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Went flying today

Started by Frickman, May 07, 2006, 09:05:46 PM

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Frickman

I haven't flown in anything in about fifteen years, I enjoy driving where I need to go. A friend/customer has been bugging me to go flying with him at the local airport. Well today I went out to his hanger and took him up on it. He has several aircraft, including a home-built plane from a kit we flew today. Wow, what an experience! It's a two seater, with two sets of controls. This fellow is a part-time instructor, and he let me take the stick for awhile.  I think he did a bad thing though, because now I want one!

I still can't get over how at our local community airport he can just say "Let's go flying today" and go. I thought there needed to be flight plans filed with the FAA and all kinds of things like that. All he did was radio the tower/office when we were about to take off and when we were approaching to land. This was mostly just to alert other pilots in the area he said. There is no commercial traffic at this airport, only general aviation aircraft.

There was one neat thing I thought about this flying thing. It seems to be a great way to find timber. As has been mentioned elsewhere on the forum, cruising timber through the windshield at 55 mph is an effective way to locate stands. Today though I saw alot of woodlots that are not visible from any road. This particular plane uses about three gallons fuel / hour, so it's fairly cheap to operate, and can cover more ground. I think that a small plane may be in my future.  ;)
If you're not broke down once in a while, you're not working hard enough

I'm not a hillbilly. I'm an "Appalachian American"

Retired  Conventional hand-felling logging operation with cable skidder and forwarder, Frick 01 handset sawmill

Pretend farmer when I have the time

DanG

Oh DanG, Frickman!  You done been bit by a bug even more worser than the dreaded sawmilling bug.  Ya better start saving up yer pennies, 'cause the cost of fuel don't even begin to scratch the surface.  Dat bein' sed, however, I sometimes wish I weren't too cheap to get back into it. :-\
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

woodbowl

What kind of plane was it? Did you get any pics?
Full time custom sawing at the customers site since 1995.  WoodMizer LT40 Super Hyd.

scsmith42

Frickman, there is nothing else like it. Enjoy!

Scott
Peterson 10" WPF with 65' of track
Smith - Gallagher dedicated slabber
Tom's 3638D Baker band mill
and a mix of log handling heavy equipment.

Ron Wenrich

Just make sure you take a topo map along so you can mark all those stands you find.  Most of them are probably state land.   ;)
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Ianab

Our local airfield is like that, VFR and radio
Main airport 30 miles north isn't used much by the hobby fliers, costs too much for air traffic control.
We regularly have aerobatic shows from the local guys in their Yak trainers (big rotary engine Russian trainers) and the occasional buzz by one of the Warbirds jets. :)

If you want real flying go up with a crop duster to show him the bounderies.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=5951.0
That was an interesting flight.. saw plenty of trees as the pilot was dodging thru them.  :o

Cheers

Ian
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

scsmith42

IanAb - great link - thanks for sharing.
Peterson 10" WPF with 65' of track
Smith - Gallagher dedicated slabber
Tom's 3638D Baker band mill
and a mix of log handling heavy equipment.

Qweaver

Hey Frickman,

General avation aircraft are just so DanG expensive to maintain.  As in your friends case, a homebuilt helps reduce costs, but who has time to build one?  There is a fairly new class of pilots license and class of aircraft that is far cheaper to maintain and the license is easier to get and maintain.  It's called sport pilot.   All of the info is readily available on line so I won't go into detail here.

Now that my back (and the doctors) have put my skydiving days at an end, I'm looking at the sport pilot as my way to get back into the air. 

These are real airplanes, not ultralights, that will allow you to do almost anything that you can do in a GA plane.  Some of the restrictions are, VFR, 2 place, can not exceed 1300 lbs gross and a speed max that I can't remember for sure, but I think it was 120 knots. 

These can be had new for as little as $70,000, so shared between a buddy or two, they become doable.

I fully intend to be flying one of these by next summer.

Quinton
So Many Toys...So Little Time  WM LT28 , 15 trailers, Case 450 Dozer, John Deere 110 TLB, Peterson WPF 10",  AIM Grapple, Kubota 2501 :D

sawguy21

I flew into a logging camp in a piston Beaver on floats.  Landing and taking off in that narrow channel was an eye opener to say the least as there was a cross wind. :o
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

Frickman

Ron W.,

Next time I'm taking a regular road map, like the Pennsylvania Atlas and Gazateer that shows all the back roads and is relatively large scale. None of this timber is state ground. We were flying over a mixture of farms and other private rural ground with small and medium size tracts scattered everywhere. This is the timber that I specialize in cutting. I leave the big state tracts to the big boys.  The road map will enable me to go back in my pickup and to locate the owners in courthouse records.

Woodbowl and Qweaver,

This plane is one of those sport pilot deals. It is made by an outfit called RANS I think. It had a water-cooled, Rotax engine that used about three gallons an hour. The pilot, my buddy, is liscensed to teach in these planes, so I know where to go for instruction.  ;) ;) He's already helped about twenty or so folks get their liscense. The plane came in a box for about $16,000 he said, and took a couple hundred hours to build. The airframe/chassis was already welded and powder coated and the skin pieces were cut out and sewn. He built everything else except for things like the motor, radios, etc. He even built and upholstered the seats.

He said that his main ongoing expense is hanger rental, $250.00/month at this airport. Fuel is $3.40 / gallon right now. At that price, and the rate you use it, it makes more sense to scout for timber in the air than on the ground. Even with the extensive system of roads in our area there are many places you can't see from the road. I got to see alot of these yesterday and plan on going back.

I got the sawmill bug bad DanG. Maybe it will help pay for the flying bug. ;)
If you're not broke down once in a while, you're not working hard enough

I'm not a hillbilly. I'm an "Appalachian American"

Retired  Conventional hand-felling logging operation with cable skidder and forwarder, Frick 01 handset sawmill

Pretend farmer when I have the time

toxedo_2000

Hi Frickman
I fly too. Had a hydroplane for 20 years, and now a Robinson helicopter R44. And I saw too !
You loved to fly ? You're cooked !
But if you learn how to,  you'll like it like nothing else on earth
Enjoy
Toxedo
Toxedo
Why walk when you can fly

sawguy21

That R44 is a cool helicopter. My former employer used them for seismic support and training as they were a lot cheaper to fly than the turbine jobs. Yer having too much fun. :D :D
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

UNCLEBUCK

Enjoy your flying Frickman , you can get a very nice cessna 150 for around 15 grand that flies slow and is all windows and good resale and a a darn good trainer . Have a safe summer in the sky ok  ;D
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

Engineer

There's a guy over on Fine Homebuilding magazine's forum, Stan Foster, who runs a gyrocopter out of somewhere in the midwest.  He's always posting photos of his machine or while in flight, it's something I'd love to do.    I tried getting my pilot's license in college but couldn't stay awake in class.... :( :-\

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