three forks
Private pilot's license
- Thread starter westbranch
- Start date
westbranch
Well-known member
I get that. I have several clients that are career pilots. Career military, then went to big commercial airlines or freight for the high income and padding retirement savings. They have zero interest in flying on their own time.
Being your own pilot seems pretty glamorous, all that freedom, cool shades & sunny skies..... but it comes with a lot of responsibility, tough work & baggage.
I work in the Aviation industry & thankfully i know my limits, I can build them, would not want to fly them.
Its like my dad says...... "Its not the fall that kills you..... its the sudden stop" LT.COL. USAF. Retired, Fixed Wing & Rotors, SAC/MAC, he is full of stories involving high pucker factor, & knows several top pilots that did not live to tell the tale.
I work in the Aviation industry & thankfully i know my limits, I can build them, would not want to fly them.
Its like my dad says...... "Its not the fall that kills you..... its the sudden stop" LT.COL. USAF. Retired, Fixed Wing & Rotors, SAC/MAC, he is full of stories involving high pucker factor, & knows several top pilots that did not live to tell the tale.
Labman
Well-known member
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- Jun 21, 2015
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- 594
USMC.
Ah, ok. Now makes sense. Military pilots typically have pretty low hours.
Discovery flights are a great idea. While you're on them, pay close attention to the mannerisms and instructional style of your CFI. It's something like 80% of CFIs who are current have had their rating for less than a year. Not saying there can't be good fresh CFIs, but I personally wouldn't trust a kid who only knows how to regurgitate what their instructors beat into them at ATP to get me my ratings.
Once you get your private, definitely invest in a good tailwheel course of at least 5-10 hours with a reputable tailwheel instructor. Backcountry flying is awesome, but takes a lifetime to master and can be very unforgiving if taken too quickly.
That seems like really great advice.
My dad got his first flying lesson at age 14 in 1943 in an open cockpit tail-dragger - a Pietenpol Aircamper. Bernard Pietenpol is my dad's (and my) 1st Cousin and designed the plane. He gave my dad his first aviation heroin injection lol. He soloed in HS, did college, then went to the USAF (during the Korean War) where he did basic. His instructor begged him to go on to fighter training, but he had no interest in dying in Korea so passed. He moved back to Wyoming where he worked in Yellowstone, and taught flying out of Cody. Next he got hired by Lynch's Flying Service out of Billings. A Lynch's pilot had killed himself on a mountain, and the owner, having heard of my dad, drove down to Cody and offered him a job. He accepted. Dad said he learned as much from the older mountain pilots as he did from Uncle Sam. Mountain flying is very different than flatland flying. Among a hundred different types of flights, he used to do elk counts with FWP (flush the elk out of the timber at treetop height and count), and fly elk hunters into The Bob, etc. (He once flew Warren Page to elk camp once in WY). Ultimately in 1956 TWA hired him, where he flew with them until 1989 when he retired left seat 747.
Said all that to say, if at all possible, he's a massive believer in getting away from tricycle gear with a yoke as a young airman. He believes the more time you can get in a taildragger with stick and throttle the better. He definitely encourages any airman fly acrobatics if at all possible. He's also a big believer in getting IR, or at least enough training to be safe in an emergency. He told me he had a student who was a "natural" in the cockpit - a ranch kid from Eastern Montana. The young man soloed easily, and continued to fly quite a bit, but wouldn't get his IR despite my dad's encouragement. One day dad took him up with the intention of giving him a "learning experience." He flew him into a big cumulus, gave the controls to the kid, and told him to fly. They came out of the cloud upside down, headed towards the ground. Point made, but not obeyed. The kid later killed himself in bad weather.
My dad turns 97 yo next month. When he retired mandatory at age 60 with 24,000 hrs he never flew again at the controls. Said, "been there, and did everything I wanted - planes will kill you lol."
Though I never had my dad's aviation bug, I have a lot of his aviation "library" - one pretty cool book is the history of the famous Johnson Flying Service out of Missoula. It's inscribed to him by the author, and dated 02.16.1955 - just a year before he went to TWA. A great read if you can locate a copy. The early days of backcountry flying were quite a thing!
