Island Of Misfits
- Thread starter WeedHopper
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I have flown Cessna and Piper Cubs because my best friends dad had a small airport and several planes. Never flew by myself and Never got my License.
It was actually looking at the annual moorage, storage, and maintenance receipts for my 36' Cutter, plane, RV, and car collection that made it clear that I would not be able to retire at age 62 and so I sold all but the collector cars, which I donated to the Humane Society to help build their new local facility and invested the money in upgrading our rentals to command double the rent at the time.
Besides being able to retire early, I no longer have the energy to support and take care of that many toys and have had enough fun playing with them to not miss them.
Besides being able to retire early, I no longer have the energy to support and take care of that many toys and have had enough fun playing with them to not miss them.
You got it at 25? Do you still have one
I plunked down $400 in 1968 for all the lessons and plane rental necessary to take my test at 35 hours. That included the mandatory cross country and instrument training in mostly a Cessna 150, but also a 172, a 182, an Aeronica Champ, and a Cherokee ,. I bought a workbook and studied for the written.
I paid for four additional hours at $19.00/hr wet to fly from Carrus to Hillsborro for my single engine land flight test and passed. I aced the written.
Dad had a license and had part ownership in an Aeronica Champ. He gave me a ride in a borrowed Piper once, but alas about a week later the owner dead sticked it into the parking lot and bent/burned it beyond repair.
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Yes, but I no longer have a valid airman's medical certificate. Now that I have both cataracts removed I could no doubt pass the visual, but they won't be happy with my history of tachycardia and arrythmia and my hearing is suspect given how garbled radio communications can be.
Did you land it?
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Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to mow I go. See yas.
me too, waiting for the lawn to dry a bit
Unca Walt
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That is a great plane to fly up and down the Floriduh Keys. I rented out of Marathon. Amazing the fish you can see -- sometimes in great swirls.
My fave plane in the whole world was the Piper Warrior. That model was the reason I went IFR -- Hah!
Just stumbled on a pic my late brother took of me in the Warrior at Boca Raton Airplane Patch (which has since gotten a fargin tower!) Useta be free-for-all...
Unca Walt
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Good lord! I got my license because of my 25th fargin anniversary!
The Fabled PC susprised me with an anniversary present of certificate for a glider ride at a nearby airport. We got there, and the guy put down his newspaper and said "C'mon out and climb in." The glider was yellow, tilted over on one wing
We got in the back the pilot guy driving. Little plane like they use for towing signs hooked up, throttled up, and in ten seconds we were at 10,000 feet. (actually, I learned later it was closer to 900')
He unhooked the tow rope.
Suddenly, we were weightless. Identical to an elelvator with the string broke... if you've ever done that.
Anyway the Beautiful Witch had about a 90-amp grip on my fingers, and I was beginning to drool. We soared, and I could see forever -- way out to sea, up and down the coast... And all too soon we were headed down to the little airport...
Miraculously winding up boompty-boomp-boomp exactly where we had started.
Herself couldn't get out soon enough. I began walking around licking the wings of the lovely little airplanes... Hooked.
By the time I got to IFR, the total was just short of $5000. Which I din' care at all, 'cause my company had made a deal that I could blow up to $5K on anything that had a legit diploma at the end of it.
♫ Didn't cost me a dime... ♫ [/Johnny Cash]
I've loaded them from 30-06 brass.
Yeah, the 172 is a strong two place with a back seat for luggage or two more. A little goosey on cross wind landings because of the high wing and extra lift. We affectionately referred to them as Kites.
I've seen them with a 360 upgrade that I liked a lot better than a 182 barge.
The most fun was a mini P-51 with a 360 that my friend built and let me fly. It had a small toggle in the center console instead of a yoke or stick and had a cruise of 198 mph.
I always wanted a Long Easy with a 360, but alas it was never to be.
Yeah, I liked soaring a lot too! The coolest things is that without prop blast, you can use a simple whisker instead of turn and bank indicator and you can hear everything, including chatter on the ground.
I got a shock the first time I landed one and after I had it on the ground, I eased back on the stick to bleed off speed like I do with a tricycle gear and it took off again.
Unca Walt
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The first plane I ever flew was 25 years before the glider ride. For $3.50 the Instructor would take you up in a J-3 for the basic stuff.
That plane was horribly old. NO radio. You waggled your wings to get a green flashlight from the tower to land. The floor was wood, torn up where the pedals were. The fuel gauge was a coat hanger on a cork out front of the windshield. In order to prime the engine for start, you pumped the throttle post thingy back and forth until fuel was seen dribbling down the dashboard. <-- TINS
Two magnetos on, brakes being held by Hisself, and the guy pulled on the prop. Oh dear. It started. He jumped in and we went boompit, boompit across the grass for about forty fargin feet -- and we were in the air.
That's when I noticed the that toy teeny barrel-bolt that held the door shut had rattled loose and the door fell wide open.
So the guy asks how high are we? I guessed 1000'. We were at 300. So he cut the motor to idle, and told me to pick a place to land. I saw a hayfield and angled the paper plane over to it. Actually landed it, which I thought was cool.
I tried and tried to get "one inch of dirt over the nose and one foot of air under the wings". Very hard to do. Oh. Just remembered: There was a ribbon to tell you if you were skidding.
But then we did "Effects Of Unusual Attitudes In Flight". Dutch rolls, skids, tilt slides, stalls. Eventually, I hadda lean out the open door and call dinosaurs.
Here is something it is better you hear than experience: If you barf downwind in an airplane, a vacuum forms immediately behind your face... and you become perfectly spray-painted with grug.
When we got back and I had cleaned the outside of the airplane (and myself, somewhat) I asked him:
"Did anybody else get airsick on their first flight?"
He grinned evilly: "Every. Single. One."
That caused the hiatus...
That plane was horribly old. NO radio. You waggled your wings to get a green flashlight from the tower to land. The floor was wood, torn up where the pedals were. The fuel gauge was a coat hanger on a cork out front of the windshield. In order to prime the engine for start, you pumped the throttle post thingy back and forth until fuel was seen dribbling down the dashboard. <-- TINS
Two magnetos on, brakes being held by Hisself, and the guy pulled on the prop. Oh dear. It started. He jumped in and we went boompit, boompit across the grass for about forty fargin feet -- and we were in the air.
That's when I noticed the that toy teeny barrel-bolt that held the door shut had rattled loose and the door fell wide open.
So the guy asks how high are we? I guessed 1000'. We were at 300. So he cut the motor to idle, and told me to pick a place to land. I saw a hayfield and angled the paper plane over to it. Actually landed it, which I thought was cool.
I tried and tried to get "one inch of dirt over the nose and one foot of air under the wings". Very hard to do. Oh. Just remembered: There was a ribbon to tell you if you were skidding.
But then we did "Effects Of Unusual Attitudes In Flight". Dutch rolls, skids, tilt slides, stalls. Eventually, I hadda lean out the open door and call dinosaurs.
Here is something it is better you hear than experience: If you barf downwind in an airplane, a vacuum forms immediately behind your face... and you become perfectly spray-painted with grug.
When we got back and I had cleaned the outside of the airplane (and myself, somewhat) I asked him:
"Did anybody else get airsick on their first flight?"
He grinned evilly: "Every. Single. One."
That caused the hiatus...
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Planting is tough on the back......I need a break so it is off to the nursery so Mrs Pute can buy more stuff to plant. Holly crap.
