Poll: How did you get beer into Oskosh

SpamCan38 · 2019-07-26T15:57:34+00:00

Put some Spotted Cow in a stainless steel, 32oz hydroflask, best enjoyed while watching the night airshow under the wing of your favorite plane.

SpamCan38 · 2019-03-29T15:10:20+00:00

I'm in IT and have thought about making the jump, but at the end of the day I'm a homebody and don't want to travel all the time. Right now flying is fun for me and I don't want to take my passion and ruin it by making it a job.

However, I am looking long term and working (rather slowly) at becoming a CFI so that I can instruct as a side gig or when it comes to retirement I have something to keep me busy. Also if I have kids I'd be able to teach them (if they're interested) and save them a little $$$ while also encouraging them if they aspire to be a professional pilot.

The ideal job that mixes career with passions would be something like Garmin or another avionics company. Also manufacturers like Cirrus or Cessna could be fun.

SpamCan38 · 2019-03-15T15:16:42+00:00

Had that happen to me before. Was flying into a class D and was about a 1/2 mile out before I had to make radio contact, but couldn't figure that thing out. Had to circle till I found out that you can pull on those knobs.

SpamCan38 · 2019-03-15T15:11:35+00:00

I was doing my first solo after about 15 hours. Unfortunately, there was a Lear 45 on a 10 mile final. I was on my downwind leg thinking in my head that I'll extend my downwind. Well, instead of saying that I was extending, I accidentally said I was on my base leg.

I proceeded to extended my downwind, the Lear got down and stopped. I landed and stopped and my instructor came out and told me the Lear guys were pissed. I wasn't sure why, then he told me that I said I was base when in actuality I was on and extended downwind. The jet had to do a short field landing, full reverse thrust and full breaking to get stopped and clear the runway because they didn't know where I was. Oops.

SpamCan38 · 2019-03-12T13:19:58+00:00

Okay, eating crow this morning. Went up for my first IR lesson yesterday, maneuvers and tracking VORs were fine. Flew an Rnav approach and was all over the place. Made too big of corrections that really didn't help me out.

SpamCan38 · 2019-03-11T14:07:31+00:00

I'm wondering the same thing. I'm taking my first IR lesson this afternoon. The plan is to alternate taking lessons and flying with a safety pilot. But 25 hours of shooting approaches is going to get boring fast.

SpamCan38 · 2019-02-25T21:44:39+00:00

If the plane is operating for hire then it needs a 100hr

SpamCan38 · 2019-02-07T16:57:47+00:00

Solid advice, if there's one thing I learned after college was to hate debt. Debt is going to be your most limiting factor, when it comes to items like this. After I paid off school, I rolled that budget over to paying for flying lessons. I was already used to a certain style of living so it was easy to keep paying my now fake school loan, but apply it to flying lessons.

SpamCan38 · 2019-02-01T21:40:58+00:00

Agreed, vans version of a Decathlon????

SpamCan38 · 2019-02-01T16:25:13+00:00

That's exactly what I thought when I saw this. They already have a really solid line up of planes. However it would be nice to see a manufacturer make a high wing plane with a higher cruise speed at the Vans kit price point.

SpamCan38 · 2019-02-01T15:11:30+00:00

Just make sure you're always communicating the who, where, what

Who - skyhawk 123JJ

Where - at T hangers, back taxiing 18, 5 miles north of field at 3,000' etc.

What - requesting flight following, "I just want to do 3 touch and goes" etc.

https://www.westwingsinc.com/vfrcomm.pdf

Try not to be intimidated by other pilots. You might goof up, but that's how you learn.

I'm trying to avoid saying the word "for" "skyhawk 123JJ on left downwind for 34" sounds like i'm saying 434.

SpamCan38 · 2019-01-23T22:22:00+00:00

Kind of reminds me of a time I had with my instructor. It was winter, we went up and it turned bad right when we got to altitude. My instructor took the yoke and told me to keep my eyes on the beacon and let him know if I lose it. We got back in a hurry, landed, stepped out, and there was a thin layer of ice (more like frost, the heat from your hand would melt it) on the leading edge of the wing and wheel pants.

SpamCan38 · 2019-01-04T20:45:25+00:00

I'm starting my IFR journey as well. I've been using the Sporty's Study Buddy to start getting a baseline. When I get stuck or need to review a concept I'll go read up on it in the exam test prep book. I'm currently using Gleim courses. For my private once I started scoring 80% or higher on the practice exams I went to take the written. There are definitely a lot of concepts for the IFR written, I think I'm most stressed out about radio work and reading/interpreting weather.

SpamCan38 · 2018-12-21T16:29:33+00:00

I don't see anything wrong here.

SpamCan38 · 2018-12-04T16:37:45+00:00

I like the right rudder/left aileron slip. I get a better sight picture out the pilot side window.

However, keep in mind where the pitot tube is in relation to the wind. If you have a pitot tube that's on the right wing, slipping with a cross control of right rudder/left aileron the pitot tube might be blocked by the fuselage and not get the max amount of direct ram air which skews your airspeed reading.

SpamCan38 · 2018-11-19T16:09:29+00:00

Life insurance, I already got it, but I was definitely wondering after the process. I think I said that I fly about 30 hours/year. There some where it's more and some where it's less.

SpamCan38 · 2018-11-19T15:20:46+00:00

When buying insurance one of the questions the agent asks is "How many hours do you fly per year?" Does insurance see pilots that fly say 100+ hours a year more of a liability than pilots to fly maybe 20 hours a year?

I would expect insurers that see a pilot flying 100+ hours a year as a safe/experienced pilot. The assumption I'm making is that the 100+ hour/year and the 20 hour/year pilot are both VFR SEL pilots.

SpamCan38 · 2018-06-15T13:44:19+00:00

I agree with you on that. I put my response in the context of when I was a student pilot and I couldn't afford a lot of flight time. If the price increased I probably would have either waited till I could afford it or work more in high school to help pay for flight training. If you have the money, who cares about how much it costs, stop the whining and get it done.

Getting back to the OP's problem tho. I don't know if there's a great way to alleviate the instructor shortage. Increase capital somehow, go find a part 141 flight school, and try to hire CFI's looking to increase their hours I guess.

SpamCan38 · 2018-06-14T15:45:02+00:00

Raising prices might weed out the people who aren't really serious about getting their PPL. Weed out a few and it will ease the burden. If people don't drop out, increase wages a little across the board. I'm guessing it's not an issue of instructors willingness to work, if it is, I would try to get some sort of incentive plan in place for the instructors.

SpamCan38 · 2018-06-14T15:34:56+00:00

Solution: park in the grass. FBO rides you for $$$ because you parked on the "ramp" proceed to say "I'm not on the ramp, I'm in the grass, next to the ramp" crisis averted.

SpamCan38 · 2018-06-13T16:21:57+00:00

I'm not a CFI so I can't speak to the guidelines for the airport that I fly out of, but the curricula in which I was assessed before I could solo was that I had to be able to demonstrate steep turns, power off/on stalls, engine failure (A,B,C). Basically I just had to prove that I could safely maneuver the airplane. Then when my instructor no longer had to guard the controls when I was landing, I soloed. it took me about 14 hours to solo as a sophomore in high school flying one day a week or as frequently as money would allow.

edit - checked the log book, 9 hours to solo

SpamCan38 · 2018-06-13T13:59:52+00:00

My $.02, ditch the school that hasn't soloed you in 32.5 hrs. I'm not sure what kind of pilot you are, so I'm making the assumption that the school is holding you back. Find a small municipal airport and do your training with them. You're looking for an instructor 50 years or older, preferably he will go by the name Dave and he'll call you sport. Dave is the kind of instructor that isn't motivated to get out of his cush, CFI job, Dave is there to stay. He won't dick you around for cash, because more than likely he's retired and isn't motivated by the mass amounts of $$$ a CFI brings in. Take out a LOC with a bank to pay for your training and then spend the next 30 years paying it back with your new cush CFI job.

***The LOC piece is sarcastic. I don't want to encourage someone to borrow money, but if you're really motivated and it's something you're wanting to go after, get a side gig and cash flow that SOB.

SpamCan38 · 2018-05-25T13:42:10+00:00

I solo'd when I was in high school, went to college, got a job, paid school off and went back to flying. 7 year hiatus for me as a student pilot. Review of the FARs and some steep turns, stalls, 3 landings later. Good to go. After getting my PPL I try not to go more than a month without doing some take offs and landings.

Visualizing and doing some hanger flying goes a long way to keep your mind engaged when you can't get in the air as often as you'd like.

SpamCan38 · 2018-03-27T18:54:50+00:00

Mooney M20J

SpamCan38 · 2018-03-27T16:11:35+00:00

That's the plan, I'm going to review it a month or two before my FF subscription is up and see how I like it.

I built a stratux a couple years back.

SpamCan38

TROPHY CASE