What finally prompted you to take flying lessons?

That's it, John! All these years I had been wondering what kind of bird she
was. The roll down windows and wooden wheel with chain drive stuck out in
my mind as "really neat". I can attest that this plane resulted in the
creation of at least one pilot.

"John Gaquin" wrote in message
...

"Brad Z" wrote in message news:VnhXb.307548

A 15 minute ride in an old radial engined airplane on Cape Cod on my
16th
birthday back in 1990. I loved every single second of it.

Excellent! The bright yellow one, right? That aircraft is a 1931 Stinson
Detroiter, with a Lycoming engine. Owned (when I flew her) by PBA.
Affectionately known by all who flew her then as Willie. A real wooden
steering wheel (yes, not a yoke), leather seats, and crank-down windows,
just like in your car. A marvelous plane, and great fun, although by the
time you've finished your 30th trip around Ptown on a hot August day, it's
Miller Time. I've got several hundred hours in Willie, and wouldn't trade
one of them.

Willie was purchased some years ago by a former PBA pilot (current shuttle
pilot, I think -- who owns the BOS-NYC shuttle these days?) and moved to
the
Marstons Mills airport. As of a few years ago, she was back in Ptown,
back
doing the sightseeing flights. I'm not sure of the exact chronology. I
think it is coming up on about forty years that that craft has been
gracing
the skies of the outer Cape.

Thanks for the memories.

"Brad Z" wrote in message news:doyYb.340879

That's it, John! All these years I had been wondering what kind of bird
she
was. The roll down windows and wooden wheel with chain drive stuck out in
my mind as "really neat". I can attest that this plane resulted in the
creation of at least one pilot.

That's neat -- I suspect the list of pilots created by those sightseeing
flights is long and distinguished! Our conversation got my interest going,
and I had to dig out the logbook from the attic. We used to run Willie and
a Cherokee Six, and there would be literally hundreds of folks in line.
That Cherokee Six was a sweetheart, but when you'd get down to the last
couple of rounds in the tank, Tony (the guy running the booth), would always
find someone weighing about 325 to go in the third row seat, and your CG
would be somewhere out on the elevator! When it got untenable, we'd grab a
Douglas between flights, and do a couple of rounds with that, knocking off
32 pax at a whack. Helped keep the lines cut down. But having said all
that, I now have to offer a couple of corrections. Turns out Willie was a
model SM-8A, [which is not the same as a Detroiter], with a Lycoming R-680
engine. All my time is logged as an SM-8A, but I recall a lot of
discussions about that back then. Some folks said she was a Detroiter but
SM-8A was just the model number, others said different things, but the basic
problem was that no one really knew, and back then there was no internet to
quick check the info [Al hadn't thought it up yet!! :-)] The current
registration database for N205W lists the type as SM-8A, and also lists the
year of manufacture as 1930.

JG

In 1968, I was a 24-year-old single engineer. One day at work, I was
invited to go flying with two co-workers and another young engineer
who was going up to maintain his night currency in a 182.
Originally, there had been somebody else scheduled, but he dropped out
at the last minute and the other guys happened to think of me. I was
thrilled. I even broke an engagement with my old college roommate,
who was in town for that night only.

It turned out that the pilot had an instructor's rating from
Switzerland and was thinking about getting his US rating -- but he
only wanted to teach engineers because he didn't want to have to
explain basic physics.

How much would a license cost, I wanted to know. I was surprised by
how reasonable it was and jumped at the chance. (C150s were $14/hr
wet. I don't remember what Jean-Francois' hourly rate was, but I
wound up getting my private for $800. I had my first lesson on April
13, soloed on June 13 and passed my checkride on September 13.)

Prior to that, I had always figured that flying was for people with
lots more disposable income than I had.

Don

"Don Tuite" wrote:
Prior to that, I had always figured that flying was for
people with lots more disposable income than I had.

I still think that, but it doesn't stop me.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
(remove pants to reply by email)

I was that mediocre athlete who played right field in grade school
baseball. I sucked at it because every time a bird or airplane flew
over, I'd be watching it instead of the line drive ball zinging toward
me. Oh the humility! I spent a zillion hours going around in circles
plowing the same fields that turned to dust and drove many people from
the southern plains during the 30's. But, out of those dust clouds
arose a family that included a cousin who became WWII B-17 pilot who
died winning the congressional medal of honor and an uncle who taught
hundreds of servicemen to fly. Then he watched as Uncle Sam sent them
on to the flak filled skies of Europe to defend our freedom and secure
my future. That same uncle was still an active cfi and airplane owner
well into his 90's. At one time he was the oldest active pilot in the
U.S.A. With a family background like that, I had to learn fly, (even
though my dad discouraged me because it was too dangerous).


"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"Don Tuite" wrote:
Prior to that, I had always figured that flying was for
people with lots more disposable income than I had.

I still think that, but it doesn't stop me.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM
(remove pants to reply by email)

I grew up around airplanes and airports - Dad is an A&P. Got a few rides
from friends. Pretty much wanted to be a pilot as long as I can remember.
Money kept it out of reach. Went thru AFROTC to pay for college. Got a
degree in aero eng. Either money or work kept me away for years. Then in
'88, I was listening to Pink Floyd's "Learning to Fly" and thought to
myself, "why not." So I did.

Gerry

My friend and flying "mentor" (who was also a customer, now my partner)
had been telling me stories about his flying experiences even from when
he was training. While always enamored, I never thought I had the time or
money to do it.

One day we had to go to a meeting in the Philadelphia area (I live in NYC
area, between LGA & HPN, he lives at the Jersey Shore area). I didn't
want to drive, so I took the train and he picked me up in Trenton and we
drove the rest of the way in his car.

On the way back from the meeting, we wanted to "debrief" in the car, so
we planned for me to get dropped off at the train station near his house.
When we got nearby, though, he said, "Hey - what time is your train? Do
you want to check out my airport a minute - it's right nearby!"

Well, I had plenty of time, and thought it would be fun, so we did. As we
were there, one of the instructors was planning a flight to HPN with a
friend of his, and let me make it a discovery flight and tag along...
(Now that I am a pilot, I suspect this may have been questionably legal,
but at the time I didn't know better...)

We flew up over the Verrazano, up the Hudson River at 1500' (through the
Class B, but at the time I didn't know the difference.) and up over to
HPN. It was about 6pm in March of 2001 - just dark enough to have all the
lights of the city come on, but light enough that you could see
everything. It was a CAVU day, and the ride was amazing. I was completely
taken in. By the time we landed, I said, "I GOTTA DO THIS!"

The next day, I scheduled my intro flights at the two flight schools at
HPN, and started my training. In December 2001, I got my PPL. Last week I
got my IFR.

It was one of the best things I ever started!



EDR wrote in :


Reading Rich Bach's book, "THE GIFT OF WINGS".
I had been skydiving for eight years and was tired of just going up and
down. I was 26, single, had the time, had the money, so I did it.

"EDR" wrote in message
...

Reading Rich Bach's book, "THE GIFT OF WINGS".
I had been skydiving for eight years and was tired of just going up and
down. I was 26, single, had the time, had the money, so I did it.

Father was in the RAF and I remember him me taking to his station one
Saturday morning when I was three years old. He stuck me in a Chipmunk
whilst he used the paint sprayer to paint the old car he drove. I spent a
happy hour just sitting there. Apparently when I went quiet he looked in the
cockpit and I was fast asleep.

I can still smell that plane.

Of course I grew up around planes and got to get up really close (like
inside) to just about everything the RAF had up to 1976 when he retired as
well as some strange craft in some foreign airforces.

On one base we were stationed, they had a gliding club. I first learnt to
fly gliders but soon after going solo I went off to college and it fell
away.

One year I started a new job in a new town. In the village we moved to an
airport was nearby. I had made a good profit on the privatisation of British
Airways and decided that I was going to spend the money learning to fly. On
Sept 11 that year I had my first half hour. I took the first part of my
General Handling test 16th August the next year and the final part on the
4th September. My son was born on 1st September.
Total hours when the test was completed, 44. My licence was issued 13th
Sept.

It had taken just a year and the toughest decision was whether to quit when
we found out we were expecting a baby.

Looking back I am glad I continued, because my son enjoys coming flying, and
wants to learn himself one day.

sg

Strangely, I have never managed to get in a DH Chipmunk since and I would
dearly like to fly one.

"S Green" wrote in message
...
Strangely, I have never managed to get in a DH Chipmunk since and I would
dearly like to fly one.

I'm meant to be taking some tailwheel lessons with someone who
owns a Chipmunk when the weather improves. I think he's based
at Thruxton. Another Chippy owner keeps his bird in our hangar
at times when he's not in Portugal. If you want to fly one, it's just
a heartbeat away! Where in Berkshire are you?

Paul

EDR wrote:


Reading Rich Bach's book, "THE GIFT OF WINGS".
I had been skydiving for eight years and was tired of just going up and
down. I was 26, single, had the time, had the money, so I did it.

According to my parents and my sister, I always wanted to fly. I'd
forgotten about it, though, because of time and because I considered it
unfair to my folks who'd lost a pair of very close friends in a GA accident
in the 80s.

But a friend had just achieved his PPL in 98 or 99, and took me on a flight
from CDW to BDR and back with a quick run down and up the Hudson exclusion
zone. I put the story and pictures from the flight up on a web site.

I realized I needed more material. So here I am, almost 400 hours and an
instrument rating later...and with no time for the poor web site.

- Andrew