Anyone pilots?

[thunderw21]

Whether you fly little single-engine jobs, huge airliners or anything inbetween, speak up.
Pull a stool over and share your stories.

I've had my private certificate since 2003. There have been a few close calls but nothing too serious.

Once while doing a simulated engine out at a local airport with my instructor (I was still a student) we almost collided with a glider. We had made several radio calls stating what we were doing, our intentions, position and the runway we were shooting for. We were a bit high so we made a few turn to loose altitude. Just before making another one of these turns I spotted a glider straight in front of us at our altitude heading right for us. I made an evasive manuver to the right, missing the glider by maybe 50 yards.
My instructor hadn't seen it and asked what I was doing. I told him to look behind us. You should have heard the colorful language that followed.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Private pilot, and have been around aircraft since I was a kid.

 

[staggerwing]

I've been flying longer than I've been driving. Got my private in '74 and my commercial and multi soon after. In more years than I care to recount, I only had one really serious problem - the engine of the Cessna 206 I flew for a mapping company back in the early 1980s literally blew up. The owner of the company was cheap and like to skimp on both maintenance and pilots' salaries. As luck had it, he was with me on the day this happened. I resigned on the way down!

Probably the funniest thing that happened was when I was 17 and just got my license. I took my little brother for a ride in an old Beechcraft Bonanza. Well, you take off at full power, but then are supposed to reduce to "climb power." The Bonanza has what's called a "vernier" throttle - you can push the button in the center of the throttle knob and push it in or pull it out like a conventional throttle, or you can "screw" it in and out to make fine power adjustments.

It was my habit to give the throttle a couple of twists to set climb power. Well, on this day, I noticed that the throttle had little resistance when I turned the knob, and the engine didn't seem to be responding. I pulled on it, and the whole throttle, along with about two feet of the cable it attaches to, came right out of the panel!

All the while, little brother is looking around outside, and chattering incessantly about the view. So, I wave the throttle with the broken cable in his face and say "Will you shut up? Can't you see we've got a problem?!"

By the way, little brother is now an air traffic controller.

 

[Diamondback]

I'm not a pilot yet, but do plan to pursue my license eventually (and homebuild my own plane or two), and usually log more time in high-end sims in a typical year than most pro pilots get at the stick/yoke. (I've been slacking for '07, though... probably because of all the time I've logged between here and research for my clients.)

 

[AeroDillo]

Got the private nailed down and I'm pushing on the instrument rating.

 

[Smithy]

Started my PPL in 2002, but my first move to Norway put a stop to it.

I'll have to start all over again but it's on the must do list for the next year or so.

 

[Andykev]

32 Years

Commercial-Multi-Instrument
Own Beechcraft Sundowner, 1981. 1100TT, 300 SMOH.
Have owned a Cessna.
Flown Cessna 150, 152, 140, 172, 177, 182, 210, 320 turbo.
Flown Piper Warrior, Archer, Arrow
Flown Boeing Stearman
Flown Aerocomander
Flown Citabria/Decathalon (my favorite fun plane)

Watched gas go from 60 cents a gallon to a whopping $4.50+

Watched airspace go from uncontrolled to TCA/ARSA ... now Class A,B,C,D, etc.

Saw periods of activity where everyone flew, patterns were full, and there was a wait to rent a plane, get a hangar, buy gas....

To today, where hardly a General Aviation plane flys over the house anymore. And I live on a 4 mile final to CCR runway 1L.

Aviation today SUCKS.

Annual inspection went to helping, giving the guy $100 bucks, and buying him a burger. Then having a beer at the end of the day.

Now, it is AD', SB's, "parts not available", gee the price of the annual is now going over $2000+ per year!

Oh and insurance. Tie Down. Hangar. And anyone paying attention to the dreaded "USER FEES" that are coming?

When is the last time you called the FSS? It SUCKS.

AOPA? Well I have a low number: 5390**. Been an active member since 1974.

Pilot? Yes. Active, hardly. Current IFR? NO WAY.

It really has become a rich man's sport.

 

[AeroDillo]

Watched gas go from 60 cents a gallon to a whopping $4.50+

Not quite so far back on that curve, but check.

Saw periods of activity where everyone flew, patterns were full, and there was a wait to rent a plane, get a hangar, buy gas....

I live near the training areas of a flight school, which I also attend. Even with student flights almost daily, it's quiet. So check.

To today, where hardly a General Aviation plane flys over the house anymore. And I live on a 4 mile final to CCR runway 1L.

Check.

Aviation today SUCKS.

Check-check.

Oh and insurance. Tie Down. Hangar. And anyone paying attention to the dreaded "USER FEES" that are coming?

Check. Nothing like getting screwed in an unbalanced fight.

When is the last time you called the FSS? It SUCKS.

Uggghhhhhh....check.

Oh...and the hundred-dollar hamburger is running about four and five times that, at least down here. Closest we can do is College Station, which is $400 in flight time at the bare minimum.

I wasn't there, but...God, do I miss the old days.

 

[Diamondback]

I wasn't there, but...God, do I miss the old days.

Yeah, you and me both, sir. Back before the Dark Times... before... the bureaucrats!

*nostalgic for those bygone days when anybody could just build a plane from scratch and fly it, without all the innovation-stifling paperwork--or buy an Army-surplus P-51 or B-17*

 

[AeroDillo]

For the days when a USGI surplus Mustang cost the same as a Piper Cub.

I can barely imagine that.

 

[Diamondback]

Heck, I wish they'd sell me a prof's old fighter, at all--never mind the price!

 

[J. M. Stovall]

Rotary Wing Pilot. Instrument and commerical rated courtesy of the United States Army. Checked out for UH-1H and OH-58A. Been out since '92, and haven't flown since.

 

[thunderw21]

Commercial-Multi-Instrument
Own Beechcraft Sundowner, 1981. 1100TT, 300 SMOH.
Have owned a Cessna.
Flown Cessna 150, 152, 140, 172, 177, 182, 210, 320 turbo.
Flown Piper Warrior, Archer, Arrow
Flown Boeing Stearman
Flown Aerocomander
Flown Citabria/Decathalon (my favorite fun plane)

...

Pilot? Yes. Active, hardly. Current IFR? NO WAY.

It really has become a rich man's sport.

Yep, you summarized why I haven't flown for over a year. Too much of a hassle. Not only are government regulations growing by the day but costs are becoming too much for almost everyone.
My instructor told me of a time when regulations were all printed on a single pamphlet. Now they fill a book practically 1,000 pages long. Oh for the days of the barnstormer...

 

[Mike K.]

I learned how to fly before I got a drivers license. Strangely enough, I've never gotten around to getting my pilots license. I have a number of logged & unlogged hours in several single-engine aircraft. Right now it's just too much time and too much money for me.

 

[fishmeok]

A&P, IA for twelve years. Never got a private, was just too expensive.
Havn't touched an airplane in almost four years. You guys are right, aviation today sucks...
Cheers
Mark