On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 13:29:27 +1000, "John Ward"
wrote:

Hi DW,

Well, as DCAO3 pointed out, one(more skilled than me) could probably hit
a building or two no doubt, so I guess it has to be considered a valid point
of view.

The more my thick mind comes to appreciate about real-life pilots, be it
on big, small, medium, new, old, ancient, experimental....a/c, the more I
would also say that it's perhaps one of the highest goals one could aspire
to, whether for commercial, personal, technical, intellectual,
ideological... reasons.
And... a profuse thank you. :-)) But it's not really all that
difficult. It does take a bit of work, dedication to practice, and a
bit of money, but most students that hang with it are able to get
their pilot certificates.

The flying around is the least difficult part. If you aren't worried
about holding heading and altitude closely, nor concerned about
airspeed other than staying fast enough it gets even simpler.

I regularly take kids for rides and after leveling off let them take
the controls. (I fly a high performance, complex, retract, single
engine with a cruise a tad under 200 MPH). Normally even 10 year olds
are able to hold altitude and course after a few minutes of coaching.

A few more minutes and they can do shallow turns. The surprising
thing with the kids is they do better than many experienced pilots who
fly the smaller Pipers and Cessnas. They haven't had a chance to
learn any bad habits and they don't have a 120 MPH mind in a 200 MPH
airplane. The responses of the Deb are far quicker than most trainers
in the General Aviation fleet. Due to that many of the Piper and
Cessna pilots will end up in a PIO in less than a minute at the
controls.

One pilot who has spent a lot of time in Cessna 172s told me as we
were doing 2 Gs out of the bottom and zeroooo over the top..."I know
what it's doing, but by the time I correct, it just seems to make it
worse." That's kinda like the old, "It hurts when I do this", well if
it makes it worse, what's the cure? Quite doing that. He did and the
Deb went happily along and quite trying to make me sick in my own
airplane.

Each year our EAA chapter holds a couple of ground schools for kids
about 10 through 17. After a week at camp (a mixture of learning
about aviation and ground school), they do the flight plans and we go
out and fly them. Once the kids realize what to do as far as holding
altitude and course (and that they can't do anything I can't undo)they
do right well on navigating using VFR.

We fly a triangular course about 30 miles on a leg with an airport at
each corner. They some times take a little prompting as to what they
should look for (land marks), but for many this may be only the second
or third time they've even gone for a ride.

NO, they don't do stalls, steep turns, landings or take offs, but
neither did those involved in 9/11.

As I said, Flying the things is the easy part.

This is what I've had the kids flying.
http://www.rogerhalstead.com/833pics.htm


If you want to see airplanes, the big fly-in at Oshkosh Wisconsin
starts this coming week. There will most likely be something like
10,000 to 14,000 aircraft of all makes, models, and ages as well as
air shows that last most of the afternoons. and there will be
military demonstrations as well as static displays.

If you go to my home page and follow the table of contents you will
find a number of photos including a pair of F-104s in formation.

Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
www.rogerhalstead.com
N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2)

I still hope and pray that none of those *******s try in vain to home in
on my 2 Twin Peaks (i,e. my 2 Geraniums in the garden), because I'd be
mighty ****ed off if they caused any damage! ). Not to mention my insurance
premium increase, because the neighbours might sue me for something....and
the Judges might, in their wisdom, award damages ("intellectually based",
because none of us are capable of thinking on the same plane as them,
surely!, and the planes didn't demolish THEIR Geraniums, so it's not
personal)....

End of rant, and what was the question?.. No, no, End of Question, and
what was the Rant?.. No, no end

Yoh Bro, I feel better now,
Although, re Martin's poetry,
I don't know how...

You're right, as usual, ranting can be fun :-))

Regards,
John


"Derek Wildstar" wrote in message
news:UW%Ta.140026$H17.49307@sccrnsc02...

"John Ward" wrote in message
u...
Hi Derek,

Come on mate, don't hold back so much, spit it out, say what you
really
mean! :-))

Regards,
John


Pilots train for years and years to operate the most demanding pieces of
equipment in the most extreme of conditions, to think that a person can
become intimate with an aircraft in front of a PC, and to do so for
montrous
purpose ignores logic and decency.

Flight and flight simming is, to me, more noble than that authors
ill-considered dismissiveness.

Hey, ranting is fun!