Flying a 172 with Autopilot?

I lost 40 pounds over the last couple of years. The Pitts is definitely
more spritely at the top of the verticals than it used to be. I can do
some cool gyro stuff I don't remember doing before!

FORTY POUNDS? Wow, that's, like, a whole kid!

Congrats, man. How'd you do it?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Hell, that NUTHIN'. In 1991 I lost 150 pounds.

130 pounds of her and 20 pounds of me.

{;-)

Jim


"
FORTY POUNDS? Wow, that's, like, a whole kid!

Congrats, man. How'd you do it?

You made me laugh out loud with that one, Jay! A whole kid!

I did it pretty much the same way you did. Made myself smart about food and
how the body uses it and realized the whole low-fat but high carb diet I was
eating was all wrong. Didn't go the Atkins route because that's a bit
extreme, but I realized that the balance of what I took in wasn't what my
body really needed to be healthy. So I set a few rules and goals for
myself.

Rule Number One: Don't take any rule or goal too seriously! Have fun but
with an eye to shedding some weight and being healthy. Weeks I was pretty
disciplines, weekends I gave myself a break and loosened up on the rules.

2. Aim for a pound off per week. Some weeks I made it, some weeks I
didn't. Oh, well. I got there in the end.
3. Eat food like we're meant to. Humans didn't evolve to eat processed
food. If the cavemen didn't eat it, then I won't (refer to rule 1). This
means eating stuff in as natural a state as possible. If it comes in a box
or a jar, I usually don't eat it.
4. Minimize bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, and cereal because I simply don't
need as much of it as I was eating
5. Bulk up on veggies, 5 colors a day if possible. You can eat as many
veggies as you want and they're still good for you.
6. I wasn't going to be a food nazi and bore my friends rigid with talk
about dietary habits (this made sure I still had friends to notice the
weight loss!)
7. Eat smaller meals more frequently. Breakfast, snack on an apple at
1030, lunch, snack on a banana at 1630, dinner; that sort of thing. That
way I'm not so hungry when meal time comes so I eat better and less.

There were some other bits and pieces in there but that was the bulk of it.
The motivation was watching the belt and collar on my shirts get too big. I
went from tight 36" pants down to loose 32". I'm now on the smallest notch
of a belt I nearly gave to Goodwill because I couldn't get it on.

Started at about 200 lbs and got down to a low of 157. I've put some of it
back on because I've come off some of my discipline, but I'm back on it and
losing it again. This was all without a lick of exercise, by the way.

Like I said, I'd rather put that 40 lbs in the fuel tank (or into
performance)! That was enough motivation for me!!

Good luck with your habits. Sounds like you're on to a winner!

Shawn




"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:kSRye.138502$xm3.89132@attbi_s21...
I lost 40 pounds over the last couple of years. The Pitts is definitely
more spritely at the top of the verticals than it used to be. I can do
some cool gyro stuff I don't remember doing before!

FORTY POUNDS? Wow, that's, like, a whole kid!

Congrats, man. How'd you do it?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I've been calorie counting myself. I stepped on the scales a while
back and it shockingly said 238 lbs. That's higher that I had ever
been in my life, so I've relegated myself to 1800 calories per day.

Doesn't matter what I eat. I can have a burger if I want; milkshake if
I want; 5 Mountain Dews per day if I want. The only catch is I look at
the Nutrition labels on the back of EVERYTHING (and I only eat at
restaurants that publish their Nutritional Data). I do the math to
figure out the # of cals in everything I eat, then write that down.
Once I make it to 1800 - time to stop eating for today. I can still
drink all the water I want (and if I get REALLY hungry I can eat dill
pickles as they have almost no calories).

I've managed to get down to 228 lbs now. It's slow going (weight
usually drops off at around 1 to 2 lbs per week), but given that I can
satisfy any craving I have, it makes it a lot easier to stick to.
Though it's a ways off, I'm hoping to get back under 200 lbs (haven't
been there in about 8 years).

Of course this is all for piloting too. I've been looking at various
homebuilt airplanes, and quite a few of the single seaters that I'm
interested in (namely the Nieuport 11/17 replicas) don't look like they
would lift me + full fuel off the ground . I'm hoping to improve
that situation LOL.

Of course this is all for piloting too.

Congrats on the weight loss -- but DILL PICKLES? C'mon, man, eat a
Golden Delicious apple, or a banana, or sumpin'...

;-)

It really is *all* about flying. Would I care so much if my blood
pressure was border-line high if it didn't threaten my medical?
Probably not. But it's a wonderful incentive to get -- and stay --
healthy.

Yet another benefit of aviation!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...

Of course this is all for piloting too.

Congrats on the weight loss -- but DILL PICKLES? C'mon, man, eat a
Golden Delicious apple, or a banana, or sumpin'...

;-)

It really is *all* about flying. Would I care so much if my blood
pressure was border-line high if it didn't threaten my medical?
Probably not. But it's a wonderful incentive to get -- and stay --
healthy.

Its has kept me from drinking a lot of beer. I always think if I have a beer
I cant fly, and you never know I may have to fly for who knows what.

Yet another benefit of aviation!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jon Kraus wrote:

Congratulations on increasing your useful load...er, something like that.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-IA Student
Arrow N2104T

"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)

There's an autopilot in our club archers and dakota, but I almost never
use them. For one thing I feel like a passenger if I don't have my hand
on the wheel, and for another, I treat every flight as a training
flight. I don't see how one can remain proficient when George has all
the fun. I just like to hand-fly, even on long flights.

That said, a simple wing leveler is great to have while copying an IFR
clearance, or folding maps, or any time the load factor gets a bit high.
If you do much IFR, a simple George is nice to have.

Jose
--
You may not get what you pay for, but you sure as hell pay for what you get.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 00:56:19 GMT, Jose
wrote:

There's an autopilot in our club archers and dakota, but I almost never
use them. For one thing I feel like a passenger if I don't have my hand
on the wheel, and for another, I treat every flight as a training
flight. I don't see how one can remain proficient when George has all
the fun. I just like to hand-fly, even on long flights.

That said, a simple wing leveler is great to have while copying an IFR
clearance, or folding maps, or any time the load factor gets a bit high.
If you do much IFR, a simple George is nice to have.

Jose

With the latest DRVSM airspace rules, hand flying a jet at altitude
has become a thing of the past. No autopilot and you are stuck below
FL290. Not that anyone hand flew in cruise unless they had to anyway.
If the autopilot broke, it always automatically became the first
officer's leg. :-)

With the latest DRVSM airspace rules, hand flying a jet at altitude
has become a thing of the past.

LOL. The OP was referring to a C-172; I fly Cherokees. I don't know of
any jet powered 172s or Cherokee, and have never seen any above FL 290
anyway.

Actually a jet conversion might be interesting. I like to fly low, so I
don't really care about the FL290 restriction - I'd light the
afterburners at 500 feet and scream along the treetops. My passengers
would just scream.

It would be way cooler than the turbo tomahawk used in some ATC examples
at Sun'n'Fun, although there might be a problem loading enough fuel on
board to actually taxi to the runway, let alone take off.

That is, take off the wings as the engine rips its way through the
fuselage and tumbles down the runway.

Jose
--
You may not get what you pay for, but you sure as hell pay for what you get.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.