What do you love about flying....?
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What do you love about flying....?
Come on peeps. Lets discuss what we love, and also what we hate (if anything) about flying.
There's the obvious responses such as freedom, sense of achievement, the views etc etc but it would interesting to know what really turns you all on about this pursuit.
I'm gonna start by showing you some pics and a video from yesterday and today, UK to Guernsey which show one of the main things I love about flying, the views. No where else can you see things like these.....
Flying pictures by ct8282 - Photobucket
There's the obvious responses such as freedom, sense of achievement, the views etc etc but it would interesting to know what really turns you all on about this pursuit.
I'm gonna start by showing you some pics and a video from yesterday and today, UK to Guernsey which show one of the main things I love about flying, the views. No where else can you see things like these.....
Flying pictures by ct8282 - Photobucket
Being paid for a 10am report flight to Palma and getting home before tea-time. Works for me!
The 8pm report for a night KOS getting home just after breakfast time sucks, though.
Innsbruck circling in good viz is nice, tight hand-flown circuit into EFL, runway 21 into ACE also give a sense of achievement, as does short finals for a week in Barbados.
Sharing the experience is also fun (kids, pals, anyone)
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The 8pm report for a night KOS getting home just after breakfast time sucks, though.
Innsbruck circling in good viz is nice, tight hand-flown circuit into EFL, runway 21 into ACE also give a sense of achievement, as does short finals for a week in Barbados.
Sharing the experience is also fun (kids, pals, anyone)
[IMG]
[/IMG]
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Blue Up
Are those two your kids ?if so your a lucky guy
For me its often a love hate thing. Sometimes when its all going wrong or a hassle you wonder why you need it other times???
Its the challenge the adventure the buzz after a good flight.
Probably like you I am lucky in the flights I have done and the places I have seen as well as some of the expensive aircraft I have flown.
My favourite trips are the Ferry trips! No PAX amazing sights, different cultures different challenges.
Landing in the middle of Saudi Arabia and then being enveloped in a sand storm.
Landing at a tiny island 400 nm off the Nigerian coast with no one answering the radio.
Flying over Iran at night In an N reg aircraft.
Being escorted by three armed guards to the Loo in Pakistan
Seeing places and sights that no one else sees.
Controlling complex aircraft.
Man and the elements!
The list could go on!
Down sides plenty of those too but the worst five friends lost.
Pace
Are those two your kids ?if so your a lucky guy
For me its often a love hate thing. Sometimes when its all going wrong or a hassle you wonder why you need it other times???
Its the challenge the adventure the buzz after a good flight.
Probably like you I am lucky in the flights I have done and the places I have seen as well as some of the expensive aircraft I have flown.
My favourite trips are the Ferry trips! No PAX amazing sights, different cultures different challenges.
Landing in the middle of Saudi Arabia and then being enveloped in a sand storm.
Landing at a tiny island 400 nm off the Nigerian coast with no one answering the radio.
Flying over Iran at night In an N reg aircraft.
Being escorted by three armed guards to the Loo in Pakistan
Seeing places and sights that no one else sees.
Controlling complex aircraft.
Man and the elements!
The list could go on!
Down sides plenty of those too but the worst five friends lost.
Pace
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The freedom to be able to just go anywhere is alluring to me. That's what I love. The ruggedness and utility of being able to land at some tiny field really close to your destination. For some it's acrobatics, speed, challenge or some other thing, but for me it's the utility and travel. Going new places. And the view. I never get tired of viewing the earth passing by below and I think that's why I like high wings so much.
The reality is of course that you seldom can go anywhere without it being a huge rigmarole and ruin you financially. And those are also the things I detest in aviation - the over-regulation, the conservatism, the it's-been-done-this-way-forever-so-why-change, the prices, the illogicalities. My dream as a kid of a future where everyone had their own plane, seems further away than it ever did. It saddens me that we're over-regualting and killing this industry all by ourselves and not realising it.
The reality is of course that you seldom can go anywhere without it being a huge rigmarole and ruin you financially. And those are also the things I detest in aviation - the over-regulation, the conservatism, the it's-been-done-this-way-forever-so-why-change, the prices, the illogicalities. My dream as a kid of a future where everyone had their own plane, seems further away than it ever did. It saddens me that we're over-regualting and killing this industry all by ourselves and not realising it.
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The reality is of course that you seldom can go anywhere without it being a huge rigmarole and ruin you financially. And those are also the things I detest in aviation - the over-regulation, the conservatism, the it's-been-done-this-way-forever-so-why-change, the prices, the illogicalities. My dream as a kid of a future where everyone had their own plane, seems further away than it ever did. It saddens me that we're over-regualting and killing this industry all by ourselves and not realising it.
Why? maybe we need more of the French spirit instead of complying with every whim and wish of Brussels which seems the British way. Where is our fight? where is our unity?
We maybe a brotherhood but we are NO fighting machine!
Pace
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We are killing aviation by overregulation...
"Overregulation" and "killing an industry" is something completely different in my understanding.
What I love about flying? The views mainly, the sensation of lifting off the ground (every time again! especially when Mr. Pratt and Mr. Whitney sit in the back) and the challenge to use my (more or less developed) piloting skills in less-than-easy conditions. And of course the fact that after many years I was able to turn this former hobby into my main source of income. I do not even find commercial flying under EU-OPS overregulated or paperwork-heavy, at least not from the pilot's side. Flight planning and preparing of documentation is almost comletely automatic, during flight I have to record a couple of readings and after landing fill in the usual line in the tech-log and sign in two places. All this was much, much worse when I started 20 years ago!
Happy landings,
max
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by just showing my license to a safety person who will also x-ray my bag.
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Why?
Here in Germany, the security measures as they are now were first introduced after Lockerbie under pressure from the United States (because the bomb was smuggled on board a connecting flight from Frankfurt).
But unlike on British airfields, we don't yet need to wear high-viz jackets in continental Europe.
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I've been an aviation nut since year dot. I have a picture of me aged about two with a model of a F102 in my hand, that would have been about 1958, it hasn't stopped since then. It's not just the flying for me, it's the shared experience with others who fly.
There's also that childhood dream of flying and the freedom it brings. I've often sat in a glider watching the world go by below and felt totally remote from it; landing always seems like you have to reconnect however unwillingly to the world of work and bills.
It's a privilege to fly and see the things that we see. I also think it's extremely satisfying to be able to do an activity which although quite safe if done properly, will most likely kill you if you get it wrong. There's no room for error and there's something quite fulfilling in that for me.
There's also that childhood dream of flying and the freedom it brings. I've often sat in a glider watching the world go by below and felt totally remote from it; landing always seems like you have to reconnect however unwillingly to the world of work and bills.
It's a privilege to fly and see the things that we see. I also think it's extremely satisfying to be able to do an activity which although quite safe if done properly, will most likely kill you if you get it wrong. There's no room for error and there's something quite fulfilling in that for me.
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What do I like best about flying?
Two things. I like flying gliders best, because every moment aloft you are interacting with the elements and using the power of the sun and the wind and the thermals to defy gravity. Not quite silent flight, there is a gentle swooshing sound, and when in a cracker of a thermal, the audio variometer sings a wonderful tune. But (having planned one's cross country flight with due diligence, staying clear of restricted airspace, etc) you don't really have to talk to anyone. Only when coming in to land it is proper to call downwind. Nowadays, being rather ancient, an hours flying is plenty, but I still like to throw it around, negative G, and a couple of spins, just for fun.
And I love being around gliding folk, and yakking in the bar after we have put the toys away.
But I did fly power, got the IR in the US, did long flights, mostly fairly boring unless something went wrong. Also flew my Supercub solo to Spain in February, took 7 days! lots of adventures there - and to Ireland and a couple of times to France.
Much prefer flying the tow aeroplane, lots of skill practice in landings, taking off followed by a glider, being in charge of the combination, knowing how to read the sky and take it to the best place....going cross country to retrieve a glider landed at another airfield. Nice thing about that, the glider pilot has to pay for my flying!
And I love being around gliding folk, and yakking in the bar after we have put the toys away.
But I did fly power, got the IR in the US, did long flights, mostly fairly boring unless something went wrong. Also flew my Supercub solo to Spain in February, took 7 days! lots of adventures there - and to Ireland and a couple of times to France.
Much prefer flying the tow aeroplane, lots of skill practice in landings, taking off followed by a glider, being in charge of the combination, knowing how to read the sky and take it to the best place....going cross country to retrieve a glider landed at another airfield. Nice thing about that, the glider pilot has to pay for my flying!
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you don't really have to talk to anyone
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I've been an aviation nut since year dot. I have a picture of me aged about two with a model of a F102 in my hand, that would have been about 1958, it hasn't stopped since then. It's not just the flying for me, it's the shared experience with others who fly.
There's also that childhood dream of flying and the freedom it brings. I've often sat in a glider watching the world go by below and felt totally remote from it; landing always seems like you have to reconnect however unwillingly to the world of work and bills.
It's a privilege to fly and see the things that we see. I also think it's extremely satisfying to be able to do an activity which although quite safe if done properly, will most likely kill you if you get it wrong. There's no room for error and there's something quite fulfilling in that for me.
There's also that childhood dream of flying and the freedom it brings. I've often sat in a glider watching the world go by below and felt totally remote from it; landing always seems like you have to reconnect however unwillingly to the world of work and bills.
It's a privilege to fly and see the things that we see. I also think it's extremely satisfying to be able to do an activity which although quite safe if done properly, will most likely kill you if you get it wrong. There's no room for error and there's something quite fulfilling in that for me.
.
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My best moments flying are either when you climb through the top of the layer of cloud on a miserable winters day enroute IFR, into brilliant sunshine, knowing that below you everyone is wrapped in greyness, mist or drizzle.
The next best is the rush you get after 20 minutes hard aerobatics on a still summers evening.
The next best is the rush you get after 20 minutes hard aerobatics on a still summers evening.
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My top 3 + top 5
* arriving on top of the clouds after climbing through dreary weather
* being able to visit places that you would otherwise never get to for lack of time
* sharing the experience with friends and family; and putting them at ease with proper flight planning, positive control and good landing skills.
Unforgettable kicks :
- first solo cross country (the realization that I was going to be able to get from A to B in an unbeatable time from then on).
- first water crossing (recall Fuji's pictures over the Irish sea; the fact that the sky is clear and the sun is setting helps)
- first take-off in an high performance airplane (who needs a bloody expensive sportscar when you can have this ?)
- first controlled shutdown of an engine in flight (hey, I can do this and we're not crashing - hey we're even holding altitude and direction !)
- systematically greasing the aircraft in a (relatively) significant crosswind (difficult to remove the grin on my face whenever I recall that particular fact)
* being able to visit places that you would otherwise never get to for lack of time
* sharing the experience with friends and family; and putting them at ease with proper flight planning, positive control and good landing skills.
Unforgettable kicks :
- first solo cross country (the realization that I was going to be able to get from A to B in an unbeatable time from then on).
- first water crossing (recall Fuji's pictures over the Irish sea; the fact that the sky is clear and the sun is setting helps)
- first take-off in an high performance airplane (who needs a bloody expensive sportscar when you can have this ?)
- first controlled shutdown of an engine in flight (hey, I can do this and we're not crashing - hey we're even holding altitude and direction !)
- systematically greasing the aircraft in a (relatively) significant crosswind (difficult to remove the grin on my face whenever I recall that particular fact)
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The view, the amazing feeling of the acceleration on take-off, sitting up there in the 390kg aircraft I am training in while getting bumped around a bit by the turbulence. What isn't to love?
The best experiences recently have to be my lessons of course. Most of which consist of me turning up at the hangar for a 9am start of briefing and pre-flight inspecting. Usually takeoff is on the shorter cross-runway which points right out to the wide blue pacific ocean, take-off is followed by a lazy right hand turn before flying down the coast a few kilometres to the training area. I cannot find words to describe how much I enjoy sitting in the Foxbat (With the floor to ceiling perspex doors) looking down at the waves crashing and people walking on the beach just 500ft below us...
I only have 2.5 dual so far, but I can definitely tell I have found a passion to do for the rest of my life.
And as for commercial flights, you simply can't beat the acceleration of thundering down the runway on takeoff, nor can you beat the sound of jets or those lovely turboprops...
The best experiences recently have to be my lessons of course. Most of which consist of me turning up at the hangar for a 9am start of briefing and pre-flight inspecting. Usually takeoff is on the shorter cross-runway which points right out to the wide blue pacific ocean, take-off is followed by a lazy right hand turn before flying down the coast a few kilometres to the training area. I cannot find words to describe how much I enjoy sitting in the Foxbat (With the floor to ceiling perspex doors) looking down at the waves crashing and people walking on the beach just 500ft below us...
I only have 2.5 dual so far, but I can definitely tell I have found a passion to do for the rest of my life.
And as for commercial flights, you simply can't beat the acceleration of thundering down the runway on takeoff, nor can you beat the sound of jets or those lovely turboprops...
Realising that whether flying power or gliders, whether upright or upside down, whether under clear skies or 8/8ths that I am a lucky sod & am living in a truley green & pleasant land.
Thing - like you I've only used the radio to an ATC unit twice in my xx years of flying gliders, once to tell Kinloss that I was in their overhead climbing through 20,000ft then again to tell them I was descending through 24,000ft on my way back to Easterton
Thing - like you I've only used the radio to an ATC unit twice in my xx years of flying gliders, once to tell Kinloss that I was in their overhead climbing through 20,000ft then again to tell them I was descending through 24,000ft on my way back to Easterton
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The usual answers as above, plus I love the sense of achievement learning to fly has given me.
At several points during my training, I couldn't envisage actually ever getting to the point of gaining my licence. Yet here I am, 18 months from starting my lessons, with my very own brown wallet, as many hours P1 as dual, a night rating and I've now started my IMC training.
It's been a journey of self-discovery as much as learning to fly. Long may it continue...
At several points during my training, I couldn't envisage actually ever getting to the point of gaining my licence. Yet here I am, 18 months from starting my lessons, with my very own brown wallet, as many hours P1 as dual, a night rating and I've now started my IMC training.
It's been a journey of self-discovery as much as learning to fly. Long may it continue...