• Please be sure to read the rules and adhere to them. Some banned members have complained that they are not spammers. But they spammed us. Some even tried to redirect our members to other forums. Duh. Be smart. Read the rules and adhere to them and we will all get along just fine. Cheers. :beer: Link to the rules: https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/forum-rules-info.2974/

Pilot roll call

v8dave

v8dave

Wizard
Any other pilots here? I gained my license in 1967. Did lots of $20 hamburgers back then, $100 now, and then ran out of money with the family comming on. Two regrets, I passed on a 172 in the early 70s for no good reason and then I passed on a Fairchild 24 basket case with Warner radial in the late 70s because it wouldn't fit in the garage--what a screw up that was.

The Fairchild is now restored and in the Hiller museum at the Redwood City airport (San Francisco Bay area).

I'm off now on assignment here in Tucson and if the assignment continues next year, I get active again.
 
Don't ya just hate that. At least the Fairchild was saved though.

I try to look on the bright side...if there is one. And in this case there is one - it didn't happen to me!:D

Got my license in '92 but haven't had much time in the past 4-5 years. Seems like if I have time I don't have money, and when I have money I don't have time.

In 1997 I had a chance at a 152 w/560 TTSN for $8K - very clean but needed paint. Owner went in a nursing home and wanted me to have it - I was the only one he knew that would go up with him. I didn't care for the way the small plane "leans" when only 1 person is in it so I passed. What was I thinkin'?

My wife didn't care for me in the air so she let me buy boats. Now that both boys are out of college - I want both!
 
One of the wildest partying guys I used to work with was a pilot. He was always up for a party and drank more than his share. But, when it was time to fly he took that dead serious and seemed to be a different fellow. I understood why, but still it surprized me. He's retarded now (opps i meant retired now) and somewhere in florida.
(He always called retired folks retarded folks ....always in fun only! ...but now he is one, so he should be called it!)
 
Pilot dies and meets St. Peter at the pearly gates. St. Peter gives him the biggest smile and hands him a gold staff, silk robe, a beautiful blonde, and tells him to please come in.
Standing in line behind him is a Preacher.
The Preacher is in awe, wondering - "gee if he's only a pilot and got those beautiful gifts, I can't even imagine what lies in store for me..."

When the Preacher steps up, St. Peter looks him up and down, scowls and hands him a knarly old wooden staff and moth eaten cotton robe, and tells him to come in.

The Preacher looks at St. Peter and says "I don't understand - that guy is only a pilot and he got all the beautiful stuff, while I have been ministering to the people for years get this old stuff...and no woman?"

St. Peter says "Every time the Pilot flew, all the people prayed. Every time you preached, all the people slept..."
 
Private and Instrument rated pilot.

Soloed on 16th birthday in 1987, private the following year, Instrument 200 pic hours later. I don't know if the theory of chasing airplanes in High school instead of girls was worth it or not, but thats what I did.

The new property has 1500' that WILL become a grass strip someday.


:thewave:
 
No license, but I've flown a T28 (twice), Beach Duke (x3), a 150 (many), a 172 (1x), a Citabria (1x), a SNJ (1x) and a T6 (3x), and right seated a Citation (6x). All friend's or friends of friends' aircraft.

I should get a license, but I spend way too much on water toys. Way too much.
 
EX-private pilot. Low hours, lapsed cert. but life-time interest. My dream was a Lake Bucaneer ... oh well!

Let's start a spin training thread.
 
Retired commercial pilot and A & P mechanic.....Flew cropdusters but had a bad day at the office.....Retired......
 
duflochy said:
Retired commercial pilot and A & P mechanic.....Flew cropdusters but had a bad day at the office.....Retired......
Click to expand...

Couldn't have been THAT bad - you're still here to tell about it.
...and we're glad you're here!

Good to see our "old" threads are still read. Thanks for resurrecting it.

A couple months ago I suggested buying an Ultra-light. Now I have another boat to work on (with Momma's consent). :whistling:
 
I used to go up flying with a buddy of mine. Never got my license though. Wish I did. A flight training center in the city would bring their cessna 152 down during the summer months and hold classes for people here. My buddies and I would chip in and rent their plane for a few hours at a time. My buddy was and still is a pilot. I used to love flying in those smaller planes. Totally different than flying comercial. Let's see.....there was the 152, a 172, and a 185 that we flew in.

I remember one time my buddy had to head out to Montreal to pick up a 172 and bring it out to Manitoba for a skydiving outfit out there. I'm surprised that thing even got off the ground. It was a basket case, to say the least. Every time he landed to refuel, he had to add a few liters of oil.

I remember one time, we headed down to the city to rent a 172 from the flight training center to go up flying. It was cold. Like -30C. When we got there, the plane was sitting outside. The engine cowling wasn't covered up. The plane looked decent but had allot of mechanical issues so we opted to pass on going up that day. A month later, we heard about a plane crash just west of the city. Turns out the plane that we were supposed to take up flying crashed killing one and injuring another. Guess it was a a good thing we opted not to take it up.

My buddy is still flying out west of here. He flies a cessna caravan up north bringing supplies in to the reserves.
 
My Dad was a private pilot.
he owned a number of planes throughout the years, mostly in conjunction with other people, kinda like a time share.
I always wanted to get my license, but when I was caught with weed as a teenager, he vowed not to give me any more lessons. :(

He eventually bought a pretty good sized aviation center in Santa Barbara, and operated it for many years before he sold it and retired.

He can go on for hours about the people that he met who chartered flights from him.

One guy that he never fails to mention is Joe Cocker.

He says that as soon as Joe and his entourage boarded the plane, he and the other pilot(s) would immediately put on oxygen masks, knowing that shortly the cabin would be filled with a marijuana smoke cloud. :)
 
The first one for me was a Hawker Decathlon, with wooden spared wings. It belonged to a friend who learned acrobatics in it down in Texas some were. I flew it quite a bit from the back seat. And, we did hammer head stalls right over the top of my house... along with all the loops, figure eights, reverse Cuban eights (hate those!) and all sorts of inverted flight. Once he left the lid off the smoke oil tank, and when we rolled upright, we got a bath in concrete form oil...
Another friend had a Piper Aztec he rented to the Ames Air Port for multi engine training. Dan let me take it off, fly back to our home air port and all but land it back there. What a thrill.. not a bit of torque steer with twin counter rotating variable pitch props.. We took that plane out West on a fishing trip over a weekend. That was a hoot as well.
Next was a Piper Turbo lance II that was a plane I really miss a lot. Retractable gear, and a Tee tail. That plane did so many things well, and could get up high enough for oxygen masks to be required. It was fast enough to make a difference in travel times.
Last year it was my time to buy a share of an old Cherokee 160, and almost did. the intent was for me to finally get a private license. Except the owner put it down in a corn field, in the dark, near a town 40 miles South of here. I was the one who cut the wings off, as they were to damaged for salvage. We loaded it on my fifth wheel trailer and took it back to the air port hanger.. My friend who owned it, walked away from it with minor injuries for the most part. The plane would not have been damaged except he hit a terrace head on. This buckled the front gear, and tilted the engine down, as the plane did a over the nose roll onto the top of the rudder, and smashed the roof of the cabin. He had the door open before impact thankfully.
Right now, I find my self grounded. No close friends who have a plane at the moment anyway...

Regards, Kirk
 
Last edited:
Have rotary, and fixed wing commercial licenses, although I have not flown a fixed wing in 9 years.
I own, and semi-regularly fly my MD500 though.
 
Not a pilot but I have a few hours at the controls of a Bell 206 and a 407. Many many hours as a crew member in a vintage UH-1 Huey.
 
i learned to fly in a piper cub with the door open , low and slow, i sure did enjoy that, also have time in a piper cherokee.
have my private however have not flown for years. too many hobbies and this one took the back seat for now.
 
I got my private in 1976 while I was collecting unemployment from the railroad. I learned at Brackett Field in California. Santa Ana winds, high temperatures and crowded skies. No GPS all pilotage. I didn’t fly for 30 years and took it back up again 15 years ago. I had to get the new plastic license and change my pilot certificate number from my SSI number to a new issue one. I purchased a K model Cessna 150 then, on eBay and I still own and operate it today. I fly alone frequently because the performance is so much better, I live at 4850 feet. I learned in a 150 Aerobat and I have always liked the type. Most people don‘t really fit in a 150 anymore but I still do. I’m glad I jumped back into aviation when I did, I had missed experiencing flight and I did something about it. I have kept the cost reasonable and the airplane is the most important toy among the other stuff I own, I’m sure I will never sell it. They cost too much these days, I would never own one again.
 
Last edited:
Brackett field has two runways now, but I haven’t flown in California since the late 70s. I now fly in South Central Idaho. Brackett was a neat place to learn to fly. My check airman for my private or designated examiner was Gini Richardson. She owned the flying school I learned at. She was an amazing lady and I was privileged to have known her.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top