Post #45,496
7/13/02 9:07:33 PM
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I bought an airplane!
I don't have it yet, but it's coming July 30 (I feel like a kid waiting for Santa Claus). The A&P IA/CFI/Airport Manager at my airport told me about this aircraft. He's been doing the annuals on it for the past seven years. It only has 3300 hours on the airframe and its a 1960 Cessna 172A. I got a hell of a deal on it and the aircraft is extremely clean. Only one possible squawk, but its not major.
I was just about set to take my checkride, but I haven't been flying much at all lately. I've decided to wait until I get the plane and then fly at least twice a week in August in my plane, then take the checkride. My CFI thinks it won't take me long to get up to speed enough to fly my own plane for the checkride. I'm more worried about learning to use the new instruments in my plane that weren't in the trainer I was renting - LORAN, OBS, different radios, different GPS, etc.
My wife and kids have had my sectional and WAC charts out all week circling the places they want to go. This is going to be great!
bcnu,
Mikem
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Post #45,498
7/13/02 9:10:54 PM
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Re: I bought an airplane!
Centennial Airport is just a few miles from here... :-)
Congrats!
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Steve
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Post #45,499
7/13/02 9:24:32 PM
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Don't know if I can make it that high.
It's only got a 145 hp engine and APA is pretty high. Might have to come in the Winter ;-)
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Post #45,510
7/14/02 12:11:00 AM
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747's
When Stapleton was in operation, they could only handle 747s in the wintertime. It was a pretty rare sight to catch one there. (I used to work about 100 yds from a runway :)) Now that DIA is open, they're there all the time.
I'm jealous, I'd love to learn to fly..something I've always wanted to do. Maybe after we get a house.... :)
Congrats again!
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Steve
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Post #45,506
7/13/02 10:09:14 PM
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Congrats.. and you don't have to go through
any &*%&*$ metal-detectors.. though soon enough, prolly the Homeland Boys may want to ask you a bit about your political aims and methods.. just for the record, you understand.
Loved my few flights, occasional hands-on. Hmmm must feel like when I was waiting for the guy with my first Vincent to show up and hand it over..
Zoooooom,
Ashton
lets see..
lat. -check
long. -check
R.A. -tilt (rats! that's the telescope stuff...)
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Post #45,620
7/15/02 9:53:22 AM
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Homeland Boys have already been here.
Not to my house, but to the little country airport I fly out of. All certificated student pilots had FBI backgrounders after 9/11 (that's why we were the last to fly, we were grounded for about two weeks, longer than anyone while they determined our "threat" potential). We also have an Ag pilot based at our airport and on two occasions that I know of, FBI agents came out to the airport to ask the FBO what kind of people we were, and then questioned the Ag pilot.
There are already all kinds of "security recommendations" circulating. Like, locked fences with touchpads to enter our codes before entering the ramp, separate keys for the airplane and door locks, not allowing student pilots on the ramp by themselves (yeah, that'd help teach us how to do a proper pre-flight after solo), etc. and they (FAA/DOT) sent us all these hand-outs...I should have kept mine, it was pretty funny. It had a "hotline" to call if we saw any pilots "behaving suspiciously". One of the things on it was "Be on the look-out for any strange behavior from a pilot, such as one pilot appearing to be controlled by some one else." Just some ridiculous stuff on it really. The one the CFI's got about observing student pilots was really funny.
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Post #45,681
7/15/02 4:10:37 PM
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Inevitable once it hits the bureaucracy - comon sense dies
as infinite M/sloth nested menus of Cockamamie specifics replace everyone's BRAIN. In quadruplicate.
Suspicious pilots? Heh.. some of the repartee I've heard from gaggles of pilots at (their) Happy Hour - at a cafe near a local airport - make some of the Far-Side R-Wing Wacko stuff I'm accustomed to hearing from electr-techs seem almost.. 'moderate'. Hmmm - another fertile ground for someone's PhD.
Smilin Jack as Prototype for Aviators
I guess it has to do with the utter *necessity* of bein a Rugged Induhvidualist in your decision-making with weather (every second) while also needing to be ... a CPA! in methodically going down those check-lists. Schizophrenia could be a real asset here :-)
Happy Soaring: Both of You!
Ashton
but Hey.. not so different with [surviving] cyclists, motor- or other-
Skip checking the tires for embedded nasties, the chain for lube and wear, etc. and you join the guy with a rag stuffed in his pitot tube.. and then the fog closes in.. :(
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Post #45,789
7/16/02 1:55:46 PM
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Yes, I am the token lefty among pilots.
And it sounds like the chatter from pilots you are familiar with is the same at my little airport. Makes for lively discussions, but so far at least, nothing has gotten personal. I think that's why I like hanging around the airport whenever I get a chance. Since leaving school, it's the one place I've found that you can argue vociferously and still be friends.
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Post #45,613
7/15/02 9:40:04 AM
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Sounds like lotsa electronics!
glad to see you get something you really want,
thanx,
bill
TAM ARIS QUAM ARMIPOTENS
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Post #49,832
8/19/02 4:59:07 PM
8/21/07 5:57:10 AM
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Blue Skies
I got my ticket years ago. Went by the old airport a couple years ago and my shirt tail is still on the wall. Of course, shortly after that I discovered jumping and decided dollar for dollar, I'd rather jump than drive. Met my wife doing formations in Lodi out of a pair of twin Otters.
I still get to fly from time to time but not PIC. More often I just take the stick in a friend's 182 on long trips to jumping events so he can take a nap ;-).
Having your own plane is definitely the way to go - although I think if I were to do it again I'd get into competitive aerobatics and thus I'd have to own a Pitts.
I am out of the country for the duration of the Bush administration.
Please leave a message and I'll get back to you when democracy returns.
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Post #49,875
8/20/02 3:55:56 AM
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So then ___you two were high, when you met.. ___hmm?
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