things you do as a pilot

Acrodustertoo said:
I will trip over furniture to get to the window/door to see what aircraft is flying over. At work I will run out of the shop to see passing aircraft.
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Anytime I hear a radial flying I'll run out. A couple of Mustangs in the area, occasionally hear one fly over. I get a rise every time. Hearing the Mustang that is. :D
 
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-Down country roads I treat the divider lines as center lines. I actually learned this from my grandmother who did that for a smoother road.
- every plane that flies by is a stop look and Flightradar24 to see where they are coming from.
- I do a walk around of my car everyday before I drive off looking for appropriate tire pressures and anything unusual.
- I drive an all electric car and have a range chart. I use it anytime I drive more than ~80 miles along with resetting the odometer and miles per kw gauge.
 
deonb said:
E as in Oscar
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Someone at work heard me using the phonetic alphabet for my last name on a call and then later asked "have you ever thought about messing around and saying something like "J as in Apple, M as in car.."

Kritchlow said:
i often find myself accidentally equating flying to driving
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We rented a car that had a CVT transmission in it... it reminded me of a CS prop.. the engine would just hang out at say 3,000 RPM while merging and the car would accelerate. I didn't actually like it for driving though..
 
Driving anywhere with my wife out of town- if there is an airport around I always ask if we can go check it out. Well that and breweries.

It's to the point where she will want to go somewhere I won't want to go, but she'll tell me if I'm good we can go see planes and you can even have a beer...... Gets me every time! :)
 
@neilw2 I gave up on the "checkout the airport" thing with non pilots because the reaction is always one of bewilderment... "and do what?" HOWEVER, San Diego's Montgomery field has two decent restaurants that overlook the field. Casa Machado is an okay Mexican place with bar that's up on the second floor of a building overlooking the ramp. Squadron doesn't have as good of a view but is known for their prime rib
 
Tantalum said:
@neilw2 I gave up on the "checkout the airport" thing with non pilots because the reaction is always one of bewilderment... "and do what?" HOWEVER, San Diego's Montgomery field has two decent restaurants that overlook the field. Casa Machado is an okay Mexican place with bar that's up on the second floor of a building overlooking the ramp. Squadron doesn't have as good of a view but is known for their prime rib
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Yea, for some reason my wife seems to put up with it. I guess she knew what she was getting into as I was a plane obsessed pilot before we were married.

But as far as other non-pilots your totally right
 
neilw2 said:
Yea, for some reason my wife seems to put up with it. I guess she knew what she was getting into as I was a plane obsessed pilot before we were married.

But as far as other non-pilots your totally right
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My wife (aaaahhh) knows I am hopelessly into airplanes and aviation. I am glad - she tolerates way too much from me :p

When I get current and back to the level of competency I am comfortable with, I'll take her flying. She is eager to go which is fantastic, and she's sharp as a tack. Confident she could be a great pilot, maybe even better than me!
 
Shepherd said:
...She says I scared the crap out of my son's girlfriend by screaming "Break left, break left, break left!" at the the top of my lungs while watching "God is my Co-pilot" for the 100th time....
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I recently read the book by that name. It was a good read.
 
Zeldman said:
And while in the process of sitting down, retro rockets fired...
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I may have to start announcing on my make believe intercom:
Hello passengers....We are experiencing some tailwind turbulence. Please use your oxygen masks at this time.
 
neilw2 said:
Driving anywhere with my wife out of town- if there is an airport around I always ask if we can go check it out. Well that and breweries.

It's to the point where she will want to go somewhere I won't want to go, but she'll tell me if I'm good we can go see planes and you can even have a beer...... Gets me every time! :)
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LOL. We do this too. If I see an airport sign on a road trip, she knows we're pulling in. Once in a while you catch something so awesome sitting on the ramp it's jaw dropping. Usually not. But if we're on time and schedule, the vehicle is pulling in for at least a quick look.
 
This is an excellent thread! I was amazed at how many of these things I actually do.
 
capg2000 said:
I created a monster... I had the unique opportunity to take my 6 mos old granddaughter for her first ever flight... She became addicted. Playing outside she spots every plane flying by & and says" airplane... Grandpa's airplane. I can be standing next to her & she still says it. Now almost 3,she begs me to take her to the airport. She really loves flights. To no where is fine. Where this may take her I don't know, but she's in love with airplanes & Grandpa, not necessarily in that order.
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I did this with my now almost 3 year old son.. He is FOREVER looking for airplanes.
 
My father was a pilot, who passed away in mid 2000.
As I am learning to fly it suddenly occurred to me a few things he taught me about driving a car.

1) he used to tell me the sign of a good driver was being able to peg a speed, keep it there whether flat, uphill, or down.
2) another lesson on driving, a good driver will come to a stop so neatly, that a passenger wouldn't even know that we had braked.

Since neither of those two points were discussed or stressed in drivers Ed, I always thought it was just his idea of what driving well was, but...I took his points. It's how I drive.

So when I started learning to fly, I realized where those ideas really came from. Airspeed, and smooth taxiing.

I also notice as a fledgling pilot, I center the car in my lane a lot more. I mean I pay attention to it and stay smack in the middle.

Probably a bad driving habit...I notice now and then I practice scanning the sky for traffic. At least anytime I'm near an airport.

I look at the instruments in a car, other than just the speedometer.

Non driving, or driving, I tend to look for signs of wind direction, flat areas that would be ok for landing, I notice weather, and cloud formations much more.

I always notice air traffic above me, if I can only hear it I notice if it is a plane or helicopter. If I can see it, I watch the plane as far as I can, try to see if I can tell what kind of plane, and how they fly and what the pilot is doing. I would swear to you that there is a huge uptick in air traffic but kno this is just because I used to not notice so much.

When on a commercial plane, I notice every now and then from my ass on the seat when only slight turbulence, or banking from time to time. Turn to my wife "did you feel that?" "Feel what?"



Some of this may "wear off" when I get more hours, and my certificate, but at the moment have noticed lots of changes like this.
 
sferguson524 said:
OK>?!?!?! That place is DAMN good.. Blasphemer.. And i grew up in socal.
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First few times I ate there I was in love. The planes, the food, the drinks, etc. The last two times though the Quesadilla Carne Asada had a fair amount of "giblet" type meat pieces in it. Still like the place, but wasn't sure if I got unlucky twice or what

For Mexican food though... places like Puesto and Javier's (as good as they are) just feel over priced to me. Casa Machado would still be on my short list of San Diego Mexican food and bang for your buck
 
Tantalum said:
First few times I ate there I was in love. The planes, the food, the drinks, etc. The last two times though the Quesadilla Carne Asada had a fair amount of "giblet" type meat pieces in it. Still like the place, but wasn't sure if I got unlucky twice or what

For Mexican food though... places like Puesto and Javier's (as good as they are) just feel over priced to me. Casa Machado would still be on my short list of San Diego Mexican food and bang for your buck
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Ok, I can forgive this then. I love how busy MYF is and the amount of planes you get to watch. I go to the Cafe at VGT, and over the course of a meal, you see maybe 3 operations, 6 if you're lucky
 
sferguson524 said:
I go to the Cafe at VGT, and over the course of a meal, you see maybe 3 operations, 6 if you're lucky
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I have never been into VGT, but I'm surprised and saddened to hear it that it would be that quiet. Luckily both MYF and SEE here are fairly busy, in fact, Gillespie often has to split the tower frequency for traffic they get so busy
 
Tantalum said:
I have never been into VGT, but I'm surprised and saddened to hear it that it would be that quiet. Luckily both MYF and SEE here are fairly busy, in fact, Gillespie often has to split the tower frequency for traffic they get so busy
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Yeah, it's pretty quiet there.. According to them, they're the second busiest airport in NV
 
Tantalum said:
Someone at work heard me using the phonetic alphabet for my last name on a call and then later asked "have you ever thought about messing around and saying something like "J as in Apple, M as in car.."
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Standard phonetics are also used in ham radio, but hams often invent new ones for their personal callsigns as a way to stand out when calling from a pileup of other stations. I've been known to give out my call, AJ4CM, as "Affect Julio 4 Celestial Mnemonic."

And I do find myself pulling back on the car's steering wheel at Vr....
 
I went to pull out of my garage this morning and reached under the steering wheel to release the parking brake.
 
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