Reno Air Races -- 2600 Miles in 2 Days!

kage wrote:
"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
(CRAP SNIPPED)
Karl


Ok, Kage, you cant "SHAME" someone into changing themselves... its
counterproductive.. It turns people off to you.

Poor judgement skills are not the sole realm of VFR private pilots..
there are plenty of other "professionals" out there who have exhibitied
such fine judgement that they become a black smudge on the ground or
mountainside.

My personal feelings on an instrument rating are that it increases the
utility of the airplane. It's not a license to ignore weather. I've made
a few "across the country" jaunts both VFR and IFR (CFI bro in law was
PIC for the IFR) and have to admit that being able to climb and descend
through layers, as well as shoot approaches into airports that were not
VFR does come quite in handy in making for a safe but expeditious trip.

Still had to go AROUND, rather than through areas of thunderstorms.. and
never had to deal with visible moisture in subzero temperatures.. but I
think that anyone who CAN safely complete an instrument rating would
benefit from it.. even if they never actually get "in the soup".

I have nobody but myself to blame for not finishing up my IR close to 3
years ago... and while my current flying activity isnt anywheres enough
to maintain that proficiency, I cant deny that the instrument TRAINING I
recieved along the way has benefitted me immensely, especially the 20
hours or so of ACTUAL that I have to date (yea... I was fortunate enough
to get some pretty good actual experience/instruction along the way)

You don't have anything to lose, Jay.. even if you dont finish the
rating, the training will help a LOT.

Dave
Houston

kage wrote:
Jay,

Nice message.

But, despite your barb on the instrument pilot, you have to remember that
you are only half a pilot without the instrument rating.

Yeah, you could get the rating and make a stupid decision like the real
pilot in the story.

"Newps" wrote in message
...


kage wrote:
Jay,

Nice message.

But, despite your barb on the instrument pilot, you have to remember
that you are only half a pilot without the instrument rating.

Yeah, you could get the rating and make a stupid decision like the
real pilot in the story.

or.......you could get the rating and NOT make stupid decisions and
become a much better pilot than you were before you got the rating,
which is exactly what happens to all but those who are accidents waiting
to happen anyway :-)
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Flight Instructor/Aerobatics/Retired

Dudley Henriques wrote:




or.......you could get the rating and NOT make stupid decisions and
become a much better pilot than you were before you got the rating,
which is exactly what happens to all but those who are accidents waiting
to happen anyway

Except the statistics say otherwise. Once you get in the 800-1000 hour
range, especially if you do it fairly quickly, all VFR, an IFR rating
will add little to nothing to your flying skills other than being able
to be legal.

"Newps" wrote in message
...


Dudley Henriques wrote:




or.......you could get the rating and NOT make stupid decisions and
become a much better pilot than you were before you got the rating,
which is exactly what happens to all but those who are accidents
waiting to happen anyway

Except the statistics say otherwise. Once you get in the 800-1000
hour range, especially if you do it fairly quickly, all VFR, an IFR
rating will add little to nothing to your flying skills other than
being able to be legal.

In my experience this isn't the case at all. In fact, it would be just
the reverse.
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Flight Instructor/Aerobatics/Retired

I don't agree with that at all.
Depending on how much long cross country flying you do (500+ miles), and
unless you wait for only the good weather, you should have learned
something about weather patterns in the areas of your travels.
This will aid your decision making (local knowledge).
Also, that same flight hour experience will have honed your flight
control manipulation skills to the point where your holding altitude and
heading are second nature instead of work.
There may be some habits that will have to be broken, but these are
procedual things which will be replaced with repetition and efficiency.
The instrument rating requires that you think and plan the flight in an
orderly sequence. At each stage of the flight you must be doing
something to prepare for the next.
Depending upon how high you are cruising and the destination elevation,
you need to begin thinking about the descent 60 nm out.
By the time you reach 30-40 nm from the destination, you should have
copied the destination weather, know what runway to use and what
approach to brief.
20 nm miles out, you should have all the radios set and run your pre
landing checklist.
10 nm miles out you will already be on the approach or vectored to the
final approach fix.
5 nm you will be stabilized on speed, altitude or rate of descent and
configured for landing.
If you only fly VFR, you may or may not already fly this way.
If you are scud running, you don't have a plan, you are making it up as
you go along, depending on what you see as you progress deeper into the
scud.


Newps wrote:
Except the statistics say otherwise. Once you get in the 800-1000 hour
range, especially if you do it fairly quickly, all VFR, an IFR rating
will add little to nothing to your flying skills other than being able
to be legal.

Newps wrote:

Except the statistics say otherwise.

What statistics? Would love to see them.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL, IA Student

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

"kage" writes:

But, despite your barb on the instrument pilot, you have to remember that
you are only half a pilot without the instrument rating.

Oh, baloney. I've heard this kind of nonsense on every activity I've
been involved since being a kid, whether it was ham radio,
photography, astronomy, flying... you're not a true ham until you can
copy 60wpm in your head, you're not a true photographer until you
spend four hours on your belly on a frozen lake to take one photo, and
so on.

Jay is a full pilot, who has posted numerous accounts of really cool
flights, and with great narrative I might add.

-jav (instrument rated since 1993, but not bragging or belittling anyone)

Glad to hear you got back ok and in time Jay. I wound up going out to
the races Saturday, arriving just before 8:00. Heck, I even managed to
park for free (after deciding that if I had to pay, my $5 would go to
the Boy Scouts).

I pretty much hung out in the stands enjoying all of the races,
demonstrations, and aerobatic performances. Wish I could have hooked up
with you guys...but that's how it goes sometimes. It was pretty cold
Saturday and was supposed to be colder Sunday. We had a T-storm drop 2
inches of rain in parts of the Sacramento area on Sunday. Yep, you guys
would have been stuck for a few more days had you stayed.

Let's see...Reno...Ogden...Scott's Bluff...Alliance...yep, been to all
of them in the last two years on our way to/from OSH. That arrival into
Ogden from the East is very cool.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of the Reno air race suite. Glad you
guys had a great trip out here in the land of the left coast...well,
er...closer to the left coast anyway. Only a short hop across the
Sierra's and you'd officially have been here :-)

Jack


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL, IA Student

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

I pretty much hung out in the stands enjoying all of the races,
demonstrations, and aerobatic performances. Wish I could have hooked up
with you guys...but that's how it goes sometimes.

Yeah, that's our only regret with this entire adventu We simply couldn't
hook up with the people we wanted to see!

We missed you, we missed Jim & Gail, we missed my best friend from college
(who lives just north of Jim & Gail) -- hell, we even missed meeting folks
from Iowa City who flew to Reno commercial!

It was pretty cold
Saturday and was supposed to be colder Sunday. We had a T-storm drop 2
inches of rain in parts of the Sacramento area on Sunday. Yep, you guys
would have been stuck for a few more days had you stayed.

Glad to hear it, sort of. It's always nice to know that we made the right
decision.

After watching the Weather Channel I was gratified to see widespread
showers, thunderstorms, and snow covering pretty much everything west of
Scott's Bluff, Nebraska. It's too bad that your drought couldn't have hung
on for another few days, but oh, well. We accomplished everything we
wanted -- and more -- on this trip!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"