What finally prompted you to take flying lessons?

"Judah" wrote in message
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I know a guy who's big into RC, and from his knowledge of aerodynamics and
manuevers, I would agree that the flying part is probably about the same.
Maybe even more liberal in RC since you can do some relatively scary
maneuvers with severely less risk.

But I suspect the view is a little better when you're inside the cockpit,
and your gut is twisting with the G's...

View is better if don't get motion sickness - I do - but that has little to
do with 'the view'. In RC I went from hi powered pattern planes, to slow
backyard, tail dragging novelty planes, to gliders which is where I stayed
..... Then did the same thing full scale - C150, C172, SGS 2-22 glider, 2-33,
and then owned a couple of hi performance glass gliders - now back to slow,
backyard, tail dragging, utility stuff (i.e. Maule)

Interestingly, I get the same kick out of greasing on an RC model as I get 3
pointing the Maule. Landings are landings and both modes give me the same
satisfaction.

"EDR" wrote in message
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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.

Having a love of airplanes as long as I could remember.

From there, having a high school teacher who was a former WASP (Womens Air
Service Pilots) who was teaching a class in the school called "Aeronautics",
essentially the full FAA Ground School. She provided a $5 Demo Flight at
Arapahoe Airport (now Centennial - APA) when Arapahoe was a single 4000 foot
backtop runway.

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~mayfi...yfieldBio.html

After discharge from the military, my income tripled, and there was no
looking back.

Of course, $12 for a 150, $14 for a 172 and $5 for the instructor made a big
difference.

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)

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

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.

I've always been interested but never really said "I definitely
want to do it.

I flew a ton for work for 2 years (3 time 1K with UA).

Then my friend's brother flew us from his home airport MMH (Mammoth, CA)
to San Diego Montgomery. Then he dropped me off at CLD (that is
the airline code, I forget the IATA code) which I flew out of
commericially a number of times. I thought that that was the coolest
flight of the year out of 100+ commericial.

I read a bunch of books, both technical and non-technical fun-stuff.

Then my friend, a UA pilot (A320, 777, 767) took me up in a
C152. More 'that is cool. I'm doing this.'

One day go to SQL (San Carlos, CA) and get a DISCO flight with
a CFI ferrying a plane 10 miles to PAO. I wasn't sure where
it was all leading but I went for it. Got my license a couple
of months ago on 12/17/03 (I say this all the time but I think
it will be cool to say for the rest of my life ). 30 plus
hours since that date, I started my IFR and after 2 times on
the sim I'm already doing oscar patterns (not great but fun).


And a further story, one day my CFI and I areclimbing out to a
practice area my CFI says, "when you're
not flying do you think a lot about flying?" Well I said,
"for about 5 weeks I flew with you on a monday, I then flew
somewhere with UA on Tuesday, back on
Thursday and then up with you on Friday. I'm at airports more than
you. of course I think about flying a lot."


Gerald Sylvester
PPL-ASEL (Instrument student) - total time of approx. 100 hours.
UA - Prem. Exec. - over 400,000 flown miles in the 5 years
(over 800 hours)

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

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.
For 15+ years I've been flying MSFS (even back in the pre-Windoze, DOS
days). Finally, last February my wife bought me the $49.00 Intro flight
at the local Cessna center as more of a joke birthday gift than anything
else. Well, no more of those sorts of birthday gifts. Eight months later
I had my PPL and she has to now fly with me. She swears that she'll only
by me things like socks and underwear from now on.

I always loved airplanes from the time I took my first flight in a TWA
Connie from NY to SF at the age of three. In junior high and high
school I would sit in class and draw pictures of airplanes in my
notebook. I spent hours reading books about aviation, my favorites were
"Fate Is The Hunter, and "The High And The Mighty" by Ernest K. Gann. I
almost got a job at an FBO at Teterboro as a line boy when I was 15,
but they decided they couldn't hire me because of my age. I was so
disappointed that I gave up thinking about learning to fly for about 20
years until I took my two kids to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome and we
took a ride in an old bi-plane there. That flight rekindled my love of
flying and 18 months later I was a private pilot.

"S Green" wrote in message
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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