OT: Experience in Small Planes, What can you tell me? Options

[pfierb]

The plane may be in top shape and the pilot first class but if your wife is a nervous flyer I wouldn't subject her to four hours in a Bonanza or any other light plane.

[ClayPerrine]

THe guy who taught me to fly was a WWII fighter pilot. He taught me the first commandment of flying:


Maintain thy airspeed and thy altitude lest the ground cometh up and smite thee.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[MBowman325]

You ain't lived until you've chased an elephant under a bridge in a Cessna Super Skymaster, and there were guys fishing off the bridge! I'll admit to being a bit unnerved ..................... The Cap'n

Back before I started college, I started working on my PPL. Car, college and girlfriend drained all my money away and couldn't finish then. I used to hate roller coasters, but after flying, they were really sorta boring. Not that any of my flights were that rough, but after practicing stalls, there was nothing to a roller coaster.

Someday (losta stuff gonna happen that day) when I can afford to get back off the ground, I'll be after it. I'd love to have a 337! Centerline thrust twin!

There's lotsa factors to if it's gonna be a nice flight for you. Realize that things happen sometimes no matter where you are. 9/11/01 is proof that you can be at work, in relative safety, and bad things can still happen. Or a Drunk driver. It's not necessarily true that it's safer to fly long distances than to drive in a car, but it's about par or over with a motorcycle. Forget the details of that stat... If it's hot and you fly over plowed fields or asphault lots, you'll have some turbulance. Some people get sick... Go buy some candied ginger and chew on a lump of it if you think you'll be one of them

We just had a family from here crash a few days ago killing everyone on board. I read P&P every month, and the NTSB section in the back is always interesting. Much depends on the skill and experience of the pilot. The tests are not easy to pass, and are designed that way to weed people out.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) I used to be in CAP (Civil Air Patrol) and we would work with authorities on Search and Rescues. All of the calls my squadron went out on were Non-Emergency. So long as a Flight Plan is filed, in the event of a crash, you can usually be found withing 24-36 hours, as when you don't report in, and nobody can find you, they start the operation.

All that said, my grandmother was one of the 99er's, my grandfather owned a Beech and operated for profit, my mom flew, my other grandfather was AF (on detachment to FAA for Air Group inspections), and I've got a few hours under my belt.

[ConeDodger]

My ex girlfriend flew airplanes alot. I absolutely hated it. Unless wew were going somewhere I had no interest in getting in these things. Even still she really had to twist my arm.

THey are extremely noisy so you have to wear headphones and even still you whole body rattles and it's just a miserable experience.

Of course I simply hate to fly so I may be biased.

Also 2 planes we had flewn in did break on other pilots and had to crash land. No personal experience with crash landings.

Somewhere in a closet around here I have a set of David Clark headphones that cancel out the ambient noise and all you hear is conversation. They cost a bit but they make flying in small airplanes very enjoyable.

You will love the view.

GPS makes getting there a snap now days. Just program in the airport code and no matter which way you are heading the arrow tells you which way you need to go, how long till you get there etc... Not an excuse to forget good pilotage because they can and do fail but they are pretty reliable.

[VaccaRabite]

Back before I started college, I started working on my PPL. Car, college and girlfriend drained all my money away and couldn't finish then. I used to hate roller coasters, but after flying, they were really sorta boring. Not that any of my flights were that rough, but after practicing stalls, there was nothing to a roller coaster.

Well I still don't like roller coasters, but my story is similar to yours. I got my first aerobatics training doing spins and recovery over the chesapeake bay when I was 15. My friends joked that I would have my PPL before I had my drivers liscense. When I was visiting colleges we would fly over them first and have a look around. I learned navigation from my uncle handing me a map and saying "Look out the window and find where we are, then tell me how to get to (wherever)."

College changed all that. I have not been up since then (13 years now). My Uncle sold the Cap 10 and bought a tandem Ultra. I have seen it, but I have not been up in it.

I'd love to get back into it, but I don't have the money or the time. One day. One day....

Zach

[jimtab]

Great stories, I grew up in SE Alaska and up there it was like taking the bus. If you went anywhere it was either by boat or plane...mostly Otters and Beavers, Cessna 180s and Grumman Goose aircraft. I love them, and yes I have been on a dead stick event....less comfortable. I used to fly to Baja with a guy who didn't like to stop at Lax for fuel and so he was iffy to get to Loreto...after the second dead stick landing there (the end of the runway is the sea of Cortez) we agreed that he would not pass up LAX anymore if he wanted to live. Enjoy the sights and sounds...what the hell...you drive the car equivilent of a small plane....Jim

[Finlandese]

Hi,

I am a professional pilot who teaches in the big simulators and in the small aircraft. My apologies for the lecture that is about to follow..

Beech Bonanza is the Mercedes(when they still made reliable cars..) of the single-engine piston aircraft. A great plane, and sounds like TROJANMAN and his family will have a great trip. However, I´d like to correct couple points that have been made earlier in this thread:

1. People often refer to the excellent safety record of aviation as a whole, without knowing what the difference between the accident rate of transport aircraft and general aviation. The accident rate of general aviation on par with motorcycling. The good part(for general aviation) is that, where as in motorcycle accidents in 75% of the accidents the bikers personal behaviour wasn´t the fault of the accident, in general aviation it is the other way around. 75% of the general aviation accidents are pilot induced. So, a good pilot will make a lot bigger difference to the risk of flying a general aviation aircraft, than a good biker to riding a motorcycle.

2. The glide ratio of a general aviation aircraft is usually less than half of a medium jet. For example, Boeing 737 has a glide ratio of 22 to 1, where as Beech Bonanza has a glide ratio of 10 to 1. But, as far as forced landings go that´s enough. The important bit is that a general aviation aircraft has a low stall speed, and can be landed in a small clearing, or if there isn´t one available, in low enough speed that the people inside have a good chance of surviving.

Based on what TROJANMAN has posted, sounds like the pilot involved knows what he is doing, and knows how to deal with a passenger afraid of flying (very important to try to take all the pressure off a person afraid of flying). I´m sure the trip will be a great one.

-Jani

[Boojum]

You know, I flew around Belize, Guatemala and Honduras in a small plane that was all too likely used to run drugs around South America at least a time or two, and I got to ride shotgun with the pilot.

Some of the instruments were falling out of their mounts, dangling by the wires that they were connected to, and the rest were rattling around. Then the radio fell into my lap and the pilot yells at me "Don't touch that!", as I try to tuck it back into its cubby. Then I told him that I was going to flight school back in the states, and that kinda' put him at ease. At least he didn’t look at me so sternly when the radio fell into my lap again.

I don't know if I was confident that this guy knew what he was doing (being sort of a crazy French barnstormer, I'm sure he knew every rivet in his plane), confident that I could fly if something bad happened to our crazy pilot, or maybe it was the adrenaline, but it was actually an okay thing. I wasn't as worried as some people would be, I think.

Maybe these things I say aren't comforting, but you should take comfort in the fact that your ride will be a thousand times better than this flight of mine (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

[TROJANMAN]

Made it Forth and Back from Arkansas safely, and even got to watch my TROJANS hang 50 on the Little Pigs. It was a pretty great flight. We were delayed a few hours, as the cluds did not leave Denver as early as forecasted.
Turns out our pilot had been flying since he was 6, and solo since he was 17. I blew chunks on the way out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif) , then quickly learned that Dramamine is my friend (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif) My 3 year old thought it was pretty funny.

On the way back I sat shotgun, and everything was rosey. Even got to take control for a little while. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[Finlandese]

Front seats are the best! I always try to put the passenger afraid of flying in front, and teach him/her to fly a bit. Sometimes though, even the calmest of persons get sick, due the motion of the aircraft. In eleven years I´ve had a single case where I wasn´t able to get the situation under control before the passenger started faxing. The guy was really keen to fly, but unfortunenately when he started feel sick, he felt he would lose face if he´d confess it to me. Made my job a lot more difficult, and the 15 min it took to get to the ground was too much by 15 seconds... After that my passenger briefing has emphasised early warning, and I haven´t had a problem in ten years.

P.s. How did your wife like it, if you don´t mind me asking?

-Jani

[TROJANMAN]

P.s. How did your wife like it, if you don´t mind me asking?
-Jani

My Wife was quite comfortable. She felt very reassured by the fact that our pilot delayed our departure b/c of the cloud cover. She'd do it again. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Elliot_Cannon]

P.s. How did your wife like it, if you don´t mind me asking?
-Jani

My Wife was quite comfortable. She felt very reassured by the fact that our pilot delayed our departure b/c of the cloud cover. She'd do it again. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

You had to wait till the clouds to clear? He wasn't instrument rated? If he was not intrument rated, he showed good judjement by waiting for the clouds to clear and that is what makes a good pilot.

Cheers, Elliot

[TROJANMAN]

He is instrument rated, but did not want to chance it flying with others. IFR was a conversation we had on the way home as we corkscrewed through a clearing in the clouds.

[Elliot_Cannon]

He is instrument rated, but did not want to chance it flying with others. IFR was a conversation we had on the way home as we corkscrewed through a clearing in the clouds.

He sounds like a safe pilot.
Elliot

[JPB]

Been there and done that bro. If thw weather is bad, its not a good idea to fly small planes. They fly by blips and don't need much visiuals anymore and can get the runway in the fog. If it happens to go down, hey, falling Xthousand feet to your death isen't a bad way to go. LOL

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) You and your wife should take seperate flights for the kids if ya got some.LOL (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

[Elliot_Cannon]

The bonanza is a great airplane. They have been building them since 1947. I used to fly charters in one a looong time ago.
Elliot

[wbergtho]

They call the Beach Bonanza the "Doctor killer"...not because it was unsafe...but because rich doctors with no common sense, little skill & experience would take this high performance plane and get in over their inflated heads.

[Mike D.]

My dad was a pilot, when we were kids he'd take us up for rides in little cesna's, much to my mothers dismay. So it wasn't that often. I've recently been up for some joy rides with a friend who is a pilot. Once in a Grumman Tiger, lot's of fun, loud though, had to wear the headphones. Did some 0g push overs, 90 degree turns. Scared the wife, but it was fun.


Then he brought me along on a "test drive" where the company he worked for had a Piagio turbo prop pusher for a week. Lap of luxury, it's a limo with wings, and FAST, barely need half the runway at Burbank.

[grantsfo]

Call me silly but I grew up with family and extended family that were Navy fighter pilots and have a great respect for seasoned carrier qualified pilots as opposed to purely private pilots with no prior military training. I always ask how many hours of flying and how many in the specific plane they are flying before I get into a small plane. I have been a passenger in old biplanes, P-51 Mustangs, a variety of small Cessna's, a bunch of small turbo props even jumped out of a small plane at 10,000 feet with a parachute and I'm still here 44 years later!

I agree its less about the plane and more about the pilot as mentioned above. The pilots familiarity with area that you are flying is important as well. I had a hair raising flight in a Cessna 208 Turbo Prop with a couple of Mexican national pilots in Southern Mexico. The plane was quite capable, but they made some bad choices with weather to the point where I was uncomfortable with margin of safety flying through a mountain pass. We made it down safely, but I'll never forget that flight.