Almost saw someone crash

Dan Luke wrote:

What have you been driving, George, Jaguars?

Actually, I drive a 1989 Nissan pickup with ~160,000 miles on the clock. But I'm
married, I'm not young, and I don't commute to a professional job anymore.

I get rid of a car at ~100,00 miles .

My last position was 29 miles from home. Add it up. That, plus the odd trip to Home
Depot and Shop Rite, racks up about 100,000 miles about the time the usual five year
loan runs out.

George Patterson
None of us is as dumb as all of us.

Morgans wrote:

Really! I drive a work type cargo van that has 220k miles on it. It only
has failed to deliver me to my destination 2 times.

The race does not always go to the swiftest, but that's the way to bet, and betting
that a van like that will keep going is stupid. If you were single and worked for
Telcordia, AT&T, Johnson&Johnson, or any of many other outfits, you would really be
gambling on keeping your job.

George Patterson
None of us is as dumb as all of us.

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


Morgans wrote:

Really! I drive a work type cargo van that has 220k miles on it. It
only
has failed to deliver me to my destination 2 times.

The race does not always go to the swiftest, but that's the way to bet,
and betting
that a van like that will keep going is stupid. If you were single and
worked for
Telcordia, AT&T, Johnson&Johnson, or any of many other outfits, you would
really be
gambling on keeping your job.

George Patterson

Bull! It has had frequent maintenance, major and minor parts replaced, and
the engine rebuilt once. Things seldom break without warning. The GM 350
is about as tough of an engine that has ever been built. I'll stack it up
against any foreign crap for reliability, anytime.

Did you read my post? Only TWO letdowns, in 250 k! That is not to say I
have not had to take it out of service for a few days, to fix stuff. I do
nearly all the work myself, and am well familiar with it's condition.

I'm shooting for 500 k. g
--
Jim in NC P.S. I'll see you at OSH, this year in it!


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In article , Dan Luke wrote:
It's an absolute job requirement that a single commuter
will be trading in his car about the time he gets it paid off ...

?
What have you been driving, George, Jaguars?

Jaguars have improved since Ford has had them (the British Leyland
product was appalling, they rusted out in no time). I still wouldn't
have a Jag. However, the old 4.2 litre straight six engines make
fabulous glider winch engines. Although the rest of the car was abysmal,
the engine is worth having.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

In article , Bill Denton wrote:
When budgeting for something like an airplane, you really shouldn't count on
your own labor contributions as a cost saving measure. Something always goes
wrong!

Why not? There's always a risk of some unexpected expenses (like your
generator breaking 1000 miles from home, which happened to me) where
you can't do it yourself, but things like 50 and 100 hour maintenance
which are scheduled, it's pretty easy to predict when/where they happen
and plan accordingly. I recognise that some people don't want to/can't
(perhaps they don't have the aptitude or interest, or don't have a
mechanic who will allow them to do owner-assisted maintenance) I don't
see why you can't count on yourself to do that at least 3/4 of the time.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Morgans wrote:

Did you read my post? Only TWO letdowns, in 250 k!

Yeah, I read it, and I still say you're a lucky man. One shouldn't gamble on getting
that sort of performance.

George Patterson
None of us is as dumb as all of us.

In article , G.R. Patterson III wrote:
Did you read my post? Only TWO letdowns, in 250 k!

Yeah, I read it, and I still say you're a lucky man. One shouldn't gamble on getting
that sort of performance.

Judging by the cars that have been owned in our family in the last 10
years or so, 2 breakdowns in that mileage is rather high. My Dad's
turbodiesel only let him down once in 350K miles and that was most definitely
operator error rather than anything wrong with the car.

It's only a gamble if you don't maintain the things. A properly
maintained modern car will last for a long time and should be fine for
at least 300K miles. Properly maintained, things that are going majorly
wrong don't have a habit of sudden failure - nearly everything that will
let you down in a car because of mileage happens gradually and it's
usually laziness that means they don't get fixed until they actually
break.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

wrote in message . ..
I can't imagine how much that Polish guy paid for the rental 172 he
flew across the US and back.

About $4100, $61 per hour :-)

It's pretty cheap, especially considering prices of flying in
Europe... And for such distance you would have to learn aviation laws
and airspace structures on 10 countries on the way or more...

And flying was about 60% of all costs - motels, car rentals, flying to
USA and back etc add pretty quickly, actually much quicker I expected.

Still, I think it's money well spend :-)
--
Filip Zawadiak
PP-ASEL 137hr
http://vyx.net/~philz/coast2coast

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:eqVtc.16324$n_6.1632@attbi_s53...

snip!

G.A. will not survive without young people getting involved. All you have
to do is look at the pictures from Pinckneyville (and Oshkosh, and Sun N
Fun) to see a whole lot of gray (and, ahem, balding) heads in the photos.
Where are the young folks?

Spread the Word -- flying is cheap! :-)

Hi Jay,

You make some good points. I'm a younger guy (27) that is currently
renting, but am looking forward to buying a nice tri-pacer or cherokee
within the next couple of years. The Cessna trainers are just too
expensive! I also really enjoy working on my car and motorcycle,
particularly since I know it'll get done correctly. I'd imagine A&Ps
are a bit more thorough than the average motorcycle mechanic (God I
sure hope so), but I'd definitely like to find an A&P that would sign
off on my work if I owned a plane.

I guess I'm not really aware of the aging general aviation population.
I wanted to start flying at a much younger age, and even took a couple
of intro flights when I was around 20 and bummed right seat time
whenever I could. But I was also putting myself through college, so
money was very tight. The initial high costs of flight training put
it out of reach. I bought a new car AND motorcycle after graduating,
so I had to wait a couple more years before starting training for my
PPL.

I've noticed that a lot of my friends followed a similar path, so
perhaps a lot of "younger" people cannot really get into flying until
they're in their upper 20s (as long as they stay single!). At my
flight school in FL, there seems to be quite a few people (CFIs and
students) that are in their 20s and 30s, so maybe it's not as bad as
you say. I've even seen a couple of lucky high school age kids
getting lessons there. When I was living in Colorado, I also knew of
quite a few younger pilots.

Here's the question though... How many of these younger pilots will
remain in aviation? Unfortunately I have also met several people that
did a few lessons, or even obtained their PPL, but no longer fly for
whatever reason. Motorcycling (my other passion) has a very similar
situation. Many times young people will get involved w/ the sport
until they have a close call, or they get older and dwell on what
could happen, their wife doesn't like it, etc. and quit. The amount
of training between the two is (for the most part) pretty different,
but could the attrition rate be due to similar reasons?

I know of at least a couple former pilots that will tell me their
antics about scraping tree limbs on final into a dark airport,
encountering IMC, or whatever. And then they're like "yeah, I had my
fun but quit because it was dangerous". Same w/ bikes. I'll hear
their stories about how they were doing something incredibly stupid
and somehow made it out alive, only to sell their bike and tell every
guy they see on a motorcycle about how fun it was but then xxx
happened and I decided to hang it up. Maybe some people just aren't
cut out for these things, I don't know...

Sam

I know of at least a couple former pilots that will tell me their
antics about scraping tree limbs on final into a dark airport,
encountering IMC, or whatever. And then they're like "yeah, I had my
fun but quit because it was dangerous". Same w/ bikes. I'll hear
their stories about how they were doing something incredibly stupid
and somehow made it out alive, only to sell their bike and tell every
guy they see on a motorcycle about how fun it was but then xxx
happened and I decided to hang it up. Maybe some people just aren't
cut out for these things, I don't know...

Well, Sam, I'm no spring chicken anymore (pushing 46 now), and I've been
riding cycles since I was 18. Been flying now since I was 35.

I treat the two very similarly. On the cycle, I ALWAYS wear a full faced
helmet. If I'm going anywhere farther than the store, I wear a leather
jacket and gloves. If I'm touring, I wear leather everything, and heavy
boots. And my cycle is kept in perfect riding condition -- nothing is left
to chance.

I don't ride after drinking -- not even one beer. IMHO, any skill that
requires perfect balance precludes drinking a beverage that impairs my
coordination.

It's the same with flying. I have few "there I was at 4,000 feet..." tales
to tell, because I do everything by the book. I don't push my limits, I
always fly with full gas tanks, I rarely fly at night, and I keep my plane
in top-flight condition.

As a result, I've got nearly ten years of trouble-free, incident-free flying
time. And I've got 28 years of trouble-free, incident-free riding time,
too.

Is flying (and riding) dangerous? Sure. Just be careful, don't be
foolish, and you'll increase your odds tremendously.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"


Sam