Quote:
Originally posted by john_cramer
And wait just a damned minute, how dare you fellas bust on the C150? It's the PERFECT training airplane. . . particularly if it has a turquoise/brown paint scheme, manual flaps, and smells like a mix of engine oil and vomit. Now THAT's renting!
Also, you don't need no fancy GPS. Pilots today are encouraged to learn situational awareness by looking at pictures on a box. Not good: someday that fancy box is going to take a dump, and you'll be DEAD. Learn it the old-fashioned way, by looking out the window with a sectional chart. I'm not talking about dead reckoning, with a chart, a compass and your watch. Just your eyes and the chart. Once you've mastered the "OK, there's a lake that looks like a goat's head, and here's a lake that looks like a goat's head on my chart" THEN you're ready for "OK, I've been flying for 1 hour on a magnetic heading of 090 and I estimate the wind correction angle using my E6B to be seven degrees and therefore I'm somewhere near Goat's Head Lake." Then ADF. Then VOR. Then, and only then, should your hand reach for the power switch on the magic box.
And keeping your eyes out of the cockpit, particularly if you are learning to fly in California, is a GREAT idea for traffic avoidance. As my Grandfather (Private, 1952, Instrument Instructor, Boeing Airplane Co. -1982) was fond of saying, "Better a stiff neck than a broken one."
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John,
Totally agree and so many of "todays" pilots want all the bells and whistles in their airplane. The one I fly every day is one of the most advanced corporate jets in the world. Flies almost 10 hours non-stop, equipped with satellite everything and will land itself if needed.
I used to fly for the manufacturer (Boeing and McDonnell as well) of this plane and was a checkairman. Loved to turn off all the fancy glass tubes up front and have the other pilot tell me where they were and what was going on with the airplane. The vast majority of them cannot do it.
Its called "pilotage" and the meaning of it is simple. You need to throw all the fancy stuff out the window and be able to figure out where you are, where you need to go and get there, safely and legally. Look at the ground, open a map and from the railroad, river or highway figure out where you are. Watertowers make it easy as they almost always have the towns name on the side. Now try this at night or after its snowed??!! Not so easy and there may come a time when the electricty stops and you do not have GPS or the moving map displays.
An old dirtbag C-150, Piper Cub or Aeronca is one of the best airplanes to learn to fly in, bar none! Its back to basics and when you can land one like this in a crosswind and taxi into the FBO, not one person will ask for your pilots license... they know you know how to fly.
John's plane is a Aeronca on steroids, with inverted oil and fuel systems and its just the same as the three above, just a bit stronger in the areas you want when doing aerobatics. Go out and fly with one of these and learn to FLY, then after you have mastered this you can get in a plane with all the radios and nav systems.
Just my 2c worth but I have been doing it for a while...
JoeA