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Author Topic: Flying
Aviator
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posted 06 April 2003 10:53 PM      Profile for Aviator     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Don't know why I didn't think of this earlier: is anyone interesting in aviation, learning to fly, etc.?
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nonsuch
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posted 07 April 2003 10:50 AM      Profile for nonsuch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What - now? With the current political mood and fuel prices?
From: coming and going | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Aviator
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posted 07 April 2003 08:36 PM      Profile for Aviator     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Take a breath, nonesuch! That's it! Now one more time!

And yes, now, absolutely!


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clersal
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posted 07 April 2003 10:32 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Are parachutes included in the deal?
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Aviator
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posted 07 April 2003 10:38 PM      Profile for Aviator     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I don't use one but sure, why not?
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clersal
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posted 07 April 2003 11:44 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Nah, I have acrophobia anyway. I was just curious.
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paxamillion
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posted 07 April 2003 11:56 PM      Profile for paxamillion   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
And I have arachnophobia, which is not to be confused with anarchophobia.
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TommyPaineatWork
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posted 08 April 2003 01:15 AM      Profile for TommyPaineatWork     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I've flown on commercial jet liners about ten times, although not in the past.....18 years or so.

My fear increased with each flight. It's a full blown phobia, with irrational fears like claustrophobia and the feeling that the floor is about to open up beneath you.

Funny, I'm not claustrophobic anywhere else, nor do I have a fear of hieghts. It's a control thing.....and the lack of contingencies for things going wrong.

I like to have contingencies.

I think, however, I wouldn't be so afraid to learn to fly my own small plane, if I had the time, money and desire.

[ 08 April 2003: Message edited by: TommyPaineatWork ]


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Aviator
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posted 08 April 2003 01:40 AM      Profile for Aviator     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Small planes are wonderful. When you are in control it is the most amazing sensation. "Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth/ And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings."
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TommyPaineatWork
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posted 08 April 2003 01:51 AM      Profile for TommyPaineatWork     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
.....Sometimes I wonder if, at base, my fear is at all irrational.

A complete stranger is going to take you 35,000 feet away from the surface of the Earth, and hurtle you at great speed through a very cold atmosphere you can't even breath in if you were exposed to it.

In a vehicle with about a hundredty billion parts, maintained by someone very concerned with things like "profit".

I'm told gravity is a weak force. All the same, I'd like to keep it on my side as much as possible.


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clersal
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posted 08 April 2003 10:48 AM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Check this out paxamillion
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Michelle
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posted 08 April 2003 11:40 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I love flying. I wish I could do it more, but it's so expensive!

But I don't know how to pilot. I don't think I'm really interested in learning how - I just enjoy being a passenger.

I don't even mind turbulence. I think it feels so neat to be suspended in the air like that. After September 11th, I swore I'd never fly again because the pictures of the WTC freaked me out so badly and I had nightmares for weeks about the last moments of the people on the planes.

But I seem to have gotten over that, and I would fly again now.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Mr. Magoo
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posted 08 April 2003 11:43 AM      Profile for Mr. Magoo   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I can't deny that I'd love to fly, but since I don't even have a driver's licence, that seems a ways off.

I do have to wonder out loud though: if a city dweller gassing up an SUV for a pointless jaunt through the backroads is a waste of technology, fuel and time, how does one justify gassing up an airplane and tooling around the skies? If you want to get from point A to point B, isn't transit the better choice for most?


From: ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø, | Registered: Dec 2002  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 08 April 2003 11:47 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Most likely. Which is another reason I don't fly very often. I would rather either take the bus or a train.

A while back I went on a trip where there were no viable options other than flying or driving, because a bus would take hours upon hours with a ton of out-of-the-way routes, whereas driving was only 7 hours. A train would have ended up being something like 15 hours and a huge circle out of the way, and more expensive than driving. A plane would have been the most time-efficient way, but it cost a lot, and I felt the environmental impact of a small car would have been less.

But really, if you are going across the country, unless you have days on end to spend travelling, flying is really the only way to do it.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Mr. Magoo
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posted 08 April 2003 11:53 AM      Profile for Mr. Magoo   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Oh definitely. Although a good argument could be made for road travel or the train if you want to see a little of Canada. At any rate, I wasn't talking about taking commercial airlines - I was comparing flying a small plane for fun to driving for fun.

And just for a wee bit of thread drift: have you noticed how freakin' expensive train travel is these days? For some destinations, it makes choice of commercial airlines that much easier. A few bucks more and look at the time you save.


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Aviator
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posted 08 April 2003 12:06 PM      Profile for Aviator     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I have never enjoyed driving. Last year, I ferried a fellow pilot and a passenger up to the north part of Vancouver Island where they were to pick up another airplane. We were able to see country we would have never seen from the road.

I then carried on to Powell River and then home. The entire trip took about 4 hours. Four hours of pure heaven. And, I got to see some of the most gorgeous scenery in the world!


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Rebecca West
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posted 08 April 2003 01:33 PM      Profile for Rebecca West     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Pretty much ditto what Tommy posted. When I went parachuting, the scariest thing I had to deal with was the fact that someone other than myself had packed my chute. It's a control issue - I might love piloting a single engine Cessna, but just the thought of getting on one of those commercial leviathans of flaming death fills me with boggle-eyed panic.
From: London , Ontario - homogeneous maximus | Registered: Nov 2001  |  IP: Logged
Aviator
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posted 08 April 2003 04:28 PM      Profile for Aviator     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
I might love piloting a single engine Cessna

Absolutely! The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is one of the best aircraft ever built. I actually like the Cessna 150 as well, although my wife, who is also a pilot, calls it a "shopping cart with wings." My dream (as unpopular as it might be)is to fly a heritage warbird; preferably, a P-38 Lightning.

BTW, re: skydiving. Most pilots think there is something strange about jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.


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nonsuch
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posted 08 April 2003 08:19 PM      Profile for nonsuch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I used to love flying on big commercial airlines. I even liked the food. One time, i made myself very unpopular by looking out the window at the US (a good chunk of the real, live, beautiful country: TO to LA) instead of the stupid movie (available at video shops anywhere - sheesh!).
Driving the same route is also pretty exciting. Driving from to either coast of Canada is wonderful, too. So is the train. I've only been on small planes a couple of times, for shorter trips, and that was amazing, as well. All different experiences, and i don't regret a single kilometer.
But i wouldn't do it again, without a compelling reason.

[ 08 April 2003: Message edited by: nonesuch ]


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Aviator
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posted 08 April 2003 10:28 PM      Profile for Aviator     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What would a compelling reason be?

Incidentally, fear is always a factor in flying? If you are an alert pilot, during a flight you will ask yourself, "If I had an engine failure now, where would I do a forced landing?" Once there were was only one option: a very small stretch of beach. For me, flying over large stretches of water is always a bit disconcerting.


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oldgoat
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posted 08 April 2003 10:52 PM      Profile for oldgoat     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I took a couple of introductory flying lessons in Cessna 150's. Lotsa fun. Regrettably, I never had both the time and the money at the same time to follow through. I started skydiving in '68 in Massachusets, 'cause I was only 16, and you had to be 18 to join an affiliated club in Canada. When I turned 18 I resumed up here for a while.

For a while I had taken off in a plane many times, but only landed in one once. You wouldn't believe the junky old Cessna 172 our club had. CF-LEZ; should have been scrapped years before. (so should Jan Felkowski, the pilot) You were safer jumping out of the thing than landing in it. Haven't thought about those days in ages Aviator, thanks for reminding me.

edited to add: Aviator, if you like old planes, you may be interested to know that my first jump was out of a Norseman. Certainly not something anyone would nickname "lightning", but one of the classic old workhorse Canadian bushplanes.

[ 08 April 2003: Message edited by: oldgoat ]


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Aviator
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posted 08 April 2003 11:06 PM      Profile for Aviator     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Oh yes, the Norseman, a beautiful airplane. If you are interesting in bushplanes, I highly recommend the book Great Northern Bushplanes by Robert Grant. In fact, I made a model of the very Norsemen (FGUE) in the picture section of that book and gave it to my flight school as a gift. I'd love to fly one.

BTW, your plane FLEZ was built in 1959, and was last being operated out of Sioux Lookout, ON. I believe its certificate of registration was just cancelled late last year.

[ 08 April 2003: Message edited by: Aviator ]


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oldgoat
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posted 08 April 2003 11:10 PM      Profile for oldgoat     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
When I went parachuting, the scariest thing I had to deal with was the fact that someone other than myself had packed my chute. It's a control issue -

I first got exposed to jumping when I was 14, and my sister started. I went to the DZ with her every weekend, and got to know everyone pretty well. Sometimes I'd make a few extra bucks packing peoples parachutes for them. I can tell you that even though I always knew I had done it right, I always had a slight sense of unease when someone was up with a chute I had packed. It never bothered me to use one someone else packed.


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oldgoat
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posted 08 April 2003 11:15 PM      Profile for oldgoat     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'll keep an eye out for it. I guess you would describe a Norseman as beautiful if you were really into bushplanes. Looked like a cigar butt with a wing on it to me. I was aware of it's impressive history though. I jumped out of Orange Mass. where there was a huge commercial skydiving centre. They owned two of them. Even then, in '68, they knew they were museum pieces.
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skdadl
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posted 08 April 2003 11:27 PM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I would love to fly low in a small plane again.

I've only done that once. I was hopping from Toronto to Buffalo (medium-size jetliner: please forgive the amateur terminology, but what did I know?), then Buffalo to Rochester (wee tiny thing), then Rochester to Ithaca, NY.

I will never forget being led out of the Buffalo terminal to the wee plane that was to hop us to Rochester. There were only eight or nine other passengers, and no one else had luggage bigger than a briefcase. An overwhelmingly handsome pilot motioned me out of line, took my bags from me, and ... opened up the nose of his plane!!! Stowed my bags inside!!! skdadl melted then, and never quite recovered from the magic of that flight.

Inside the plane were sixteen seats in eight rows, we passengers separated from the pilots only by a wee curtain. The whole way, we were close enough to see the branches on the trees below. Before and since, I have always hated flying, but I could not get over how wondrous a sensation it was, to feel so close to the earth I was passing over. I was grinning ear to ear. I must have looked ridiculous. Everyone else on the flight was engrossed in documents, and skdadl was gasping and grinning at being so close to the treetops. Omigod, but that was beautiful. Really, it was.

I will confess: a few minutes into the flight, the overpoweringly handsome pilot pulled the curtain open and looked back at us. He saw the idiot grin on my face, and obviously got a kick out of giving a passenger a kick for a change.

We were supposed to go on to Ithaca on the same plane, with the same crew, after we landed at Rochester. But we sat in the Rochester waiting room for too long a time, and then someone told us that our plane had had engine trouble, and we'd be folded into a bigger plane coming from somewhere else.

Just before we got up to board the (utterly boring) jetliner that finally took us to Ithaca, the stupendously handsome pilot of my beloved but ailing wee plane walked up to me and stopped for a moment. I am such an idiot. I smiled politely, gathered my bags, and continued on to the already doomed encounter in Ithaca.

I want to fly close to the treetops again. I am so afraid in the big jets that I have to turn my mind off, but I remember the wonderful sense of connection with the earth that I had in that wee (apparently crippled) plane that flew from Buffalo to Rochester.

And, of course, I've never forgotten the lovely man who flew it.

*skdadl kicks self around block several times*


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oldgoat
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posted 09 April 2003 12:18 AM      Profile for oldgoat     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Nothing like being in a small plane skdadl. You know it's not impossible to rent one with a pilot and go for a ride, though not something most of us could afford every day. They would probably frown on my bringing a parachute. They would probably frown at you asking for an overpoweringly handsome pilot. Although if we went together, and the threesome got awkward, I could step out!

Aviator: Thanks for the info on F LEZ. It surprizes me it lasted that long, but I guess it had an overhaul or something. Used to be on a hot day it couldn't get a load of jumpers off the ground, and it seemed to go through more oil than gas. I googled our old pilot, Jan Falkowski. He was an absolute wild man, and had a lot of great war stories about being shot down with the free Polish AF. I knew he had written a book about himself, but I just found he was a fairly famous Polish ace. I always half thought he was bullshitting, but here he is, and the story is just like he told it.

http://www.stenbergaa.com/stenberg/index.html?item335c3.html

I'm really glad you started this topic. My sister was sort of acquaintences with him, I'll have to send her some pictures I found.

edited to add: it doesn't say in the story, but he crashed his own aircraft in that incident.

[ 09 April 2003: Message edited by: oldgoat ]


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skdadl
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posted 09 April 2003 12:30 AM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
One is tempted to say, oldgoat: Name the day!


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oldgoat
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posted 09 April 2003 12:38 AM      Profile for oldgoat     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Okee dokee, we'll do it sometime this summer. Toronto Island airport I guess, I'll look into prices.

How come you're up so late you morning person you? It's off to the arms of Morpheus for me.


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skdadl
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posted 09 April 2003 12:42 AM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
*illegal smile*

Lucky Morpheus.


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nonsuch
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posted 09 April 2003 01:59 AM      Profile for nonsuch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
What would a compelling reason be?

A family emergency is the only one i can think of, off-hand.
These days, i'm too aware of the destructiveness of travel by machine to do it just for fun. Maybe the next time we can afford a vacation, we'll walk or canoe. But i'd prefer a solar-powered amphibious ATV.

PS - Best flight, ever: Antigua to Montserrat in a 4-passenger plane. There were five of us, so i got to sit up front with the pilot and wear the head-phones. Wheee!

[ 09 April 2003: Message edited by: nonesuch ]


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Rebecca West
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posted 09 April 2003 10:42 AM      Profile for Rebecca West     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
BTW, re: skydiving. Most pilots think there is something strange about jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.
And most skydivers will tell you that, statistically, it's safer to jump from a plane than land in one . That said, I will not be parachuting any time in the future - that was only really fun when I was young and still believed I would live forever.

From: London , Ontario - homogeneous maximus | Registered: Nov 2001  |  IP: Logged
Aviator
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posted 09 April 2003 08:25 PM      Profile for Aviator     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Thanks for the story and link, oldgoat. I grew up with stories of military aviation. My father actually saw a zeppelin shot down over London in WWI! He actually built his own plane when he was 17. Then along came WWII. Talk about stories! Skimming the treetops in an Mosquito fighter. As unpopular as it may be, I wanted to be a fighter pilot. However, flying of any kind is pure heaven for me. I have a friend who is going to loan me his plane in exchange for the use of my vehicle. I can hardly wait
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lautreamont
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posted 09 April 2003 09:28 PM      Profile for lautreamont     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm only interested in having orange marmalade smeared onto my lower back by cheap DC hookers.
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clersal
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posted 09 April 2003 10:36 PM      Profile for clersal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Oh dear is this another alter ego??
From: Canton Marchand, Québec | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Jingles
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posted 10 April 2003 01:03 AM      Profile for Jingles     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I am a couple hours short of a commercial license, but ran. out. of ....money.

Then, since time has passed since I last flew, my medical expired.

Now, there isn't much point in getting a commercial license when there aren't any jobs, unless you want to work for Osama (But he has a terrible dental plan).

Even flying a 172 is too damn expensive.


From: At the Delta of the Alpha and the Omega | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
Flowers By Irene
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posted 11 April 2003 12:45 AM      Profile for Flowers By Irene     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I haven't been in a plane in years, last time think I was ... 12? That would be a 737, when my family went to Florida... or rather, I guess, coming home from Florida.

Funny, I can't remember either of those flights really at all. Must've been quite boring.

I do remember, though, the three previous times I've flown quite well. When I was 9, and my family had gone up north (I'm not sure exactly where in N.O. we were - most summers we spent on Manitoulin, but that summer we also stayed for two weeks somewhere else, all I know for sure it was North of Lake Huron) for part of the summer, a friend of my Pa's was around and showing off his new toy - a 5 seater-something-or-other with pontoons.

I remember quite well walking out to the end of the dock, more excited than you'd think a nine-year old could get, and flying over the forests, lakes, and occasional logging road; at times quite low, barely above the trees, at times it seemed from the very top of the sky - on three separate absolutely beautiful August afternoons.

I haven't really thought about it lately, but now I want to fly again.


From: "To ignore the facts, does not change the facts." -- Andy Rooney | Registered: Aug 2002  |  IP: Logged
Aviator
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posted 13 April 2003 12:41 PM      Profile for Aviator     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Jingles, get that CPL! There is going to be a "block retirement" of aging pilots in the next few years. All the CP's that I know are working. Mind you that means flying in places like La Ronge, Thompson, etc.
From: British Columbia | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
Aviator
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posted 13 April 2003 12:49 PM      Profile for Aviator     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Pilot humor. There are three things in aviation that are absolutely useless:

1. Runway behind you.

2. Altitude above you.

3. Gas left in the pump.

And, remember, every take off is optional, but every landing is mandatory.


From: British Columbia | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged

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