most frequently used the license back when I was a regular flyer. I’ll try to research FBO’s in a 1-2 hour drive radius for aircraft I haven’t flown yet, as it’s been four years someone might have acquired something new.
I’m tempted to go for something like a powered parasail or tandem hang-gliding, but there are issues with that and the spouse (his first and only experience with a parachute was very negative. No injuries, but it started with two “buddies” literally dragging him out of the airplane when he changed his mind and no longer wanted to jump. Contrary to some tellings, he was not actually still clutching the seat cushion on landing, it was supposedly found about 500 yards away from where he touched down). Given how tolerant my mate has been about my aviation activities I am hesitant to get stubborn over that.
Actually, if I plan it right, he can come along and enjoy the ride, too. Depends on how many seats we rent.
Gyrocopter? One of those winged suit things that you finish off in a parachute landing?
Come to think of it – sky diving?
A guy I used to work with jumped once. He said he wanted to experience all aspects of flying he could.
In light of the crash in Arizona and this one near Chicago earlier today, I’m wondering what the closest calls or scariest moments have been for the Doper pilots. Would any of you care to share your stories?
Also, has anything ever happened to you while flying that has made you seriously considering giving it up (and I realize your answer could be the same as the story you share)?
While doing solo work in prepration for my private pilot checkride I was overtaken by bad weather and forced to land in a field that, strictly speaking, wasn’t really long enough but thanks to the knee-high grass the airplane stopped in a remarkably short distance. It was pretty damn scary to be only about 400 feet off the ground and the grass beneath disappearing in the fog. When I entered the field and touched down - which, by the way, was a lot like driving a pick up at 75 mph over a vacant lot, but a lot less stable - the fog was so thick I couldn’t see the other end of the field.
But I did land successfully, I wasn’t hurt, the airplane wasn’t damaged, the nice person who’s backyard I commandeered was kind enough to tell me which state I had landed in and let me use his phone to call the airport. For about a half an hour after the owner and the state police came out they weren’t sure if they could fly the C150 out of the field or would have to trailer it out, but the owner managed to get it out, I got a free helicopter ride (that makes a Huey, an R-22, and R-44, and a Hughes 300 for me for chopper rides now), and an audience with The Authorities the next day.
Among other things, the next day my CFI simulated the same situation and told me to attempt to fly to the nearest airport on instruments (which would have been the only alternative). I couldn’t do it. If I had been unable to land in that field most likely I would have died on that August day back in 2000.
Moral of the story: Very very very Bad Thing for a VFR pilot to blunder into IFR conditions.
No.
Nor has seeing bad things happen to people I know, witnessing crashes first hand, assisting in dragging bloody wrecks off runways, or attending funerals.
ETA: The burning airplane incident DID, shall we say, discourage me from flying for about 6-7 years, but taking flying lessons was my way of getting over that.