This is sorta cool, Air Traffic

[bruceb58]

Those remind me of some of the old Grumman single engine planes.

Problem is, they are still over $100K by the time you get done. May have to work a few more years to pay for one.

 

[aspeck]

Very cool website, BTW... Makes me go back in time ... learned to fly in a Piper Cub. Then moved to a Cessna 170 before going to the Cessna Piper under wing design. Sure did like flying the underwings better than the overwings ... but that was another life ago. No time or finances to pick it up again ... I will let the flying to the professionals that do it almost daily and can keep their skills honed.

 

[bruceb58]

Very cool website, BTW... Makes me go back in time ... learned to fly in a Piper Cub. Then moved to a Cessna 170 before going to the Cessna Piper under wing design.

Me too except i started out in a Cessna 150 then moved onto the other 2 planes.

My uncle flys an RV-6 and my cousin flys an RV-7. Both are ex military pilots. They love their planes.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Those remind me of some of the old Grumman single engine planes.

Except the Grummans (designed by Jim Bede) were largely junk......pretty poorly made
and the trainer (the AA-1 which really wasn't intended to be a trainer) you would expect to do spin training in, wouldn't recover if you exceeded 3 turns or so. (probably became accelerated)
I suspect that could have been "fixed" but it would have required enough of a redesign to change the CG far enough forward (and a LOT more elevator authority) so as to prevent an accelerated flat spin.


I know a LOT of people who are either building or have built RV's (one co-worker of mine and his wife just died in one in UTAH in the last few months.....very sad)

ALL the RV's are VERY well designed and properly built, are pretty safe in the right hands. A lot of people I know who have built them, spent a LOT of money on them and were fairly old by the time the thing was completed. After you build one, it's not worth the $$ you have in it. If I was going to blow $100K on an airplane, I would probably get an older Bonanza or T-210.

On the other hand, I don't want an airplane to go somewhere. I would rather just fly around in something a LOT slower(& cheaper) Something like a CHAMP, Luscomb, Vagabond, Pacer, Stinson etc.

Like this one!

 

[dwco5051]

Raystown Lake is in the flyway for the military guys. They use it for training in the late fall through early spring. About a half dozen years ago I was hunting on the point of a ridgeline looking down a very steep drop into the lake when an A-10 came over the top of the ridge through the cut, banked hard, BELOW me, and headed down lake. Midway through the pilot's bank we made eye contact. I could clearly see all the gauges in the cockpit. It was awesome. The pilot looked a little startled, looking UP, eye to eye at about 30-40 yards with a redneck with a gun! Definitely an exhilarating feeling!

About 20 years ago one of the secretaries from work and I decided to go for a flight over to Raystown Lake. For those not familiar with the lake it is narrow, serpentine and about 20 some miles long. And I was cruising along about 500 feet above the water heading towards one of the bends she let out a yell and I looked up to see two A-10s knife edging around the bend in front of me at about the same height. They were up and over me and then dropped back down before I could really react. She laughed about it but I was just about speechless. When I recovered I told her how embarrassing it could have been if we did collide since we both had called off sick that day.

 

[aspeck]

About 20 years ago one of the secretaries from work and I decided to go for a flight over to Raystown Lake. For those not familiar with the lake it is narrow, serpentine and about 20 some miles long. And I was cruising along about 500 feet above the water heading towards one of the bends she let out a yell and I looked up to see two A-10s knife edging around the bend in front of me at about the same height. They were up and over me and then dropped back down before I could really react. She laughed about it but I was just about speechless. When I recovered I told her how embarrassing it could have been if we did collide since we both had called off sick that day.

Having watched those planes fly the lake, I can see that happening ... good way to soil your shorts!

 

[southkogs]

On the other hand, I don't want an airplane to go somewhere. I would rather just fly around in something a LOT slower(& cheaper) Something like a CHAMP, Luscomb, Vagabond, Pacer, Stinson etc

To be honest - in those "every once in a while" moments when I think it'd be cool to get license and go for it, I really come back to soaring. I get to fly quite a bit in a C182, some in the 172 and I've got plenty of time with Dad back in the 150s too. But the handful of times I've been up in gliders, I have just loved the nature of that kind of flying. VERY relaxing.

 

[bruceb58]

After you build one, it's not worth the $$ you have in it. If I was going to blow $100K on an airplane, I would probably get an older Bonanza or T-210.

I talked myself out of doing it 15 years ago for that very reason.

I am on a Van's facebook page so I am seeing all the work going on and it put a bug in me again.

 

[GA_Boater]

I used to follow builds on Vans before Facebook. It's probably good that I had no money to build one. :blue: and :joyous:

 

[bruceb58]

There was one builder I followed who eventually crashed....

 

[HT32BSX115]

There was one builder I followed who eventually crashed....

Unfortunately, a LOT of the people who build medium to high performance airplanes do not have enough experience to safely operate them.

 

[bruceb58]

Unfortunately, a LOT of the people who build medium to high performance airplanes do not have enough experience to safely operate them.

Yeah, and I have no experience with constant speed prop. Definitely have to check the ego at the door before getting into it.

I would definitely build a nose dragger

 

[bruceb58]

When my uncle finished his RV6 he got some insurance quotes. Harder I guess since it is a tail dragger. When he was asked by the first company how much experience he had with tail draggers, he said "Does xxxx hours flying a U2 count"? He was the chief test pilot for the U2 at Lockheed. They said...uhhhh..sure!

 

[bassman284]

Raystown Lake is in the flyway for the military guys. They use it for training in the late fall through early spring. About a half dozen years ago I was hunting on the point of a ridgeline looking down a very steep drop into the lake when an A-10 came over the top of the ridge through the cut, banked hard, BELOW me, and headed down lake. Midway through the pilot's bank we made eye contact. I could clearly see all the gauges in the cockpit. It was awesome. The pilot looked a little startled, looking UP, eye to eye at about 30-40 yards with a redneck with a gun! Definitely an exhilarating feeling!

I don't tell this often because people tend to look at me like I'm a nut, but here goes.

Back in 1980 or so (five or take a year), I was driving a semi on regional delivery in eastern Iowa. One day I was driving eastbound on a county road and came over a hill and saw a B-52 cross my path southbound. Below me. I literally stopped breathing. That thing was no more than 100 feet off the deck and just motoring along.

I spent a little time at a couple of 52 bases when I was in the Air Force and I truly love that airplane. It's fun to watch whatever it's doing, even sitting on the ground.. I found out later that they had been practicing low level flights Iowa and Missouri around that time.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Yeah, and I have no experience with constant speed prop. Definitely have to check the ego at the door before getting into it.

I would definitely build a nose dragger

Not much that's very complicated operating a CS prop. The RV's are pretty docile as tail-draggers go.......Lot of them have fixed-pitch props too.

 

[dwco5051]

Back in the early ?90s I was flying on a regular basis with a good friend who had a Starduster 2. He was a CFI and was always looking for someone to travel to airshows or just to other airports to visit his old buddies so I was getting free aerobatic training in exchange. We had a mutual friend who was building an Acroduster in a two car garage in his house. Since I was only 4 years away from being partially retired I figured I would build my own plane with all the free time I would have. Step number one was to build a 36 x 48 garage and shop to have more room so I would not have to store the wings in the basement as our friend was doing.

Fast forward three years ? my big open garage now contained 2 boats, 2 tractors, a golfcart, and several other projects all unfinished. Some how I realized that maybe the task of building an airplane was a dream that was to go unfulfilled. Then I got married again and the deal was sealed, no airplane. The bright side is that one of the boats has been finished and someday I may get the other projects finished.

 

[southkogs]

He was the chief test pilot for the U2 at Lockheed.

He's got some stories! I know a guy who was one of the test pilots for the F22. Crazy cool tales told.

One day I was driving eastbound on a county road and came over a hill and saw a B-52 cross my path southbound. Below me. I literally stopped breathing. That thing was no more than 100 feet off the deck and just motoring along.

I've seen some pretty cool low pass stuff like that at air shows in days gone by, and heard plenty of similar tales of things that happened out at Red Flag. The big busses don't always get the credit they deserve for the performance they can deliver.