LoneAspen
Line Up and Wait
I've been lurking for a while here, figured it was time to finally make a post and collect some thoughts. Apologies for the long post, but I'm in a stream-of-consciousness mood right now
First, a little about me and my background. I'm 46, living in the Silicon Valley area, and work a fairly stressful and time-consuming job at a startup which leaves me very little free time. I hope to be able to quit this job in early 2015 and if everything goes well, take a break from the IT world for a couple years, move back to Colorado, and enjoy some of the outdoor activities I've been wanting to do for many years but haven't been able to because of work (hiking, backpacking, skiing, etc).
I've a VERY independent person. Never married, don't have kids, was always able to pick up, move, and be mobile if needed as I changed jobs. Also, as I've gotten older, I've developed a sense of wanderlust and want to do more traveling down the road, especially to outdoorsy places like our national parks, ski resorts, etc.
I had never really had an interest in flying until a few months ago, when I started paying attention to all the GA aircraft passing over my house (I live very close to the Reid-Hillview airport in San Jose) and it dawned on me the incredible level of freedom having your own plane provides.
I HATE commercial air travel. HATE it. Thank goodness, I never had to travel much for business. Dealing with airlines, security, taking off shoes, delays, packed like cattle into economy class, crying babies...I can't deal with it, which is one reason I don't travel more for personal reasons than I do right now.
But the thought of getting up in the morning and saying, "I want to fly to Jackson Hole" today, and just flying your own plane there on your own schedule fits right in with my personality. I'm surprised I never took an interest in GA aviation before now. I guess it took the planes flying overhead for the light bulb to go on
So now, I'm borderline obsessed with the thought of starting training, but...
I kind of don't want to do it here in San Jose. I don't really have the time or money to really commit to it right now, but what's gnawing at me even more is, I kind of want to wait until I'm back in Colorado.
I'm not really that enthused with San Jose or the south bay, and it is not in my plans to stay here. I'm just here for my job. So in that respect, learning to fly in suburban San Jose doesn't have that much appeal to me. It just wouldn't seem as "magical" to me.
However, once I go back to Colorado, hopefully up in the mountains somewhere (think Summit, Eagle, or Pitkin counties), I would LOVE to learn to fly there, plus I'd have the free time and money to really commit to it - I could fly as often as needed to learn and develop skills. I would also plan on getting my IR afterwards, just to have those skills up in the mountains (not because I have a burning desire to fly a lot in IMC). But I have no plans to be one of those pilots who loses situational awareness in weather, so would want that training.
But I've read some folks' opinions that it's not good to learn up in the mountains. Especially at a place like Eagle County airport, which I guess landed on the History Channel's list of most extreme airports (yikes!).
Wanted to get peoples' views on that here. Has anybody here learned to fly in mountainous areas like Colorado high country, and what were your experiences?
Also, I'm not sure I'd want to stick with a piston single aircraft when it came time to get my own (assuming I'm financially able to get my own plane of course). I've read a TON of posts on the topic, but the engineer part of me keeps whispering in my ear that I'd rather have a piston twin or a turboprop for the safety factor.
I doubt I could afford to buy and pay the operating costs of a turboprop, however. Not to mention being able to work up enough experience to even be able to get insured for it. So I'd probably work my way into a piston twin. And yes, I've read a lot of articles about how the piston twin market is decreasing/dead, but it still has appeal to me as long as I could keep my skills high in the event of an engine out scenario. I've been doing a lot of reading about the Diamond DA42 NG, which I think would fit my mission profile very well: just me, light gear (skis, camping equipment, etc), trips under 1000nm, and it seems to have relatively good operating costs and GPH with Jet-A.
Anyway, I know this has been quite the ramble, but just wanted to start off with a healthy post #1 explaining what I'm looking forward to, and if anybody cares to throw some thoughts out there, I sure would appreciate reading them.
Thanks, and happy flying!
First, a little about me and my background. I'm 46, living in the Silicon Valley area, and work a fairly stressful and time-consuming job at a startup which leaves me very little free time. I hope to be able to quit this job in early 2015 and if everything goes well, take a break from the IT world for a couple years, move back to Colorado, and enjoy some of the outdoor activities I've been wanting to do for many years but haven't been able to because of work (hiking, backpacking, skiing, etc).
I've a VERY independent person. Never married, don't have kids, was always able to pick up, move, and be mobile if needed as I changed jobs. Also, as I've gotten older, I've developed a sense of wanderlust and want to do more traveling down the road, especially to outdoorsy places like our national parks, ski resorts, etc.
I had never really had an interest in flying until a few months ago, when I started paying attention to all the GA aircraft passing over my house (I live very close to the Reid-Hillview airport in San Jose) and it dawned on me the incredible level of freedom having your own plane provides.
I HATE commercial air travel. HATE it. Thank goodness, I never had to travel much for business. Dealing with airlines, security, taking off shoes, delays, packed like cattle into economy class, crying babies...I can't deal with it, which is one reason I don't travel more for personal reasons than I do right now.
But the thought of getting up in the morning and saying, "I want to fly to Jackson Hole" today, and just flying your own plane there on your own schedule fits right in with my personality. I'm surprised I never took an interest in GA aviation before now. I guess it took the planes flying overhead for the light bulb to go on
So now, I'm borderline obsessed with the thought of starting training, but...
I kind of don't want to do it here in San Jose. I don't really have the time or money to really commit to it right now, but what's gnawing at me even more is, I kind of want to wait until I'm back in Colorado.
I'm not really that enthused with San Jose or the south bay, and it is not in my plans to stay here. I'm just here for my job. So in that respect, learning to fly in suburban San Jose doesn't have that much appeal to me. It just wouldn't seem as "magical" to me.
However, once I go back to Colorado, hopefully up in the mountains somewhere (think Summit, Eagle, or Pitkin counties), I would LOVE to learn to fly there, plus I'd have the free time and money to really commit to it - I could fly as often as needed to learn and develop skills. I would also plan on getting my IR afterwards, just to have those skills up in the mountains (not because I have a burning desire to fly a lot in IMC). But I have no plans to be one of those pilots who loses situational awareness in weather, so would want that training.
But I've read some folks' opinions that it's not good to learn up in the mountains. Especially at a place like Eagle County airport, which I guess landed on the History Channel's list of most extreme airports (yikes!).
Wanted to get peoples' views on that here. Has anybody here learned to fly in mountainous areas like Colorado high country, and what were your experiences?
Also, I'm not sure I'd want to stick with a piston single aircraft when it came time to get my own (assuming I'm financially able to get my own plane of course). I've read a TON of posts on the topic, but the engineer part of me keeps whispering in my ear that I'd rather have a piston twin or a turboprop for the safety factor.
I doubt I could afford to buy and pay the operating costs of a turboprop, however. Not to mention being able to work up enough experience to even be able to get insured for it. So I'd probably work my way into a piston twin. And yes, I've read a lot of articles about how the piston twin market is decreasing/dead, but it still has appeal to me as long as I could keep my skills high in the event of an engine out scenario. I've been doing a lot of reading about the Diamond DA42 NG, which I think would fit my mission profile very well: just me, light gear (skis, camping equipment, etc), trips under 1000nm, and it seems to have relatively good operating costs and GPH with Jet-A.
Anyway, I know this has been quite the ramble, but just wanted to start off with a healthy post #1 explaining what I'm looking forward to, and if anybody cares to throw some thoughts out there, I sure would appreciate reading them.
Thanks, and happy flying!