The Difference Between Them and Us.

Zeldman said:
I saw a Tv show about a mechanic in California that works on cars made before 1964. He said he makes 100K a year adjusting points.

Silly me, I used to do it for 3 bucks an hour.....QUOTE]

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I'm not a mechanic but I could adjust points, use a timing light (still have it), water pump replacement, etc. Today's car and trucks, nope, to the shop we go
 
Half Fast said:
When I graduated from college, it was “Never trust anyone under $30,000 a year.”

(Back in the early 80s that was a decent starting salary for an engineer.)
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That one still works though, thanks to inflation. :)
 
Half Fast said:
Shep, this true of many, if not most, specialized activities. I tend to have many hobbies and enjoy learning new things. Consequently I have friends who are pilots, scuba divers, auto racers, radio hams, musicians, motorcyclists, hunters,... Each has its own language and arcane knowledge. Utter gibberish to non-disciples.

And it amazes me how often knowledge and skill in one area helps another.

Variety is the spice of life, they say.
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That.

Different strokes...........
 
Half Fast said:
Shep, this true of many, if not most, specialized activities. I tend to have many hobbies and enjoy learning new things. Consequently I have friends who are pilots, scuba divers, auto racers, radio hams, musicians, motorcyclists, hunters,... Each has its own language and arcane knowledge. Utter gibberish to non-disciples.

And it amazes me how often knowledge and skill in one area helps another.

Variety is the spice of life, they say.
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This. Being a member of the generation that loves to be hated and it comes down to this. I have a friends that enjoy flying with me but could care less about the how just like I don't care or get their interests (cars, computers etc.).
 
mscard88 said:
Like the sign says:

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FTFY

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Zeldman said:
I saw a Tv show about a mechanic in California that works on cars made before 1964. He said he makes 100K a year adjusting points.
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Yeah, but 100k/year is below the poverty line in California. :)
 
mscard88 said:
I'm not a mechanic but I could adjust points, use a timing light (still have it), water pump replacement, etc. Today's car and trucks, nope, to the shop we go
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OBD-II reader and you're good to go. Well, might have to replace the end wrenches with a set of Torx bits though.
 
Half Fast said:
Shep, this true of many, if not most, specialized activities. I tend to have many hobbies and enjoy learning new things. Consequently I have friends who are pilots, scuba divers, auto racers, radio hams, musicians, motorcyclists, hunters,... Each has its own language and arcane knowledge. Utter gibberish to non-disciples.

And it amazes me how often knowledge and skill in one area helps another.

Variety is the spice of life, they say.
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They sure don't translate. My first CFI and I were both Extra class hams. Did that help me the first time I had to talk on the radio learning to fly? Not one bit. I swear they're still laughing in the tower, and that was almost 18 years ago. :D

FlySince9 said:
Those insurance commercials where the teenage boys don't know what a lug wrench looks like...OMG! When I was a teenager, any boy that couldn't change a tire probably drank his coke with one pinky in the air... (Disclaimer for those offended: not that there's anything wrong with that...)
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I've seen that ad. Disgusting. You had to learn how to, and demonstrate, change a tire in driver ed in high school.
 
Ghery said:
They sure don't translate. My first CFI and I were both Extra class hams. Did that help me the first time I had to talk on the radio learning to fly? Not one bit. I swear they're still laughing in the tower, and that was almost 18 years ago. :D
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I’m also an Extra (AJ4CM) and it helped me. My radio work was decent right from the start. And I already knew the phonetic alphabet.

73!
 
Half Fast said:
I’m also an Extra (AJ4CM) and it helped me. My radio work was decent right from the start. And I already knew the phonetic alphabet.

73!
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I knew the phonetic alphabet, too. Knew that before I got my first ham ticket in 1988. Yay, ROTC!

Radio work wasn't and isn't an issue, it's just learning what to say and when. The confusion probably lasted that first trip around the pattern.

73

N6TPT
 
Ghery said:
They sure don't translate. My first CFI and I were both Extra class hams. Did that help me the first time I had to talk on the radio learning to fly? Not one bit. I swear they're still laughing in the tower, and that was almost 18 years ago. :D
I've seen that ad. Disgusting. You had to learn how to, and demonstrate, change a tire in driver ed in high school.
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Alright I hate that ad too. Its not cute if your son does not know how to change a car tire. it's sad and pathetic.
 
And I felt bad not knowing how to saddle a horse. At least these kids know how to drive a car. Will their kids know how?


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Half Fast said:
I’m also an Extra (AJ4CM) and it helped me. My radio work was decent right from the start. And I already knew the phonetic alphabet.

73!
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Not to mention being able to understand nav station identifiers..
 
WillFly4Food said:
Not to mention being able to understand nav station identifiers..
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Yep. My CFI insisted that I match the dots and dashes against the sectional. He couldn't believe that I could copy Morse by ear. But it didn't help that I got my ham license studying books and tapes from the able - baker - charlie - dog days.
 
FastEddieB said:
I've read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" any number of times over the years.

In it, Pirsig breaks people down into "classicists" and "romantics". I think as a very broad rule it applies to what you're talking about.

A brief explanation from the Wikipedia page:

"With this, the book details two types of personalities: those who are interested mostly in gestalts (romantic viewpoints, such as Zen, focused on being "In the moment", and not on rational analysis), and those who seek to know the details, understand the inner workings, and master the mechanics (classic viewpoints with application of rational analysis, vis-a-vis motorcycle maintenance) and so on...The Sutherlands represent an exclusively romantic attitude toward the world. The Narrator initially appears to prefer the classic approach. It later becomes apparent that he understands both viewpoints and is aiming for the middle ground. He understands that technology, and the "dehumanized world" it carries with it, appears ugly and repulsive to a romantic person. He knows that such persons are determined to shoehorn all of life's experience into the romantic view. Pirsig is capable of seeing the beauty of technology and feels good about mechanical work, where the goal is "to achieve an inner peace of mind". The book demonstrates that motorcycle maintenance may be dull and tedious drudgery or an enjoyable and pleasurable pastime; it all depends on attitude."
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Pretty decent read along those lines:
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jim.nelson said:
Yep. My CFI insisted that I match the dots and dashes against the sectional. He couldn't believe that I could copy Morse by ear. But it didn't help that I got my ham license studying books and tapes from the able - baker - charlie - dog days.
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I hadn't used my ham license in years when I started learning to fly. I had pretty much forgotten the Morse alphabet, so I decided to relearn it, to make it easier to ID navaids.
 
jim.nelson said:
Yep. My CFI insisted that I match the dots and dashes against the sectional. He couldn't believe that I could copy Morse by ear. But it didn't help that I got my ham license studying books and tapes from the able - baker - charlie - dog days.
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I didn't have that problem with my initial CFI, but then we were both Extra class hams. :D
 
I had to stop the DPE from putting a pink slip in his typewriter on my Private ride ages ago. I asked what I failed, and he said I didn’t tune and identify stations. I said I did. He said he saw me tune them but not look at my chart for the Morse code. I said I could copy Morse and knew all the local station IDs.

He sat there blinking for a second and then gave me a quick test, sounding out (horribly) a couple of Navaids in Morse randomly from a chart he grabbed that wasn’t local. I told him what they were.

He laughed and said, How do you know Morse? (Remember I was 19at the time.) I said Ham Radio. This was the most emotional content I got out of the guy all day.

He reached for the white paper instead and put the pink back on the pile. Damn guy nearly gave me a heart attack. He was also smiling from that point on.

He said FAA had an emphasis on it that year and he was sorry he hadn’t asked sooner.

Quietest DPE I’ve ever flown with. Just sat there. No feedback other than the occasional, “that was nice”, or “that could have been a little better” and then he would ask to do something else. No emotions, nothing you could read.

He hadn’t said congrats or anything as we went up to his second story office in a building at the airport. Which I was too young and dumb to know was a bad sign. He also hadn’t actually said the ride was over, which I forget if that was the guidance back then, but I assumed that was a GOOD thing.

Turns out he was stewing over just one thing. The stupid IDs.

Thank goodness I stopped him with his pink slip! LOL.

I wonder if he had a few rides where someone had prepped the candidates to look at their charts but do the ID “quickly” and move on. No idea. He was a very quiet old guy.

Funny thing was, if he had flunked me, I didn’t have a sign off for the solo home. That would have been embarrassing! So I wasn’t going to fail that ride! I didn’t want to make that phone call to my CFI!

My Private is still my weirdest check ride ever, in terms of not knowing what was going through the DPEs head, and nearly flunking for something I did right. Way beyond right. LOL.

It would have been hilarious if he had given that as the reason for a fail and I did have to call my CFI. He was also a ham and knew I could copy code. He would have come unglued on that DPE. Hahaha.
 
mscard88 said:
I'm not a mechanic but I could adjust points, use a timing light (still have it), water pump replacement, etc. Today's car and trucks, nope, to the shop we go
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Eh there are benefits to the new stuff. I haven’t had to scrape any gaskets in quite some time. O-rings much easier to deal with! No leaks!
 
First time I ever had to change a tire was when I got a flat driving south from Toledo in the dead of winter. Found the jack and the lug wrench, and I did it. Wasn't what you'd call rocket science.
 
dell30rb said:
Eh there are benefits to the new stuff. I haven’t had to scrape any gaskets in quite some time. O-rings much easier to deal with! No leaks!
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Very true! I remember doing that gasket thing a few times. Yes cars today are very reliable compared to back in the 60s & 70s.
 
Shepherd said:
Took a young lady flying today. My cousin's daughter. Nice kid, very bright, a nurse. She had only ever been in a small plane once. Intro flight when she was 16, so, not an airplane person.
We had a nice time in the Cub. She didn't puke when we traversed the moguls over the Catskills, and she didn't freak out when I pulled up hard and did a chandelle to the right to avoid a student pilot who was confused about the upwind and downwind sides of the pattern.
I obviously don't have many friends who aren't in the airplane world, because the communications gap between us was almost insurmountable.
We had ice fog on the field. It was really pretty. From ground level reaching up about 10-12 feet with a bright sun shining on it. Lots of prismatic effects, which my camera absolutely did not capture.
Trying to explain ice fog. Blank stare. Try to explain why ice fog is dangerous to airplanes. Blank stare. Try to explain carburettor ice\carb heat. Blank stare.
Airspace, pattern, mountain waves, turbulence, how the controls actually work, navigation, etc, etc, etc. She would ask a question "Why do you have a broom stick thingy?" I would explain.
Nothing.
We really, REALLY are different from Them, aren't we.
I need to sign up for a course in non-aviation English as a second language.
She had a great time, and all her girl friends on Facebook think she is a crazy dare-devil and the bravest person they know.
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Sorry but this post sounds troll-ably elitist and smug with just a touch of unwarranted superiority thrown in. So the kid does not evince any interest in the specifics of aviation, this makes her part of “them” , which by context is so much much worse than “us”? Yes, you know how to fly. Congratulations. Now get over yourself. When I was much younger I think I had a bit of that same attitude, proud of accomplishments that distinguished me from “them”—climbed high peaks, several big walls, operated a nuclear reactor, drove a submarine to the North Pole. But life has pounded any trace of superiority and condenscension out of me. There is no “us”and “them”. Just us.
 
denverpilot said:
Is that what you feed the FAs that climb into the overhead bins? Asking for a friend.

Or is that just what catering brings on board to feed the pax these days? :) :) :)
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If it’s United then I don’t pay much ‘tention to what the FAs do as they move around in their walkers. Has anyone other than pilots been fed on a domestic flight in the past 10 years?
 
mscard88 said:
Very true! I remember doing that gasket thing a few times. Yes cars today are very reliable compared to back in the 60s & 70s.
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Now even the american cars have metric bolts & o-rings galore. Its awesome.

About 10 years ago I had a friend with a relatively new Ford that had a stuck thermostat. He said "my heater is broken" so I drove it and found the thermostat was just stuck. He bought a thermostat kit with "gasket", I told him it would take about 45 mins to an hour and we planned on a saturday afternoon. I showed up with gasket scraper, razor blades etc... Turns out the t-stat was in a plastic housing with an o-ring and we were done in 10 minutes.
 
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