What's happened to me?

[Justiciar]

Avgas at around £2 a litre has really taken the shine off it for me! It's the principle more than the cost - and it will only ever get worse!

I never thought I would hear that from you! That new formation would not be quite the same in a couple of Jabirus

I think that like most activities some social side or at least a bit of human interacion makes it so much more interesting. I often turn up at my field, drag the chippy out, go flying, re-fuel and put it away again and see no one. If I know other people wil be there to chat to, help out if needed etc then I don't have to force myself to go.

Cost and bureaucracy can be quite psychologically corrosive (as can reading this forum sometimes) but the harsh reality is that almost every professsion and sphere of human activity is suffering the same these days. You either live with it and where possible find a way around some of it or give up. Cut cost and regulation by going the permit route, or find something different.

A fellow member of my chippy group was telling me how he has got himself checked out on a motor glider and flies for far less than a Chipmunk or anything else main stream. Now that appeals: the benfits of gliding without standing around all day every so often you need something like that to rekindle interest.

[mary meagher]

tggzzz, WOW! those are two amazing videos! How many gliders could you count sharing that thermal? eyes on stalks, pucker time!

I'm sorry justiciar spent his time at the gliding club standing around all day!there is plenty to do, why not offer to help out? its all worthwhile for that feeling of being useful and being with friends, and scenes like the two videos can be an unforgettable reward......

Depends on your personality, I guess.

[Justiciar]

I'm sorry justiciar spent his time at the gliding club standing around all day

• I don't belong to a gliding club and never have
• I kept an aircraft of my own at the local gliding club and saw first hand how it works (I also went on a week's course many years ago so experienced first hand how it works
• If I did belong to a club then I would be giving 100% as I fully recognise that gliding does not happen without imput from many people
• I have a family, a career and many other things that keep me busy, so I do not have a day at a time to devote to gliding or indeed any other hobby
• Even if I did the price would be divorce (hmm may be I am missing something here)

[Mechta]

I glide most weekends with an audio vario. Even so, tggzzz's second video sounded more like a particularly confrontational episode of 'The Sooty Show'...

[PompeyPaul]

Same thing happened to me

I blamed giving up flying on having to pay for a wedding and stopped flying. In reality I felt the same as you as was simply bored. Looking at my log book I quit on the back of an intensive period of flying hours logged (did around 10 hours every 3 days for a couple of weeks).

It just felt boring and like a real chore.

The question is, when push comes to shove, and your license comes up for renewal will you REALLY let it slide ? I couldn't do that and so am flying lots trying to meet the 12 hours required to keep it going.

On top of that increased automation has really helped. I love SkyDemon which means I can plot my route. I then read the NOTAMs in the cafeteria, over a bacon & blue cheese panini. I then go to the club house, jump on the wireless and print out my plog (used to have to do all of that by hand). Final check of weather then it's out for the A check which takes about 15 mins.

So flying HAD become a chore, but with increased automation you can get arrival, to taxying out, to around 30 mins.

Net result is more flying for your invested time.

Will I continue flying as aggresively when my license is validated ? Don't know, possibly not.

To me, the biggest problem is that there's no progression in flying. It's PPL and then that's it (yes I know there's IMCr or possible commerical). I wonder how many people would still be doing Karate if you got your blue belt (or whatever the starter is) and then that's it ?

I think it'd keep more people flying longer if they had more targets to get to. More of a structured program to it.

The also downer, I can't deny is weather. Having approx 50% of sessions cancelled due to weather means the "hobby" is taking twice as much time as it really needs. Which, with the pace of modern life, is probably the most expensive cost

[Justiciar]

I think it'd keep more people flying longer if they had more targets to get to. More of a structured program to it.

• IMC Rating
• Night Qualification
• Aerobatics
• Farm/short strip skills
• CPL
• IR
• mountain flying
• Bush flying
• touring
• fly ins
• get involved in running a club or group
• Charity rides (when you have enough hours)
• Instruction (FI or CRI, the latter costing < £2k)
• Building your own
• Obtaining an engineering qualification - say LAA
• Flying with friends and family (not necessarily at the same time)
• Gliding
• tug pilot
• drop pilot
• Microlights

Have I missed anything?

[MichaelJP59]

Originally Posted by tggzzz

If it has become a chore then either stop for a while or try something significantly different...

You might like to consider something like
YouTube - &#x202a;Down at the Sea-side!&#x202c;&rlm;

That cliff-top gliding is some of the most exciting gliding footage I've ever seen! Is it strictly legal though, I thought you had to remain 500ft away from any people on cliff tops etc? Or is that just powered aircraft? I suppose it must be OK, it's been on YouTube for a while.

[IO540]

I can't speak for aeros and such as this is way outside my expertise, but I learnt to fly to go places, and this needs some specific motivations to keep at it:

- keep current (even if this means doing lots of local flights, sightseeing, in between longer trips)
- fly with friends/family
- if money is an issue, share the costs
- fly to places you can't easily drive to (N France is a good start)
- try to get your hands on a capable plane (this may mean setting up a syndicate)
- always keep your flying very affordable (I see a lot of this rule being broken from Day 1; this is not a dirt cheap hobby and some things are simply not possible).

I do know a number of people who worked their way up to the top of the GA scene (turboprops or jets) and then one day suddenly chucked it all in, so this problem is not unusual regardless of the finances.

One also needs to fly in moderation. I know many people's flying is naturally moderated by finite funding, but where this is not the case, try to not fly too often. I know I would get sick of it if I flew 3 times per week or more. So I try to go up once a week just for currency, if not going somewhere. More is not necessarily better in this game, once you get past 1 flight per week, unless you are working up a steep learning curve on a new and very complex aircraft.

[PompeyPaul]

I agree

I got the night qualification and would do the IMCr if it was clearer as to what is going to happen to it.

Outside of that there seems very little to "aim for" with your flying, that gives you extra privileges.

Anything that helps with "touring", even if it were another few years of training which you could take piece meal. Would be great.

[IO540]

would do the IMCr if it was clearer as to what is going to happen to it.

You should do it precisely because of the uncertainty.

[dont overfil]

I'll bet my idea at 6 is closer to the mark!
D.O.

[Pianorak]

I was silly enough to sell my Archer, which never gave me any trouble, partly because after four years I got a bit bored and partly because I “had to have” a proper aircraft, ie a complex. Well, I got my complex (pun intended) bundled up with a lot of problems, in other words the aircraft was more on the ground than in the air. This meant I had lost faith in the aircraft and my currency and confidence suffered. The irony now is, having spent a fair bit to have all the faults dealt with, my faith in the aircraft having been restored, and having a new Annual/ARC to boot, my love of flying seems nevertheless to have evaporated.
IO540's advice “try not to fly too often” does perhaps point towards a way out of my dilemma. Until now I have often taken to the air just “to keep the engine happy”. But if once a week or so should be sufficient, then maybe my attitude may change again – and it may not. We'll see.

[Flyingmac]

This Saturday just gone I flew to Charity Farm at Baxterley with my wife.
We pitched the tent under the 172s wing and walked into the village for a very nice meal at the Rose Inn. Sunday was spent watching an excellent airshow in equally excellent weather followed by a nice flight home in superb vis. The weekend before it was AeroExpo at Sywell, again with tent. Before that it was a beach Fly-in at Morecombe Bay and before that it was the Isle of Man to watch some TT racing. Again with tent. That trip done in a Dynamic WT-9 microlight, dropping into Cark on the way home, and a trip down to Hinton in a Eurostar to pick up a ferry pilot.

I have a list of farm strips that I'm working my way through and a list of Fly-ins to visit. All VFR stuff. Though myself and the Cessna are perfectly capable of IFR, we fly for fun. There's lots to be had.

I'd say that most people who get bored with flying do so because their flying is boring. Driving around the sky.

I'm now in my 30th year of flying, and nowhere near bored.

[PompeyPaul]

Lucky you!

I would love to suggest going flying, to spend the night in a field under the wing of a C172 to my wife to see her face! I think the lack of a "spa menu" would put her off, before we even started talking about chemical toilets etc

[maxred]

PP - are we related????? Perhaps your wife is my wife's long lost sister

Five star, spa, instant hairdryers, and Michelin rated burgers, that is for starters.

I once took her in a mobile home around Scotland, it took about four months for her to relate to me again.

She is convinced I have attempted to kill her, and my kids, on several flights, (if only she knew), and if I was to suggest - Darling, lets pack a tent and go flying, well, I would pay to have the look in print

[IO540]

Very sorry to hear of your aircraft issues, Pianorak.

But this is a very valid point. I think many more pilots than would care to admit have lost confidence in flying (other than trivial short flights) precisely because they have had a long stream of issues with their aircraft.

I am very aware of this and work hard to keep mine 100% working. I would never do any of my long trips if I had problems with the plane, and in fact I didn't do any long trips for the initial 1.5 years of my ownership, largely due to a string of avionics problems. Such issues are very corrosive on one's confidence.

[maxred]

Yes, but is this not in part the knub of the problem. Why the complex type? A complex type, in general, is a going places aeroplane. Going places involves, ratings , experience, and stretching your flying ability, that bit further. Surely that is what 'the flying' bug is about. Whether it in microlights, gliding, aeros, touring.

You once said, IO, that flying was expensive, the complex type bit, and if you could not afford it, you should not be in that arena. I agree. However, there are options a plenty, for all sizes of wallet, you just need to engender the enthusiasm to keep it going. Whatever your mode of enjoyment

[thing]

I'm doing my PPL to go places. Can't see the point otherwise, for pure flying pleasure I go gliding. I'm amazed at the number of people at my club who never go anywhere. It's the whole point of it for me, even if it's just to a grass strip somewhere for lunch in the local pub.

I would also agree with IO's point about not flying too much, I squashed about 14 hours into the first two weeks of June and then had two weeks off. I flew yesterday and was totally confident and relaxed instead of trying to pile the hours on and getting frazzled.

[tggzzz]

How many gliders could you count sharing that thermal? eyes on stalks, pucker time!

The blurb with the video is

The last thermal, just east of Hallstahammar, before the final glide back to Eskilstuna during the World Gliding Championships 2006. At most we were 43 gliders in the same thermal (I think, I didnt have time to count twice).

I would have to freeze frame the video to count to 43, and even then I think I wouldn't get the same number twice. I presume that they either counted from the logs, or assumed that all planes were in the same thermal.

[tggzzz]

That cliff-top gliding is some of the most exciting gliding footage I've ever seen! Is it strictly legal though, I thought you had to remain 500ft away from any people on cliff tops etc? Or is that just powered aircraft? I suppose it must be OK, it's been on YouTube for a while.

If it isn't then an awful lot of people regularly fly illegally Some places are well-known for ridge flying, e.g. Portmoak and "The Bishop" in Scotland, and Talgarth in the Welsh Black Mountains. It is quite entertaining to be one of half-a-dozen gliders beating back and forth along a ridge within a couple of hundred feet vertically and not very far horizontally - certainly I appreciate having another pair of eyes in the cockpit as well as FLARM.

If you have a look at some of the other videos by that pilot ("balleka", search for it on youtube) you will see that

• his other videos are good too
• flying along the Cotswold Ridge is "pure adrenaline"
• he ought to have a sticker on his glider saying "my other plane is a 747"