Aviation BS and Photo Thread

I'm the only person on this lake. I'm the only person for miles!

 

When the thunderbirds came to the airport I work at in in Waco.

 

This looks like a blast! Love me some float flying. I've got about 2300 hours of seaplane time, and flying two seat, rag wing floatplanes is about the most fun you can have!

 

Agreed!!! I don't have anywhere near the float experience you do, but these two seat tandem, tube and fabric airplanes are so much fun to fly. This round of vacation wraps up in a few days. I leave that little yellow beauty behind and it's back to the grind. I believe though that it makes me a better all around pilot and I will definitely feel more energized and engaged when I get back in the Boeing Tuesday morning.

 

Oh yeah! Terry flew it to Sun n Fun and I got to ride in the back with 3 other students. We left about 5:00-5:30am and Terry ran one of the tanks dry about an hour later while we were dozing... Having a radial go quiet in flight will really wake you up! Luckily he got it cranked soon after and we continued to cruise south, but it was fun.

 

I need to get me a seaplane rating... I live in AZ so will never use it

But... I think that would be fun as hell...

 

I heard about Terry doing that. I used to fly Beavers in Alaska, and as a policy, we would "pop" tanks (run them until a low fuel press light came on). Most of the time you would have plenty of time to switch to another tank without a problem, but if you weren't paying close enough attention, it got real quiet. It was never much of a problem, and the enigine always comes back to life once you switch tanks and use the wobble pump to get the fuel pressure back up, but it was never a very comfortable feeling!

 

You ever go to YouTube and check out the Jack Browns Seaplane videos? I did my float rating years ago in a 90 horse J-3. There's nothing quite like flying around in a Cub on floats on a warm fall day with the door open. You might not need it. You may never use it. It probably won't make any practical sense for you whatsoever. It's also probably the most fun bucks you'll ever spend on flight training.

 

Seaplane or aerobatic for most fun? That's a hard one for me.

 

When the Blue Angels came to MCAS Beaufort this year. Have seen them at every duty station for a long time!

 

I'm in Wichita, KS right now flight instructing as an intern for Textron Aviation, here's a cool snap I got of Beech field where Beechcraft's offices started and they build the bonanzas, barons, and King airs. The big plant in the bottom left is where the build them.

 

I'd say it's a to each their own type of thing. I enjoy watching aerobics. I've done a few hours of aerobatics training, and ridden with a friend while he practices his routine. For me, i found it very rigid, very disciplined. To me, it felt too close to being like work. It wasn't the relaxed, enjoyable recreational type of flying I was looking to do.

Floats on the other hand is the ultimate of free thinking and freedom to me. I takeoff with no particular destination with a fishing rod in the back. See a lake that looks interesting. Drop in and dip a line. Maybe do some splash and goes on the way home. See a dock or beach with a plane on it? Do a flyby, and if someone comes out and waves, stop in for a chat over coffee. And honestly, if I couldn't have the airplane tied up in front of my cottage, I wouldn't have an airplane. I can look out the window, decide it's a nice day to fly, be airborne in 5 minutes, and be tied back up at home an hour later to go about my day. Heading to the airport takes too much time out of the day. You almost have to make it a full day, or at the least, a half day to be worth while. And the last place I want to be on my day off is back at an airport

That's my take on what works for me, and brings me personal enjoyment. It's subject to change if there comes a point where I no longer have a home on the water.

 

Love Jack Brown's.

This pic is of some downtime I had when I was an instructor there about 6 years ago

 

Wow, I don't blame you for enjoying float flying if you live on the water! I will agree that the drive to the airport sucks. Anything more than 30 minutes makes it seem like you better be spending at least an hour and a half in the plane to make it worth the drive. I haven't done any float or aerobatic flying so I guess I'll have to try it out and decide for myself which I prefer



On another note, I failed my FAA eye exam today so guess who has to get glasses. It probably didn't help that I spent all day looking at a computer screen doing work for my summer class. I was 20/25 in my left eye and 20/30 in my right. Gotta be 20/20 in both for a 1st class medical. Hold on, it gets better. I don't have vision insurance so this is going to hurt.

 

Works for me... just sounds relaxing and fun as hell!

Hmmmm

 

Last minute trip to San Diego and back to escape the 110+ temps in southern AZ... 3.3 there and 3.2 back in Ms. Q the Mooney. First "big" trip with the wife and kiddo.

Oh, also hit 290 hours on this one

 

Hi. Here are some oddballs I seen the past few weeks flying around. I hope everyone enjoys.....



We just chartered one car from ORD-LGG. 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 going to the Nurburgring for testing. No wonder they cost so much, charter a 747 to fly it around





Here is a Tupolev TU-204 that is a copy cat of the 757 behind her. Never seen one before. This is in Zhengzhou China.....where your Iphone is manufactured.




Here is an Australian Air Force A330 refueler that landed in Japan. I thought it was cool, never seen one before. C17 in the background.





Here is what 240,000lbs of 7.62 AK47 bullets going into Afghanistan looks like




Here is a RAF BAE146 and a C5 in the background in KWI. The BAE landed, offloaded 2 guys in cuffs and got outta there. Weird....




I can keep sharing if you enjoy these crappy cell phone pics. I hope you like what I see everyday?

 

Me likey!