Aviation types on THR?

[fmjcafe]

I spent 4 years in the Navy working on various turbine and piston aircraft engines and got my Airframe and Powerplant liscence after I got out. I worked for 2 different air cargo outfits as a mechanic before hiring on with Mc Donnell Douglas. Mac got bought out by Boeing a few years ago and later sold their fabrication business to a Brit owned company who I work for now. I`ve been messing with aircraft in some way shape or form since 1975.

I started learning to fly gliders while I was in the Navy but the instructer got orders and left before I got to solo.

 

[Duckdawg]

I have 42 hours of instruction toward my PPL. I got laid off in July of last year and that ended lessons just when I was *this* close Being sick of IT industry lay offs, I've started my own consulting business, which is gaining momentum, albeit slowly. To make beer money and to keep my head in flying, I've taken one of the lowliest jobs in the world, 2nd shift FBO Line Service.

Oddly enough, I'm learning a boatload of stuff about planes, ATC, FBOs and assorted stuff that I really wish I knew about when I was flying!

My goal is something like a 206 on floats, carting hunters and fisherman into the Canadian and northern New England boonies. And I hear they actually PAY you to do that

 

[Ironbarr]

Well, I learned from, and soloed in a J-3 under the tutilage of, Buster Coward at Aransas County Airport, Rockport, TX in '57. At the time I was Navy, handling the tower comm gear and the LF range just north of the field. Had a whole 8 hours or so logged, passed the written, but couldn't afford the $7.00/hr for the 100 mile distant landing (dual & solo).

Flew solo in the PA-12 (3-seater) - liked sitting up front.

Never got back to it - retired USN in '68 - sea duty playing life guard for bird farms and some other fine things.

.....

Tom,

Weren't you warned that THR is capable of addiction? Welcome aboard.

-Andy

 

[M2 Carbine]

Ironbarr,

You may be glad to hear Aransas County Airport is still there.

I flew helicopters out of there 4 or 5 years before I retired, a couple years ago.

We stayed in some old houses, by the airport that must have been built in the 50's.

 

[ddc]

Haven't flown for probably 30 years or so but long ago and far away I was a US Army helicopter pilot.

M2 Carbine: There is a chance I might have been one of your students: Class 69-43, Flight B4, 7th WOC.

After that: F Troop, 8th Cav, 123rd Aviation Battalion, Americal Division, RSVN. Most of the time flew out of the Ky Ha heliport adjacent to the Chu Lai military base.

After coming home: Flew a piston engined Bell G47 dusting crops (actually spraying crops) in the Salinas Valley, CA for a year or so.

Nothing since then..... wow, this is bringing back some memories.

 

[Ironbarr]

M2 Carbine...

Often wondered. Did it grow up? It had 5000ft runways then ... Navy bounced AD's there from Cabiness, Kingsville, et al. Had some good times and some other times. Those NavCads/O-1's were just out of primary at Pensicola.

Always wanted to re-visit, but never happened - that, as I remember, is a long drive from I-10 and civilization.

Oh - and to keep this on topic... Buster carried a chrome wheel gun just about everywhere off the field --- especially San Antonio.

-Andy

 

[Zone Five]

If the commercial pilot is also an aviation nut, then he or she will be into aviation apart from work. Some commercial pilots, though, are like some cops. The airplane/gun is just a tool of work, and it has no appeal once the job ends.

You know, it is strange in that the civilian background commercial pilots seem to be the least apt to fly GA. I guess they have paid their dues bouncing around the pattern in 150's and 172's and it just isn't appealing anymore. Personally, I feel naked without an ejection seat and or two engines. That said, there is no more fun flying than the freedom of General Aviation.

Oh, I took delivery of the T-Bone.

Can't quit grinning. Now I have to figure out where to put the gun rack!

Congrat's, Tom! That thing should haul whatever you desire. What sort of speeds will you see at typical (read: affordable) cruise? How does it compare to a Baron in terms of speed and fuel burn versus load carrying capability?

In other words, will you be able to haul your trophy to the taxidermist back home?

Must have been fun watching your plane head to its new home on the internet. Amazing.

Zone 5 Afterburner

 

[M2 Carbine]

ddc
I was a civilian instructor at Wolters in 69 (66 to 71).

I was in B.B. Baird's flight flying Hillers in 69.

We flew out of the main heliport.

We had a few Officer classes but mostly WOC classes.

I could relate to the WOC's since I had been one in 64.



Ironbarr,
Aransas County is civilian now. No tower.
The Navy still comes in for bounce practice.

Like a lot of airports the land developers keep trying to shut it down.
There isn't a lot of traffic and I'de guess the Navy money is the only thing that's keeping it going.

We moved our helicopters out of there to Port O'Connor about the time I retired.

I liked flying out of there.
A nice big open area if your coming back in trouble or in weather.

I used a ground controled approach one day in a thunderstorm, at about 75 feet.
I called the pilots in the office and said call me when you hear me and I'll make a left turn.

I had flown in 75 knot winds before but that day it was all I could do to control the chopper. I don't know what the winds were.

Darn, that was fun.

 

[Orthonym]

Oh, AZLibertarian:

That business about not saying which pilots are armed and which aren't would not be necessary if ALL pilots were armed! Sorta like the situation in other threads about the traffic cop asking IF your're armed, instead of "Where's yer piece."

I suppose you know that until (I think) some time in the early sixties, airline pilots who had U.S. Mail in the plane were REQUIRED by the US Fedgov to carry revolvers.


I imagine you've read Capt. Gann's book, "Fate is the Hunter." In it, he writes of how relieved the line pilots felt in the late thirties when the rules were relaxed a bit and they could actually unstrap the gun belts after the plane was off the ground, and set them aside. Not exactly super-comfy seats in those DC-3s!

 

[Guntalk]

Zone 5:

The Twin Bonanza is not speedy. It's a good thing it's comfortable, because you're gonna be in it a while!

Figure 160 knots average. It may be slow, but it burns a lot of gas. <grin>

 

[AZLibertarian]

Orthonym

That business about not saying which pilots are armed and which aren't would not be necessary if ALL pilots were armed!

I think I've made my views about the TSA and the FFDO program clear here, but if you're suggesting that being armed ought to be a requirement, then I've got to disagree. I'd like the TSA to remove the impediments to a viable FFDO program, but forcing pilots into it, asks too much, IMO.

 

[ddc]

M2 Carbine:

I wouldn't have had the privilege of flying with you then. My instructor at Wolters was still an active duty CW2 and we flew the little Hughes from one of the auxiliary fields.

 

[Orthonym]

AZl, please forgive me if I did not state my point clearly, but

I did not mean, exactly, that "...being armed ought to be a requirement..." but that I thought that being armed USED to be a requirement. (From some time in the early 1920s to some time in the early 1960s, IIRC)


I'll betcha, if you talk to people who flew airliners in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, and ask the right questions, you'll get some smart remarks and stupid stories about "the mail gun." I really don't remember exactly how it went in the movie, but in the book, "Spirit of St. Louis" by C.A. Lindbergh, I think I read some pi**ing and moaning about the necessity (required, no exceptions) of carrying and accounting for said mail gun.

As to whether or not YOU should be armed with a firearm, I dunno, I just hope that anyone trying to bust into the front end of the aircraft with malice aforethought gets what he has coming to him, be it by hot lead or a good hard lick upside the head.

 

[AZLibertarian]

Orthonym

Here's a picture of part of the equipment of every airline cockpit.
http://wknives.com/military-knives/air-corps-survival-516.jpg
While its not completely evident from this picture, the curved blade is razor sharp. A "good hard lick upside the head" will likely leave that head rolling on the floor.

 

[Zone Five]

A "good hard lick upside the head" will likely leave that head rolling on the floor.

Cool!

Zone 5

 

[MeekandMild]

M2 Carbine I think it was having to go door to door searching for a guy's head (which we never found) that soured me on flying. He didn't lose his head from any swanky axe thing, rather in the course of his accident.

 

[pittspilot]

"Hold on, like flying a rattlesnake and waiting for him to turn and bite you."

Does not. Well, only if you are not properly trained.

Comm/Multi/Inst with a CFI-MEI, but spent most of my time upside down.

Few thousand hours in various taildraggers, with almost a grand in Pitts Specials of various varieties.

Until you have taught someone to land a Pitts in a heavy crosswind, you have not lived as an instructor.

"I have been a private pilot since 91. Just got started building a Pitts."

Hey ColtDriver, (Sorry this is just the instructor talking, for all I know you may have thousands of hours in taildraggers) just be sure that you get some time with an instructor, or that aircraft may scare you. It also depends on what experience you have in t-wheels, and what types. It's not that the Pitts is wiggly, it's just very direct.

 

[Bob R]

The most fun I have ever had with my clothes on go like this, back seat launch, ride, and trap in a F4J, ride in a 2 seat Pitts, ride in a P51 that had a small jump seat put behind the pilots seat, and a hop and pop @ 25K feet over the desert at China Lake.

One summer a few years ago I was able to do the air show circuit as we were the jump plane (C2) fo the Leap Frogs. My 25K parachute experience was with the Naval Test Parachute Center when we took a C2 up for them to jump from while their Caribou was down.

I sure do miss those days.

bob

 

[Fly320s]

B00ridge,

Man, you guys are rubbing that glareshield way too much.

Also, you're missing your condition levers!! What happened, did your props fall off?

Is the panel (and the rest of the plane) still held together with Velcro?

-A former B00streak driver.

 

[Orthonym]

Sounds like wonderful aviation stories, I love'm too.

My posts were gun-related.