Where do RV Pilots Come From?

OK, time for this week?s meaningless poll to generate interesting stories?..

Simple question ? how (what type of flying) have you accumulated most of your PIC time? I know that the RV world attracts a lot of military, ex military, airline, and ex airline types. There are also lots of down-home born and bred private pilots who?ve always done it for fun, as well as the civilian commercial pilots other than airline types ? Corporate, career instructors, Ag pilots?..and I am sure there are other categories I have missed!

Share your stories, and see where your fellow RV pilots have come from as well?.

Paul

First 250 hours...training (single/multi commercial, CFI)
Next 900 hours...dual given (with a little time for -II/MEI as well)

That's it so far...

First 100hrs in 150,172 and Cherokee 180. Learned tailwheel in a Great Lakes and aerobatics in a Decathalon and that started my love of sport flying. Have almost 3000hrs and less than 300 of that is in spam cans. Have been fortunate to fly warbirds, homebuilts, classics and antiques and have over 100 types in my logbooks. There is nothing better than flying an airplane that demands one to be more than an airplane driver. Don

After graduating high school, Dad said he'd pay for any college we wanted to go to, if he could afford it. Well, a&p school with flight lessons were cheaper than alot of other things, and he enjoyed flying. It took me 125 hours before my private checkride (I'd just cruise the contryside for hours) but I aced it. After that I bought my Luscombe and filled it with gas from our farm fuel tank. 450 hours and counting, thanks Dad!

Grew up around the airport, Dad taught me to fly (I paid for the a/c rental), worked line service, flight instructed, begged flight time in everything (even 40 hours in a Beech 18), charter, regional, finally made the big time in 1989 with TWA now I'm laid-off and having to pay for it myself again!

Tammy

ps Dad flies, Mom used to, brother flies, late husband flew... do you think my little boy is doomed??

Paid for some, been instructing for most. Not really a career instructor, its just my college job

Call Mike Rowe!

Mine was the normal civilian route to the airlines. Private, commericial, instrument, instructor. Instructed and did some "interesting" side flying jobs. My favorite was the "mortuary air service" Flying stiffs in a C-206.

Due to the cyclical nature of the airlines, I had a real job for 15 years, then was hired by an airline at age 38 and never looked back.

John Clark
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA

RV Pilots Flight Time

I started my logged hours in my own C-182 When it was not being used to fly skydivers. Owned and operated a jump operation at the time. Used AF flight instructors to fly jumpers (they flew for free to build time) and when the weather was marginal for flying jumpers they would give me flight instruction (no charge).

Paid for .9 hour in a Cherekee 140 necessary to do ADF work required at the time, otherwise all my flight time (1700 + hours) has been in airplanes which I have owned, seven, of which only the first one was a jump plane. Last two were RV-6A and RV-10.

Ag

Private on my own, then commercial, instrument, CFI while in the Army ('66-'69) under the G.I. bill. Then multi and glider on my own.

Ag school in Merigold, Miss. in 1971 then on to Georgia where I'ver been flying ag since 1971, probably 14,000 hours or more, plus 1500 or so as CFI and 200 RV transition training.

Regards,

My flying hours

I paid for my Private, Commercial, Inst and Multi myself, and paid for most of the hours (950) but about 300 were paid for by an employer who let me fly myself on company business. Not only was I able to log the hours on someone elses dime, I got a lot more done on my job and got to fly some great planes like V-35, A-36, T-210, M-231, C-182. It was a great 3 years but then our corporate aviation department got their underware bunched up and asked the legal department to review it again.

First 36 years paid for my own or flew for free in others planes. I have been quite blessed to have people loan me planes or fly for people that bought a plane and didn't have a license. For 2 years now flying Corporate Commercial. Twin Turboprop. C-425 Conquest I. A dream come true.

about half personal, half dual given

title says it.

Started with gliders in the early 80s. PPL in the early 90s, then UL (Eauropean rules) a couple of years ago. Mostly flown 152A and 172 at the local club, but lately mostly Atec Zephyr (UL) and Grumman Cheeta.

Got a share in an old Army Cub this May, but haven't flown it yet Too occupied with work and my -4 + a lot of terrible weather.

No flying in the UK

Too expensive, so I went and got 500 skydives inestead.

So I'd done many more take offs than landings..

As a kid I always wanted to dig up a crashed spitfire out of the sand at Dover and build a flying airplane out of it...yeah right!

Came to the USA and realised you can build yer own and afford to fly (for now) so built a Zenair Zodiac and owned it for 7 years..Now the 7a..

Frank 7a 227 hours

A mix

None of the categories fit me very well.

I got the private license at the minimum age but couldn't afford to fly much for many years, although I did pick up the glider rating during college one weekend.

When I finally got on the government payroll I could afford to join a flying club with a C-172 at the wet rate of $13 (late 70's). I was pretty much the only one who flew that poor old 172 with no working radios and usually without a battery that could hold a charge (that is where I learned about propping). At that bargain rate, that is where I got my first significant time. I flew that airplane all over the West using dead reckoning and pilotage. It still amuses me that some people consider a GPS essential for VFR.

During the last years with the government I got the instrument and commercial and flew charter for a while on weekends. That was almost all C-182 and C-210.

After I moved to New Mexico, I found out that I was near a famous soaring site, Hobbs, so started doing that. I got around 1,000 hours in 1-26s and a Mini-Nimbus C and PW-5 that I owned. I found out that one can fly a lot of cross-country in a very low performance glider with conditions this good.

I must have been around 45 years old by this time and had never owned an airplane and never flown a taildragger. I decided I wanted to be able to fly the same kind of airplanes those tow pilots fly, so purchased a Piper Pacer, which I had a great time with. For the last couple of years I owned the Pacer I also worked on building the RV-6. I guess I have around 1,500 hours or so in those two airplanes and I still miss the Pacer but sure enjoy the RV performance.

Now that I wrote this I realize I do fit a category pretty well. Only a small portion of my flying was paid for by anyone else.

Tail-Draggers Baby!

My first 20 hours were "free" (See response to last Iron-Poll). First solo in a Citabria. Since then, mostly pay-by-the-hour and half of my current total time (~350 hours) is in a hand-propped Aeronca Champ 7AC or 7BCM.

Trained for private at USAF aeroclub (mostly extinct now, just a few left). Paid $33 hr. for C-152, $15 hr. for instruction. Bought an IFR C-150 and got my instrument ticket burning $0.80 auto gas at 6 gals an hour. Sold after a year for a profit. Oh the good ole days. (Only 10 years ago.)

Got my commercial and CFI and started instructing part time, bought a Cherokee, then an Apache with a partner, got all the other ratings and flew part-time for several people including a lot of Bahama runs (somebody's gotta do it) while continuing to instruct part time also. Since retiring from the AF a year and a half ago been flying Air Taxi -- www.satsair.com -- fun job! Built a home and hangar on a grass-strip airpark and living the dream! Have an RV-4 (my second) and love it. Hope to build some day, but don't have the time now.

I was surprised at the low percentage of military/airline folks, I would have guessed about half or more would have come from an aggregate of these backgrounds. RB you checked in yet? Dale? Charlie?

bjustus said:

I was surprised at the low percentage of military/airline folks, I would have guessed about half or more would have come from an aggregate of these backgrounds. RB you checked in yet? Dale? Charlie?

Click to expand...

I've been real surprised at the results so far as well! I think all the retired Mil/Airline guys are out flying or sitting in their lawn chairs outside their hangars at their airpark homes instead of surfing the forums!

Started on civil side

First airplane ride at 12(two seat ultralight).
Soloed in an ultralight at 14.
Shifted to GA in high school, private at 17, Inst. rating in college.
Navy flight school T-34C, T-45A, F/A-18A-F for last 12 yrs.

My Dad took me to the airport nearly every weekend to fly his 1941 Porterfield when I was a youngster. The late, great, National Aerobatic champ, Harold Krier, had his hangar next door and was usually out working on his airplanes. He would chat with us and always had time for the kids. It was a huge thrill whenever he took off in his biplane to go practice. He would usually turn on the smoke and put on a little private airshow for us on his way out of the pattern. Sadly, he was killed a few years later spin testing a Chipmunk.

I went to work at Cessna, just so I would have access to their flying club, when I was 18 years old. Brand new Cessna 150, $4 per hour wet, 172 $5 per hour wet. Instructor $5 per hour. It was worth working in the print shop! Got my private license there.

Joined the Army a couple of years later and flew helicopters for a few years. Acquired the rest of my ratings with the GI Bill when I got out of the Army and then followed the tried and true path. Flight instructing, charter, (I too carried some "stiffs" in a Cessna 206), mail in the middle of the night, commuter airline with all the flying I could handle for $430 per month. Started corporate in 1975 and have had a wonderful career there. Had airplanes most of those years. J4 Cub, Tri-Pacer, Cardinal, and currently a Bonanza. Belonged to an aerobatic club for a few years and instructed in a Great Lakes.

It all adds up to about 18,000 hours and lots of great experiences.

Building an RV-10 with my wonderful and beautiful wife, that will be our traveling machine when retirement rolls around next year. She is a student pilot now, as well.

Paid for my private in 152's...then 17 hours in a Traumahawk. I bought my VariEze with 60 hours in my logbook, then put 600 hours on it in 3.5 years. Joined the USAF & sold the EZ. Still having a blast with military stuff & my RV-6 1500 hours & over 100 aircraft later.

When I looked this vote last time there were about 100 votes and now there is +200. Situation hasn't changed pretty much since so percentages are similar (it was pretty accurately 75 % for private at that time as well)... so rest of you, no need to vote! (Just kidding, keep voting.)

Edit many days later: Now when there is total of 400 votes, the change is still within 1 percentage unit and around 75 %. Amazingly accurate poll from the beginning or somebody is manipulating it.

Parents paid for Private and Commercial. Soled at 16. Been Ag Flying for 25 years. 6500 hrs in 1340 Ag-Cats and Air Tractors. 13,000 hrs in turbine Air Tractors, last 3000 hrs in AT-802.

Flying Experience

First flight....to young to remember. First time at the controls I was sitting on my father's lap steering a Bonanza in the sky. As a teenager I spent two years to log 35 hours, and I took my PPL check ride with that total. I soloed a Cessna 150 with seven hours, and then a J-4 Cub with a total of ten. I entered Air Force undergraduate pilot training with a total of 70 hours in anything I could get my hands on.

Seven and one half years later I left the Air Force with 2400 hours of Northrop T-38A Talon time. The next twenty three years and 12,000 hours were spent climbing in the Boeing 727 at an average of 300 fpm or so! The last three airline years were spent mostly watching the Boeing 777 fly itself.

In between, I logged 350 hours in my Cessna 140, 350 hours in my Pitts Special S1S, 1400 hours in my Grumman AA-1A Yankee, 300 hours in my J-3 Cub, and 300 hours in my Christen Eagle II. The Doll has 930 hours on the Hobbs now. I don't know what the total of all that is, but it sure has been fun.

Started at age 17 with cessnas (150,172,177,182) then Citabria tailwheel checkout to get a Forestry Spraying job (A188B)....put myself through University with the "risk your life money" the Spraying provides... some Fire Patrols, bird-dogging (C337) and aerial survey (SH-7), then off to the airlines (DH-8, CL65, A319/320/321/330/340)... 13000+ hours, but the most fun of all is flying my RV7 (purchased). WHOA!

Paid for MOST, anyway

Dad says there are only two types of airplanes: those that cost and those that pay. He considers himself lucky enough to have flown the latter so he could afford the former.

My earliest memory at about 3 years old is circling my grandmothers house with Dad in his J3. In college I got a cooperative engineering job with NASA every other term to help pay my way. I ended up spending the money on flying lessons ($12/hr C-150, $6/hr instructor, Patrick AFB flying club, 1977-78), so Mom and Dad had to finish paying for college anyway. $1150 got me my PPL, including ground school, written exam, and medical.

I had learned to "drive" airplanes in a 150, but as soon as I got my first real job (1979), I joined the Cumberland Flyers in Tullahoma, TN and learned to "fly" airplanes in their J-3 for $9.50/hr wet. In 1982 the club got too crowded so I bought the C170B I still have.

Most of the little bit of time I haven't paid for myself is in the Stearman Dad bought right after I got my 170. He really enjoyed having his three sons fly it, and usually kept it full of gas, but I did occasionally feel guilty and beat him to the pump with a credit card. He also had access for a while to a Feisler Storch and a Vultee BT-13, the latter of which is the largest airplane I've ever had the privelege of soloing.

Where do RV pilots come from???

Well, let me explain. A Mommy pilot and a Daddy pilot love each other very much.....

Sorry Paul.

All private instruction for me. This after 16 years of building and flying RC. I think that experience made the transition for me much easier. Finally took the full size plunge at age 40. The one thing I miss about RC is that once you build and fly a model, you can (and usually do) start to build another one. Not so easy with the real ones. I forsee myself building another airplane, but not for a few years yet. In the mean time, I must suffer through rivet withdrawl.

All of my flight time until this month has been me paying to rent someone else's airplane. However, I am finally now a CAP pilot and can take up the CAP airplanes, so work towards instrument and commercial will be in the CAP plane.

Still building and don't have access to a less expensive plane? Try CAP...

Learned in Warriors in '86, flew about 150 hours in those and 172/152's the first couple years. Got married, moved overseas, kids, no flying for 10 years. Got current again in '98, flew 172's for about 50 hours. I now have 930+ hours in the RV in the last six years. I often wonder if I could fly a 172. Probably stall the thing thinking it could climb... Paid for every second of flying.

Remember my "airplane experience," dad taking me through the Aeronca plant in Middletown, Ohio where he worked as a final assembly welder. That is my earliest memory; I was three or four. 1st ride was in one of the Champs he helped build when I was about 10.

1st instruction was at the "Fly by Knight Flying Service" in San Angelo, TX. I was in the Air Force and the owner took pity on me and would let me haul parts to his customers in one of the first Cherokees ever built. That helped cut the cost--$7.50 rent and $7.50 instruction. Big Bucks to an E-2.

Then, transfered to Germany where I got a glider rating for 4 DM/flight. That was a buck back then and instruction was free. Came home, bought a C-150 and finished my PPL. Things got tough (read--no money) so bought a Phantom U/L which I put 600 hours on. Them back to renting a Traumahawk.

Now have the 9A. Thinking about an instrument rating. At 64, I don't think I'll try for much more than that, although I wish I had gotten my instructor rating. It still might be fun to try for...

Bob Kelly

...I came from an Air Force family. Dad was in WWII and Korea as a flight engineer and my brother was already an AF pilot when I was studying Aerospace Engineering in college. There was this little war in Southeast Asia and I signed up for AFROTC and never looked back. 16 yrs in the F-4 Phantom was a hoot! 20yrs ago I signed on with this large freight outfit out of Memphis and have flown the 727 and Airbus 300/310. This little RV-8 has allowed me to recapture the fun of flying again! Yahoo! Loops, rolls, formation, low level, whatever. I'm having a ball.
BTW, my Son is flying C-130J's for the USAF and has 4 combat tours under his belt already. I'll be taking him up in the 8 soon... could be a new addition to the group

wellll

always wanted to be military pilot but just didnt have the resources or guidance to pull it off. flew when i could as a passenger in the army choppers and loved that. got side tracked on a dream and never pursued it. then my brother got me started on this rv. into the wing kit i started on my ppsel. 40- 50 hrs later i had a ppsel. today i flew to kgsp from kflo to drop off a friend and it was severe clear. a whopping 131 mph in the skyhawk.....it was nice however.( i could love a 182) really cant wait to finish the rv. i am now getting to the end of the tunnel. its been a long ride but i can see the finish line.

Ironflight said:

....I think all the retired Mil/Airline guys are out flying or sitting in their lawn chairs outside their hangars at their airpark homes instead of surfing the forums!

Click to expand...

Okay Paul, here's one... No I wasn't flying today and I'm afraid there's no airpark home...Don't I wish, though!!

I was instead, out in my backyard doing a combination of working on a large pergola at the end of my pool, and ...closing the pool also, for the winter. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy when it comes to clumsyness. In trying to carefully wheel ( in one of those "Agri-Fab" trailers ) the large and heavy pool cover around to the other end of the pool, I misstepped off into the pool in the deep end, followed by the trailer and pool cover still in it's bag. My wife came running quick when she heard me howl. What she saw was me dripping wet sitting on the side of the pool ( didn't stay in too long as the water temp was around 63 degrees!), and the trailer and the pool cover ( in it's bag) ....at the bottom of the pool... When she figured out that I wasn't hurt...just embarrassed, she began to howl! And howl she did for 15 minutes... we eventually got all the stuff out of the pool and got it covered.

I think I would've rather been working on the RV..... but I digress..

My first PIC time was several hundred hours in my homemade wooden airplane, made from construction site scraps. The wings were a couple of 2x6s and I spent hours in this contraption imagining all sorts of cool trips. The year was 1962 and I was 9 years old. My exposure to aviation in my early days consisted of family trips to the local airport simply to watch airplanes. Well, that stuff made quite an impression as I was totally bitten by the bug.

When I was an older teenager, I finally got a job at the local airport working for an FBO washing/waxing airplanes and cutting grass around them. When I got senior, I moved up to line service and started fueling them. One thing led to another and next I knew, I was taking flying lessons....in real airplanes! Private Pilot's License came along in 1972, along with part ownership in my first taildragger...a Corbin Baby Ace! PIC time was beginning to accumulate in C-150s, 172s, and of course the Baby Ace.

Through the 70's, I went to college in Daytona Beach, FL, added commercial, instrument and muti-engine ratings. PIC time now flying Piper singles, Mooneys, and now was flying banners along the beach for a couple of seasons racking up a lot of time in PA-12 Super Cruisers ( taildragger). After college, an assortment of small flying jobs trying just to stay alive and not get violated at these outfits. Wound up in Houston, living near the Johnson Space Center flying DHC-6s (Twin Otters) and Shorts 3-30s for the next five years. Accumulated over 3,000 hours in the Twin Otter and around 1,000 hours in the boxy looking Shorts. With my ATP and fresh Flight Engineer written test results in hand, I started chasing airline jobs vigorously. After being turned down at Eastern (gone!), Piedmont (not really gone but in a world of hurt with the USAir merger), People's Express (remember them??) and Northwest, I finally got hired by United just after a big pilot strike in '85 and just in front of a big hiring boom.

22 years later with UAL has logged me around 23,000 hours total in everything from B-727s, 737s, 757s, 767s, and Airbus A-320s.

I rediscovered my roots in general aviation after going through a divorce back in 1989. I bought a Citabria and FINALLY made it to Oshkosh, and have been active in this passion of EAA and AOPA and RVing ever since!
I've been fortunate to develop such lasting friendships with fellow aviator buds and have had opportunities to get checked out in a Stearman and a T-6 Texan.

I consider myself one of the luckiest guys on the planet to have always known I wanted to fly, and have been able to pursue flying as a career. All this time, I've never been furloughed and have had a ball flying and now building...

I'm 54 years old and I still act like and feel like a 5 year old when it comes to things with wings! My wife just rolls her eyes. ...I just gotta be careful around the pool is all...

Started washing airplanes in exchange for dual at 13. Flew off and on through HS. Went to college and got my A.A.A.S. (Associate of Applied Arts and Sciences) in Aviation, which got me through Comm., Inst., Multi (Twin Commanche fun plane ) Came home, pumped gas at KDVT for three years, paid my way through CFI, then built time flying the heck out of the FBO's 152s. Sure glad we got an employee discount.... Met lots of pilots, made good friends and good connections. Still flying out of KDVT, but getting paid now. 2 1/2 yrs with an aerial survey/mapping company and 800 hrs in our C-206. She flies like a truck but you couldn't ask for a better bird for the job.

I got my first plane ride at the age of 5 in an Aeronca Champ from my dad.

Learned to fly at 17 in a T-craft. After that I flew what ever was available on the field for the next two years. Got my Commercial and Instrumentand multi ratings and flew a little charter.

Went in the Army for a couple of years as a Huey crew chief/door gunner and looking up saw the Air Force boys going to the hotel. Went to OCS, got commissioned and transfered that over to the USAF Reserves and got a slot to flight school.

After that 13 month vacation, (what else can you call over a year flying T-37's and T-38"s) I flew C-130's as a reservist all over the world and had a corporate job flying Lears, Hawkers, King Air's, Cheyennes and twin Cessna's.

The airline bug bit me in 79 and I was lucky enough to find a job in Atlanta flying red, white and blue 6 wheelers. Spent 25 years and almost made a career out of it.

Kept my hand in GA over the years with several planes, my favorite being a Chipmunk by DeHavilland.

After retiring from the airline life, I left flying behind for a couple of years.

A friend called about delivering a Super Decathalon back to the factory for fabric repairs and it woke up a sleeping giant. Got my first RV flight at OSH two years ago and was hooked.
I've put about 170 hours on my 8 now and have loved every minute of it.
This past August completed my 39th year of flying and I've logged over 24,000 hours and have seen the world.

What more could anyone ask?

mostly paid for it all

Owning my own airplane is a secret to flying a lot. I have averaged 164 hours yearly since starting flying.
I wanted to fly since I could form a thought .
Built many models RC and control line, and others, dreamed of building my own airplane.
Put it off until 35 years old. PPL at 38 years old.
Commercial, multi engine, instrument before 40.

3800+ TT PIC, 2007
approx times but very close
24 hours C-150
400 hours C-172 N6469E and N6847X
800+ hours in Bonanza N9654Y
400 + hours Cherokee SIX N8992N
100 + hours Lance N4072Q
500 hours RV 6 N46RV
62 hours RV 8 N82RV
900 hours RV 6 N46RE 'Borrowed Horse
60 hours RV 8 N46RX the new 'Borrowed Horse'
345 hours EXP PA 18a N46NS 'Shooter'
32 hours C140 N2154N 'PUTT PUTT'
the balance has been in other peoples RVs, Citabria, J3, A Bell 47, Barron, Aztec, ect....

I wanted to build my own airplane since I was little. I have built / flown three ultralights. Lots of models of all kinds, I think being in kit building is a natural progression. I am sure it is genetic. six RVs solo build, and Shooter.

When I was a kid on the farm, a neighbor had a J3 in a lean-to on his barn. My best friend and I at eleven had heard he gave rides for $5, so we pooled or allowances and rode our bikes over there to have some fun. He asked if our parents had approved of the flight and we dutifully lied and said "yes". We both wedged in the back (we were skinny in those days) and he did a couple of full stalls and dropped the seat out from under us and we just had a ball with that. Got my first lesson at 16 for an hour in a Champ, ($5 plus $2 for the instructor. Gas was .26 then) and then discovered cars and girls and ran out of money. Didn't have 20/20 so military instruction was not an option.

Over the next 20 years very little flying, just the occasional ride and one trip to Osh. Then got bit by the bug really bad and took 3 months of C172 (41 hrs) to PPSEL. Immediately purchased a Thorp T18 and flew the heck out of it, after the tailwheel endorsement. Since then, another Thorp (they are really great planes), but always wanted an RV. Then, 2 RV6s and one 6A. Oh, the occasional 1/2 hour in a friend's Cub, 120, 140, 152, 182, Pitts, Christen, anything with wings, but there is just NOTHING that compares to an RV. Praise be to VAN.

Yup. Paid for every minute of my time and worth every dime of it

Dennis Mitchell
RV6A N28RV
KFNL
Ft Collins, CO

all paid for...except the early years

Soloed at 15 in a 2-32 glider- my instructor was Noel Roberts who was first licensed in 1938. He and my father, Thomas Ransom, where life long friends who also worked together as machinists. Our family was filled with private aviation and soaring. Most of this was centered out at 29 palms CA and the soaring club. We owned the cabin on the runway end of 26, while Roberts built the cabin strait north away from the terminal. The early and mid seventies was all about soaring and high desert weekends. I practically grew up in a Cessna 170 that Noel restored. The veteran Bill Brown was the tow pilot, what a charater. And I think there was everyone that was anyone in soaring out at that cabin in those days- What great memories-
-then came girls- aviation was out on hold till the early 90's
Fast forward today where I received my powered license by the unofficial leader ?or sleezer? of the ?Flagstaff Airport Slugs? Part of this group including myself and my wife just finished another adventure- a gaggle of 182s and others for a week into Puerto Vallarta- and the adventures continue!..... But I think the 182 is slowing the building pace of this RV6a- No wiat, it MUST be this work thinngy I?m forced to do ?.
working on the slider...

100 hours in various spam cans spread out over 17 years, finished my RV-9a in late '03. After about 500 hours in her, got my Instrument, CSEL, CFI, and CFI-I. Still spend most of my own money on flying, but do some part time flight instructing. Found I learned more in the first few hours teaching primary students, than in several hundred hours flying mysefl around.

meaningless flight time? no such thing...

-about a hundred in skyhawks & cheetahs.
-then off to pensacola, fl for some navy training, sir.
-carrier qualed in t-45 goshawks out of kingsville, tx.
-flew c-2 greyhounds off uss kitty hawk in japan. (my friends, that was good living....)
-t-45's again for an instructor tour, kingsville, tx.
-now drug hunting the caribbean and east pac flying e-2c hawkeyes (as pacino would say "those ec2's with that satellite tracking s&%$, man").

-about 3200 hrs military in all. somewhat respectable for a navy guy these days.
-most fun? day traps.
-least fun? night traps.
-most memorable? check summer 2007 edition of tailhook magazine. i flew THE prototype t-28c for a hook down pass alongside of uss enterprise.

wish i could put that big 1425hp curtis-wright radial in my rv-8..... (emp mostly finished, wings mostly finished, fuse in progress)

what to fly next? my rv-8 when i get it finished.
what to fly for a job? there's the million dollar question, literally.

I listed "pay for every hour", but that's not quite true. Back in '81 I talked my way into a trainee sales job with a Piper distributor, got a Private in 60 days (my nickel), and checked out in all the Piper singles. After about 100 hours and a whole lot of special "informal checkrides" with all the staff pilots, I got to the good part of the job. The old fellow I was slated to replace (he planned to retire) wasn't interested in prospecting. Sooo, they issued me a pack of credit cards, the keys to a new Warrior and a new Archer, and a briefcase full of brochures. My assignment was to pick one nice weather day each week, fly to some section of the sales territory, and land at every airport. I was to check out local flying activity, charm the FBO operator, find out who was learning to fly or otherwise might be a prospective purchaser, and of course leave new Piper brochures on all the tables.

Yeah, you got it......my job was to fly around in new airplanes and shoot the breeze with anybody who would stand still. Sold some airplanes too. Of course I had to write a lot of reports, but every job comes with a little pain..... <g>

We had about 30 new airplanes in inventory, so another task was to fly them all one half hour per month. I did the singles and one of the demo pilots did the twins. I also got the right seat on all the 135 trips, with my hands in my lap for the passenger legs. On deadheads I got to fly. Did my first ILS to minimums in a Chieftain with 75 hours in my logbook. Our 16,000 hour chief pilot was in the right seat of course.

Sadly, Piper went on a kick to eliminate distributors in '83. The favored method was to demand a large distributor order, something few were willing to do on top of current inventory. Prices had doubled in just a few years (the beginning of the liability crunch) and things were slow. My boss canceled his distributorship after, oh, 30 years of flying the Piper flag....and I accepted a used car manager slot at a Honda dealership.

Sure was fun while it lasted.