Pilot license

[oohrah]

Time to find a new IA.

 

[LaVbRef]

Haven't flown in a long time. Had to make choices when my ex-wife decided to go back to graduate school and then found out she was pregnant with our first child (in her second semester of grad school) It was the most liberating feeling I've had when I was up flying and have been considering getting current again.
Bought a share in a four person partnership (C-172). Used to fly down to the Florida panhandle beaches for the day and c/country to visit family in Texas and Oklahoma from (BTR Baton Rouge Ryan Airport)

 

[DD130]

I have my commercial, ME & instrument rating too. Ditto to what gaines67 said with an added emphasis on costs if you’re paying for it yourself. Got my Private Pilots license when I was sixteen (mid-sixties, now). Kept a job through high school and it took every spare penny I could make. But it was rewarding when I passed my check ride just a few weeks after getting my drivers license.

We're putting my son through PPL right now. He solo'd on the 31st., man.. that was a big day for sure.


His plan is to get his PPL, fly for CAF while he applies to the AF Academy. So far, things are working out, albeit a little slower than we'd hoped due to $$$ and WX. I started in the 80's but stopped after I blacked out during stall training. :/

It's the BEST ride in the world IMHO. It made driving "fast" cars feel pretty silly.

 

[oohrah]

Haven't flown in a long time. Had to make choices when my ex-wife decided to go back to graduate school and then found out she was pregnant with our first child (in her second semester of grad school) It was the most liberating feeling I've had when I was up flying and have been considering getting current again.
Bought a share in a four person partnership (C-172). Used to fly down to the Florida panhandle beaches for the day and c/country to visit family in Texas and Oklahoma from (BTR Baton Rouge Ryan Airport)

Best thing to get started and see if you want to get going again is to go to an AOPA Rusty Pilot seminar. It's free if you are an AOPA member.

Check out the calendar on their website, there's one somewhere in Texas quite often. You can decide if want to get going again, and the session counts as three hours of ground school for renewing your Biennial Flight Review.

 

[busykngt]

DD130,
Congratulations to your son. Looks like that’s his shirttail he’s holding!

I was a “hanger rat” growing up! My Dad & sisters knew where to find me whenever I wasn’t home - which was most of the time. But hanging out at the airport provided a whole lot of learning opportunities I otherwise would have missed. First airplane ride was with a guy named “Swift” (how appropriate a family name was that) - he was a tail gunner in WWII. My first “official” instructor was a crop duster pilot. He taught me how to do full-flap take offs in a Cessna and taught me spin recovery (knowledge ALL pilots should have even though it’s not taught nowadays). Landing on a calm day by using just the trim tab (not touching the yoke); flying a Piper J3 Cub; using differential engine thrust on a twin to counter act strong cross winds on landing - all lessons I learned due in large part to hanging around the airport and being in the right place at the right time.

 

[busykngt]

Don't be a show-off. Never be too proud to turn back. There are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old, bold pilots.
- E. Hamilton Lee, 1949

—

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds -
and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of -
wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there I've chased the shouting wind along
and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.

"Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
where never lark, or even eagle, flew;
and, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
put out my hand and touched the face of God."
- John G. Magee
died, 19 years old
1941

—

QBs?

 

[LaVbRef]

Best thing to get started and see if you want to get going again is to go to an AOPA Rusty Pilot seminar. It's free if you are an AOPA member.

Check out the calendar on their website, there's one somewhere in Texas quite often. You can decide if want to get going again, and the session counts as three hours of ground school for renewing your Biennial Flight Review.

Thanks for the info......I drove up from Wake Forest and attended one up in Maryland early in 2018 when I thought we would be moving back to Texas before 2019. Made me want to jump in one of the 172's that were sitting on the field. Also had several gyrocopters based at the FBO. The tech has changed but was surprised how much I had retained since I temporarily stopped.
Wife's employment is here on the East Coast (North Carolina) and appears it will be another year or so before we can go back home. We already have the property near Seven Points though the Post Office says Kemp

 

[toddnjoyce]

Thanks for the info......I drove up from Wake Forest and attended one up in Maryland early in 2018 when I thought we would be moving back to Texas before 2019. Made me want to jump in one of the 172's that were sitting on the field. Also had several gyrocopters based at the FBO. The tech has changed but was surprised how much I had retained since I temporarily stopped.
Wife's employment is here on the East Coast (North Carolina) and appears it will be another year or so before we can go back home. We already have the property near Seven Points though the Post Office says Kemp

The medical sucks worse now if you need a special issuance that has to go to OKC for review.

But, BasicMed is a great option for those who’ve held a medical in the last 10 years. No more AME required; renews every four years.

 

[DD130]

DD130,
Congratulations to your son. Looks like that’s his shirttail he’s holding!

Sure is! It was quite a view from the tower watching him do his 3, and listening to him on the radios... it would seem he was born to fly!

I was a “hanger rat” growing up!...

Wow.. that's awesome! I was shocked to hear the spin recovery is no longer required... that's a little baffling to me. I've been an AvGeek for as long as I can remember. Spent a lot of time at NAS Moffet and NAS Alemeda because of my dad (he was a sailor, not a pilot).. just being at the airfield... love it.

I keep thinking I might find an instructor patient enough to see if he can train me out of blacking out, and get back in the left seat... it seems to be a panic response, so.. in theory.. it should be a problem with a solution.. but for now, the $$$ goes to The Boy and I just get to be a proud earth-bound dad.

 

[SQLGeek]

Spent a lot of time at NAS Moffet

Aren't those airship hangars something else?

 

[DD130]

Aren't those airship hangars something else?

Yes, especially the main one. The rumor was it had it's own weather system. Saw the Blue Angles fly F4s and an SR-71 flyby. The museum there is pretty cool. One of my buddy's dad has his photo on the wall there, he was the base CO for a few years. Adams was his name (update: my buddy sent me a photo of the photo when he was there last).

 

[Coiled]

It's been a year now, did you get the PPL? If so, I need a lift from Huntsville to El Paso in March.

 

[FireInTheWire]

It's been a year now, did you get the PPL? If so, I need a lift from Huntsville to El Paso in March.

No... I came to realize that I don't have time to invest in it. Maybe after the kids get older.

 

[SQLGeek]

Bumping this because well, I'm getting bit hard with the idea that I should look into this and I'm finally in a financial position to pursue something like this. Still not sure I have the time though.

I've also kicked around the idea of learning to fly a glider instead. There's a soaring club not far from my house where I can pay to take a ride and see how I like it.

 

[FireInTheWire]

. Still not sure I have the time though.

That was my down fall. I had to be realistic with myself about that.

 

[SQLGeek]

Yeah, I totally get that. Fortunately my kids are a bit older I think. It's going to require a sober evaluation of if I think I can make it happen. I'd like to do it though before I get much older if I can help it.

This is a helluva midlife crisis. Maybe I should just buy a Harley.

 

[deemus]

So a couple weeks ago a friend had mechanical problems with his plane and it crashed and killed him.

 

[SQLGeek]

I'm sorry to hear that.

 

[toddnjoyce]

…There's a soaring club not far from my house where I can pay to take a ride and see how I like it.

Discovery flight is usually how they’re marketed. Soaring doesn’t require an FAA medical, which can be a frustrating exercise. Not a bad place to start, but being able to commit time is important.

 

[TXAZ]

I’m a glider pilot with ~100 flights and hours.
It’s a blast.
Hey, anyone can fly a plane with an engine and full gas tank. Sailplanes force you to think and plan ahead.