We're getting old, folks...

22 SIGNS INDICATING YOU HAVE GROWN UP
1. Your house plants are alive and you can't smoke any of them.
2. Having sex in a twin bed is out of the question.
3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
4. 6:00A.M. is when you get up, not when you go to bed.
5. You hear your favorite song on an elevator.
6. You watch the Weather Channel.
7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of hook up and break up.
8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.
9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as "dressed up."
10. You're the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door
won't turn down the stereo!
11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.
12. You don't know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.
13. Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.
14. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald's leftovers.
15. You no longer take naps from noon to 6 PM!
16. Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of
one.
17. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 AM would severely upset,
rather than settle, your stomach.
18. If you're a gal, you go to the drug store for ibuprofen and
antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests.
19. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer "pretty good stuff."
20. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time.
21. "I just can't drink the way I used to," replaces, "I'm never going
to drink that much again."
22. You read this entire list looking desperately for one sign that
doesn't apply to you and can't find one to save your sorry old ass.

Well then, what you need is the context:

The context being that most professional pilots are not practicing
engineers? Obviously. Engineering is generally project based, and
thus not something that can easily be done part time. Can't put the
project on hold while you fly a five-day to Norita.

We also have airline pilots who are MD's, dentists, lawyers, etc., etc.
but that sounds an awfully lot like work.

Actually, you don't. What you have is a lot of MD's, dentists,
lawyers, etc., etc., who are also airline pilots. There's a
difference. I know lots of MD's, JD's, PhD's and such who pick up an
ATP certificate in their spare time, just for the hell of it, even
though they generally don't have anything like the spare time an
airline pilot has. I have yet to meet an airline pilot who has ever
picked up an MD, JD, PhD, or even a BE in his copious spare time. The
level of achievement involved is dramatically different.

I do know several airline pilots who started out in engineering school.
Not all flunked out of engineering and had to change majors - one I
know actually managed to graduate with a C average. He's a captain at
the majors now, twenty years seniority, driving a Boeing around,
figuring out how to live on less than an engineer a dedade his junior
makes and what to do about his retirement, and wishing he'd developed
some actual skills. I suppose with legacy carriers all going bankrupt
as the low cost operators eat their lunch, there's a lot of that going
around.

That's not to say that none of the A students in engineering become
professional pilots. Some do. You find them in flight test, the
astronaut program, etc. Airlines? Not so much, though every once in a
while you will see one doing it as a retirement gig or a diversion from
his consulting business.

Recreational flying is not in the same league.

Recreational flying is what you make it. Of course a pilot with 100
hours can't be in the same league as one with 10,000, but in my
experience, a recreational pilot is generally a better pilot than an
airline pilot with the same number of hours. Maybe it's because you
can't swing a dead cat at the airport without hitting a few engineers.

Michael

"Michael" wrote
Recreational flying is what you make it. Of course a pilot with
100 hours can't be in the same league as one with 10,000, but in
my experience, a recreational pilot is generally a better pilot
than an airline pilot with the same number of hours. Maybe it's
because you can't swing a dead cat at the airport without
hitting a few engineers.

Michael...
You're full of Bull****!! For a couple of hours, the RecPilot just
might fly his toy a bit better than the airline pilot, but I would
just like to see a RecPilot even attempt a takeoff in an Airbus.

Bob Moore
Electrical Engineering, Georgia Tech
US Navy, VP-21 P-2V, VP-46 P-3B
Pan American World Airways, B-707, B-727
Air Florida, Chief Pilot, Director Flight Operations
FAA ATP ASMEL, CFI ASEL/INST

You're full of Bull****!! For a couple of hours, the RecPilot just
might fly his toy a bit better than the airline pilot, but I would
just like to see a RecPilot even attempt a takeoff in an Airbus.

A good friend of mine flew an Airbus. Based on what he said, you're
right - the very high time rec pilot will have a hard time with it.
It's more suited to kids who spend a lot of time playing flight
simulator.

The high time rec pilot winds up doing different things - like shooting
an ILS to mins at night, in an airplane he only got into that morning,
with no operative directional gyro and no compass light (thus no
heading indication at all) - or some equivalent mess. Single pilot.
Usually before he hits 2000 hours. I know lots of airline guys at 2000
hours, mostly in the right seat of the regionals, and I can't think of
one who could pull something like that off.

By the time they hit 10,000 hours it's a different story - they're
usually better than the 2000 hour rec pilot, having gotten good through
sheer repetition - but the rare 10,000 hour rec pilot you see is truly
amazing, head and shoulders above the average 10,000 hour airline guy.
I was fortunate enough to learn from one. He taught me to fly an
aerobatic biplane in 90 minutes. The 10,000 hour airline guy who tried
before him only succeeded in scaring me.

Michael

"Michael" wrote

We must live in different countries.

The high time rec pilot winds up doing different things

I took this to mean a pilot with a Recreational Pilot Certificate.
You obviously meant something else, probably Private/Comm Pilot.


shooting an ILS to mins at night, in an airplane he only got
into that morning, with no operative directional gyro and no
compass light (thus no heading indication at all) - or some
equivalent mess. Single pilot.

Oh...a true Idiot. So...airline pilots can't fly because they
are unwilling to risk their life like that idiot Private Pilot?

Just where do you live?

Bob Moore
CFIing since 1970

I took this to mean a pilot with a Recreational Pilot Certificate.
You obviously meant something else, probably Private/Comm Pilot.

I mean someone who flies primarily for recreation, rather than for a
living. That should have been obvious from the context. Most
recreational pilots with thousands of hours do have advanced ratings.

shooting an ILS to mins at night, in an airplane he only got
into that morning, with no operative directional gyro and no
compass light (thus no heading indication at all) - or some
equivalent mess. Single pilot.

Oh...a true Idiot. So...airline pilots can't fly because they
are unwilling to risk their life like that idiot Private Pilot?

It takes a true idiot to volunteer to do this intentionally. But when
weather is forecast to be VFR but instead does its own thing, and when
equipment that was certified good fails in flight, you do what needs to
be done to land the airplane. Or you die. Most of the 2000 hour guys
I know in the right seat of regional airliners would die. Fortunately
they're flying equipment that is much better maintained, with far less
flexibility, and in a crew environment so it all works out.

Just where do you live?

Figure it out. It's not that hard. The software engineer who wanted
to train with me figured out who and where I was quite easily.

Michael

"Michael" wrote in message
ups.com...
Figure it out. It's not that hard. The software engineer who wanted
to train with me figured out who and where I was quite easily.

So, who is Tina Femea?

Where ya' based out of? I'm over at SGR...

So, who is Tina Femea?

The person to whom thisoldairplane.com is registered, of course

Looking up the owner of a domain isn't terribly difficult, but it's not
terribly useful either. Several people have email addresses that trace
to her, most of them are pilots, and some of them post here regularly.
No points so far.

Michael

"Michael" wrote in message
oups.com...
The person to whom thisoldairplane.com is registered, of course

Looking up the owner of a domain isn't terribly difficult, but it's not
terribly useful either. Several people have email addresses that trace
to her, most of them are pilots, and some of them post here regularly.
No points so far.

Well, I figured that thisoldairplane.com was your domain since you have an
account named 'usenetreplies'... Just curious if that was your girl friend /
wife / significant other / whatever... I guess it's also possible that
you're just having a gender identity crisis... snicker

Well, I figured that thisoldairplane.com was your domain since you have an
account named 'usenetreplies'... Just curious if that was your girl friend /
wife / significant other / whatever... I guess it's also possible that
you're just having a gender identity crisis... snicker

It was indeed my girlfriend. I was just being snarky.

Michael