Learning to Fly

[doorgunner]

85_.............Yep...........I really regret not taking flying lessons back in the day when a Commercial license (did i say that right?) was only $1,550 American.................

 

[UpStandingMember]

I thought about trying for a license, but that's a hell of a lot of money.

I'm studying for an A&P license now, so I can work on the aircraft. I've been working on helicopters mostly for the past 16 or 17 years. Military birds, and I'm a civilian contractor, so I haven't needed to have the license. But hopefully very soon I'll be working on civilian aircraft. That's when I'll need the license.

 

[doorgunner]

I thought about trying for a license, but that's a hell of a lot of money.

I'm studying for an A&P license now, so I can work on the aircraft. I've been working on helicopters mostly for the past 16 or 17 years. Military birds, and I'm a civilian contractor, so I haven't needed to have the license. But hopefully very soon I'll be working on civilian aircraft. That's when I'll need the license.

Great!!!! another thang for me to regret....I didn't study for my civilian license.....din't even take the test when I got out of the Arrrr-meee....made 1/2 the hourly pay as the other aircraft mechanixs made!!!!

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

85_.............Yep...........I really regret not taking flying lessons back in the day when a Commercial license (did i say that right?) was only $1,550 American.................

Money counted for more back then too though.

Just like today, that would $1500 would have put a heck of a dent in the price of a new car back then.

 

[fastpakr]

I spent most of my childhood planning to fly. Growing up my grandfather invested a lot of time in my sister and I, and in the process I was engrossed in the stories of him learning to fly at a junior college not long before World War II. As I recall, he was finishing up a science class when the teacher approached him and offered to give him flight lessons for free because the school's flight program was about to be terminated because of low enrollment. From there he took an commission in the Army Air Corps and spent the duration of the war as a transport pilot flying basically every type of plane we used in the war. After the war he worked with the FAA for a couple of years before taking a job as the pilot for Conwood Corporation out of Memphis, flying a twin beech and eventually a Lear 23 for the next couple of decades before retirement.

All that to say, while I didn't end up being a pilot it's always been a fascination. My current goal is to get our house and student loans paid off, then start flying lessons and the process of building a kit plane (currently interested in the Cozy Mk-IV).

 

[Will]

When my wife talked me into getting out of the marines so she could go to grad school, I somehow ended up in a A&P program. I finished the airframe and then she finished grad school and I never worked in the field. One thing I was amazed by was how little you actually have to learn to get licensed, and how much of your real training comes in the field after you get hired somewhere. We had to learn how to dope fabric on a Piper Cub and rivet patches into a Cessna Citation--the largest plane at the school. Doping fabric and gas welding steel tubing is archaic knowledge in the current fleet. My year at that school played a large part in my decision to avoid airplanes. You get licensed to work on 50 year old technology, and then sent out to apprentice on real planes. I'm guessing that Boeing and such offers lots of training schools for follow-up education for A&Ps. The school I went to would have in no way prepared me for duty on a modern airliner. I can form and rivet a beautiful patch on an aluminum wing, but a Beech Bonanza isn't a Boeing 777.

As my grandma (who would be 108 this year had she lived, bless her soul) used to say, "Lord bless us and spare us."

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

When my wife talked me into getting out of the marines so she could go to grad school, I somehow ended up in a A&P program. I finished the airframe and then she finished grad school and I never worked in the field. One thing I was amazed by was how little you actually have to learn to get licensed, and how much of your real training comes in the field after you get hired somewhere. We had to learn how to dope fabric on a Piper Cub and rivet patches into a Cessna Citation--the largest plane at the school. Doping fabric and gas welding steel tubing is archaic knowledge in the current fleet. My year at that school played a large part in my decision to avoid airplanes. You get licensed to work on 50 year old technology, and then sent out to apprentice on real planes. I'm guessing that Boeing and such offers lots of training schools for follow-up education for A&Ps. The school I went to would have in no way prepared me for duty on a modern airliner. I can form and rivet a beautiful patch on an aluminum wing, but a Beech Bonanza isn't a Boeing 777.

As my grandma (who would be 108 this year had she lived, bless her soul) used to say, "Lord bless us and spare us."

That was more than a couple years ago though wasn't it? It is kind of a lot to expect training whenever that was to apply to future things.

There are still a lot of older planes out there... I would say on average they have outlived cars of the same year. Not to mention it is a safer means of travel.

 

[tandangerranger]

I am currently in A&P school. I am about to test for my airframe liscense. Although we are still learning the old airframe techniques, we also have learned alot of new techniques like working with composites. I believe that since there are still so many older aircraft flying now, they need to cover the older techniques....On another note I decided to go skydiving this past weekend. It was much harder getting into a crappy cessna 182 that looked like it was about to fall apart to go up 10k feet than it was to jump. Being in A&P school makes me look at aircraft a little differently now.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I am currently in A&P school. I am about to test for my airframe liscense. Although we are still learning the old airframe techniques, we also have learned alot of new techniques like working with composites. I believe that since there are still so many older aircraft flying now, they need to cover the older techniques....On another note I decided to go skydiving this past weekend. It was much harder getting into a crappy cessna 182 that looked like it was about to fall apart to go up 10k feet than it was to jump. Being in A&P school makes me look at aircraft a little differently now.

Is there a better time to ride in a crappy airplane than when you have a parachute?

Might even help you gain the extra courage to jump out rather than brave the landing.