PROBABLY MORE THAN YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT MY REASON FOR BUILDING AND FLYING AIRPLANES:
I started building model airplanes as a young boy -- sometimes they even flew well! My eyesight was bad, requiring glasses to correct nearsightedness, so I didn't play many rough sports -- it was difficult to see with the glasses off, and equally difficult to keep them on and undamaged! Instead I read plenty of books on every imaginable topic,and as a result my small but inquisitive mind left me bored silly when the same subjects were later introduced in the classroom, sometimes in lesser detail! Children today have a better choice of subjects than we were offered. This was before World War II, and when Pearl Harbor was bombed most of us finally realized that we'd been fed a line of XXXX in Social Science class. Surprise! -- the Japanese really weren't quaint little people who walked mincingly while clad in colorful Kimonos and endlessly strolling under ever-present cherry blossoms, but rather had become a powerful industrial nation, eager to acquire new material resources through military expansionism. Of course, that begged the question: What else had we been misinformed about? It's true that winners of wars write the history books, but our textbooks were apparently written by totally clueless losers! Sometimes all you can do is laugh at the absurdity of a situation. Yeah, folks -- a sense of humor helps us get through life, despite rampant and growing incompetence in our society. We can't depend upon our leaders, either in local municipalities or Washington, to keep us either well-informed or content, so we must do our own thing if we wish to find personal satisfaction, right? YOU are completely responsible for your own state of happiness or discontent, regardless of external influences.
So, as I previously said, "Do whatcha wanna do!", and enjoy it: If you like airplanes, you can make a good airplane cheaper than you can buy many new cars. A Quad City Challenger II, like the tubing and fabric two-seater I finished in 2005 , costs about 19 or 20 thousand dollars to complete, including a radio and transponder, so that's less than a Honda Accord! If you're operating from a local field without a tower, away from Class B, C or D (a.k.a. "damned busy"!) airspace, the transponder and altitude encoder could be omitted, at a savings of about $1800. For those of you who don't know, the transponder is a high-frequency transmitter that generates a numbered blip on the tower controller's radar screen, showing your location and present altitude.
Today, FAA Sport Pilot licenses are much cheaper to get than a regular Private Pilot's License, requiring only about 20 hours of flying time plus ground schooling. I got my Private license 40 years ago, but it didn't cost too much in those days. O.K., so what can you fly with the newly available Sport Pilot license? -- A two-seat airplane that weighs less than 1320 pounds and can't cruise at the speed of light! However, you can probably still find true joy at a sedate 138 MPH, and at high altitudes like Denver you usually can add about 10% to that for actual ground speed because of our thinner air!! Full details concerning the Sport Pilot regs are available at www.eaa.org, and that organization will help you locate Experimental Aircraft Association members, who are always glad to help new builders get started on their projects. I have the best of everything because my building buddy, Dr. John Gill, pays for the recent projects and I do the majority of laying out, cutting and assembling of components, then the resulting planes are usually co-owned! I'm also fortunate for having machine shop experience in my younger days, but anyone can learn to do a great job of building, almost regardless of your previous skill levels. For instance, I'd never built a fabric-covered plane in my life before, but the Challenger came out very good. Consider that for the first time ever, in the year 2006 new homebuilt aircraft registrations outnumbered factory-built light planes, and usually far outperform them on identical or even lesser horsepower. If you build it yourself, you can apply for a Repairman's Certificate and do your own maintenance and annual condition inspections. All you'll pay for is hangar rent or tie-down space, gas, and insurance, none of which are excessively expensive -- no worse than playing golf frequently!
If you ever wanted to fly, simply take an introductory flight at your nearest airport and check it out. It isn't rocket science (or else I certainly couldn't do it) and landing the Challenger at 45 MPH isn't like slamming an F-18 down onto a carrier deck at 160 MPH -- in fact, you could almost get out of the Challenger and run alongside -- with the nose high in the air and full flaperons, it will actually stay airborne at an indicated 27 MPH, although that's more like a true 32 MPH. Of course, if I want to burn six gallons of expensive fuel per hour it will go over 90 MPH, but is usually cruised at 65 MPH on three gallons per hour --a marvelous fun and sightseeing machine, with those huge doors. The stability is awesome and the lil' plane's safety record is wonderful, with over 3000 flying now, many on floats or skis. About 800 of those are in Canada. More darned fun, and I can hardly wait to get my cataract fixed so that I can continue flying. The Sport Pilot regulations allow pilots to use their driver's licenses as a medical certificate, so even if you've had a heart operation or other major repair work , but are now in good enough health to drive a car, you can still imitate the birds. In fact, Glo once said I wuz for the birds...? She obviously doesn't like the small airplane thang. The attached picture shows the two-seat Sparrow Hawk gyro copter, which is kept in the other small hangar with the Challenger. That's mostly Dr. Gill's baby, although I did the Subaru 140 HP engine, installed the fuel injection and the instrument panel, transponder and radio.
Anyway --DO IT! life comes at you fast and fades quickly.
Regards to all from Ol' Frank, staggering around like Mister McGoo in the melting Colorado snowdrifts.
I started building model airplanes as a young boy -- sometimes they even flew well! My eyesight was bad, requiring glasses to correct nearsightedness, so I didn't play many rough sports -- it was difficult to see with the glasses off, and equally difficult to keep them on and undamaged! Instead I read plenty of books on every imaginable topic,and as a result my small but inquisitive mind left me bored silly when the same subjects were later introduced in the classroom, sometimes in lesser detail! Children today have a better choice of subjects than we were offered. This was before World War II, and when Pearl Harbor was bombed most of us finally realized that we'd been fed a line of XXXX in Social Science class. Surprise! -- the Japanese really weren't quaint little people who walked mincingly while clad in colorful Kimonos and endlessly strolling under ever-present cherry blossoms, but rather had become a powerful industrial nation, eager to acquire new material resources through military expansionism. Of course, that begged the question: What else had we been misinformed about? It's true that winners of wars write the history books, but our textbooks were apparently written by totally clueless losers! Sometimes all you can do is laugh at the absurdity of a situation. Yeah, folks -- a sense of humor helps us get through life, despite rampant and growing incompetence in our society. We can't depend upon our leaders, either in local municipalities or Washington, to keep us either well-informed or content, so we must do our own thing if we wish to find personal satisfaction, right? YOU are completely responsible for your own state of happiness or discontent, regardless of external influences.
So, as I previously said, "Do whatcha wanna do!", and enjoy it: If you like airplanes, you can make a good airplane cheaper than you can buy many new cars. A Quad City Challenger II, like the tubing and fabric two-seater I finished in 2005 , costs about 19 or 20 thousand dollars to complete, including a radio and transponder, so that's less than a Honda Accord! If you're operating from a local field without a tower, away from Class B, C or D (a.k.a. "damned busy"!) airspace, the transponder and altitude encoder could be omitted, at a savings of about $1800. For those of you who don't know, the transponder is a high-frequency transmitter that generates a numbered blip on the tower controller's radar screen, showing your location and present altitude.
Today, FAA Sport Pilot licenses are much cheaper to get than a regular Private Pilot's License, requiring only about 20 hours of flying time plus ground schooling. I got my Private license 40 years ago, but it didn't cost too much in those days. O.K., so what can you fly with the newly available Sport Pilot license? -- A two-seat airplane that weighs less than 1320 pounds and can't cruise at the speed of light! However, you can probably still find true joy at a sedate 138 MPH, and at high altitudes like Denver you usually can add about 10% to that for actual ground speed because of our thinner air!! Full details concerning the Sport Pilot regs are available at www.eaa.org, and that organization will help you locate Experimental Aircraft Association members, who are always glad to help new builders get started on their projects. I have the best of everything because my building buddy, Dr. John Gill, pays for the recent projects and I do the majority of laying out, cutting and assembling of components, then the resulting planes are usually co-owned! I'm also fortunate for having machine shop experience in my younger days, but anyone can learn to do a great job of building, almost regardless of your previous skill levels. For instance, I'd never built a fabric-covered plane in my life before, but the Challenger came out very good. Consider that for the first time ever, in the year 2006 new homebuilt aircraft registrations outnumbered factory-built light planes, and usually far outperform them on identical or even lesser horsepower. If you build it yourself, you can apply for a Repairman's Certificate and do your own maintenance and annual condition inspections. All you'll pay for is hangar rent or tie-down space, gas, and insurance, none of which are excessively expensive -- no worse than playing golf frequently!
If you ever wanted to fly, simply take an introductory flight at your nearest airport and check it out. It isn't rocket science (or else I certainly couldn't do it) and landing the Challenger at 45 MPH isn't like slamming an F-18 down onto a carrier deck at 160 MPH -- in fact, you could almost get out of the Challenger and run alongside -- with the nose high in the air and full flaperons, it will actually stay airborne at an indicated 27 MPH, although that's more like a true 32 MPH. Of course, if I want to burn six gallons of expensive fuel per hour it will go over 90 MPH, but is usually cruised at 65 MPH on three gallons per hour --a marvelous fun and sightseeing machine, with those huge doors. The stability is awesome and the lil' plane's safety record is wonderful, with over 3000 flying now, many on floats or skis. About 800 of those are in Canada. More darned fun, and I can hardly wait to get my cataract fixed so that I can continue flying. The Sport Pilot regulations allow pilots to use their driver's licenses as a medical certificate, so even if you've had a heart operation or other major repair work , but are now in good enough health to drive a car, you can still imitate the birds. In fact, Glo once said I wuz for the birds...? She obviously doesn't like the small airplane thang. The attached picture shows the two-seat Sparrow Hawk gyro copter, which is kept in the other small hangar with the Challenger. That's mostly Dr. Gill's baby, although I did the Subaru 140 HP engine, installed the fuel injection and the instrument panel, transponder and radio.
Anyway --DO IT! life comes at you fast and fades quickly.
Regards to all from Ol' Frank, staggering around like Mister McGoo in the melting Colorado snowdrifts.
That truly is an incredibly interesting pastime you've chosen for yourself. Not many can say that they've done or are doing what you do. I tip my hat to you !
