Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Wolfala on June 05, 2012, 03:34:14 PM
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(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/181453_10151021860056214_1938002072_n.jpg)
The question of will it blend has been answered many times.
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Flew thru a flock of geese with the 182 one morning shortly after takeoff....literally right through them..they went down both sides, over and under. Felt a pulse in the yoke so turned back to the field to check the airplane over. Blood and feathers on both sides where strut joined the wing, big blood streak on top of left stab and elevator. No damage except to the shorts.
You hit that one? What was it?
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You would thinks birds would be smart enough to know over time air ports aren't ideal for them, oh well
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You would thinks birds would be smart enough to know over time air ports aren't ideal for them, oh well
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Ever hear the term birdbrain? They ain't Einstein.
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Ever hear the term birdbrain? They ain't Einstein.
Atleast IME they don't jump out in front of you (like a deer on landing at night)
I have almost hit several deer that way. Was there any damage (besides to the bird)?
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They tear hell out of fighter jets.
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They tear hell out of fighter jets.
and commercial air liners
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Ouch is right.
I've had a few near-misses, but have been lucky enough to not hit one myself.
Seagulls are the worst in my opinion. Most other birds make an attempt to get out of the way...but not seagulls.
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I have a job now, and I want to get my pilotslicense, anyone wanna help me out? you all seem like experience pilots, i've read the pilots book of Aeronautical knowledge 3 times and the airplane flying Hand book twice and Moondogs Academy of air and other disasters once, I kinda don't know what to do now
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Ram tard
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I have a job now, and I want to get my pilotslicense, anyone wanna help me out? you all seem like experience pilots, i've read the pilots book of Aeronautical knowledge 3 times and the airplane flying Hand book twice and Moondogs Academy of air and other disasters once, I kinda don't know what to do now
Well...
1.) dig into part 61 of the far aim and see if you meet solo and then private pilot requirements for age, etc. (61.83 & 61.103)
2.) google some articles on total cost of the license and how to go about finding the right CFI for you. You might find that you need to save up a bit more to avoid large breaks in training.
3.) Apply what you learned about finding a CFI and visit the school/fbo to check out the operation and airplanes. Swing for a introductory flight to test the waters.
4.) if you enjoy and wish to start right away, you'll need to find a doctor who is qualified to give you a 3rd class flight physical.
5.) discuss your options for completing the private pilot knowledge test with said CFI.
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I have a job now, and I want to get my pilotslicense, anyone wanna help me out? you all seem like experience pilots, i've read the pilots book of Aeronautical knowledge 3 times and the airplane flying Hand book twice and Moondogs Academy of air and other disasters once, I kinda don't know what to do now
Read the FAR/AIM book.
Study up for the written and then take it be warned the test is like 150 bucks so dont fail.
Get a student certificate: go to FAA.gov and look up AME finder (aviation medical examiner) they give you a flight physical and if you pass give you a student certificate (said certificate will allow you to solo) (can also be expensive).
Fly.
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Wrote that down, i'll look into it when I get a thousand in the bank, should have that in the next 4 weeks
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I have a job now, and I want to get my pilotslicense, anyone wanna help me out? you all seem like experience pilots, i've read the pilots book of Aeronautical knowledge 3 times and the airplane flying Hand book twice and Moondogs Academy of air and other disasters once, I kinda don't know what to do now
Get a job so you can pay for flying lessons. Seriously. Read Robert Johnson's book "Thunderbolt", especially the beginning, to see what someone who WANTS to fly will do in order to get some stick time.
To be honest though, most people in here probably assume you'll just wait for someone to give it to you. And you don't need a thousand in the bank to start. You need $40 for your introductory flight lesson (usually a bit under an hour intro to flying) and then you basically buy flight time as you earn the money. Get a job paying $100/week and you get somewhere between 1 and 2 hrs of flying per week. Simple. As said before, you need to put aside some for the student medical certificate (don't get it until a week or two before solo since it's only good for 2 years IIRC) and another couple hundred bucks for the written exam and test prep material, but you can buy flight time as fast or as slow as you earn money.
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Get a job so you can pay for flying lessons. Seriously. Read Robert Johnson's book "Thunderbolt", especially the beginning, to see what someone who WANTS to fly will do in order to get some stick time.
To be honest though, most people in here probably assume you'll just wait for someone to give it to you. And you don't need a thousand in the bank to start. You need $40 for your introductory flight lesson (usually a bit under an hour intro to flying) and then you basically buy flight time as you earn the money. Get a job paying $100/week and you get somewhere between 1 and 2 hrs of flying per week. Simple. As said before, you need to put aside some for the student medical certificate (don't get it until a week or two before solo since it's only good for 2 years IIRC) and another couple hundred bucks for the written exam and test prep material, but you can buy flight time as fast or as slow as you earn money.
I make 200 a week, and I have other projects I need money for, and my insurance for my license.
I want to do it on my own, I just really never knew the right approach to it, the air field down the road from me is a private one sadly so I have to drive an additional 20 miles to get to the one a county over. For the Physical do they require blood to be taken? I haven't had blood work done on me since I was 7...
How do I contact a field, should I go there myself or call in?
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I make 200 a week, and I have other projects I need money for, and my insurance for my license.
I want to do it on my own, I just really never knew the right approach to it, the air field down the road from me is a private one sadly so I have to drive an additional 20 miles to get to the one a county over. For the Physical do they require blood to be taken? I haven't had blood work done on me since I was 7...
How do I contact a field, should I go there myself or call in?
It will cost you almost that to rent a plane and pay the instructor for an hr.
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It will cost you almost that to rent a plane and pay the instructor for an hr.
Well i'm guaranteed the job til December so I can devote my money to that, after December I'll still be needed hopefully, right now i'm suggesting some recreation room designs while i'm working in the color lab, little extra pay for that if they like my idea's
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Go to the airport and look for signs to the FBO, instructing outfits, and the local flying stuff store. Check them ALL out for info on who offers instruction, rates, and reputations. If there is a school they will probably have the best advertisements and probably best success rates, but they often charge a bit more to cover admin overhead and to ensure quality instruction (better planes and steady work for the instructors). On your salary though, you may want to find the cheapest (often young) instructor and the cheapest piece of junk cessna 150 to get your first 20 or so hours. Once you can handle a 150 then you can start flying something a bit nicer as you approach your checkride. I flew a C-150 for about 25 of my first 50 hours, most of the rest in a 152, and about 8 hours in a 172 preparing for both my checkride and the USAF T-41 flight screening program. I think I flew my checkride in a 152 but it might have been in a 172, can't remember.
Do NOT be seduced into paying a lot more for a nicer aircraft initially though. You want something easy to fly and reasonably well maintained, not necessarily well equipped though. A radio, transponder, VOR receiver, artificial horizon, turn/slip indicator, and gyro compass are all you need to start developing SOLID habit patterns that will work with any aircraft. Depending on where you start flying, you may even be able to skip luxuries like the transponder, VOR receiver, and gyro compass, however I think that using those instruments ought to start early on to ensure you are comfortable with using them later on. But you certainly don't need anything more than basic analog "steam driven" gauges initially. Learn to fly first then worry about the fine details.
The 150 I learned on, Cessna 3486V out of Montgomery Field (MYF), could barely taxi out of its own way on the ground and the gyro compass drifted about 10 degrees a minute. But I sure learned good habits pushing that thing around the sky and flying that plane instead of the nicer 152s and 172s probably saved me $800 and let me finish training sooner. Plus scheduling the cheapo planes is sometimes easier since licened pilots often want creature comforts like a heater and doors that close all the way and a realistic service ceiling greater than 7,000'.
You may need to join a flying club in order to get covered by their insurance. This totally depends on who owns the plane you are flying and who the instructor works for. A school will wrap up your insurance fees with the hourly rate, while a freelance instructor will just rent from a local club and you will usually have to work out an insurance arrangement with the owner(s) if you ever want to solo. I personally joined a flying club that had the 150, 2 152s, and 3 172s. It cost me about $40/month but it got me keys to the hangar, the lockbox with the aircraft keys, access to the club fuel account (small discount on gas), and I could schedule any plane I got checked out to fly by a club-approved instructor. Of course, when I got my license I dropped my membership because I worked out a deal with uncle sam to pay ME instead of the other way around, but I'd probably try to find the same set of owners if I ever live in that area again because their arrangement was inexpensive and casual but they were pretty good with maintenance so the planes flew just fine.
BTW club insurance usually covers only damage to the plane and liability for the owners. You will have to get your own insurance if you want liability coverage for yourself. As a kid I didn't get any liability coverage because I didn't have anything that could be taken from me if I got sued and I figured the chances of me doing much damage and actually surviving it was fairly small. Now though, I have a lot to lose so I'd probably get a mil or two of liability coverage even if the club offered insurance as part of the membership arrangement. AOPA has more info on that.
Oh yea... You may want to join AOPA. They have a nice magazine and have lots of resources for pilots of all experience levels including students. I think they might even have a student-specific magazine but it's been years since I was a member so I'm not positive about that. The headset reviews in the AOPA magazine alone justified the membership cost my first year since they saved me from wasting about $300 on a headset/intercom "good deal".
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Get a job so you can pay for flying lessons. Seriously. Read Robert Johnson's book "Thunderbolt", especially the beginning, to see what someone who WANTS to fly will do in order to get some stick time.
To be honest though, most people in here probably assume you'll just wait for someone to give it to you. And you don't need a thousand in the bank to start. You need $40 for your introductory flight lesson (usually a bit under an hour intro to flying) and then you basically buy flight time as you earn the money. Get a job paying $100/week and you get somewhere between 1 and 2 hrs of flying per week. Simple. As said before, you need to put aside some for the student medical certificate (don't get it until a week or two before solo since it's only good for 2 years IIRC) and another couple hundred bucks for the written exam and test prep material, but you can buy flight time as fast or as slow as you earn money.
I wish 100 bucks would cover an hour... :cry
Also AOPA may get you a discount at the airport, mine got me 10 bucks off my written.
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I wish 100 bucks would cover an hour... :cry
You need a cheaper plane or younger instructor, or an instructor who takes *ahem*alternate*ahem* forms of payment :)
Of course, this is coming from someone who plans on charging around $100/hr for upset training and mild aerobatics instruction while I'm stuck telling RPAs where to go and what to do. I just need to get a taildragger checkout and find a nice citabria or pitts or something like that to rent. And of course read the FAA approved upset and aerobatics manuals since the military way of doing things isn't even remotely close to the FAA approved standard techniques and procedures.
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AOPA puts out Flight Training - a much better magazine than AOPA pilot IMO. I'm seriously considering terminating my AOPA membership - they sent me a bill a couple weeks ago telling me I owed them $800 for airplane insurance, but I don't get get my insurance through AOPA and it costs alot less than $800. I sent them an email about it but got no response.
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they sent me a bill a couple weeks ago telling me I owed them $800 for airplane insurance, but I don't get get my insurance through AOPA and it costs alot less than $800. I sent them an email about it but got no response.
That was me. Or my friend. You probably didn't know it at the time but you now have 200 hours in a grumman tiger and have flown under all the bridges in the 1972 edition of "The Complete Guide to American National Parks". Congratulations, now pay up.
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You need a cheaper plane or younger instructor, or an instructor who takes *ahem*alternate*ahem* forms of payment :)
Of course, this is coming from someone who plans on charging around $100/hr for upset training and mild aerobatics instruction while I'm stuck telling RPAs where to go and what to do. I just need to get a taildragger checkout and find a nice citabria or pitts or something like that to rent. And of course read the FAA approved upset and aerobatics manuals since the military way of doing things isn't even remotely close to the FAA approved standard techniques and procedures.
I fly at the Eglin Aero club and its about 95 bucks for plane rental (this is the cheapest and oldest cessna 172 in their fleet) plus 30 bucks for the instructor). Often I run over an hour though because when Eglin is cycling 16s and 15s (and now 35s) they dont have time for me pittering around at 100 knots. So we fly north to my actual hometown and do our thing then fly back the 15 minutes and wait in line to run it through the pattern.
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Well i'm guaranteed the job til December so I can devote my money to that, after December I'll still be needed hopefully, right now i'm suggesting some recreation room designs while i'm working in the color lab, little extra pay for that if they like my idea's
Review this thread:
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,280879.0.html (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,280879.0.html)
In the NY area - the budget numbers run between $13,000 and $15,000 for an initial PPL.
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Crap load of stuff to know, re reading through it all, check out my local airports web site and looking at the thread Wolf posted, thanks for the help guys its greatly appreciated on my end
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Wolf was VERY nice came up and let me fly his plane and got me hooked. He also told me to save the money and do it all at once, as you save money not forgetting what you learned the last lesson, I was going to take out a personal loan to do it but am in the middle of trying to switch jobs. Maybe a loan would work for you as well?? I paid for an intro flight which was 50 just to get a little more stick time. BTW Wolf thanks for everything :salute :salute
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No problem Homer how is the kid
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Crap load of stuff to know
This will become common as you progress.
Oh a good idea would be to run by an FBO (fixed base operator at the airport) and pick up a sectional chart. Just look at it, learn to read it, and become comfortable with your area. :aok
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Ram tard
:rofl
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I think I paid about 7,000 total for my PPL.
F22Raptor - you are young and will catch on quick. You'll save a lot of money in that department.
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Wolf was VERY nice came up and let me fly his plane and got me hooked. He also told me to save the money and do it all at once, as you save money not forgetting what you learned the last lesson, I was going to take out a personal loan to do it but am in the middle of trying to switch jobs. Maybe a loan would work for you as well?? I paid for an intro flight which was 50 just to get a little more stick time. BTW Wolf thanks for everything :salute :salute
I'm in the middle of learning how to do my job, its very difficult learning everything, and they say it just gets a heck of a lot harder
This will become common as you progress.
Oh a good idea would be to run by an FBO (fixed base operator at the airport) and pick up a sectional chart. Just look at it, learn to read it, and become comfortable with your area. :aok
I'm re reading FBO and still wondering what in the world that is...
I think I paid about 7,000 total for my PPL.
F22Raptor - you are young and will catch on quick. You'll save a lot of money in that department.
Once I ca get over myself being to shy to really come out and go talk to people I might have a chance, I have a very bad case of social anxiety
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I think I remember reading about the worst bird to hit & it surprised me because I figured it would be some dang big Goose or other, but they say starlings, I think, fly extremely high for such a small bird & when hit by a supersonic fighter, really look like a feathered mortar shell than a bird strike.
Of course Deer-strike might be worse...
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Deer_bash.jpg) :airplane:
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I think I remember reading about the worst bird to hit & it surprised me because I figured it would be some dang big Goose or other, but they say starlings, I think, fly extremely high for such a small bird & when hit by a supersonic fighter, really look like a feathered mortar shell than a bird strike.
Of course Deer-strike might be worse...
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Deer_bash.jpg) :airplane:
Pretty bad hit on that F-4
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FBO=Fixed Base Operator. Usually where you can find flight schools and gas, often stores for pilot supplies.
The ones I worked you could also find a flight line full of jets whose flaps cost more than your cessna :D
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FBO=Fixed Base Operator. Usually where you can find flight schools and gas, often stores for pilot supplies.
The ones I worked you could also find a flight line full of jets whose flaps cost more than your cessna :D
What he said. Its just a company at the airport that sells pilot stuff fuel and rents planes. My local one is called Emerald Coast Aviation.
Social Anxiety I hate to say but is something you need to get past. Networking is still the number one way to get a job. I was out at a grass strip a couple of weeks ago and saw I guy tinkering with his plane in the hanger, so I walked up said Hi, introduced myself and just asked him to tell me about his plane and where hes from. You could get a few free rides out of it as well. If there is an EAA chapter near you join up. Just start talking to people feel your way around and relax. That is the biggest thing you can learn in aviation (for me it was at least) dont stress out. Think things through and make a logical and assertive decision when needed.
There is an old joke about a military aviator losing both engines after takeoff guess what the first thing he does is? Check his watch. Next is fly the airplane.
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What he said. Its just a company at the airport that sells pilot stuff fuel and rents planes. My local one is called Emerald Coast Aviation.
Social Anxiety I hate to say but is something you need to get past. Networking is still the number one way to get a job. I was out at a grass strip a couple of weeks ago and saw I guy tinkering with his plane in the hanger, so I walked up said Hi, introduced myself and just asked him to tell me about his plane and where hes from. You could get a few free rides out of it as well. If there is an EAA chapter near you join up. Just start talking to people feel your way around and relax. That is the biggest thing you can learn in aviation (for me it was at least) dont stress out. Think things through and make a logical and assertive decision when needed.
There is an old joke about a military aviator losing both engines after takeoff guess what the first thing he does is? Check his watch. Next is fly the airplane.
It's funny, but yes we actually teach student pilots that one way to avoid inappropriate initial reactions is to reach up and hack the clock (start a timer running). It can have actual value later on (with some failures you have a limited amount of time on battery power, gyros spin about 10 minutes without power, fuel remaining can be roughly estimated based on time if fuel quantity is not available, etc) and it lets the pilot reset his brain away from *holy crap what just happened* towards *ok let's figure this out and take logical steps to deal with it*. Right after I hack the clock.
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Bah, that Phantom ain't even breathing hard :D The Army had a tough time with deer at Morristown, every time they managed to catch
a prop in their U-21s. Well I guess that meant you and I had a tough time as taxpayers paid for it.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Beechcraft_U-21_Ute_US_Army.jpg)
A good pucker factor deer strike happened to a Labcorp Navaho on takeoff about 0100 in the morning. Caught two small ones right at the nacelles, left side messed up the deer badly but didn't do any serious damage. The right one went through the prop then snapped the scissors
link on the right main gear. The wheel rotated about 70 degrees to the left. He left a skid mark for about 1800 feet on the runway. It was a
brand new tire that astonishingly didn't blow.
I spent most of the night trying to call folks to help me move the disabled aircraft and warn other pilots about the runway blockage as the
tower closed at 22:30 and wouldn't open until 0700 :eek:
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Regarding anxiety while flying... I knew someone who had low level anxiety for much of his life. He went through his civilian flying training just fine including initial solo and area solos, up until his first long cross country. He got halfway to his destination and had a panic attack. He doesn't remember much of the rest of the flight until the plane was parked in front of his home field FBO. He was pretty lucky to make it home and he never sat in a light aircraft ever again. Too bad, because he was smart enough to breeze past the studying and a fairly natural pilot so the flying part was not a problem. But his body betrayed him and nearly killed him.
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What he said. Its just a company at the airport that sells pilot stuff fuel and rents planes. My local one is called Emerald Coast Aviation.
Social Anxiety I hate to say but is something you need to get past. Networking is still the number one way to get a job. I was out at a grass strip a couple of weeks ago and saw I guy tinkering with his plane in the hanger, so I walked up said Hi, introduced myself and just asked him to tell me about his plane and where hes from. You could get a few free rides out of it as well. If there is an EAA chapter near you join up. Just start talking to people feel your way around and relax. That is the biggest thing you can learn in aviation (for me it was at least) dont stress out. Think things through and make a logical and assertive decision when needed.
There is an old joke about a military aviator losing both engines after takeoff guess what the first thing he does is? Check his watch. Next is fly the airplane.
Very good advice here. Very often it's who not what you know :aok
The joke reminds me of a story some old corporate guys that flew for BASF used to tell. All these guys had been flying corporate since God
was a teenager and were very low key. One of them went on vacation, so they were checking out a temp to fill in while he was gone. The temp
was extraordinarily concerned about the single engine performance in the King Air 200 they were flying. They were flying on one fan and
eventually Randy got tired of his harping. So he pulled back the other power lever and said "You don't need to worry about single engine
performance...it's zero engine performance you need to worry about!"
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Back onto birdstrikes, my only event was a swallow or swift that hit the windscreen during take off. It missed the prop so no mess fortunately. There were several big herons based near the airfield but they were very good aviators and only had one close encounter and it saw me coming and banked away hard.
But my most dangerous encounter was with a 'murder' of crows which rose as one from the field beyond the runway just as I got airborne and was still low and slow with a full load of skydivers. I had to turn at less than fifty feet. The skydivers started complaining until they saw what we just missed. :uhoh
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Anyone ever have strange encounters with birds of prey?
I have had an eagle turn to look at, then start following my plane. It was almost like he was chasing me. He was a ways off, so I wasn't worried about a strike, but it was interesting to watch.
A friend of mine said he experienced the same thing.
edit:
oh and F22 - also search the web for aviation scholarships. I know a few folks who have gotten anywhere from $500 - $3,000 towards training.
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The last 2 days I have been flying out of a grass strip on the white river in Arkansas. There are swans who like to get on the approach end of the runway (one way in and one way out due to a hill with highline wires)
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Just remember that most every bird dives when he's in any sort of trouble so don't nose down to avoid them.
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Bah, that Phantom ain't even breathing hard :D The Army had a tough time with deer at Morristown, every time they managed to catch
a prop in their U-21s. Well I guess that meant you and I had a tough time as taxpayers paid for it.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Beechcraft_U-21_Ute_US_Army.jpg)
A good pucker factor deer strike happened to a Labcorp Navaho on takeoff about 0100 in the morning. Caught two small ones right at the nacelles, left side messed up the deer badly but didn't do any serious damage. The right one went through the prop then snapped the scissors
link on the right main gear. The wheel rotated about 70 degrees to the left. He left a skid mark for about 1800 feet on the runway. It was a
brand new tire that astonishingly didn't blow.
I spent most of the night trying to call folks to help me move the disabled aircraft and warn other pilots about the runway blockage as the
tower closed at 22:30 and wouldn't open until 0700 :eek:
King Air C90? Hoping to get some right seat time in one of those. The FBO I work part-time for is looking at buying one (they had one years ago but sold it)
That one doesn't appear to be pressurized
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Got any anxiety reducing tips from F-15 land Eagl? I do fine solo and dual, but toss a check pilot in the plane and performance decreases by like 25%. Fake myself out :( .
And regarding deer strikes, we had one here that knocked the left gear off a piper cadet. Instructor saw the deer sprinting across the runway at the last second and was able to rotate the plane prematurely just enough to clear the deer with the prop, it did strike and knock off the left gear. After clearing the deer he smartly stayed in ground effect until an appropriate speed. Was able to go up and fly patterns to burn off fuel and make a good landing considering.
Video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ-jewwasyw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ-jewwasyw)
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Anyone ever have strange encounters with birds of prey?
I have had an eagle turn to look at, then start following my plane. It was almost like he was chasing me. He was a ways off, so I wasn't worried about a strike, but it was interesting to watch.
A friend of mine said he experienced the same thing.
I was out soaring one day in a nice little thermal (60* of bank doing 45kts) I look out to the right along the horizon and low and behold 20 or 30 feet away was a peregrine falcon working the lift just as I was. It was a very surreal moment..
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I was out soaring one day in a nice little thermal (60* of bank doing 45kts) I look out to the right along the horizon and low and behold 20 or 30 feet away was a peregrine falcon working the lift just as I was. It was a very surreal moment..
They're fun to watch. I wonder what their ceiling is. I've seen birds of prey at 3,000' before.
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They're fun to watch. I wonder what their ceiling is. I've seen birds of prey at 3,000' before.
I was closer to 4,500' at the time. I imagine its quite high.
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Got any anxiety reducing tips from F-15 land Eagl? I do fine solo and dual, but toss a check pilot in the plane and performance decreases by like 25%. Fake myself out :( .
Mission preparation is the first key. Walk yourself through the flight and keep yourself on pace with what is happening, based on what you *expect* to happen after doing your flight preparation. When something goes wrong or you have to deviate from the plan, either work to get back onto the plan or figure out what part of the plan you cut out and get back on track but maybe at a later portion of the plan.
For example, lets say you plan a training flight to a practice area for stalls, some VOR navigation with inflight cross-tuning practice, and a groundspeed calcuation exercise. Then you plan on flying into the class B to get some practice talking to the controllers on the way to a small airport under the class B for a touch and go or two, then return home for your full stop landing. But on the way to the class B, the controller says he is saturated so if you want to enter you need to contact FSS to air-file IFR, otherwise he can't take you. What do you do? You either orbit outside the class B while you go blah blah with FSS for 20 minutes trying to explain what you want to do, or you cut out that portion of your mission and do a few touch and go landings at your home field instead. The ability to make that decision on the fly (or pretty much any decision inflight) depends on the quality of your mission preparation. And realize you will almost never have a flight go exactly as planned, but if you have in mind what your priorities are and go through a couple of what-if scenarios before you take off, then you will be a lot more confident in dealing with events as they occur inflight.
Another thing that helps is to wiggle your toes. Seriously. Focused figeting :) Any time you need to be smooth or precise on the controls, wiggle your toes. It is like magic for a lot of pilots.
Finally, cockpit setup can really help out. Having all the info you need easily available inflight can really reduce your workload. I had a cheapo clipboard velcroed to my leg using a velcro and elastic strap my Mom sewed up for me, with some elastic loops to hold 2 pencils (because one always runs out of lead right when approach is giving you your clearance). Taped to the clipboard was performance data for the plane (approach speeds with and without flaps, best climb speeds, etc) and the frequencies and identifiers of all the navaids, control towers, and approach frequencies I used in the local area (San Diego so it was a pretty long list). Then before takeoff I unfolded and re-folded the terminal or sectional chart to have instantly available my route of flight because there were multiple VFR corridors with altitude block changes and every flight I had to weave my way through them. So rather than try to do it by memory and then give up and have to unfold the map inflight, I just prepped the map to show what I wanted it to show. Some people went a step farther and just cut out the parts they cared about, and laminated them into an easily foldable oversized sheet. They had to update that with every chart revision, but the arts and crafts project took maybe 10 minutes every 90 days and cost the price of a couple square feet of clear contact paper...
Figure out what you use the most, and have it available. Then think about stuff you might need in a hurry (frequencies were a big deal for me) and make a cheat sheet. Keep that UP TO DATE with a note on the bottom "current as of" date otherwise some instructors or evaluators will ding you for flying with out of date information. Another thing some people do is removing the airport guide or approach plate for the fields they plan on landing on or flying approaches to, and putting them into small page protectors and putting them on your kneeboard. After the flight, put them back into the binder to ensure they remain up to date otherwise you'll lose them or end up flying with out of date pubs.
But as you can see, except for wiggling your toes it all comes back to mission preparation. Don't try to what-if every little thing and don't make your quick reference sheets overly complicated, but you can really reduce your workload and ability to deal with unexpected events if you have a solid preflight plan, know what your priorities are, and have an idea of how to get things done or adjust the flight if things don't go to plan. That can really boost your confidence and make you look a lot smarter when someone is evaluating you.
A story - on my PPL checkride, we were departing the congested airspace on the way to a practice area for maneuvers and stalls when the evaluator asked me to calculate ground speed by timing over known points on the ground. Well, darned if I couldn't remember at what point I was supposed to divide by 60 (or multiply?) to convert from seconds to MPH, so I spent 10 minutes digging through my flight bag for my inflight computer, pushing buttons for a while, and basically making a fool of myself. At some point the evaluator had enough watching me flail around and told me not to worry about it. After the flight when we discussed that little fiasco, he said he didn't really care whether I could calculate my groundspeed. He just wanted to see if I could do more than one thing at once, fly the plane plus do a little basic math and inflight planning. It turns out that I prioritized flying the plane high enough in my brain that I remained exactly on altitude and heading, and that sucked enough brainpower that I couldn't remember the simplest of inflight calculations. But he was satisfied that no matter how flustered I got (because I was pretty spun up about it while it was happening), I would continue to fly the plane FIRST and that's all he wanted to see.
So of course, just fly the plane first. Even if you get violated for flying in the wrong place, at least you won't be dead. After you focus on flying the plane, THEN you can use whatever remaining brain cells you have to navigate and communicate. But aviate navigate communicate is the correct order for your priorities, no matter what the situation is.
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Oh yea I almost forgot...
AND YOU DAMN KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN! :old:
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Awesome sir, I'll give the toe wiggling a try tomorrow and make sure I know my plan of action forwards and backwards by Wednesday. I agree the preparation adds confidence, I'm getting better as I go. Thanks. :salute
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They're fun to watch. I wonder what their ceiling is. I've seen birds of prey at 3,000' before.
They get quite a ways up there at times. If I remember correctly the highest recorded is 28 or 29,000 ft by some migrating waterfowl (swans maybe?).
Most birds don't spend much time at heights above 500 feet or so, since there's really no reason, and it just burns a lot of energy.
Soaring birds do get up pretty high though (8-10,000ft). There's some benefit here though, since with their incredible vision they can scan much greater distances than people can, and in radically more detail. There may be some truth to the idea that soaring birds are visually "marking territory" as well. The don't place urine markers like canines, but rather mark territory by being seen above it...
The "common" time to find birds at great heights is during migration. Heights in the 10-20,000ft range aren't all that abnormal then.
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You would thinks birds would be smart enough to know over time air ports aren't ideal for them, oh well
Really, it's more beneficial to individual birds to NOT waste energy learning about things like aircraft and airports.
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They get quite a ways up there at times. If I remember correctly the highest recorded is 28 or 29,000 ft by some migrating waterfowl (swans maybe?).
Most birds don't spend much time at heights above 500 feet or so, since there's really no reason, and it just burns a lot of energy.
Soaring birds do get up pretty high though (8-10,000ft). There's some benefit here though, since with their incredible vision they can scan much greater distances than people can, and in radically more detail. There may be some truth to the idea that soaring birds are visually "marking territory" as well. The don't place urine markers like canines, but rather mark territory by being seen above it...
The "common" time to find birds at great heights is during migration. Heights in the 10-20,000ft range aren't all that abnormal then.
Great info mtn, thanks :salute