|
-
POSTING RULES

-
Donate yearly (please).
-
Advertise in here!
-
Today's Posts
|
Insert Pics
|
|
View Poll Results: At what age did you start logging time towards your first pilot license?
|
|
< 16 (Will pump gas for stick time!)
|
 
|
100 |
16.10% |
|
16 - 20 (Dating? When there's flying to be done?!)
|
 
|
155 |
24.96% |
|
21 - 30 (Living on pizza, soda...and Avgas!)
|
 
|
182 |
29.31% |
|
31 - 40 (First mortgage or first airplane....let's see...)
|
 
|
103 |
16.59% |
|
41 - 50 (Kids College Fund or airplanes...Hmmmm)
|
 
|
53 |
8.53% |
|
51 - 60 (I've waited long enough!)
|
 
|
25 |
4.03% |
|
61 - 70 ("You better find something to do if you retire!!")
|
 
|
3 |
0.48% |
|
> 70 (Congratulations!!)
|
 
|
0 |
0% |

12-20-2008, 05:00 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 917
|
|
I started to do my own personal history here folks, after reading so many great ones, but I'll be damned if tears did not start after the first sentence.
Short and sweet: Dad flew, I fly, my son has the bug. Life is good!
__________________
Mike C.
Sierra Nevada
RV-6A bought flying
|

12-20-2008, 09:16 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Forney, TX
Posts: 9
|
|
I started flying when I was 13 in Indiana when I was there for summer vacation with my grandparents. He always had worked in the steel mill and never got to fulfill his "real" dream. I absolutely loved it, and hit the ground running.
I got my private my senior year of high school, then moved to Louisiana to go to college at Louisiana Tech. I got my flight instructor there when I was 19 and taught for the school for 2 more years, graduating in 3 years.
Now, 22 (almost 23 in 7 days), I have been working working for a regional airline for a year and a half. I am sitting in AUS tonight typing away on my computer. We came in 4 hours late due to snow in DSM and MSP but thats ok! I get to sleep for 6 hours now, and do it again tomorrow.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/M...044Z/KMSP/KAUS
By the way, my wife and I cannot wait to start builing an RV. I thinking we are going to make the trek out to Oregon soon to make it happen (or start planning).
Last edited by rmt006 : 12-20-2008 at 09:21 PM.
|

12-20-2008, 11:32 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Hillsboro, OR
Posts: 75
|
|
"insert standard little boy preface" my Uncle built and flew an EZ Rizer that I used to watch him fly over at a screaming (literally) 30mph. That is where my aviation fire was sparked. After a near fatal flat spin landing attempt in the EZ Rizer, aviation was quiet in our family for a little while. Then that same Uncle bought a Q2 partially complete and had it ready for paint before it ended up at a museum after learning about the ground looping "tendency". Cool airplane, but lack of differential breaking, landing gear 8' each side of the centerline, VW Beetle engine and no rudder authority below 35kts, was too risky. In 1996, he dove in and built a Long EZ which he flies today. After helping build the Long EZ the bug was firmly planted in me...I had to fly.
I decided that the Military was not for me, so after high school I went off to college and on 4/24/2000, I was a student pilot. My favorite Independence Day is 7/4/2000...the day I received my Private license. Now I have a partially built Cozy MKIV and I am contemplating which airplane to build whilst starting a family.
__________________
Ryan Amendala
Hillsboro, OR
|

12-21-2008, 01:13 AM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Lockwood (8 miles east of Reno), Nevada
Posts: 85
|
|
Following the dream
I remember always being attracted to airplanes beginning around kindergarten. I would hand fly model planes. One day a Champ 7Ac flew overhead. The pilot was looking down. I waved wildly, but got no response from the pilot except that he continued to look down at me? By the forth grade, I began building balsa models. Joined the CAP during High School and got my first ride in a C-172. Joined the Air Force after HS and learned to fly with our base Aero Club. The Champ 7Ec and 7Fc rented for $4.80 wet. Spent almost every last dime I had on renting Aero Club planes. Back in the States, our Aero Club T-34 rented for $8 wet, but my GI pay after taxes was only about $190 a month, so it?s relative. After discharge, got my Comm, Inst, and CFI-CFII on the GI Bill. Sprayed, instructed, towed gliders after that.
|

12-21-2008, 01:26 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Windsor Colorado
Posts: 33
|
|
I started to fly
I was an Air Force brat, at the age of 12 a neighbor took me to the alert hanger at Larson AFB. The F-104 had electrical power on and lots of lights and bells. I sat in the seat.... I knew what I wanted to do. I took my first flying lesson at Clinton Aviation at Hyde Field Maryland in 1965 at the age of 14. As we moved I worked as a gas boy/ plane cleaner in exchange for my flying lessons. I soloed at the age of 16 in Great Falls Montana. By the time I was 17 I had 120 hours and took my private checkride on my birthday. The commerical, instructor, instrument and multi-engine by my 19th birthday. School, life and marriage all mixed in there some where. Now here I am some 43 years later, 28,000 hours and many type ratings later...Still looking forward to my next flight....
Les
|

12-21-2008, 04:53 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Wauseon, Ohio
Posts: 48
|
|
Long Time Ago In a Galaxy Far Away
I started flying at age 15 in 1975 at Lakeside (now I think it is West Houston, is Woody still there?) in Houston. Flew out of Andrau Airpark (Now I think it is gone), soloed at Sugarland. Flew also out of Hooks, took a lot of check rides (Private, CFI, CFII) with Andy Anderson. Great man who I think flew SBD?s off the Hornet in WWII. Flew out of La Porte (Cliff Hyde Flying Service) while attending San Jacinto Jr. College in 1978. Gail Steele was one of my class room instructors. Toughest, yet fair check ride, was with Maybelle Fletcher at Hobby for my Commercial Instrument C-172 and Commander R-112, lasted about 12 hours total, ground and air. Started Skydiving at 17 at a place north of Houston run by a jumper named John Burke. Jumped also at Spaceland a bit south of Ellington. Flying south of Spaceland one day almost got hit by an F-101 Voodoo. Lots of memories down in Houston, miss it, especially since it is -2 outside today up here in Ohio.
Tim
ATP-Helo, Comm-Inst MEL, SEL, CFII, CE-500
LCDR (Ret)
RV-8A
Fabricating the wings (FAA speak)
N308TF (Reserved)
|

12-21-2008, 07:51 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Ramona, CA
Posts: 2,370
|
|
My dad was always interested in airplanes. His father was a corporate pilot and a Major in WWII. One of these days I'll have to post the tales of my grandfather's life as a pilot... It is pretty amazing.
I know that at an early age my dad used to take me and my brother out to the local airports and we would wander around and check out all of the airplanes. This was back in the 60's when there were no fences or locked gates. I can remember going for a ride in a Cessna when I was probably 6 years old.
After completing college and grad school in 1987 I wanted to learn to fly. My dad finally was financially in a place to afford to buy an airplane. We had a Rockwell Commander 114 (bought it for $18000). I started ground school at Long Beach City College, and then started flying lessons at age 25. My first few lessons were out at Corona (where the 114 was hangered), but the long drive from Long Beach made getting lessons a weekend only deal and if the weather was bad, it dragged things out. I switched over to Eagle Aviation in Long Beach and did as much as the bank account could manage. I was engaged during flight training and finally got my license about 5 months after we were married. PP-SEL in March 1989.
I transitioned to the 114 and flew quite a bit for the next year, then we had our first kid (who is now in college). My dad sold the airplane when he started a new business. I was pretty busy with my new family and we went from 2 incomes to 1. Moved down to Ramona, CA in 1992 and now have 3 kids.
Fast forward about 17 years and I'm now getting prepared to get back into flying (and building). Building an airplane has been on my to-do list for the last 20 years. My monthly Sport Aviation magazine has been keeping the dream alive. I ran across this site and others and spent several months absorbing everything I could on the RV's. I think I spent over a month reading rvproject.com (thanks Dan for a great web site).
My oldest kid is currently taking all of my spare change in college tuition (and my college fund investments have taken a huge plunge), so I'll probably be lurking here off and on for the next couple of years before I pull the trigger and buy a kit. I've met a couple of RV builders in the area and got a ride in Bill Cary's RV-9A this year (definitely a highlight of this year).
Back to lurking, now that I've made my first posting here.
Bruce
|

12-21-2008, 10:21 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Omaha, NE
Posts: 35
|
|
I was lucky
I was lucky growing up, my mom was a flight instructor and I was receiving flight instruction as soon as I could reach the rudder pedals. My first three or four entries are from my mom, when I was 10 or 11 or so. I officially got my PPL when I was 20 in 1998. I kept on working on my ratings and finally got my ATP in 2007. Now I just need to build my RV and I'll be set!
__________________
Name: James Boyle
Location: Omaha, NE
Phase: Strategic Planning (i.e. daydreaming)
Model: RV-8
Tail Number: Unassigned
Engine: Unassigned
Propeller: Unassigned
Avionics: Unassigned
Paint Sceme: Unassigned
"You asked me what my dream panel is; the fact that it won't fit is completely irrelevant."
|

12-22-2008, 01:45 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Ashland, OR
Posts: 2,574
|
|
gliders after college
After many teenage exposures to GA, gliders, balloons, the confluence of money and time occurred right after graduating from college and starting work. At age 23 I solo'ed a (SGS 2-33) glider in 8 hrs, private in something like 20 hrs. I bought a SGS 1-26 and started flying x.c. before I had my private.
I added SEL about 6 yrs later and bought a 7KCAB - sweet little plane.
Today my time is 1700 hrs in gliders, 200 hrs in SEL, 100 hrs tailwheel. The SEL time is going to build fast when the RV-8 is done!
__________________
Steve Smith
Aeronautical Engineer
RV-8 N825RV
IO-360 A1A
WW 200RV
"The Magic Carpet"
Hobbs 625
LS6-15/18W sailplane SOLD
bought my old LS6-A back!! 
VAF donation Jan 2020
|

12-22-2008, 07:12 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 1,256
|
|
I selected 31-40 because that's when I *really* started flying (got my license), but my father was a pilot and we used to go when I was a kid of around 12 or 13. Also had a neighbor who would take me up in his Bonanza and was going to give me lessons, but was sadly killed the summer of the year I turned 16. I didn't have much to do with flying through college and grad school and such, but always wanted to get my license, so after getting settled in in my first *real* job, I started lessons and have been enjoying it since!
__________________
Steve "Flying Scotsman"
Santa Clarita, CA
PP-ASEL, ASES, Instrument Airplane
RV-7A N660WS flying!
#8,000
|
| Thread Tools |
Search this Thread |
|
|
|
| Display Modes |
Linear Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:07 AM.
|