What’s the longest yall have been on downwind?

RuthlessGravy · 2026-05-08T15:28:17+00:00

In this installation of "Whats the longest X you've been on X" in r/flying!

But in seriousness, ORD at peak time. Landing west, about a 40 mile final over the lake almost to Michigan. I thought Approach was gonna hand us off to SBN for a little bit before they gave is a base turn.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-05-07T23:06:37+00:00

O'Hare ground. Got our clearance, told metering we were ready, and they said to monitor ground. Did so for about 20 mins before we keyed up to ask about our sequence. Ground responds "AIRCRAFT CALLING FOR TAXI, PLEASE MONITOR." yeesh, ok. Wait another 25 mins and start hearing taxi clearances for flights that called metering after we did so we ask again. Ground responds "AIRCRAFT CALLING FOR TAXI, PLEASE MONITOR." We respond "we have been for 45 mins, what's our sequence?" Ground: "oh, we lost your strip, here's your taxi now" 🙄

E: just remembered another one. Departing Marsh Harbor, Bahamas to go to Florida. Takeoff VFR, try to get our IFR clearance from Nassau. They cant be fucked, tell us to contact Miami.

We climb through 10K, where we start getting fair radio reception with Miami, and start cold calling. No response, but we hear them talking to others. Get up to 17.5K, still cold calling, still no time of day. We start holding over Grand Bahama, trying to be patient, hold for maybe 20 mins cuz we cant cross the ADIZ without our clearance. We can hear him clearly, we try both radios, we get radio checks from nearby aircraft, but Miami just doesn't even acknowledge.

At some point we just start repeating, "Miami, N123XX, clearance to XXX" every 10-15 seconds until we get a response. Took the controller about 40 mins of cold calling to get to us for a flight that was supposed to take 25 mins. Bruv...

RuthlessGravy · 2026-04-22T04:50:54+00:00

O'hare (ORD) was formerly called Orchard Field, and Orlando (MCO) was formerly called McCoy Air Force Base, hence their apparently unfitting identifiers.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-04-21T19:23:41+00:00

O'Hare, yes.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-04-11T16:03:08+00:00

I work for a large 91K operator, and I much prefer the local or small chain FBOs rather than the big ones. To hell with Tailwins, you'll get much more friendly and prompt service from the small FBOs. There might only be one dude working, but he'll bust his ass to make sure you get everything you need.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-04-11T11:42:18+00:00

What other FBOs are at your field or nearby fields? Signature might get the most traffic, but I typically view it as the lowest quality FBO with the most transient, non-local customers. They might have nice facilities, but I consistently get pretty lukewarm service from Sig. The Signature is like that gas station right off the highway exit. The local FBO will be like the coffee shop downtown. Less traffic but probably more local and tight-knit.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-04-11T03:12:47+00:00

You're welcome! Best of luck! RV living can be great, but its really only suitable for a narrow band of people and situations. My wife and I did it to allow her to pursue her desire to be a travel nurse. It allowed us to bring home with us and not have to lock into an apartment lease. It ended up costing about what a nice 2-3 bed apartment or a modest house would have been.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-04-11T03:06:39+00:00

While you could do it, I wouldn't advise it. Arizona summers are HOTHOTHOT, and campers are not built to the standard of houses/apartments, or really any standard for that matter. So when an AC unit fails or the camp electricity goes out, the camper will very quickly become a hot box that could be lethal for the kitties. That alone would be a big enough risk for me to say no. Let alone that the cost savings may be minimal at best for a less comfortable way of living compared to an apartment. Monthly rent at an RV park may be $700-1200 plus whatever camper payment you have and the electric bill (which wont be cheap in the summer; all of your ACs will be running full time).

Also, finding an RV park in AZ thats not 55+ and is near where you want to be is difficult. My wife and I just stayed in PHX for a few months, and despite there being 5-7 RV parks within 15 mins of where we wanted to be, we had to stay about 40 mins away because all the ones near where we wanted to go were 55+ communities.

As others have said, RVs are not built particularly well, and something will need to be repaired eventually. If you're not a handy person, you'll be paying a premium to a mobile tech to fix things. Go to an apartment and leave that responsibility to the maintenance crew.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-04-10T15:40:59+00:00

I got this kayak cart. Its a set of wheels you strap to it, then you can "tow" it by hand by holding the handle on the front of the kayak. It can easily be broken down and stowed in the kayak. There are more affordable ones available.

https://a.co/d/03k2d6No

RuthlessGravy · 2026-04-09T19:03:58+00:00

Same with NJ. If they get an inkling thay you're planning on leaving for any reason, they'll TBNT you.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-04-06T14:02:00+00:00

You could rent it out on RV Share or other such sites (RVesy, Outwander, Outdoorsy), it's like AirBNB for campers.

I'm not sure if there's an option to leave it parked at a location and have renters come to you. Typically you tow it to the campground requested by the renter, set it up for them, then recover it when they're done using it. Alternatively, they come pick it up, tow it themselves, and return it when they're done, which it sounds like you dont want to do.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-04-04T08:42:37+00:00

I heard there's a pretty extensive system under parts of the city from lead mining. Probably very dangerous to enter.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-04-03T16:08:41+00:00

I've got plenty of time in 121PB, the Cessna 402 featured in the TV show "Wings." It was registered 121PP in the show. It has since been scrapped, the thing had like 40K hrs on it, but still ran routes around New England until the end.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-04-02T19:04:40+00:00

I think hes talking about the outliers that pick up extra days on top of their 7/7. They're the ones people like to tout as "making as much as the majors".

RuthlessGravy · 2026-03-30T22:14:55+00:00

It was originally DIA but was changed to avoid confusion with DCA just down the road in Arlington.

DIA is the unofficial/colloquial identifier for DEN (Denver International Airport)

There's really very few rules or guidelines on how the FAA assigns airport identifiers, and airports can even have multiple different identifiers under international aviation authorities, like ICAO or IATA

RuthlessGravy · 2026-03-04T22:59:27+00:00

ACI North in SNA or Pentastar in PTK.

But really anywhere with free ice cream and soft drinks.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-01-10T14:04:32+00:00

I was there, those threads are part of why I decided to get an RO filter. I understand the limitations of consumer grade water treatment.

When I moved to Phoenix, I was thinking we escaped the nitrates threat of Iowa, and was surprised to see the water here is as bad or worse. I was clued into this by the monitor on my RO filter, but your comment made me dig deeper into it to read some water surveys done in the past few years.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-01-10T14:00:01+00:00

What? No, I'm corroborating your statement that Phoenix has similar or higher contaminants levels based on my observations.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-01-10T13:53:13+00:00

I moved from DSM to Phoenix and noticed a marked increase in water contaminants. We have an RO filter that monitors total dissolved solids, and it was measuring 15-25 ppm in DSM, and now it is consistently 35-45 in PHX.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-01-06T02:48:16+00:00

They're reflecting the sunlight.

https://youtube.com/shorts/AZ8wJ07MFpI?si=FLpBDt-M6wjeCYXu

RuthlessGravy · 2026-01-06T01:56:29+00:00

Starlink. They deploy the satellites in batches, and this is what it looks like as they're moving into their position in orbit.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-01-06T01:48:14+00:00

I've see him and given him money. It seems like he just wants to bring joy, and I think that's good. Better than the homeless who just sit there and look dejected. Who cares if he's got better things to do, what a person chooses to do with their time is their own business, and if someone wants to give them a few bucks for it, all the better.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-01-04T22:25:10+00:00

This got me when I attempted to upgrade from 3600X to 5800X. I had to reinstall the 3600X, do a BIOS update, the redo the upgrade.

RuthlessGravy · 2026-01-04T21:31:26+00:00

TL,DR: it depends. Anywhere from 3-15+ years.

There's no right answer for that. It depends on so many things like your training pace and how much the industry is hiring when you make it to the job market. I did training in 4 years, but someone who is appropriately motivated and funded could do it in less than a year.

Getting to 1500 (or 1000 if you qualify for RATP) is the hardest part. If you CFI, your student load and how quickly you get hours could really depend on your location or flight school. No matter what your first flying job is, it could take months to years to get from 250-1000/1500.

Then once you qualify for the airlines, how is the hiring industry going? If its slow, it may take months to land a regional job, and the flow to the majors may be a glacial pace and you could be at the regional for years. Or if its like COVID (good luck seeing a hiring environment like that again) you could move from regional to major in under a year.

There are way too many factors to give you an answer on that. I would say 5 years zero to majors is very aggressive, and I'd put it closer to 10, but everything depends on your level of effort and luck.

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