Randomness

[Jobbo]

A car is a tool like a spoon

Matty, can this be the forum’s new strapline?

[DeskJockey]

A car is a tool like a spoon

Matty, can this be the forum’s new strapline?

[NGRhodes]

A car is a tool like a spoon

Matty, can this be the forum’s new strapline?

[mik]

[Beany]

I love this simple video

(snip)

I long wondered about getting my pilots license years ago. Not that I need another hobby that I don't really have time for, planes generally terrify me AND it's an enormous financial commitment to keep up your flying hours every year, I did love the trial lesson I did a few years back out of Shoreham, and it would be wicked to put on my CV that I had a PPL. My local aerodrome is only 10 minutes away (no, not Gatwick!), and my wife supports me in pretty much anything I want to do.

My dad used to do that. Travelling from Wick to, say, Manchester or Birmingham by car or public transport in the 70s meant an entire day of travelling, overnighting it, etc - the road network past inverness hadn't been modernised by that point so doing wick to inverness (about 100 miles) was a three hour jaunt alone even if you were driving 'progressively'. Using a private plane made a trip to Brum and back doable in a day. He got instrument rating so he could do that in winter, too.

He bought a part built plane, finished it, got it certified, and for most of the trips he expensed it through work (can't recall if he was employed or self employed at the time) and it was still significantly cheaper on the books than using a car, and meant he got more time on site with clients etc.

Having a field outside the house that was long enough to be used as a takeoff/landing strip probably helped. And also enabled using the plane to pop to get some milk from the shop at Wick Aerodrome. About two miles away. Because of course he did

He gave up the PPL once us kids came along, and he started working more locally to boot so he gave up the plane after it started making less sense. He was getting pretty well paid for his work, but not well enough to run a private plane as a hobby without it being a heavy compromise on the finances, especially as he was also running several cars at the time, remodelling the house etc - I think in the end the heated triple garage was partially funded by the sale of the plane.

He never regretted giving it up per se, but he kept a minor obsession with flight even later in life - paragliding and hang gliding through to his late 60s before he had a knee problem and that put the kybosh on that.

No real opinion on whether it's worth it, just reminiscing about the crazy old sod.

[GG.]

I love this simple video

(snip)

I long wondered about getting my pilots license years ago. Not that I need another hobby that I don't really have time for, planes generally terrify me AND it's an enormous financial commitment to keep up your flying hours every year, I did love the trial lesson I did a few years back out of Shoreham, and it would be wicked to put on my CV that I had a PPL. My local aerodrome is only 10 minutes away (no, not Gatwick!), and my wife supports me in pretty much anything I want to do.

My dad used to do that. Travelling from Wick to, say, Manchester or Birmingham by car or public transport in the 70s meant an entire day of travelling, overnighting it, etc - the road network past inverness hadn't been modernised by that point so doing wick to inverness (about 100 miles) was a three hour jaunt alone even if you were driving 'progressively'. Using a private plane made a trip to Brum and back doable in a day. He got instrument rating so he could do that in winter, too.

He bought a part built plane, finished it, got it certified, and for most of the trips he expensed it through work (can't recall if he was employed or self employed at the time) and it was still significantly cheaper on the books than using a car, and meant he got more time on site with clients etc.

Having a field outside the house that was long enough to be used as a takeoff/landing strip probably helped. And also enabled using the plane to pop to get some milk from the shop at Wick Aerodrome. About two miles away. Because of course he did

He gave up the PPL once us kids came along, and he started working more locally to boot so he gave up the plane after it started making less sense. He was getting pretty well paid for his work, but not well enough to run a private plane as a hobby without it being a heavy compromise on the finances, especially as he was also running several cars at the time, remodelling the house etc - I think in the end the heated triple garage was partially funded by the sale of the plane.

He never regretted giving it up per se, but he kept a minor obsession with flight even later in life - paragliding and hang gliding through to his late 60s before he had a knee problem and that put the kybosh on that.

No real opinion on whether it's worth it, just reminiscing about the crazy old sod.

Sounds like great fun - one of the dads at my son's school is in the middle of getting his licence - I must say its made me quite interested but yes I guess time commitment in getting down to somewhere like biggin hill is probably the difficult factor.

[Beany]

Access to an airstrip that isn't an hours drive away is probably as much of a factor as anything else. As I say, that field was extremely useful. He could get up at 5am, be out the house and in the air by 6am. Beyond that, do the crow-flight math for 100mph-odd for any destination in the UK pretty much.

(*I'm not sure of the actual cruising speed of that plane - we have flight records that would demonstrate it, but they're deeply archived away)

It was custom leatherworking the factory he was running/working at/it was complicated at the time made and he made sets of custom flight notepads as demonstrators of the gear they could do - the ones that strap to your thigh, and the ones he made were quite fancy and nice. I just remembered that because all of the flight records are in the custom binders he made to store them.

It'll be something fun to pull out of the Old Git Archives some day.

[mik]

Fuxache, I thought you were @Beany from the block - had no idea your dad had a private jet and everything. Mind blown.

My uncle in DE is crazy about flying - has his licence and has always been handy with a spanner, so achieved certifications, and funds his flying passion by spending every Saturday servicing and maintaining the planes at his local flying club.

This was the result of an emergency landing in a soft field a few years back. Aka whoops. Walked away without a scratch, which is quite remarkable....

[dinny_g]

An ex of mine's dad had 2 Bi-Planes and a German Tri-plane and a field like Beany's next to the house to take off and land.

They were in various states of repair and unfortunately, the relationship didn't last long enough for them to achieve air worthiness. When we broke up, he did say I could come back for a spin when they were ready but I never did.

[GG.]

Fuxache, I thought you were @Beany from the block - had no idea your dad had a private jet and everything. Mind blown.

My uncle in DE is crazy about flying - has his licence and has always been handy with a spanner, so achieved certifications, and funds his flying passion by spending every Saturday servicing and maintaining the planes at his local flying club.

This was the result of an emergency landing in a soft field a few years back. Aka whoops. Walked away without a scratch, which is quite remarkable....

Yeh - photos like that put me off

[Beany]

Got a photo like that of me dad next to his plane, except it was uncrashed, and he looked nervous.

Last photo before he went to do the stall and vmax speed test - if he got the maths wrong, it could well have literally been the last photo of him that a coroner didn't take....

...but it went ok. Apparently those tests are kinda scary to do in a plane you built yourself in a garage, on a driveway, and finished off in your mates field

[dinny_g]

stall and vmax speed test

They need to be done annually, don't they - really don't fancy the Stall test at all...

[Beany]

stall and vmax speed test

They need to be done annually, don't they - really don't fancy the Stall test at all...

Honestly not sure - he never mentioned doing it several times, but then he also had the local polis get him fucking wankered when he picked mother up from a works do (she worked for the cops at the time, obviously) and just told him to 'drive home carefully' so perhaps the local aviation regs bloke was as forgiving

[mik]

I’ve been on the Cranfield Jetstream when they did a stall test - over the sea.

The Jetstream has a nasty stall - it always drops a wing - so it is fitted with an anti-stall system. Which basically applies full throttle and full forward stick if the airspeed drops too low.

Pilot reduced the speed further and further - passing through 2 (maybe 3) increasingly insistent airspeed warnings. The next thing I saw was my Olympus SLR passing my face en route to bouncing off the roof as it left what I thought was the adequate grip of my thighs. When the anti-stall kicks in it is very insistent.

[Simon]

Ah, the MCAS effect.

[Beany]

I expect the antistall on the old mans plane was an idiot-mark on the airspeed meter

[Mito Man]

Interesting stuff. I used to follow Peter Stripol on YouTube and he built a ultralight plane in his garage - must have had balls of steel test flying that as it looked extremely flimsy due to the strict weight limits.

[mik]

I used to follow Peter Stringfelow on YouTube

I’m not surprised by this.

[Jimmy Choo]

I did an acrobatic flight a few years back and the thing that really surprised me was how easy flying was. The hard stuff is radios and navigation.

I can see why it's so addictive and I'd love to fly more but I just don't have the cash or time.

[RobYob]

I did an acrobatic flight a few years back and the thing that really surprised me was how easy flying was.

Well there's really only one thing to miss isn't there.

Mate of mine just got his solo heli licence, I'm extremely jealous but he did say it's as hard and expensive as everyone says it is.
He also said having achieved it he'll probably have to let it lapse for want of actual flying hours.