quote:

Originally posted by crucislancer:
You should look into an introduction flight. They take you up and let you handle the controls for a bit, to see if you like it.

"For Tis Odin Who Doth Play Chess With The Lives of Gods & Men"

quote:

Originally posted by Odin_Part_2:

quote:

Originally posted by crucislancer:
You should look into an introduction flight. They take you up and let you handle the controls for a bit, to see if you like it.

Does that normally cost anything?

quote:

Originally posted by Taylortony:
Yeah Blairgowrie, how did Orville think you did or did you fly with Wilbur? did you find wing warping hard to get the hang of and that bloody big elevator in front of your eyes must have blocked the view somewhat...........

http://dangerdogz.com/

quote:

Originally posted by Odin_Part_2:
There is a Heliport nearby that gives lessons, but I'm not sure I want to fly a whirlybird.

Unless it's a Hughes MD500 with .50's attached to it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hughes500.g-orrr.arp.jpg

quote:

Originally posted by Outlaw---:
My old man took lessons from a guy whose "ticket" was signed by Orville himself.

--Outlaw.

quote:

Originally posted by Outlaw---:
My old man took lessons from a guy whose "ticket" was signed by Orville himself.

--Outlaw.

quote:

Originally posted by RAF_OldBuzzard:

quote:

Originally posted by Outlaw---:
My old man took lessons from a guy whose "ticket" was signed by Orville himself.

--Outlaw.

Shucks, back in the '70s, my first instructor's ticket was signed by Orville Wright.

His name was "Red" Stewart. Owned and operated a little grass field (which is still there and still grass), in Waynesville OH. He was in his 80's at the time, and the FAA made him do a checkride every year because he was so old. Damn but could that man fly. They had 2 J-3 Cubs and a Champ that they used for instruction. They charged $6.00 hr solo and $11.00 hr with an instructor.

"Red" almost lived in the J-3's and probably had more hours in a J-3 Cub at that time than anyone else on earth. When Red taught you to fly, you learned to FLY the plane, not just 'guide one around the sky by-the-numbers'.

More than once he had me fly a whole flight, including stall and spin recovery, and minimum controlable airspeed, with ALL of the instruments covered.

Red was not above "bending" an FAR or two either

Once I started taking lessons, I got the bug big-time, and not long after I started I got the chance to buy a nice Cessna 140, at a damned good price. Since I was still a student, and hadn't flown a 140, Red had to check me out in it, and sign me off in my log book.

I had buddy of mine with a commercial ticket ferry it in on a Friday evening, just before dark, and I was there bright and early on Sat. morning. Well, as it happens a lot of times at Waynesville, since it's so close to the Little Miami River, there was a bit of ground fog. Now you could tell that it wasn't that thick, but it was enough that it was WAY below VFR minimums. After we sat there for another hour, and it still hadn't lifted, Red said to go ahead and pre-flight the 140, and we'd take it up. I did the pre-flight, and Red got in the right seat, and said "Let's go". I wasn't all that sure about that, but he WAS the instructor.

Now, Waynesvile is layed out with the runway pretty much East-West, and 90+% of the time you use "27" as the runway because of the prevailing wind. This day however, it was dead calm, and as we taxied out of the parking spot, Red said go to the other end and take off going East. I started down, and as we got to that end of the field, Red asked me if I had any idea as to why we were doing that. I said "No", and he replied. "Well, we know that no one is flying right now since it's below minimums. And the wind is calm, so it doesn't matter which way we take off. We are going this direction, because once we lift off and get into the fog, we can use the Sun (which was just visible thru the fog at the time) for orientation until we get on top of it. He said that he wouldn't recommend that I did it all the time, but it was something that could sometime be useful to know if, for some reason, it was absolutely necessary to takeoff at below minimums.

I've never taken off in conditions like that since, but it is some that is in my "bag of tricks" should I ever need to use it.