"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
d&tm writes:

I think you have a very distorted understanding of how much time and
money
it takes. I like many "weekend warriors" have a PPL and fly about 50
hours
per year. Hardly a huge time committment.

Five thousand dollars for fifty hours? A hundred dollars per hour? It
seems
to me a lot more economical to fly a sim for essentially zero dollars for
as
many hours as I have free time. Sure, a real aircraft is _real_, but you
have
to draw a line somewhere. Would you rather have 50 real hours than 500
simulated? How about 1 real hour versus 1000 simulated?

ask any pilot on this group how many hours of simulation he would exchange
for their first solo flight. Its a no brainer.

At some points, the
sim becomes more cost-effective. I suppose the threshold varies depending
on
exactly what you get out of flying. If most of what you enjoy is provided
in
simulation as well as real life, there's not much reason to fly for real.
If
you really must have things that come only with real flight (or only with
very
expensive simulators), then I suppose you have to settle for the
occasional
hour or two of flight in a real aircraft.

I am also married with 2 kids and
have a responsible job as an industrial chemist, hardly the most highly
paid
occupation. And no my kids dont suffer as a result of me spending 50
hours
away flying.

If you have enough income to blow $5000 a year just on 50 hours of flight,
you're doing very well.

I am doing OK. Many , many people would blow a similar amount of money or
even more on cigarettes and alcohol in a year. Many others would spend more
than that amount on cars when they could drive a cheaper car. I dont smoke,
dont drink a lot, and at 46 years of age have only ever had 1 new car, even
though I drive about 50,000 km every year.

In fact I think I set them a good example to go out and chase
their dreams instead of being like most people who waste their lives
making
excuses for all the things they wanted to do.

Chasing one's dreams is a good idea, but you still have to think about the
return on investment.

Now dont tell me someone who relies on handouts for groceries know all about
investment as well? The best investment advice I ever got was spend less
than you earn. I have always done this no matter how much I earn.

There are many ways to make money, if you have the right attitude. I am
no
expert on France but you supposedly came from the USA, the land of
opportunity where anyone can get rich. Not that you have to be
especially
rich to fly a single engine plane. To fly 50 hours per year , it cost me
about $5000 US. Why did you move to France if you have to live such a
miserable existance there?

Paris is actually a very nice city in which to live. The _only_
disadvantage
is the cost of living, and it's not the most expensive major city in the
world. But when you have nothing, the COL obstacle is significant. If
you
have money, I'd say there are few better cities in which to live in the
world.

What ever the problems you have got , if you can spend so much time playing
a computer game or using Usenet then you could be doing something to earn
money. You talk about money as if it is simply something that some people
have and some dont , like good looks.
I know a quadraplegic who earns $500 an hour singing. I know many people
who wouldnt have half your intelligence who through their enterprise make
more money than I do.

I dont expect anything of other people. I just think you are making
pretty
lame excuses for not getting off your butt and having a go. you are
trying
to justify that lame attitude by telling us how difficult it is.

The price is too high. People here are saying that if I'm not willing to
cut
off an arm to pay for flying, I'm not serious about it. That's completely
untrue. I just can't afford to dedicate such resources to it, and even if
I
could, I do have a life outside of aviation, and spending every spare
minute
and dime on flying would be a bit lopsided.

you obviously didnt read what I and others said. the time is insignificant
to be a private pilot. You clearly already do more studying about aviation
matters than almost all of the private pilots I know. Most of them learn
what they have to to pass the exam. As I said , I spend 50 hours a year
flying and perhaps another couple of hundred wishing I was flying .

Defeatist attitude. Why not just spill your guts and tell us what the
issues are and see if we cant actually help you.

You can't help me, but thanks.
and how many times have you told people " you cant know that" when you have
been told you cant do something?



The fact that you can read
and write , you can obviously walk and talk ( I know about your Paris
tour
guiding) says to me you could get in an airplane with an instructor and
have
a go.

Right now I make ends meet only thanks to handouts from friends and
relatives.
I can't really expect them to pay for flying lessons in addition to
groceries,
can I?
see above. You could get off your backside ( and I know you can because you
are happy to tramp around Paris and take pics and guide tourists) and find a
way to make a quid ( or a euro as the case may be). Heres a suggestion,
You can obviously read and write very well, you apparently teach English.
I know people who make good money proof reading, technical manuals and the
like. You can do it in your own home and your own time.


Of course it is easier, but then nothing much that is worth doing in
this
world is easy. When you are lying on your death bed will you look back
with
any sense of achievement that you "flew" a simulator?

It's not a sense of achievement, it's just something enjoyable to do, just
like flying a real airplane. I don't get anything out of either of these
as
_goals_, I only profit from them as _activities_.

Do you have any goals or aspirations in life?

It's a bit like chess. I have one of the lowest ratings in the Internet
Chess
Club, only a few places above the bottom (out of thousands of players).
But
that has never bothered me because chess is just an enjoyable activity for
me;
I don't care what my rating is, and I don't even care if I win or lose a
game,
as long as it's fun. People who are highly competitive and goal-oriented
might think I'm wasting my time, but it works well for me.

if you rely on handouts to feed yourself . you are CLEARLY wasting your
time. How can you justify taking handouts from people who have presumably
worked hard to pay for these, while you sit back and enjoy playing computer
games? Again I accept you have some health problems of some sort but they
cant be that constraining if you are prepared to tramp around Paris all day
as a tour guide.


In fact, if anything, I consider these "goals" to be discouraging
obstacles.
Why should I fly a real plane when I have to jump through so many hoops
and
spend so much money just to get a piece of paper that allows it, when I
can do
practically the same thing with a simulator?

I don't understand why so many pilots are down on simulators. I guess the
only viewpoints they can understand are their own.

i am not down on simulators at all, I am sure many find them good fun. I
have been meaning to get one myself one of these days. I just havent got
around to it. I would see it as something to kill a bit of spare time or to
wind down at the end of the day. I wouldnt see it as something more
important than earning a living.




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