Perfect for flying cargo in lousy weather. :)

At least their "big brothers" - the PA32 (Lance), Navajo, Chieftain, etc.

Single VOR intersection holds in solid IMC over middle-o-nowhere Oregon? Sure.

God I do miss those days.

Ryan,

Would love to fly with you but most of my flying these days is for the factory and its difficult to get anyone on the flights.

Heading to FLL to pick up this in a few days:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1201045733.jpg

We ferry it to BDL (Hartford CT) where another crew picks it up for the flight to Dubai.

Have flown the big ones and the small ones and they all have their good and bad points. The 605 we are flying above is one of the most fun as the avionics really make things easy.

lol...have a student right now with a '65 pa-28-180 with a single-axis a/p, and just a single vor. at least you can flip over quickly and see what actual crossing radial you're on based upon the freq you set in standby. other than that, he's also got the old bendix with 'manual tune' i referenced earlier. i jokingly tellthe guy that 'your balls are gonna be dragging the ground once you get the rating and start flying in the soup with this 'ol girl!' :D

i never got a chance to fly the 'big brothers', but the man that owns the fbo where i do most of my g.a. instruction flew all three part 135 back in the early/mid 80's.

it's okay, joe..seriously..i understand...i see where i stand.. (the 'little people' here ya know..) :D

joe, believe it or not, i have YET to fly ANYTHING with efs. i'd be lost. i understand that there's a learning curve to transition as one would expect, but that once you 'get it' you wonder how you ever flew without it. i'm a steam-gauge dinosaur i guess...probably why i'd be no good to anyone in a jet if i ever decide to return to them if they aren't old lears or anything with basic flight instruments..

here's what the well-groomed, 'professional pilot' looks like these days..lol. look like a stinky, old fbo to you? it is.. :D

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1201046423.jpg

next pic's a hoot. long story short - central flying service, oneof the oldest flight schools in the country told this fella (6'3" and 300 lbs) that he was simply 'too fat to get trained and get a license'..so he wandered across the river and met me. long story short, he only has time for one flight per week, but his checkride is in about a week. he's awesome..and gonna keep going! :) guess what 'chief pilot' found this in his email the next day?? heheh..actually, central's chief pilot and i graduated high school together. he calls trying to get me over there 'cause you know regionals are sucking up cfi's with as little as 300-400 tt?? i won't go..it's a part 141 school. syllabus? structure? me?? SmileWavy



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Good reading. Off the top of my head, I really don't have any "war stories" to add. 13,000 hours and it all starts to blend together. Don't get me wrong, I've had plenty of those "damn, I don't want to be here" moments over the years, but they don't quite have that "so there I was, out over the Pacific at night wondering if I was going to get my feet wet" stories like some of you have (although there was last week when I descended over our mountain range East of LAX with the wind blowing 108 knots directly across the ridge-line at about 10,000 feet and felt like I was as close as I've ever been to having an airplane come apart on me in flight - the poor saps in back who had to ride along with us in that - OY!) :eek:

Ryan and Joe, I always enjoy reading your stories about those 20-series Lears. The jet I fly is a fuel saving, EFIS and dual FMS equipped, RVSM capable pussycat compared to what you've flown. I've had flights Westbound in the winter in that thing that have required a planned full fuel load, but have always been able to make destination with plenty of reserve left (1700 pounds /45 minutes is our planned reserve).

Ryan, if that kid's 6'3", I'm guessing you are too. It looks like you two are eye-to-eye.

my flight times are actually half of yours, scott. but i've taken a leave from flying twice for a cpl years each time to purse other things, otherwise i suppose i'd be in 5-figures myself by now..all my contemporaries are. hate to admit how many times we landed a 20-series lear with less than 500 lbs fuel when i was a co-pilot. low fuel light comes on? just transfer from one side to the other, create an imbalance where most of the fuel is on one side during letdown, so that if you DO flameout, you could continue single-engine..fortunately, it never happened..and always cargo flights without passengers..still dumb that i went along with it the times that i did. that particular captain i flew with during those days is dead now - ran out of fuel in one..finally caught him..very sad. nah, i''m 6'2" and 230...'ol shane makes me look small standing next to him. :)

Jeez, all these LR-JET stories.... I actually asked the FAA examiner on a type ride for another airplane if it was possible to have a type rating removed (thinking of that one).... yes, it is, but why would you do that he asked? I asked him if he had ever flown a LR20 series..... He had not, and he talked me out of removing mine from my ticket.

I remember breaking in a newbie to the right seat and explaining all the gotcha's...

- Gear handle down??? Set 90% power NOW.
- Top of descent and the LOW FUEL LEVEL light is not on? Faulty flight planning.
- At high altitudes, the autopilot will be very busy unless you intentionally mistrim the airplane!
- Taxi out on one? Taxi in on the other, and it had better be the right one.
- Top of descent? Windshield heat on until you can hear it roar, or you'll have to be towed from the runway (if you actually were able to find it).
- Over gross takeoff (the 6 Japanese guys showed up with golf clubs) from Las Vegas? Fuel dump in the first cumulus you come to.

Lots of fun stuff. I would never volunteer for a flight in one, but never turned one down.

A local operator (big forest company) around here had a Lr24 that flew for years. Man could that thing climb and descend. Easiest plane in the sky to control from an ATC point of view.... Now they have a 55. The Astra ain't too bad either.

As someone who reads incedent reports on a regular basis and does priliminary investigations into said incedents, please do not just "jump in and go"..... Do your checks, take your time and have your head in the game. Too many nice people get hurt taking a short cut.

Cheers

now, fing...you 'big iron guy', you..don't be a hater! :p

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1201075119.jpg
Hmm... :eek: :p

I am going to post my reply without reading the other replies. Simply put, you can "kick the tires and light the fires" and go flying. But that comes with a lot of assumptions - check for proper fuel level depending on mission, check oil, proper preflight, ect. Now if you are planning a trip from point A to point B, you may have to take into account loading calculations, fuel load and burn, wind speed and direction, ect.

It really all depends on the type of aircraft you are intending to fly and what your mission is. The more complex of either and the more flight planning you will have to do, typically. That is a very watered down and simplified answer. Now I will read the other posts...:rolleyes:

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Tim, how long is your strip. I am so going to bomb the 'six in there someday. If you hear a loud rumble from a loooowwww buzz job and it shakes the dust from the rafters, that would be me.:eek:SmileWavy:D

2500' x 75' wide...clear approaches, hard clay ground with excellant drainage. OH02 (listed as 2300' lg, but that is the old N/S strip which is no longer in existance), "Eickmeier", about 20 SW of Toledo Express (TOL). I might not know it is you, as I have a few buddies who light my place up every now and then in some high performance stuff but I am guessing a screaming dive with the prop barking might just give you away. :D

Chances are, if I am home, I am out in the hangar/workshop and always come out to see who is tearing it up. (Buzz jobs are always appreciated here, as we are still in a rural area where neighbors are few and they don't whine about it ;)) By all means stop in if you are ever passing thru. I still NEED a T6 sortie :D. My "warbird" experience thus far has been just a Piper L4, Cessna Bird dog and some T-34 time. I NEED to ride in something with a BIG ROUND ENGINE :D