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Aviation Photo and BS thread

FlyingScot

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Realized I forgot to post the pictures of the little bit of Cubbin' I did back in January. Froze my nuts off, but stick and rudder from the back seat is quality time. Had the small runway at Hooks all to ourselves for an hour, a rarity on any day.
Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread IMG_3041.JPG

Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread IMG_3036 2.JPG

Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread IMG_3027.JPG
Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread IMG_3032.JPG

Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread IMG_3040.JPG
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kodiakisland

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Realized I forgot to post the pictures of the little bit of Cubbin' I did back in January. Froze my nuts off, but stick and rudder from the back seat is quality time. Had the small runway at Hooks all to ourselves for an hour, a rarity on any day.
Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread IMG_3040.JPG

Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread IMG_3040.JPG

Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread IMG_3040.JPG
Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread IMG_3040.JPG

Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread IMG_3040.JPG

Cool. I've got a few hours in our clubs J3, but it currently has a crack in the metal near the wing root, so it may get sold as parts. I doubt they put money into fixing it when we already have two PA-18s.

I'll take the other super cub out tomorrow morning and hit a couple other grass strips. It's pretty easy to land at 3 or 4 different grass/gravel strips each outing with about 10 or so within 20 miles of home. A lot more if you extend it to 50 miles or so.

Arkansas passed a law several years ago exempting private land owners from any liability for owning and maintaining grass strips. It has greatly expanded the number of private strips created and shared among anyone flying in the area.
 
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kodiakisland

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I always catch this guy on the tarmac and never in the air or on the water. My son in law lives near one of the local lakes and sees it on the lake almost every time they are in town.

I've been in a Widgeon and a Goose and am looking for rides in a Mallard and an Albatross.


Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread 3D01DEFB-B43F-42D8-A046-C22EBBEADC84
 
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kodiakisland

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Was a yellow cub kind of morning.


Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread 5D60E253-B777-4AAA-A7F2-7A2BCADFD954


Was nice to get out this morning. Finally good weather for open door flying.

Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread 72A4B824-CA2F-463A-AA42-2647E121E47A
 
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FlyingScot

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Was a yellow cub kind of morning.


5D60E253-B777-4AAA-A7F2-7A2BCADFD954.jpeg


Was nice to get out this morning. Finally good weather for open door flying.

72A4B824-CA2F-463A-AA42-2647E121E47A.jpeg
Glad to see you gettin after it. Family and a job change made me hit a hard stop to flying like I never thought I'd have, I'm now solidly out of currency. Trying to power through to a multi checkride opportunity on the 18th, but we shall see.

Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread 09632B46-6779-4597-B0D4-D19B080E78DB
 
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kodiakisland

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Glad to see you gettin after it. Family and a job change made me hit a hard stop to flying like I never thought I'd have, I'm now solidly out of currency. Trying to power through to a multi checkride opportunity on the 18th, but we shall see.

Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread 09632B46-6779-4597-B0D4-D19B080E78DB

Hope things get better for you. I'm somewhat at a crossroads myself. My wife is planning to retire at the end of the year, and income is going to take a hit. I'm currently looking at what I can do to keep my proficiency and lower my cost. One option is to stop flying 182s and only fly super cubs.

I find cross country flying boring, so cutting out the 182s would be OK, but it also means anything more than about 150 miles away is probably not a great option.

Right now I'm trying to get in 5 landings a month in the super cub and one flight every 6-8 weeks in the 182.

This morning's flight was a 0.8hr flight with 6 landings at two grass strips and a flyover at a 3rd. A little navigation and a little landing practice, 2 wheel and 3 point. We shall see. I still want to fly safely and will stop if and when it becomes an issue.
 

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Hope things get better for you. I'm somewhat at a crossroads myself. My wife is planning to retire at the end of the year, and income is going to take a hit. I'm currently looking at what I can do to keep my proficiency and lower my cost. One option is to stop flying 182s and only fly super cubs.

I find cross country flying boring, so cutting out the 182s would be OK, but it also means anything more than about 150 miles away is probably not a great option.

Right now I'm trying to get in 5 landings a month in the super cub and one flight every 6-8 weeks in the 182.

This morning's flight was a 0.8hr flight with 6 landings at two grass strips and a flyover at a 3rd. A little navigation and a little landing practice, 2 wheel and 3 point. We shall see. I still want to fly safely and will stop if and when it becomes an issue.
That's great that you can get that much done in less than an hour on the Hobbs! Unfortunately flying out of a towered airport with 3 large flight schools you can burn .2 or .3 just to get into the air, and no more than one TO/landing per 0.1 thereafter.

It was getting expensive even before the gas price hikes, and the insurance and hangar rate hikes have been twisting the knife a little more as well. One of the flying clubs has moved almost half its fleet to KLVJ on the wrong side of Houston, and the other has gone to dual instruction only in its Citabria, with all of two CFIs on the insurance. Most of the flight schools have tightened down on rental periods exceeding 4 hours to where you have to seek approval from the owners, just to rent a PA28 that should come with a spin-the-wheel game of "what's inop on this thing today?".

The Venn diagram overlap of planes that are somewhat readily accessible, fun to fly, and don't cost $250+/hr to fly has gotten really, really small.
 
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kodiakisland

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That's great that you can get that much done in less than an hour on the Hobbs! Unfortunately flying out of a towered airport with 3 large flight schools you can burn .2 or .3 just to get into the air, and no more than one TO/landing per 0.1 thereafter.

It was getting expensive even before the gas price hikes, and the insurance and hangar rate hikes have been twisting the knife a little more as well. One of the flying clubs has moved almost half its fleet to KLVJ on the wrong side of Houston, and the other has gone to dual instruction only in its Citabria, with all of two CFIs on the insurance. Most of the flight schools have tightened down on rental periods exceeding 4 hours to where you have to seek approval from the owners, just to rent a PA28 that should come with a spin-the-wheel game of "what's inop on this thing today?".

The Venn diagram overlap of planes that are somewhat readily accessible, fun to fly, and don't cost $250+/hr to fly has gotten really, really small.

I am very fortunate. I'm in a great club/school and fly out of a great FBO (KVBT). I know how rare that is. Every plane we have is in great shape and immediately goes into maintenance for most issues and is fixed immediately. We've even had complete engine replacements in some of the planes with very little down time.

I'm also lucky to fly out of an uncontrolled airport under the C shelf and bordered by two Ds. It gives a lot of options within 5 minutes of flight time. I get in many currency flights of 0.5hrs that include 3-5 landings, and that includes time for the engine to come up to temp.

We have a very active backcountry program, and had AOPA here this week flying into our grass strips. Again. They did an article on the club last year and they're back. It's pretty cool to have so many strips available and a community that supports it.
 

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I am very fortunate. I'm in a great club/school and fly out of a great FBO (KVBT). I know how rare that is. Every plane we have is in great shape and immediately goes into maintenance for most issues and is fixed immediately. We've even had complete engine replacements in some of the planes with very little down time.

I'm also lucky to fly out of an uncontrolled airport under the C shelf and bordered by two Ds. It gives a lot of options within 5 minutes of flight time. I get in many currency flights of 0.5hrs that include 3-5 landings, and that includes time for the engine to come up to temp.

We have a very active backcountry program, and had AOPA here this week flying into our grass strips. Again. They did an article on the club last year and they're back. It's pretty cool to have so many strips available and a community that supports it.
Well, after grousing about the costs I went and did the complete opposite. As luck would have it, this morning I got both a text from my CFI that a checkride slot had freed up on the 18th and a text from my wife that all of our weekend plans had fallen through, so in an attempt to shake the rust off I went and turned a little over 0.5 AMU into exhaust this evening, and am headed out in the morning to do the same putting the finishing touches on.
Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread 427F7933-5D91-4CC3-B387-C23FEBF8F479
 
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kodiakisland

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Cool! I would love to have my ME but there is no reason to as I'd probably never fly one again. I am hoping to get some Beaver float time either this summer or fall. A couple hours for the log book.
 

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Enjoyed a great rotary wing career in the military. Learned on the TH-55, transitioning to the UH-1, and then finishing my stint with the UH-60A/L/M. Retired about 2 years ago and miss the daily job at the flight facility. Always something different going on. Couple of pics from my last flight.
Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread 16 jan 20 1320643 60M
Ford Bronco Aviation Photo and BS thread 16 Jan 20 left seat
 

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Cool! I would love to have my ME but there is no reason to as I'd probably never fly one again. I am hoping to get some Beaver float time either this summer or fall. A couple hours for the log book.
My rationale is flimsy, but I know I want to do something with aviation as a soft retirement once the kids are off the payroll, the house is paid off, and the wife is sick of me in 18 years or so. Being able to log PIC in a multi will be a good thing in the intermediate years.
 
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My rationale is flimsy, but I know I want to do something with aviation as a soft retirement once the kids are off the payroll, the house is paid off, and the wife is sick of me in 18 years or so. Being able to log PIC in a multi will be a good thing in the intermediate years.

Oh yeah, no doubt it will be beneficial for making money. Not as much reason to get one for GA anymore as turbines have become so reliable. Was always nice to have two engines at night and over water, but for those that can afford them, the turbines are a better option. I'd still like to have a ME just because, but I doubt I ever even see the inside of a King Air or twin otter. Our club has a PC-12 for charters that stays busy that I'm trying to weasel my way into right seat time. They did let me look inside it at least.
 

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Oh yeah, no doubt it will be beneficial for making money. Not as much reason to get one for GA anymore as turbines have become so reliable. Was always nice to have two engines at night and over water, but for those that can afford them, the turbines are a better option. I'd still like to have a ME just because, but I doubt I ever even see the inside of a King Air or twin otter. Our club has a PC-12 for charters that stays busy that I'm trying to weasel my way into right seat time. They did let me look inside it at least.
I’d love to log some PC12 or King Air time. Much as I love to grouse at insurance for cranking rates up, them requiring someone sitting in the right seat of a plane otherwise not type rated is a boon to anyone with a CPL multi ticket, assuming the PIC doesn’t mind sharing the workload.

My brother-in-law is friends with one of the demo pilots for the Textron team, and I had the good fortune to log some C208 time when they were in town

 
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