I was going to make an entry on economics and the new great depression and that is still to come but I kind of got distracted along the way. Saturday mornings I like to look at a few web sites and dream about aviating. I like to fly and I have not gotten near enough of a fill of it yet. So far beyond the several commercial flights I have taken, I have been given a few rides by generous fellow plane nuts, and I have taken lessons that resulted in solo flight.
My first taste of real flying, (that is anything that doesn’t involve standing in line to disrobe and walk through a magnometer), was with my uncle in his Cessna 182. I had been reading and studying in my high schooled way and knew the basics of flight and once we were air born my uncle turned the controls over to me and let me fly. It was the greatest event of the summer. My dad and brother were in the back and even though I wasn't quite as smooth as my uncle and my turns were not the most coordinated I managed to get us through the air and tour the flood area and work being done to repair the damage done by the Teton Dam flood in Idaho. Elaine Johnson has a nice story about the flood at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~idfremon/flood.htm.
Like so many things in life, when I get a taste of someone’s hobby and they really have a love for it, it is contagious and I usually want to participate and experience it for myself. Such has been the case with coin collecting, photography, books, music, movies, television, biking, cars, and flying. I could go on and on but you get the point.
I had a Boy Scout advisor that gave us a taste of simulator flying and my taste grew. Later I decided to take lessons. The cost was scary because at the time I was going to college and working three jobs but I figured it would be worth it. It was worth it but the money said either one or the other and college came first. I figured that if college worked out I would be able to make enough money to pay for my flying habit. Silly me.
Before I gave in I did manage to solo in a Piper Tomahawk…twice. That is one of those steps that you never forget. The first time was around the patch for a couple of touch and goes with a landing and meeting with your instructor who clips your tail feathers as a sign of the first time leaving the nest. It was a combination of nervous exhilaration and a sense of accomplishment that has seldom been duplicated. In fact the next time I had such confidence that I took a trip around the valley and was probably a little late getting back because the next renter was sitting there ready to go. I hardly noticed as I was having too good a time. There is just something about being in the air, just you and the machine, slipping across the country side, viewing the land from a different perspective that can’t be match from the confines of pavement.
I did try to find a way to have someone else pay for my flying, after all that is the American way. While going to school I decided to try the Air Force ROTC program and see if I could get a pilot slot. The idea was good but my timing was lousy. There weren’t a lot of pilot slots available and so the competition was high. Accountants did not score as high as Engineers and that was strike one. I was in my second year and was doubling up my ROTC classes to play catch up but that means the leaders had only seen me for one quarter where others had been around a little longer. I was still working three jobs which was taking a lot of time and energy and even though they had a ROTC presence at our school the classes were combined with the other local university. By local I mean their school was an hour drive each way from my school. This was not starting out real well.
I stayed at it as long as I could though. I even took the physical and I am pretty sure I past just fine but at the end of the 5 hour prodding they gave us a questionnaire that I was tired enough not to read closely enough. The question “Have you ever been treated for air sickness?” came across to me as “Have you ever been air sick?” big difference. At first I didn’t think it was a fair question reading it as I had since many of the candidates might never have gone up in an airplane to have the chance to experience air sickness whereas I had been up on a very bumpy commercial flight as a young teenager and had. I had the dilemma play out in my mind; should I answer honestly or lie and say I hadn’t. I decided to be honest throughout my life and I wouldn’t feel good about not being so now so I answered that I had experienced air sickness. Let the consequences come what may. I have never been treated for it but that is not how I read the question.
Between the jobs and the school schedule things had to come to an end soon or my efforts would start to deteriorate and something would suffer, grades or jobs or me. I went to discuss my odds with one of the instructors and it became apparent that they weren’t looking for accountants so I decided to drop the ROTC program and pursue the career with an eye on making lots of money to feed my desired habit. If they would have given me any glimmer of hope at the pilot slot, I would have stuck it out. Third and fourth year students that are committed receive a stipend and tuition and then the finance side of the equation would have been answered. As it is, my schooling was paid for by me through my efforts. I did not take out loans and other than living at home I did not get parental grants.
So school became the first priority and then the first job after school job. The real one, you know the one that you went to school for in the first place. It was several years later before I got to go back and try flight school again. I still really loved flying and tried to make a go of it. My job was working out so I had enough free money to use on other pursuits, and more importantly the desire was still there.
This time it was in a Cessna 152. Where the Piper is a two seat low wing trainer the Cessna is a high wing two seat trainer. They both are small, slow and simple. That is why they make good trainers. The biggest difference between the two is wing placement. Let me explain.
With initial training, one of the basic skills that must be learned is working around the airport and transitioning from a land based vehicle to an airborne vehicle. Many hours are spent honing these skills by practicing what is called a touch and go. This exercise helps refine many of the skills a pilot uses in controlling his aircraft in routine flight. The pilot flies a racetrack like rectangular pattern around the airport that includes takeoff, climb to pattern altitude, 90 degree turns, crosswind control, power adjustments, trim adjustments, traffic awareness, radio operation if there is a control tower, approach and alignment with the runway, and finally touchdown all done in a hopefully smooth and controlled manner. Once touchdown is made, the pilot will either exit the runway and return to his parking spot, or remove flaps, add power and quietly transition into takeoff mode to do the pattern over again. You can go to the airport and watch as pilots practice their skills over and over doing these touch and go’s.
When I was beginning to learn to fly in the Piper (the low wing aircraft) the visibility was wonderful. You kind of sat in this bubble which let you see all around you. Visibility of the world around you is one of the things that make flying so grand. When you make your way back to the airport, enter the pattern, it is easy to dip the wing and use it as a reference point for making the turns for the different legs of the pattern. 45 degrees past the end of the runway, time to make my turn, point the wing at the runway and rotate it around till it is perpendicular with the runway. No sweat.
When I went back to taking lessons anew, the school I originally went to was no longer in business. I chose another school but they only had Cessna. That was fine since they are both good trainers as I said. The cabin felt a little tighter but I may have grown some, and even though you sat more enclosed in the cockpit, the visibility was still good…in most cases. The first flight everything was going fine and the feel was returning pretty quickly I thought. We went out to the practice area and did some coordinated turns and stalls then headed back to the airport for some touch and go’s.
As we entered the pattern I was trying to keep up with everything as normal. I was looking to my instructor to give me direction, and I wanted him to run the radios as I focused on controlling the aircraft. The Piper was an easy plane to fly by the numbers. By that I mean you would set your plane by the numbers such as airspeed, engine speed, and such at any stage of flight and then trim to release pressure and the plane would practically fly itself. The instructor would say “at this point reduce power from 2100 rpm to 1700 rpm to start the decent while maintaining 70 knots. It still took some coordination but once you where there it just worked.
My Cessna instructor didn’t quite operate the same way, so while I was looking for numbers to try and work towards, his approach was to take each landing on its own merit and continually adjust the aircraft attitude to match the given situation. This maybe the better way to handle things because then you can recognize when you are too high, or too low, too fast or too slow, or your running long on a segment and can make adjustments as you go. It was when it came time to turn base that really shook me. I lined the wing up with the runway looking for that 45 degree point to start my turn….The time came…I started my turn…The runway disappeared…Completely.
That was a little unnerving to say the least. In the low wing Piper, the wing fell away and the full airport was in view, but in the high wing Cessna, the wing dropped into the turn and blocked my view of everything. I was trying every way possible to see through a solid object but to no avail. I immediately adjusted my outside view to try and incorporate new position reference points that I could use and determine when I had completed a 90 degree turn. I didn’t have any at hand so I just guessed. That ought to be about right I said to myself and leveled out the wings. I probably missed it by about 15 degrees but it must have been close enough that nothing was said.
Soon enough I got the hang of the Cessna enough that they let me solo in it a few times. I again had to put aside my training as a job change took away the time that I could devote to study and practice. I didn’t think it would last as long as it has.
My thoughts of flight have not left, the desire is still strong. The FAA has created the new Sport Pilot License that should make it easier to get and keep a license, especially if there are any medical issues you might be concerned about. I don’t have but I like the simpler approach it offers. You basically self certify with a valid driver’s license rather than have the continual expense of periodic third class medicals. There are restrictions on what you can fly as well as where and when but it seems a worthy trade off. The hard part is finding a valid light sport aircraft with which to rent and train as well as a willing instructor. I may have to travel and dedicate a week to an accelerated course to finish my schooling.
There will be a plane of my own in my future. I don’t know what exactly yet. I am still looking and that as always is part of the fun. The best classifieds for aircraft I have found so far is http://www.barnstormers.com/ which has a very good selection and a well laid out site. I can lose many an hour day dreaming there.
Of course anything aeronautical interest me and the other way to feed my habit is to tune into the http://www.ultraflightradio.com/ for wonderful interviews from people in the industry about the industry. You can tell that they love this stuff just as much as the rest of us.
Until I can finally make the dream come true and start flying my own aircraft as often as I want, I will have to make do with the dreaming and occasional sharing. Evidently I haven’t given up on my dream and I hope you don’t give up on yours either.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
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