Hi All

[sixtiesrelic]

I'm a third generation pilot... my grandfather couldn't stand having two sons discussing a technical subject he knew nothing about, so took himself off to learn to fly up to his second solo when he reckoned he knew all about flying, but continued studying the latest aviation technology of the 1930s and 1940s. Seven of his descendants have learned to fly.

 

I started learning to fly in 1960 although the handle I use commenced in Boardriding forums seeing as I started that caper in the early sixties too.

 

Still ride but hurt afterwards.

 

Don't fly aeroplanes any more as I've seen the best of it and now it costs too much and I can't be bothered with the bulldust changes.

 

Flown the range of fixed wing from the Skycraft Scout (A pair of sails, a mast with a Victa lawnmower engine, pub chair, golf buggy wheels and lots of stainless cable holding it all together) to 737s.

 

Flew DC-3s in PNG for four years... fun. Currently messing around with another that's going to fly to, and be based in Perth soon.

 

Ansett for twenty years.

 

Trained Indonesians on 737 for a year... more fun. Very primitive, compared with Oz (not much on the ground worked. You could depend on only two VORs that the U.N. calibrated), so we were back to witchcraft rather than having the "green machine" telling us where we were.

 

Happy to hang around aerodromes and talk to other enthusiasts.

 

 

[Guest Cat on a PC©]

Welcome sixtiesrelic. I bet you have some interesting DC-3 stories to tell from your time in PNG. Hopefully we'll be able to to hear about them through this forum.

 

 

[Guest Glenn]

Welcome aboard sixtiesrelic. 8)

 

Yes please do tell some DC-3 stories.

 

Flew DC-3s in PNG for four years... fun. Currently messing around with another that's going to fly to, and be based in Perth soon.

Is that the ex Pionair one?

 

 

[sixtiesrelic]

I don't think of my experiences in PNG as "There we were..." I was flying airliners, so most flying was reasonably mundane.

 

Of course by to-days standards I guess it was much more exciting.

 

My cousins are starting out with a DC-3 at the moment and ask questions on the operation of the big round engines and twenty six thousand pounds of tail wheeler and I have to rack my brains because I was at the end of the DC-3 era and things weren't emphasized as critical in their operation, you just did them without realizing their importance because that was how you were taught... eg not letting the prop turn the engine at low power and and put a negative stress on the engine.

 

I have maintained for years that you "fly" a prop aeroplane and "operate" a jet ... in fact to-day pilots operate an auto pilot.

 

You don't feel your way with a jet, just point the nose up or down to a defined attitude and set the power to a prescribed setting and the thing flies at the required speed.

 

Don't be in a hurry to "fly the big jets"; bug smashers are the real fun... proof of that is, the number of jet jockeys including myself who have owned a lightie. ALSO don't get caught up in the ceremonialism of flying right in the middle of the SAFETY envelope like you were taught.

 

I've seen plenty of that and the guys think they're wonderful pilots where as they've not gone close to the edge and felt what it is like before you get bitten. They aren't real pilots in my view.

 

I'm not saying break the rules!

 

I used to get my mates to stall with half flap, power on and in a turn... (Lookin' over your shoulder in a tight spot on base) inexperienced blokes didn't like it and didn't want to do it.

 

After we'd done it enough times they were comfortable and didn't see it as scary any more and had more faith in the aeroplane and themselves.

 

If you're frightened of some aspect of flying, tackle it and overcome it because ONE DAY you might inadvertently get yourself into that situation and having always avoided it you'll go to pieces and DIE!

 

Once you face and overcome a boogieman you wonder how you could have wound yourself up a pretty straight forward maneuver.