What do you do when you can't fly?

[Bluedog]

Hi all,

 

Just curious as to how everyone handles not being able to fly for an extended period........

 

Do you lose interest or stay involved?

 

I am a student with 6.1 hours in a Jabiru, and I work a 28/9 FIFO roster so due to commitments last break and getting married in the USA during my next break in 3 weeks, by the time I have my next lessons it will be almost 3 months between lessons. I pass my time in camp by reading forums such as this one, and reading books and magazines (and a fair bit of daydreaming!).

 

I think for myself, even if I could never fly again I would still be obsessed with aircraft, and people have often commented over the years that I am abnormally interested in aircraft, and even though I still fly regularly to and from work I still get the same buzz watching aircraft take off and land at the airport as I always have, and still enjoy my commercial flights as well as my lessons.

 

I can't wait to get back up there again!

 

Anyway, this is how I came to wonder what you do when you can't fly

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Keep reading about it, thinking about it and dreaming about it. I had some years when I couldn't fly and under the rules then my license lapsed. I used to dream about flight planning and then flying on a long cross- country. Trouble was, I used to wake up in a fright thinking I had been flying while unlicensed. Now I fly every week if I can.

 

 

[Bubbleboy]

I build my Pietenpol Air Camper!

 

Scotty

 

 

[Ballpoint 246niner]

And your getting married! - get used to longer breaks in flying then.....

 

 

[Bubbleboy]

And your getting married! - get used to longer breaks in flying then.....

Then there will be kids and no more flying for many years!

 

 

[Bluedog]

And your getting married! - get used to longer breaks in flying then.....

Haha, I'd say I'd be fairly quickly divorced if she tried that on!

 

 

[Ballpoint 246niner]

No mate, sounds like you've got heaps of passion, don't lose it and balance the rest good luck with the upcoming wedding.

 

 

[Bluedog]

My 5 year old twin boys actually think Daddy flies himself to work now!

 

Now that's what I call dreaming!

 

 

[Bluedog]

Much appreciated Ballpoint, it took me many years to be in the position I'm in now to be undertaking lessons, and I am very grateful for the opportunities I now have.........

 

 

[nomadpete]

You might have some moments when you think that flying is all fading out of your life, BUT once you've been bitten by the bug - sooner or later you'll find yourself back around aircraft. From time to time I have been away from flying and yes, I lost some skills during each absence. Then I enjoyed the challenge of brushing off the cobwebs and renewing the joy. However, enjoy and foster your relationship first and foremost. Your flying is not damaged by having an on-and-off relationship, but your personal relationship needs constant care. Congratulations on your coming wedding.

 

 

[Sapphire]

You have expensive hobbies-flying and women. May have have to give one away if finances go short.

 

 

[paulh]

Well I read this forum and magazines etc, go look at the sky when I hear an aircraft ( lucky for me I live near a flight path plus see the tiger moths taking joy flights on the weekends)

 

Do some chair practice as my instructor recommended when I haven't flown for while ie do circuits or forced landings in an office chair visualising the scene etc , don't laugh it works for Matt Hall so it must help. ( I don't recommend chair practice whilst driving the car as the rudder pedals don't seem to have the correct effect)

 

Day dream when the never ending to do list allows and then when you get back in the cockpit, savour every moment, cause it really is a privilege to fly just for fun pretty much where ever we want. (Excluding of course controlled airspace)

 

 

[Bluedog]

Thanks nomadpete, I am lucky that I have an exceptional relationship, one that allows me to go to work for a month and never have the problems that so many guys have with their relationships out here....... They say pipeliners have a relationship failure rate of 90%

 

My first and foremost priorities when I come home are my children and my (soon to be) wife, to make my children better people than I am as person and to see them happy is the only thing that guides me as a father.

 

Thanks for the tip paulh, I have a photo of the Jabiru's instrument panel as my desktop background and usually sit there once a week imagining the stuff I've been taught and trying to familiarise myself with it. It's nowhere near as useful as the actual flying but I am driven to learn as much as I can however I can, and try to be the best pilot I can personally be.......

 

 

[farri]

G`Day Bluedog, If you`re not already doing so, take advantage of any spare time you have,by studying Basic Aeronauticle Knowledge ( BAK ).

 

Frank.

 

 

[Bluedog]

Cheers Frank, I've got my training manual up here in camp with me, but haven't touched it for a while, so I really should reread over what I've studied.

 

 

[flyvulcan]

Hi Bluey,

 

As well as reading this forum, there is also another forum www.homebuiltairplanes.com where design and construction of experimental aircraft are discussed.

 

If you can subscribe to aviation mags such as Kitplanes and the EAAs Sport Aviation, it will help maintain the enthusiasm reading those.

 

Also, look at getting a Flight Simulator program such as X-plane, see www.x-plane.com. I spent many hours designing and flying aircraft using that program.

 

These are all portable options that you can take on the road with you.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

 

 

[facthunter]

So much good advice. I still drop everything and run outside if I hear a different engine sound in the air. To be able to engage in powered flight is only available for a little over 100 years. Not a bad idea to look at different designs or books that relate to aviation. My first book of significance was Fate Is The Hunter (Earnest K Gann).Nev

 

 

[Bluedog]

Thanks Dave, I'll look into those.

 

Nev, I've heard that book mentioned favourably many times on forums, so once I finish with Stick and Rudder I'll probably get that one.

 

 

[Guest Howard Hughes]

If you need something to put you to sleep at night, I can recommend 'Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators' !!

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Dream about the " good old days".

 

 

[ayavner]

Flight Sim X is a good way to at least keep having the right thoughts at the right time while you go thru a practice flight, its amazing how it helps if you really treat it like a lesson, ie make the radio calls out loud, think about the wind and the BUMFISH checks, etc... gotten me through a couple long spells between lessons.

 

Good luck on the wedding AND the marriage!

 

 

[nomadpete]

There are only two times when you won't understand your woman - before the wedding, and after the wedding........

 

 

[Sapphire]

My first flight was at about ten years in a carboard box with a model airplane propeller glued to the front. Should have kept it for non flyable days and good for cheap flying.

 

 

[mAgNeToDrOp]

Work on my scratch build model spitfire, starting the wings (72") .

 

 

[kaz3g]

So much good advice. I still drop everything and run outside if I hear a different engine sound in the air. To be able to engage in powered flight is only available for a little over 100 years. Not a bad idea to look at different designs or books that relate to aviation. My first book of significance was Fate Is The Hunter (Earnest K Gann).Nev

I read a lot...always have. I especially like WWI and WWII aviation history and good fiction about the same era. I have about 50 Biggles Books and read and retread them, too :-)

 

Have just re-read Ivan Southall's biographical account of Bluey Truscott's life and service. It is a fascinating story of incredible courage. Bluey's war service began with an Australian squadron in UK flying Spitfires and ended when he was killed in a Kittyhawk just after the Battle of Milne Bay. This was the turning point in the war against Japan and it all happened at a tiny airfield called Gurney Field bulldozed out of the swamps at the very south east end of NG .

 

Gurney Field was named after Squadron Leader Bob Gurney, another hero of the war in the Pacific. From here Bluey and his amazing bunch of Aussie pilots supported a vastly outnumbered Australian Regiment to hang on against a naval, air and land assault by Japanese forces determined to take it and bypass the Kokoda Trail to Moresby. The invaders gave up and left tens of thousands of their dead behind! An incredible story that had me flying a Kittyhawk with him in my dreams (like Bluey, I'd have preferred a Spitfire but the P40 sure was tough...he fired so many rounds out of his .50 cals they became almost smooth-bored .60s instead).

 

Kaz

 

(Karen Gurney)