Would like to learn to fly, but...

wrote in news:1178889791.422239.321860
@o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:

Having become dangerously addicted to MS Flight Simulator,
I am
starting to develop a hankering to learn to fly for real.
However I'm
having a bit of trouble reconciling this desire with my
concern about
CO2 emissions and climate change. My wife and I tend to
buy reasonably
fuel efficient cars and are soon to have a wind turbine
installed on
our house, so to start burning aviation fuel just for fun
would seem
like a bit of a step in the wrong direction.

Can anyone provide any insights to help me allay these
concerns? I
don't even know how much fuel the average light aircraft
consumes or
how much CO2 it puts out into the atmosphere. Is it
comparable to a
car or is it a lot more? (My car gets about 50mpg, but
then I spend a
lot more time driving it than I could ever afford to spend
flying a
plane.)

Thanks in advance,
Colin

Have you considered flying a glider? The flight controls are
identical to powered aircraft but all those relating to the
engine are missing (so they don't distract one from the real
task of flying G). Although one typically consumes non-
renewable energy in the launch (by aerotow or winch), after
casting off at perhaps 2000 ft, one uses natural phenomena
(thermals, ridge lift, wave) to keep the force of gravity at
bay.

Have a look at the world gliding records
(http://records.fai.org/gliding/) - you'll probably be
surprised.

There are two downsides: there is no possibility of
performing a go-around if one screws up on the landing and
the weather plays a much larger factor.

Have you considered flying a glider?

Actually I've been there and done that. I went solo in a glider about 15
years ago, but fairly soon afterwards burned out on it in much the same
way that Ron appears to have done with powered flight. At that point I
switched to hillwalking, which was less weather dependent (if you didn't
mind getting wet) and allowed me to spend the entire day enjoying my
hobby instead of most of it pushing gliders around.

There are two downsides: there is no possibility of
performing a go-around if one screws up on the landing and
the weather plays a much larger factor.

Fortunately never had a problem with landing (but then I never went
cross country, things get a bit different at that point), but living in
Scotland the weather plays an even larger factor than in most places. It
was considered a pretty good day if you managed more than about 10
minutes in the air.

Having said that I'll never forget the day I reached almost 10,000 feet
in wave. That day alone made it worth all the time, money and glider
pushing.

I'd imagined that with powered flight you'd be somewhat less at the
mercy of the weather, but I guess it comes with its own frustrations.
Maybe Ron's right and I should stick to simming.

Colin