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Driving Is Less Fun
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Jon, give me a call and I can come get you and take you where you want to go. You will need to sit up front and read me the manual on how to land, but it’s bound to be less aggravating than driving with the crazies.
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Mark, I never ever was frustrated when flying. Ever.
But when I was stepping away from aviation a bunch of snotty nosed button pushers flying commuter routes who thought they were hot shit were changing the attitudes. They were “special” because they few a plane that sucked and blowed and guys flying lesser air craft were deemed to be lesser individuals.
It never was that way and it seemed to be the aviation version of people who thought they were to get better treatment than anyone else.
But anytime you got an empty front seat I would love to hitch a ride.
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Jon,
Take Mark up on the offer….
Anyone who flies a plane that can climb at 4,000 feet per minute is my kind of guy….
If that does not bring a smile to your face, I do not know what will….
Nothing else up there at 40M feet but “Lears” and look-alikes…. along with the military… much higher… you’ve been there and done that ….
Pres
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Ahh, there is plenty of excitement when flying. There is always the guy that takes off in front of you while you are on very short final. Or the guy that does a 10 mile straight in with 6 planes in the pattern…..
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I flew out of Knoxville (KTYS) for about 15 years until I quit flying. But in later years all the controllers got to know me and the plane because of my PilotsNPaws rescue flights.
When the background noise when keying the mike is a planeload of barking pups it doesn’t take long before every flight was a reason for conversation between me and the controllers. I was the go-to pilot when weather was rotten because a lot of the volunteers weren’t instrument rated or not fully comfortable in weather so I did quite a few flights and was a known quantity. They knew I could fly assigned speeds, headings and altitudes and could mix with all other inbound aircraft. They knew I was radar equipped so I didn’t have to bug them for headings, I was able to do fine if they gave me the flexibility.
But on one of my last flights in I was cleared to land 5 miles out. The commuter pilot flying a regional jet asked the tower in a nasty sounding voice if they were going to have to wait for the little Cessna to land. The tower evidently heard the same attitude I did and as nice as can be he let the regional jet know the plane that departed just ahead of him was going in the same direction and was slower than him so they were getting separation.
Since I did not like the jet pilot’s attitude I landed and never made an attempt to turn off at the first taxiway which was normal. In fact I rolled the entire 9000 feet of runway. The tower never said a word to me about exiting the runway, but as the regional jet button pusher steamed I am guessing the guys in the tower were rolling on the floor laughing. The jet wasn’t cleared for takeoff until I had left the runway.
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Or the guy that gets “line up & wait” used to position an hold for us ole guys and then isn’t ready screwing up the whole sequence.
Mark is my hero.
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Tom your right the phraseology is definitely changing and like Jon was saying the young pups do have a sense on entitlement. There have been a number of articles written about the younger pilots of today, being referred to as “magenta babies” meaning that all they can do is follow the magenta course line on the PFD, (primary flight display) if they can’t punch it into the FMS (flight management system) and follow the magenta line, they have issues. A friend of mine also a Captain for Southwest was landing in Dallas on RW13R when the controller asked if they could sidestep to RW13L, at this point they were only 5 miles out and clear weather. My friend was in the left seat but running the radios and said sure no problem, the right seat guy who was flying immediately started punching it into the FMS instead of just clicking the autopilot off and flying visually to the right side.
This is what is happening with their driving as well, having a hard time doing things without the automation.
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I’m going to brag because Mark opened the door.
I used O’Hare a lot. I always asked for 27L because that runway made getting to the FBO simple. But one time in really low weather I was on short final on an instrument approach and they turned the whole airport around and now my runway became 9R.
I did not have a co-pilot, was hand flying, and all of a sudden I was left to change approach plates, had fly the new headings, and set my radios up to all the new frequencies. Guys that used O’Hare know how many frequency changes were involved. I bet the button pushers of today flying single pilot would be in deep shit.
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OK guys, I just want you to know that my ADF never failed me and wheel landings were my favorite.
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Before they changed the approach routing into Teterboro (outside NYC) from western NY state I could pick up AM radio station ABC (770 on the dial) at about 15,000 feet and use my ADF to track straight to the airport. That was before GPS.
So tell me Mike, did you ever fly the ADF needle for about 260 NM?
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Pffff, I followed my ADF from Seattle to Tampa, at 500 agl, through snow and ice storms, high winds landing in fields to refuel from my cans behind the seat, no auto-pilot, no radio’s, no omni’s, no heat, only instrument was t & b and a snoopy compass.
I crashed somewhere near Podunk, AL when I woke up, fell off my stool and spilt my beer.
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Classic, Tom…..you owe me a keyboard.
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You guys need to stop dating yourselves, ADF and NDB approaches have been gone for quite a while. And Jon I did listen to AM stations back in the day, but will say I’m not quite as tough as Tom. Flying from coast to coast at 500’ in the snow and ice without heat, I am more of a fair weather flyer compare to that.
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What’s a runway used for ?
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Jon;
I flew from my home in Central Texas to Las Vegas with just my ADF in a 1974 Citabria 7GCAA. I had to leave it in Albuquerque for a few weeks on the way home due to loosing all electric during a night landing there plus a snow and ice storm the next day.
Nothing like flying a “stick”.
What runway ??? My home base “runway”, was one of two fields at the Flying Heart Ranch. You had to buzz the field you wanted to land on so the cows would move out of the way … sort of.
Michael
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