At last, the truth...

Jay Honeck wrote:

This is another concept
I cannot understand -- how can someone fly without becoming hooked on the
magic of flight? --

That has become very obvious. Few people I know feel that way.

so perhaps I'll never be able to fathom these folks.

I'd say you never will.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

The beauty of getting too old to fly and not pass the physical means
that I will be in my prime for competitive target shooting.
No other sport favors a person with a slow pulse, little to no movement,
and corrective lenses (telescopic sights)!

On Mon, 15 Aug 2005 12:54:30 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

snipped...

I don't know. But I guess if a pilot is able to "give up" flying *without*
some sort of a life-changing scary experience, then, perhaps, they were
never really that hooked on it in the first place? This is another concept
I cannot understand -- how can someone fly without becoming hooked on the
magic of flight? -- so perhaps I'll never be able to fathom these folks.

Flying is *not* golf, nor boating, nor motorcycling, nor anything else.
Quite simply, there is nothing else like it; so quitting -- for me --
someday, is going to be ugly, and entirely involuntary.

To simply relinquish the ability to fly of my own free will is unthinkable,
and -- since it's hard to B.S. a B.S.-er -- I always search for deeper
reasons when someone tells me they quit flying because of "the wife" or "the
job".

Jay, the magic of flight is a very real thing for you (and me, and
most of the participants of this newsgroup). It is not, however, an
absolute truth that transcends all mankind. There are many good
honest folks who's "magic" is found in golf, boating, motorcycling and
scuba diving (which adds the third dimension). Who are we to impose
our "magic" on their lives? Don't get me wrong. I understand your
feelings toward flight. I wanted to fly all of my life but didn't
achieve that goal until I was 50. I golfed, but I quit. The "magic"
wasn't there for me. I ride a motorcycle 10K miles annually, and I
love it. But not as much as flying. Nothing approaches flying... for
me. That being said, I have many friends who will never get an
airplane with me and that's OK. They have other fulfilling activities
in their lives, some of which I have no interest in doing.

I agree that we should do everything that we can to nurture interest
in aviation where ever we find it. To assume that something is wrong
with someone because they don't feel the same way about flying as you
do, and choose not to continue, is not fair to that person.
Rich Russell

On Mon, 15 Aug 2005 01:26:01 -0700, "Peter Duniho"
wrote:

I still love flying. But my life is different these days. I've got a plane
I can hardly find time to use. I never did fit my lifestyle around it the
way I wanted to (it's an amphib, that hardly sees the water these days). On
top of that, other than the majority of the 600,000 or so pilots in the US,
the rest of the country is doing everything it can to simply end general
aviation. (And I find it sad that even some of that group of licensed
pilots are helping this "cause" to end aviation).

I'm normally capable of being a pretty stubborn guy, but especially as I get
older, I find I am less able to be stubborn about as wide a range of things
at one time, and I do have plenty else in my life to be stubborn about.
Quite frankly, between my own personal circumstance and what I view as a
trend toward making aviation just not worth the trouble, I have had thoughts
about just giving the whole thing up.

I too have always wanted to fly. I knew I could handle an airplane
because I took lessons when I was 15 and a half from my father who was
a CFI, and really liked it and handled the airplane fine. But I
didn't get the chance to fly very often and eventually college came
along before I got my license and raising a family plus the lack of
"disposable income" prevented me from pursuing flying since then. Once
the kids left the house though, I began building a plans built
homebuilt and have been having fun doing that. I also managed to get
my PPL. But I don't fly very often and when I do it's just shooting
landings or putting about locally with the occasional enthralled
passenger or my game but unhappy wife.

I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth the time, effort and money. I've
got my first BFR coming up and the CFI was describing it like it was a
mini PPL flight test. Told me that since I don't do much cross
county, perhaps I'll be required to plan one. Well hell, I can do
that, but typically the kind of planning that goes into test type
cross countries isn't what I worry about when actually flying one.

I'm entertaining thoughts that maybe I should quit powered flight and
join the local gliding club. That's much more the kind of flying I'm
doing anyway, not leaving the area and flying when the weather's nice.
It would for sure cost less.

Corky Scott

"Peter Duniho" wrote:
Quite frankly, between my own personal circumstance and what I view as a
trend toward making aviation just not worth the trouble, I have had
thoughts about just giving the whole thing up.

Pete...PETE!

Get a grip, boy! You're talkin' crazy!