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The same thing happened to my dad when he was getting his insurance checkout in an AA-5 we'd just bought a share of. I was falling asleep in the back when all the sudden there's a bang and the ELT starts shrieking at us. He'd taken out 3 lights with the skid plate on the tail. That was about 10 years ago, and I still haven't let him live it down. Something about a ~10k hour pilot loving up in a piston single seems like a worthy thing to rib him over. I also find it strange that the insurance company was cool with a CFI that had zero time in type giving the checkout, but whatever. As long as we're telling plane bending stories, I've got two, both in that AA-5. The first is pretty loving stupid. It had electrical problems all the time. We had just put in our 3rd battery (in about 2 years) and had started using a battery tender to try to keep it alive longer. My dad asks me to crank the engine to see if the battery tender has made a difference. At this point, it's important to note that the AA-5 has a castering nosewheel and that we pushed the plane into the hanger backwards, and this particular plane has wheel pants. I crank, and the prop proceeds to try to cut the tail end of the wheel pant off. Good job us. Thankfully, there was no damage to the engine or prop, and a new wheel pant wasn't that expensive. The second wasn't really my fault, but was much more exciting. We were flying it back from an annual. I fly one of the best approaches of my life into a buttery landing. As we start to slow and the nosewheel comes down, we hear a bang, then a crunch, then some loud rear end scraping. I do my best to keep the weight off the nosewheel, but we were pretty slow at that point, so I turn to differential braking to get as close to a taxiway as we can. Once we come to a full stop we shut her down and hop out to see the damage. Our shiny new nosewheel pant is turbo hosed, with about an inch ground off the bottom, the wheel is kinked up in there as well, with the same amount ground off it. We drag the fucker off the runway and resign ourselves to doing the same to get it to our hangar. Luckily one of the other residents of the field saw/heard our landing and came out with his powered tug. We brought him a case of beer and a couple fine cigars for his help, wound up hangar flying with that guy quite a bit, cool dude. Anyway it turns out our mechanic hadn't wired the nose wheel axle and the nut had fallen off on the arduous 15 mile flight back home. He flew out the next day and fixed it free of charge, no idea how he got a wheel pant painted in our colors and onto our plane that fast, but he did. Again, we lucked out in that there was no prop strike, and the nosewheel strut wasn't damaged. If I recall correctly, I had about 10 hours when that landing happened.
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Jun 10, 2017 22:17
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 12:04 |
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Seconding those guys, literally the proudest day of my life was the day I passed my checkride. If you're getting tired of bug smashing, go get a 100$ hamburger or something. Even if you're not solo XC yet, I'm sure your instructor wouldn't mind a leisurely afternoon getting paid to go get lunch. Also, if your wife is onboard with you finishing then you're basically the luckiest dude in aviation.
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Jun 11, 2017 01:55
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two_beer_bishes posted:Anyone with DA20 experience? The school I'm looking at spending some money at has a bunch of them for $30/hr less than a 172. The majority of my time is in Cherokees and ~40hr or so in 172s, are the DA20 good planes? I did the second half of my PPL in the DA20 and like it. Visibility is great, I found the semi-reclined seat to be very comfortable, having a stick is definitely cooler than a yoke, and the handling is much nicer than a 172, it feels like you've more connected to the plane. On the other hand, that big window will bake you in the summer, it doesn't have very much useful load, and it doesn't have as much room as the planes you've flown. It has a castering nosewheel, which will take some getting used to, but isn't really hard to deal with. The landing characteristics are also very different to the 172 or Cherokee, if you can't manage your energy well it will float and float and float. Even with full flaps it isn't all the draggy, so it's quite good for training that. It's also not IFR rated, so you can only train under the hood. In short, for bug smashing or <100NM trips, its a fun, inexpensive, plane, but I wouldn't want to take it on long XCs, and if you're working on IFR, the inability to take it into actual will be limiting. CBJamo fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Jul 19, 2017 |
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Jul 19, 2017 00:27
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fordan posted:The big window provides great visibility though, and I didn't think the useful load was that terrible. You can definitely feel it's glider ancestry as you say though; I think I did more slips in my first 5 hours in the DA-20 than I did in my entire primary training and subsequent flying in a C-172. I'm a fan of it over the 172, at least unless you need IFR capabilities. Or 4 seats. I suppose the useful load limit was only an issue for me because both I and my instructor are fat. Two 220lb dudes doesn't leave enough for a full tank, so if some rear end had filled it, we had to wait for maint to come take some fuel off. I hate the 172 after flying the DA20 though, it feels like a goddamn pig in comparison.
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Jul 19, 2017 02:17
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I very nearly smeared an ultralight early in my training because he wasn't on ctaf and didn't fly a normal pattern. You're never gonna run into a nordo at a class c. lovely pilots are still lovely pilots though. To the original question, you should definitely train at both, and any decent instructor will have you do that. I would pick the closer airport, since it will mean you can fly more often, unless the schools are particularly poo poo.
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Nov 1, 2017 17:46
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My old man flies for delta and can't loving wait for the switch to ipads. Word is they'll get em in MSP around June/July. They're still gonna be using Jepp, and I'm not sure how much of suckitiude comes from the surface and how much comes from Jepp.
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Feb 16, 2018 03:43
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azflyboy posted:One of the radio transmissions mentioned something about the minimum wage, and Alaska has actually gone to court (and lost) to try and argue that neither the Port of Seattle nor the city of Seatac have the authority to raise the minimum wage at the airport. This reminds me of a scene in Mad Men. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlOSdRMSG_k The Alaska execs are probably like Don here. Though, public outrage might hurt their bottom line, and they think a hell of a lot about that.
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Aug 11, 2018 19:11
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PT6A posted:Are freelance instructors in the US allowed to instruct in their own planes? FAA wise yes, not sure what the deal would be with insurance.
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Nov 21, 2018 13:38
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As far as I'm aware, the only reg along those lines in the US is CFR 91.409(b), the relevant bit is that commercial ops and instruction require an inspection every 100 hours in addition to the annual. Oddly (and stupidly, in my opinion) the 100-hour rule doesn't apply to renting out aircraft. So it doesn't apply if a third party owns the aircraft, since they're simply renting the plane to whoever the PIC is, and then they do whatever. Similarly, if the student owns the plane, then they don't have to do a 100-hour inspection. Insurance wise, I'm sure it's crazy expensive for an individual instructor. Down here, lots of things are legal, but a real bad idea, and insurance premiums will reflect that. For example, if you want to fly an acrobat and to loops an poo poo as a wet-ink PPL, you legally can. But the insurance will be so expensive that you might as well just put aside enough cash to pay for a new plane and funeral expenses on your own, it'll probably be cheaper.
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Nov 21, 2018 15:43
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PT6A posted:Any of you guys fly in and out of KAPA? One of my buddies was stopping over on a time-building journey from CYBW-KISM and back, and after flying across the entire US and then halfway back, he says it was the most hosed, stressful airport he's ever dealt with I did the second half of my primary training there. Given that the first half was at Y14, an airport that probably averages <10 movements a day, it was a hell of a culture shock. KAPA gets pretty loving busy for a GA-only* airport. I think I was in the pattern with 15 other people doing touch and goes one time. The controllers know what's up though and are great. I especially appreciate how well they handle all the student traffic. I have had to circle outside the class d waiting to get a word in, but once I did they got me into the pattern quick and easy. You're under Denver's B, so you've gotta be careful about that, and if you're departing north you've gotta be on top of your turn so you don't run into Buckley. There are several other airports near-ish, so overall the Denver area is pretty busy. On the other hand it's no LA, NYC, etc, etc. That made talking to Denver approach pretty intimidating for me at first, but I don't think they ever refused me flight following, so they're doing something right. *The navy stops at JetCenter for gas sometimes. So I got spaced on approach for F-18s once, that was kinda neat. I have no idea why they don't go to Buckley all of 10 miles away from KAPA, but I'm sure it makes sense to someone somewhere.
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Mar 31, 2019 03:38
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Jun 19, 2020 03:43
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Platystemon posted:
New spintires map looking good.
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Mar 19, 2021 09:03
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Stringent posted:Is it certain that alcohol wasn't involved or is that something that's just tacitly side stepped? I'm sure they'd talk about it if alcohol had been involved. I'm pretty sure it's come up in one of their other videos.
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Apr 4, 2021 11:17
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hobbesmaster posted:It’s not a mystery, Delta tech ops inherited an airbus heavy maintenance facility at MSP and at the time of the merger ATL would’ve just had Boeing (including MD) expertise. Was MSP Airbus heavy? I mostly remember MSP as having a shitload of DC-9s pre merger. Hell, the MD-88/90 stuck around at MSP till 2019ish.
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Apr 18, 2023 11:49
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 12:04 |
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DC-9s powerbacked all the time, yeah. By the time of the MD-xx they'd stopped for engine life and fuel reasons. I think the logic was that engines being at the back was more important than being high off the ground.
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Apr 18, 2023 15:55
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