New pilot in the house

[Mitchell Andrus]

My son passed his FAA tests this afternoon. He's 17 and the talk of his high school - way cool!

[Jim Becker]

CONGRATULATIONS to your son! A fine accomplishment.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mitchell,

Congrats on the son's accomplishment!


I worked air traffic control maintenance for some years in the Navy during the height of the Navy Pilot pipeline and 'Nam. Both the bases I worked at were US Navy pilot jet training facitilities. Remind your son of the old adage....it's true..... "There are old pilots....there are bold pilots.....there are NO old, bold pilots"....

[Mitchell Andrus]

Mitchell,

"There are old pilots....there are bold pilots.....there are NO old, bold pilots"....

...something I've heard his Asst Principal (owns his own plane) say often.

[Jeff Wright]

Congratulations to your son - and you, dad!

I, too, earned my license having wanted to fly since a kid. I used to dream about it. Then when I got my license, I was still scared stiff to fly . . . I would not take anyone up with me because I was too afraid; I was afraid I'd kill them. So I decided to take aerobatic lessons in order to discover the outer limits of a plane's performance and behaviour in unusual attitudes. I figured if I could experience a plane in severe maneuvers, I would feel confident flying normally. I took lessons in a tail dragger American Champion Super Decathlon from a great teacher in Dallas Texas who was a professional show pilot. I remember asking him what he thought of my flying abilites as we were flying upside down one day, and he said "I was s--t for a pilot," but he could fix that. The thing he was most impressed with was that I was not losing my lunch all over the inside of the plane . . . most students of aerobatics didn't last more than a few minutes due to air sickness. I continued lessons and found that I really enjoyed aerobatic flying more than straight-and-level point-A-to-point-B flying. If your son hasn't already done so, encourage him to get some time in tail draggers. It will teach him the essentials of flying. And have him get some spin training, something that the FAA no longer requires as basic training.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Jeff, there are very few in NJ area to provide this... but a few of the colleges he's got on his list have top-notch training available...

Embry, UND....

There is an open-cockpit trainer/instructor nearby - maybe a few lessons just for fun...

His next lessons will be:

Garmin 1000 (big glass gps display)
High performance - (more HP, faster plane)
Complex (gear and variable prop)
Perhaps Cirrus SR-20/22 (Cirrus requires minimum of 20 hours for endorsement - at $300/hr, ouch!)
IFR (can wait til college next year)

[Chris DiCiaccio]

Congratulations to your son. For the times when he wants to fly and the weather is "iffy", tell him what my instructor told me: "It is better to be down here wanting to be up there, than to be up there wanting to be down here". I hope your son will continue his training, there is nothing like it.

[Mike Henderson]

Congratulations to your son. I learned to fly a LONG time ago in a Piper J3 Cub. No starter - had to prop it. Those were good times.

He'll enjoy it.

Mike

[Mitchell Andrus]

Congratulations to your son. For the times when he wants to fly and the weather is "iffy", tell him what my instructor told me: "It is better to be down here wanting to be up there, than to be up there wanting to be down here". I hope your son will continue his training, there is nothing like it.

Funny you should mention that, we just returned from a flight... my first with him. We were going to fly to get our first $100.00 hamburger (for dinner) but cut it short and turned around. Saw a wall of grey rolling in. Sometimes you just don't get to go where you want to go.

The weather reports aren't all they're cracked up to be.