Turning 1000

You know, I remember 1000 hours, and I remember the way things changed
from 500 to 1000. In a lot of ways, there's a lot less change from
1000 to 2000 than there is from 500 to 1000.

I used to do a lot of just flying around the local area, doing t &
g's, etc. Now, 95% of my flying is IFR cross country for business,
pleasure and Angel Flights.

Buzzing around and doing touch&goes gets old quick. My flight profile
is a lot like yours, except that I also do a fair amount of instruction
and I don't actually file IFR unless weather or airspace makes it
advantageous.

Angel Flight has become an important part of my flying and my life,
even though it makes up only about 20% of my hours these days.

Pretty much the same here.

Now, I've got XM weather and I haven't canceled a trip for
t'storms since I first started the system up in September of '03.

Since I got my Stormscope, I have cancelled exactly one trip for
weather - it would have required me to land in the eye of tropical
storm Charlie. It was an Angel Flight, and I offered to buy the guy an
airline ticket, but it turned out the airlines had pulled out and
wouldn't fly in there either.

Complacency is more difficult than ever to resist.

That is indeed the big fight. I find that the only practical way to
fight it is to get out of my comfort zone. It was an issue at 1000
hours, and it's more of an issue at 2000+, and from what I've seen it
only gets worse. I still take recurrent training on a regular basis,
but it's getting harder and harder to find a challenge. So I make it a
point to fly something different whenever I can, and to do something
different in the airplane when I can, but it's only marginally
effective.

The big thing that keeps me from getting too complacent, though, is
flying with students. What has changed most for me from 1000 to 2000
hours is this - close to half my time in the air is spent instructing.
Students don't let you get complacent - they keep finding new and
exciting ways to try and kill you, or at least wreck the airplane. As
much IFR as you fly - have you considered getting your instrument
instructor ticket? You will find that all the recurrent training in
the world isn't a match for sitting in the right seat of a Bonanza in
IMC, watching the attitude indicator coming up on 60 degrees of bank as
a student tries to enter the hold, waiting for him to go too far.

I'm still nuts about flying; doing more of it now than ever.

Amen.

Michael

"Michael" wrote:

You know, I remember 1000 hours, and I remember the way things changed
from 500 to 1000. In a lot of ways, there's a lot less change from
1000 to 2000 than there is from 500 to 1000.

That's the way it feels -- like the big humps are behind me.


Complacency is more difficult than ever to resist.

Students don't let you get complacent - they keep finding new and
exciting ways to try and kill you, or at least wreck the airplane. As
much IFR as you fly - have you considered getting your instrument
instructor ticket?

Yeah, thought about it; I certainly have the perfect airplane to get the
ticket. I fear that I'm too much of a control freak to sit on my hands while
students try to kill me. Ask Tina what I did when she was landing my
airplane at P'ville two years ago.

--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM

Yeah, thought about it; I certainly have the perfect airplane to get the
ticket.

No you don't. NOBODY has the perfect airplane for getting an initial
CFI. The perfect airplane for that ALWAYS belongs to someone else,
because the FAA will try to ground it.

Ask Tina what I did when she was landing my
airplane at P'ville two years ago.

That was two years ago. I seem to recall you were pretty relaxed when
I landed it.

Anyway, I'm not suggesting you do primary instruction. When you teach
landings, it's a much more visceral thing - they're trying to kill you
right now. Flying instruments, it takes longer for stuff to happen,
and there's more time to recover - it's more of a mental thing.

Michael

"Michael" wrote:
Yeah, thought about it; I certainly have the perfect airplane to get the
ticket.

No you don't. NOBODY has the perfect airplane for getting an initial
CFI. The perfect airplane for that ALWAYS belongs to someone else,
because the FAA will try to ground it.

I know what you mean. A friend of mine had his Mooney checkride airplane
grounded by the Birmingham FSDO because the tail # was painted in an
"insufficiently contrasting color" - it was the factory paint job.

Ask Tina what I did when she was landing my
airplane at P'ville two years ago.

That was two years ago. I seem to recall you were pretty relaxed when
I landed it.

Anyway, I'm not suggesting you do primary instruction. When you teach
landings, it's a much more visceral thing - they're trying to kill you
right now. Flying instruments, it takes longer for stuff to happen,
and there's more time to recover - it's more of a mental thing.

Yeah, I'm still considering it. After the airplane gets done with the
fixups I have planned, I just might do it.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

* I'm still flying my "starter" airplane. It isn't big enough, it isn't
fast enough, and it damned sure ain't sexy, but I've never quite gotten
around to trading up to that Bonanza I thought I'd have by now. "Delta"
has taken me a lot of places safely and has never missed a mission since
some early engine problems were fixed a few years ago. She'll carry 600
lbs. of payload at 155 mph for a looonnngg time. Every time I start to put
the ad in Trade-A-Plane, something makes me back off. Some day I'll do
it - no, really, I will.

If she serves you well, hold on to her! To borrow from Richard Bach in "A
Gift of Wings"

"Why fly has nothing to do with aircraft. It has nothing to do with
'by-products', those reasons so often put forth in those pamphlets to
potential [airplane] buyers. If you find that you are a person who can love
to fly, you will find a place to come whenever you tire of a world of
TV-dinners and people cut from cardboard. You will find people alive and
adventures alive and you will learn to see a meaning behind it all. The
more I wander around airports across the country, the more I see that the
reason that most pilots fly is simply that thing they call 'life'."
Richard Bach, "A Gift of Wings"

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=-----
Good Flights!

Cecil
PP-ASEL-IA
Student - CP-ASEL

Check out my personal flying adventures from my first flight to the
checkride AND the continuing adventures beyond!
Complete with pictures and text at: www.bayareapilot.com

"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

"We who fly, do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with
this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet"
- Cecil Day Lewis -

As we gain in experience we tend to do less flight planning. Keep an
eye on fuel and the weather. Spend a little time doing some flight
planning. Maybe do a fully flight planned trip or two, just like when
you were a student! Congrats and keep flyin' !

Cecil, you're the only other person I have come across in my 25 years of
flying that has mentioned A GIFT OF WINGS. I have two copies of the
paperback version.

It's a favorite of mine too. Great little collection of thoughts about
flying.
--
Gene Seibel
Aviation books - http://pad39a.com/gene/avbook.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.

I particularly like "Found at Pharisee" and "School for Perfection". "Cat"
has to stand as the aviation chiller of all time.

Jim



"john smith" wrote in message
. ..
Cecil, you're the only other person I have come across in my 25 years of
flying that has mentioned A GIFT OF WINGS. I have two copies of the
paperback version.

Glad to hear it!

I carry one of my copies around with me like some people may carry a
personal 'Bible' g.... My main copy is highlighted, underlined and
dog-eared and is clearly very well-used and loved! "Nothing By Chance"
and "Biplane" are two of my other favorite R. Bach books!

--
--
=-----
Good Flights!

Cecil
PP-ASEL-IA
Student - CP-ASEL

Check out my personal flying adventures from my first flight to the
checkride AND the continuing adventures beyond!
Complete with pictures and text at: www.bayareapilot.com

"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

"We who fly, do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with
this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet"
- Cecil Day Lewis -