OT Tigers must like airplanes! They're both fast!

[Speed3guy]

With screen names like aeronca and Jetdocx, there seems to be a lot of aviation folks on this site.  Speaking of aeronca, I learned to fly in a 1946 Aeronca Champ.  Currently flying an RV-8A I built myself.

Any other Tiger / aviation buffs around?

Guy

[HappyMan]

I'm not but I've known a lot of pilots that ride.  They have all seemed to agree that riding a bike is like flying on the ground.  They didn't mean speed but the freedom.  

[Speed3guy]

Here's my baby:  

Wow.  This is way off topic--I'm just amazed at how many people love airplanes and motorcycles both...



Also, here's a link to a build process and first flight video:

[aeronca]

sweet plane you have there. i havent flown in years(no money), but the last plane i was flying was an old 1946 champ with a 75 horse conversion. fun bird to fly low and slow, maybe do a few lazy 8's. but now i spend most of my life(it seems) just working on big people haulin turds :)   thank god for motorcycles

[paulie]

nice thread

and yes, i've been interested in aviation since i was a kid putting airplane models together with my old man.

i've started training for a PPL twice in my life (i'm still under 30), but never finished for various reasons. but i love it, and will get it someday!

though only things i've flown by myself thus far are a Cessna 152 and a Piper Warrior. i was handed controls of a cirrus by my instructor while i was riding along on a mission shuttling a plane to a different airport, what a fun (and FAST) machine that is.

i completely agree though, the freedom of flying is similar to that of being on a motorcycle.. and its quite an addictive property.






Here's a couple pics of a cross country flight - pics taken by a fellow student in the back:


Getting departure info


Just after rotating:


My home airport(KMSN) from above


Taxiing at KPVB, our destination that day(yes, thats me in the left seat 8))

[JetdocX]

I hate airplanes.  I ride to forget about them.

[EvilBetty]

You hate airplanes, or you hate airlines?

If the later I whole heartily agree...

[TigerTrax]

My last 30 days in Navy Heavy Attack squadron ( I was an AE )...
our XO walked out to the flight line one gorgeous night in Florida....
he says to me, " Hey, your name came across my desk today.... are getting out?" "Yesssir."

He says.... " You ever been up in one of these?"
"Nossir."
He says, "you're checked out air crew... go get a suit and a hat."
"Nossir"
He says, " Why not?"
I says, "I know some of the people who work on these planes!"

He chuckled....
Jumped in the RA5C Vigilante.... puttered down the taxiway.....
Came roaring down the runway... lifted up .... then pulled the fuel dump
and left a trail of fire behind him..... circled the base and landed.

The OOD was waiting for him: Grounded 90 days and had to requalify all of his day & night landings, carrier traps, and target exercises.

The last 6 months I was in I turned down the opportunity to join the Blue Angels as an electrician.... it killed me to do so.... but I was ready to get out and not re-enlist. ( I got out Aug 1968 )

In my motorcycle rider school one night a student says, " You had to have been in the NAVY, the terms you use." We talked awhile. I had been on 6 carriers.... he had been a Top Gun instructor and Tomcat pilot instructor in Great Britain. Then he said, "you ever see the movie Top Gun.. ?  I said yep.... the first 15 minutes are my favorite... just pump the jet exhausts in the theater!

He says, next time you see it, check the credits. He and another Top Gunner did most of the flying scenes: Cmdr Charles Lewis call sign
'Silver Fox'.

Hope you enjoyed my windedness.
My wife says, " You can find a plane in the sky.... but can't find the way out of sopping mall!"

[Stretch]

I love airplanes, but hate riding in them.

My first fire service job was four years on a crash crew.

[JetdocX]

You hate airplanes, or you hate airlines?

If the later I whole heartily agree...

Both.

[aeronca]

thats the problem with working on them for a living - they start to suck the life out of you. but they are also like a drug, or a gang, once you enter the world of aviation, you usualy never get out. as much as i would love a different career, i couldnt imagine doing anything else, except maybe flying a beaver or supercub on floats. any float pilots out there?

[Kiwi Tiger]

When I was a younger was we used to shoot for export and later live catch for farming Red Deer in the mountains of New Zealand with in a chopper.  It was great fun, dangerous but fun all the same.

Riding my Tiger reminds me of flying flat out skimming the treetops over the bush and clearings.  Closest thing to flying I can think of.

[oxnsox]

You should post a link to any footage of this... it'd be an eye opener for most

[flux]

I thought my wife and I were going to die in an airplane last year.  

Long story made short:  A formation of military craft was flying directly at our airliner leaving from Phoenix.  Our pilot was forced to make an evasive maneuver which sent the plane downward so fast that the stewardesses (or whatever) were airborne for a second.  People started screaming and crying and the lady behind me I could hear her start to pray to God.  My wife and I reached for each other's hands and not a word was said.  I looked out the window and saw nothing but earth.  The plane suddenly banked hard left and righted itself and settled down.  Scared the ever loving SHIT out of everyone on the plane, but the pilot did his job, and I shook his hand and thanked him for a job well done on the way off the plane.  

I hated flying before that and I have not been in a plane since.  When I do, I will have consumed a good amount of rum fo' sho'.

[Kiwi Tiger]

http://www.nzlandscapes.co.nz/image/149 ... -at-sunset

after that click on helecopters for some more images.  Stunning.