Is it acceptable or appropriate for PPLs to wear 1 gold bar
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Nice. But do send us an update once you've got that PPL! Because despite all the decorations, I don't see any bars on your shoulders!
And then you can try and obtain the post-PPL ones:
First solo after PPL
First cross-country solo after PPL
First passengers on a flight
First loved ones on a flight
First passengers that offered to pay their share without being asked to
First passengers that say "nice landing" when you really did "arrive"
First passengers that say "nice landing" when it was
First passenger that you give control and does a fairly nice job of it
First passenger that you give control and messes it up
First international flight
First serious overwater flight
First multi-day trip
First passenger that barfed on a flight (happened to me last weekend while returning from a 1.5 hour flight, on downwind. Very distracting on a very inconvenient moment!)
First time you get the ATIS (5 km viz, few 1200, broken 1500), go flying and return tail between the legs because you found out that the ATIS is wrong (less than 3 km viz, broken 800).
First time you found out the ATIS was wrong, as above, but pressed on because the ATIS of the next field promises better weather, then found out that ATIS was equally wrong.
First passenger that also has a pilots license
First passenger that also has a pilots license, and who doesn't have a comment on your flying skills
And the bonus:
First time you include all these medals in your M&B calculations, and find it makes a significant impact!
And then you can try and obtain the post-PPL ones:
First solo after PPL
First cross-country solo after PPL
First passengers on a flight
First loved ones on a flight
First passengers that offered to pay their share without being asked to
First passengers that say "nice landing" when you really did "arrive"
First passengers that say "nice landing" when it was
First passenger that you give control and does a fairly nice job of it
First passenger that you give control and messes it up
First international flight
First serious overwater flight
First multi-day trip
First passenger that barfed on a flight (happened to me last weekend while returning from a 1.5 hour flight, on downwind. Very distracting on a very inconvenient moment!)
First time you get the ATIS (5 km viz, few 1200, broken 1500), go flying and return tail between the legs because you found out that the ATIS is wrong (less than 3 km viz, broken 800).
First time you found out the ATIS was wrong, as above, but pressed on because the ATIS of the next field promises better weather, then found out that ATIS was equally wrong.
First passenger that also has a pilots license
First passenger that also has a pilots license, and who doesn't have a comment on your flying skills
And the bonus:
First time you include all these medals in your M&B calculations, and find it makes a significant impact!
Join Date: Aug 2006
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Loved the last two posts.
As I forewarned, all this decoration will put you way outside the forward CG limits - but never mind, you can earn another accolade for failing to get the nose wheel up at VR and ploughing through the VASIs. Very exclusive; not many people got that one.
As I forewarned, all this decoration will put you way outside the forward CG limits - but never mind, you can earn another accolade for failing to get the nose wheel up at VR and ploughing through the VASIs. Very exclusive; not many people got that one.
Join Date: Jun 2003
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Sometimes they simply refuse to believe that someone in shorts can be capable of piloting a plane, let alone be the owner/operator of that shiny one there on the apron.
Very true - in fact carrying some kind of [bogus] ID is highly desirable. I've been questioned on this directly in a few places. The ID card which AOPA give you is too naff to be any good.
Very true - in fact carrying some kind of [bogus] ID is highly desirable. I've been questioned on this directly in a few places. The ID card which AOPA give you is too naff to be any good.
Join Date: Jun 2002
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how about a feather in your cap ?, comes from a bird, most of which can also fly
Lot cheaper than AVGAS.
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Sometimes they simply refuse to believe that someone in shorts can be capable of piloting a plane, let alone be the owner/operator of that shiny one there on the apron.
Very true - in fact carrying some kind of [bogus] ID is highly desirable. I've been questioned on this directly in a few places. The ID card which AOPA give you is too naff to be any good.
Very true - in fact carrying some kind of [bogus] ID is highly desirable. I've been questioned on this directly in a few places. The ID card which AOPA give you is too naff to be any good.
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Sometimes they simply refuse to believe that someone in shorts can be capable of piloting a plane, let alone be the owner/operator of that shiny one there on the apron.
Very true - in fact carrying some kind of [bogus] ID is highly desirable. I've been questioned on this directly in a few places. The ID card which AOPA give you is too naff to be any good.
Fact is - in some countries being dressed in pilot clothes helps a lot with security/officialdom.
Sad but true.
SB
Very true - in fact carrying some kind of [bogus] ID is highly desirable. I've been questioned on this directly in a few places. The ID card which AOPA give you is too naff to be any good.
Fact is - in some countries being dressed in pilot clothes helps a lot with security/officialdom.
Sad but true.
SB
Join Date: Aug 2005
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B2N2 - you forgot to mention the one for Getting Lost for the First Time and Needing to Call Upon the Services of D&D. 
Then there is the even more exclusive "Getting Lost for the First Time on your QXC and Needing to Call Upon the Services of D&D and at the same time Complicating Matters with a Serious Radio Malfunction. (I do NOT recommend that anyone tries to obtain this one - been there, done that etc.) 
But I survived 
Then there is the even more exclusive "Getting Lost for the First Time on your QXC and Needing to Call Upon the Services of D&D and at the same time Complicating Matters with a Serious Radio Malfunction. (I do NOT recommend that anyone tries to obtain this one - been there, done that etc.) But I survived
Join Date: Apr 2002
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in the USA I experienced fully uniformed..... hot air balloon pilots!!
sorry, but I really think that's over doing things, even if a "paid" customer expects it....
Westy
P.S. yes, that's me in the background.....
sorry, but I really think that's over doing things, even if a "paid" customer expects it....
Westy
P.S. yes, that's me in the background.....
Join Date: Jan 2005
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In answer to the thread...
No, and no.
Unless you really want people to know exactly what to think of you on first meeting.
(How did you even get around to posing the question?
No, and no.
Unless you really want people to know exactly what to think of you on first meeting.
(How did you even get around to posing the question?
Chocks Away!
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I'm so delighted this question came up again. I mentioned this to my wife before I did my PPL - and because I pronounced 'epaulettes' incorrectly (escalopes) - it's somehow become a standing joke of "chicken wings".
Confession: I very sadly walked around an antiques fair last weekend looking for just something that would distnguish me as a pilot... I saw RAF wings, but then I thought that it would be misleading.. eventually I found a very discrete little aeroplane pin badge (with BOAC on it)... the £20 asking price put me off, but it also reminded me that I would just look like a TW@ . So I didn't buy it. Thankfully.
I went home with my wife knowing I don't have to show off to anybody.
Confession: I very sadly walked around an antiques fair last weekend looking for just something that would distnguish me as a pilot... I saw RAF wings, but then I thought that it would be misleading.. eventually I found a very discrete little aeroplane pin badge (with BOAC on it)... the £20 asking price put me off, but it also reminded me that I would just look like a TW@ . So I didn't buy it. Thankfully.
I went home with my wife knowing I don't have to show off to anybody.
Last edited by tiggermoth; 18th Mar 2007 at 23:43.
Join Date: Oct 2004
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B2N2 - I am taking this personally
Not content with showing pictures of my family without permission.
You now show a picture of MYSELF in my favourite fetish gear.
Oh, and that is not my chosen gimp in the background.
You now show a picture of MYSELF in my favourite fetish gear.
Oh, and that is not my chosen gimp in the background.
Join Date: May 2006
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RE above picture
If this is a UK GA airport then the guy on the right is the only one that is acceptable because the one on the left doesnt have a hi-viz jacket on.
Xraf
Xraf
Pompey till I die
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Thanks for posting this
First time you get the ATIS (5 km viz, few 1200, broken 1500), go flying and return tail between the legs because you found out that the ATIS is wrong (less than 3 km viz, broken 800).
First time you found out the ATIS was wrong, as above, but pressed on because the ATIS of the next field promises better weather, then found out that ATIS was equally wrong.
First time you found out the ATIS was wrong, as above, but pressed on because the ATIS of the next field promises better weather, then found out that ATIS was equally wrong.
Join Date: Feb 2007
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PompeyPaul, bad weather happens. Weather predictions don't always hold true.
If you don't have a PPL yet, follow your instructors advice regarding this. But if I see that the cloudbase is low I DO take the difference between the temperature and the dewpoint, multiply it by 400. If the ATIS reports something else, particularly in non-convective weather (no Cu-type clouds), I get suspicious. Very suspicious. And I start asking around for pilot reports, to the point where I may ask the tower to get one for me from an aircraft in the air to verify the ATIS is correct. (And if I'm in the air, finding out that an ATIS is incorrect, I do a pilot report myself.)
That is of course, after my unfortunate ATIS incidents I wrote about.
Apparently weather people on the ground have very accurate ways of determining temperature, dewpoint, wind and such, but cloud type & height is still only determined with the Mk 1 eyeball. (Anybody can confirm this?)
Here's what happened to me, what I was referring to. I departed from a (controlled) field with the ATIS reporting 1200 few, 1500 overcast, viz 5 km, for a one-hour x-country back to home base through class G airspace. Actual weather was 800 overcast. Bummer. Decided to press on because my home field also reported something like 1200 few, 1500 overcast and there were no significant weather systems in between - basically my path would run parallel to a warm front. (Probably a marginal decision, with 20/20 hindsight.) Got close to my home field (controlled), got their ATIS, still 1200 few, while I was still below 800 overcast. Contacted them for an XXX arrival which is normally flown at 1500 feet. Got it without any problems, not even SVFR. Then asked them again "this XXX arrival, is it doable at 1500 feet?" "Standby, break break, (other a/c callsign), can you report your conditions on the XXX departure?" "800 broken, we're just considering returning". Turns out the tower trusted the ATIS as well, without apparently looking out the window (admittedly, it is hard to judge cloudbase from the ground), and had let an aircraft depart for the 1500-feet XXX departure. That plane had flown the whole departure (which *is* over a congested area) at 800 feet but never told the tower... Then I got the very unusual "XXX arrival, altitude your discretion" instruction. I don't know, to this day, if this instruction allowed me to violate rule 5 (low flying over congested areas) but I was just happy to get back.
Back on the ground, checked my notes. Particularly the ATIS which I had written down. Temperature-dewpoint spread, both at my point of departure and destination, exactly two degrees.
Pardon me for an off-topic post. Back to regular programming:
OpenCirrus, I'm not a fashion specialist, but aren't gold bars worn on white uniforms, with silver bars worn on blue uniforms? I guess the same rules apply?
If you do start wearing bars on your shoulders though, might I suggest silver in any case? The density of silver is 10.49 g/cm3, while gold is almost twice as heavy at 19.3 g/cm3. Although if you don't want to get in any M&B problems, aluminium is even better at 2.70 g/cm3 and if buffed properly, will almost look like silver in any case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium
If you don't have a PPL yet, follow your instructors advice regarding this. But if I see that the cloudbase is low I DO take the difference between the temperature and the dewpoint, multiply it by 400. If the ATIS reports something else, particularly in non-convective weather (no Cu-type clouds), I get suspicious. Very suspicious. And I start asking around for pilot reports, to the point where I may ask the tower to get one for me from an aircraft in the air to verify the ATIS is correct. (And if I'm in the air, finding out that an ATIS is incorrect, I do a pilot report myself.)
That is of course, after my unfortunate ATIS incidents I wrote about.
Apparently weather people on the ground have very accurate ways of determining temperature, dewpoint, wind and such, but cloud type & height is still only determined with the Mk 1 eyeball. (Anybody can confirm this?)
Here's what happened to me, what I was referring to. I departed from a (controlled) field with the ATIS reporting 1200 few, 1500 overcast, viz 5 km, for a one-hour x-country back to home base through class G airspace. Actual weather was 800 overcast. Bummer. Decided to press on because my home field also reported something like 1200 few, 1500 overcast and there were no significant weather systems in between - basically my path would run parallel to a warm front. (Probably a marginal decision, with 20/20 hindsight.) Got close to my home field (controlled), got their ATIS, still 1200 few, while I was still below 800 overcast. Contacted them for an XXX arrival which is normally flown at 1500 feet. Got it without any problems, not even SVFR. Then asked them again "this XXX arrival, is it doable at 1500 feet?" "Standby, break break, (other a/c callsign), can you report your conditions on the XXX departure?" "800 broken, we're just considering returning". Turns out the tower trusted the ATIS as well, without apparently looking out the window (admittedly, it is hard to judge cloudbase from the ground), and had let an aircraft depart for the 1500-feet XXX departure. That plane had flown the whole departure (which *is* over a congested area) at 800 feet but never told the tower... Then I got the very unusual "XXX arrival, altitude your discretion" instruction. I don't know, to this day, if this instruction allowed me to violate rule 5 (low flying over congested areas) but I was just happy to get back.
Back on the ground, checked my notes. Particularly the ATIS which I had written down. Temperature-dewpoint spread, both at my point of departure and destination, exactly two degrees.
Pardon me for an off-topic post. Back to regular programming:
OpenCirrus, I'm not a fashion specialist, but aren't gold bars worn on white uniforms, with silver bars worn on blue uniforms? I guess the same rules apply?
If you do start wearing bars on your shoulders though, might I suggest silver in any case? The density of silver is 10.49 g/cm3, while gold is almost twice as heavy at 19.3 g/cm3. Although if you don't want to get in any M&B problems, aluminium is even better at 2.70 g/cm3 and if buffed properly, will almost look like silver in any case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium
Chocks Away!
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So in summary: Gold bars are out.
What about silver ones then?
What about silver ones then?
Perhaps a little wooden chip on each shoulder would though.