At last, the truth...

Money, time, wives, kids - those are the real story. What you ran into
is the exception.

It's funny -- you described my life almost perfectly (I.E.: Kids, business,
wife, billion-hour work-weeks, no time) -- yet we fly a couple of times per
week. (Amazingly, despite everything, I've flown around 50 hours in the
last 11 weeks, which is some kind of a record for me.)

It's all about priorities. Would I like to spend more time camping? Would
owning a boat be kinda fun? Would I enjoy a new motorcycle (mine is 19
years old)?

Yep. But flying is *life*, man -- everything else is just a hobby.

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

It's funny -- you described my life almost perfectly (I.E.: Kids, business,
wife, billion-hour work-weeks, no time) -- yet we fly a couple of times per
week.

How much would you have flown if your wife didn't go up with you?

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

It's funny -- you described my life almost perfectly (I.E.: Kids,
business, wife, billion-hour work-weeks, no time) -- yet we fly a couple
of times per week.

How much would you have flown if your wife didn't go up with you?

Which begs the question: How can you be married to someone with whom you
can't share the passion for flight?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Which begs the question: How can you be married to someone with whom you
can't share the passion for flight?

This of course reminds me of the oldie... "I had to choose between my
wife and my airplane. Gee, I'm going to miss her."

As to your question, very easily. Did you get married before you
learned to fly? What happens if you get bitten =afterwards=? How
powerful is love? Maybe she'll fly too (it's been known to happen)...

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:qudMe.253023$x96.6077@attbi_s72...
Which begs the question: How can you be married to someone with whom you
can't share the passion for flight?

Why does it beg the question? Lots of people have spouses who don't share
every one of their passions (including the passion of flying), and they have
long and happy marriages too.

As usual, you continue to make the mistake of thinking that everyone is just
like you, and should live their lives just like you live yours. IMHO, this
is what's wrong with your political outlook, and it's what's wrong with your
opinions about who is or is not a pilot and why.

It's true, there's a lot of similarities from one human being to another.
But there are numerous differences as well, some quite dramatic. And they
are simply differences; not good, not bad, just different.

Pete

"Jay Honeck" writes:

There's no mystery to me as to why not everyone loves aviation like we do
(or why some people love golf like I don't!).

Right. But these "near-pilots" DID love aviation like we do -- and
something spooked them to the point where they walked away.

Well...did he? Your specific example? As you said yourself, quitting
was essentially inconceivable to you, and you resorted to fairly
drastic means to pay for flying sometimes (you mentioned selling blood
plasma). You didn't report him saying anything suggesting his love of
flying was actually like yours.

If we are to replace all the World War II and Korean War-era pilots who are
dying in droves, we've got to get people into aviation, NOW. I address
this "scared straight" issue as just another small piece of the "Why is GA
dying?" puzzle, and hope that we (as pilots) can come up with better ways to
train newbies so that this kind of thing won't happen so often.

Note how many of the people taught to fly for those wars kept on
flying, either professionally or for fun, afterwards. Not, I believe,
a very high percentage.

I've been interested in flying forever, but I've never done anything
about flight training. I used to ride my bicycle over to Stanton
airport (from Northfield) now and then to watch (and sometimes
photograph) glider and skydiving operations, and anything else that
was going on there, when I was a kid. I made sure to get pictures of
the VC-10 we flew to Entebbe in in 1964.

I've got lots of other interests (notably photography) to absorb my
time and energy. And, perhaps, I figured out early some things about
how useful general aviation was for transportation (not terribly at
the basic level), and how much money it would cost. So I've read (and
now and then posted) to aviation newsgroups for years, go to aviation
events locally, talk to pilot friends, and so forth, but never started
training. I classified it as something cool which, if it was your
overriding obsession, somebody in my income range could do. And I
didn't think it was my overriding obsession.

Maybe I would have found out it *was* going to be my overriding
obsession if I'd taken some lessons or something, maybe. I've liked
what little time I have in smaller planes, but I've actually never
been in a single-engine fixed-wing plane, and only two GA-size twins.

If I won the lottery, I'm not at all sure I'd start lessons. The
lottery would dispose of any money issues, but there are still time
issues. Plus my interest is towards planes that would take a lot of
flying to maintain competence, and the lottery would put me in the
position of being able to easily afford more plane than I could
quickly learn to fly safely.

So, I'm still here as a reasonably-friendly onlooker rather than a
pilot, and I enjoy that.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com/ http://www.dd-b.net/carry/
Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/ Much of which is still down

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:qudMe.253023$x96.6077@attbi_s72...
How much would you have flown if your wife didn't go up with you?

Which begs the question: How can you be married to someone with whom you
can't share the passion for flight?

WANTED: Looking for a woman with a plane of any age -- woman must be over
18. Please send picture of plane.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in news:JCcMe.31172$084.14248
@attbi_s22:

You have it backwards. Motorcycling is *not* golf, nor flying, nor
boating... but I bet you just don't "get it" when it comes to
two-wheelers.

What, you're saying *motorcycling* is the be-all and end-all activity?

I've ridden for 20 years, and (IMHO) it is VERY similar to flying. I love
it dearly, but it is essentially just 2/3s of what flying is -- minus the
third dimension.

Until you can pull back on the handlebars and have the cycle go up, there
will be no comparison.

I've always felt motorcycle riding was like flying at zero AGL.

When you're riding the streets and freeways around LA, it's like
combat at zero AGL. The enemy uses their vehicles as weapons and
your only defense is superior maneuverability.

Brian
--
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism

Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html
Blog: http://www.skywise711.com/Blog

Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?

"Jay Honeck" wrote

I've ridden for 20 years, and (IMHO) it is VERY similar to flying. I love
it dearly, but it is essentially just 2/3s of what flying is -- minus the
third dimension.

Until you can pull back on the handlebars and have the cycle go up, there
will be no comparison.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

Hey, wait a minute.... I think you may be on to something.

Let's see, some wings unfold out of the front wind fairing, a horizontal
pops out of the saddle bags... the prop could be folded along the back
fender, then opened and engaged....

I'll get back to you on this one... VBG
--
Jim in NC

"Jay Honeck" wrote:
It's funny -- you described my life almost perfectly (I.E.: Kids,
business, wife, billion-hour work-weeks, no time) -- yet we fly a
couple of times per week.

How much would you have flown if your wife didn't go up with you?

Which begs the question: How can you be married to someone with whom
you can't share the passion for flight?

Light aircraft owner/pilots are very rare birds; those with spouses who
like to fly are vanishingly scarce.

You have hit on a prime reason why more families don't fly: most women
actively dislike the activity. The don''t like the noise, they don't
like the cramped quarters, they don't like wearing headsets, they don't
like all the tech-y stuff, and they resent the large bite it takes out
of discretionary funds. Most of all, it frightens them: they understand
that it is dangerous, and, since any personal gratification they get
from their partner's flying is minimal, their enthusiasm for it is
understandably nil.

Your situation is extremely unusual, Jay. You know this, of course, so
one might almost think you are simply bragging.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM