Awesome Ride

[SGolden]

So I took my first small plane ride yesterday. It was in a Cessna 172 with the conversion to 180hp. The ride was awesome, it was a little bumpy because of the wind and the ride is nothing like an airliner, which I have flown in before. We took off from Canton, GA and went over to Lake Lanier, and then headed back to Canton. We were in the air for about 45 min. The pilot decided to give me a little adrenaline rush on the landing and "slipped it in. " I was grabbing seat backs and grab bars but it was awesome non-the-less . I guess Im gonna have to go get some flight lessons now! Great, another way to spend my money !

 

[NPloysa]

They're great aren't they!? I'm persuing my license now too, although slowly. I have 12 hours so far in a 172, and 33 in IFR simulator, and the best part is one of my good friends is instructing me for free. Actually I traded him my overload air bags for one hour, and he said the other hour could be paid off by buying him dinner. And I still owe him dinner, and fly with him whenever I can.



I have also flow a twin, a 1970 Beech Duke with twin 335 HP Continentals, pressurized 6-seater. That is a fast plane for a N/A piston. We (neighbor and his boss, the boss owns the plane) flew at just under 200 knots from Denver to Pueblo for lunch one day. I think it tops out at 250 knots.



The last time I went up we took a turbo 182 over the mountains and flew over my parent's house in Conifer. We dived in low and wing-waved, then went looking at houses, the easy way. Scared my g/f too. I was in left seat, Scott (friend who instructs) was in right, Mack was in back. She didn't have a headset, Scott and I did. He yelled back to her, "Wanna go down fast?" By the time she could answer we went from 9500 feet to about 8500 (house elevation is 8000) we were in a tight 180* turn. Great fun.



Oh, couple of my most memorable moments were flying with my neighbor who was getting his license too. His instructor and he were in front, I was in the back seat (without a headset also). We decided to do some emergency landing practice over I-25 south of Castle Rock. We flew over at 2000 AGL and the instructor pulled the throttle to simulate engine cutoff. We brought it right over I-25 northbound lanes to about 250 feet then pulled out.



The other, is with the same neighbor. We flew over to Denver International at around 8 pm (time of the year when it gets dark by 8) and did 5 touch and goes. Man, you know the runway is huge when a plane that uses 1500 feet to take off on a 12,000 foot runway can take off and land 6 times on one runway. We did couple touch and goes then boogied back home.



As you can tell, I like to talk about flying!



Glad you had fun!



Nick

 

[Sageair]

The Beech Duke is not normally aspirated. It is powered by a TIO 540 engine. The T stands for turbocharged, the I = injected and the O= opposed. 540 is the displacement in cubic inches. Your neighbors instructor is an idiot who has no regard for the F. A. Rs regarding minimum altitudes in the vicinty of the vehicles on the highway. I don't mean to come off like a stick in the mud but any instructor who teaches his students to violate the regs and do buzz jobs is going to get someone killed. I hate irresponsible jerks like that.

 

[NPloysa]

Oh, so it is turbo-ed. I didn't realize that Sage. Thanks!



And yes, the instructor was not the smartest one out there. And you mean "HER" students I didn't even realize how low we were going, I was just enjoying the flight, then I looked out the window and realized how low we were, and by that time we were gaining altitude again.



Nick

 

[duaneparks]

So I took my first small plane ride yesterday. ... . I guess Im gonna have to go get some flight lessons now! Great, another way to spend my money !

I got my private license when I was 19 and haven't been able to fly much since then. During my 20 hours of instruction I not only learned what I needed to know for the checkride, but also chandelles, lazy eights, and wingover turns. One day we even did tail slides, hammerhead stalls, and since the 152 Aerobat we were in had a 5 minute inverted fuel system, we did loops and rolls.



All of these at the appropriate altitude of course, and not over populated areas



When (not "if") I get back into flying I will probably have to take a few lessons again as well as study like heck for the review!



Duane

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I'm glad your still with us duane. 152 aerobats are not rated for tailslides. We had one crash at an airshow here locally about 12 years back because he botched a hammerhead, did a tail slide and ripped the tail off.



I haven't been able to fly in about 6 years because of financial reasons (family has taken a front seat for a while). I do get to go up occasionally with friends - some of which are really awesome flights in warbirds and jets . I have about 450 hours TT, PPSEL, instrument rated with 60 hours of actual IFR time (in the clouds). I sure do miss it.