"Don't tell my wife" -- Piper aircraft promotional film

While the airplanes are nice, that hangar at the beginning of the film is gorgeous!

It was also interesting to see how well dressed we were 50 years ago.
 
58 Willy !??
Guess the phonetic alphabet hadn’t been invented yet.

And 600miles in 4hrs in exactly what Cherokee of that vintage?
 
Blatham489 said:
58 Willy !??
Guess the phonetic alphabet hadn’t been invented yet.

And 600miles in 4hrs in exactly what Cherokee of that vintage?
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If he means statute miles, a Cherokee 180 with a tailwind could probably manage it
 
cowman said:
If he means statute miles, a Cherokee 180 with a tailwind could probably manage it
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No doubt he did mean statute miles. All of the manufacturers expressed performance in statute miles until 1976-77. Before that hardly anybody in light piston GA spoke nautical other than in the context of IFR.
 
Sixties vintage Cessnas and Pipers used airspeed indicators with an inner and outer scales, one in knots and the other in statute miles per hour. The Cherokees in the film were equipped with these. The outer scale with larger numbers was in statute miles per hour and the inner scale with much smaller font numbers was in knots. It was almost as if the knots scale was an afterthought.

EDIT - Jeff beat me to it.
 
The manufacturers were reluctant to make the switch from statute to nautical. After all, a cruising speed of 160 mph looked a lot better in the brochure than did 139 knots. o_O

The manufacturer-members of GAMA finally agreed to switch to knots as primary. Airspeed indicators on Cessna airplanes switched to knots on the outer scale, and mph on the smaller, inner scale, in 1976. Piper, Beech and Mooney switched in 1977.
 
That was an entertaining find @AggieMike88. Thanks for posting it. Really enjoyed it.

Couldn't help but note there was no mention about use of the rudder when "turning the airplane to the left" or right. :D

Pilawt said:
The manufacturers were reluctant to make the switch from statute to nautical. After all, a cruising speed of 160 mph looked a lot better in the brochure than did 139 knots. o_O

The manufacturer-members of GAMA finally agreed to switch to knots as primary. Airspeed indicators on Cessna airplanes switched to knots on the outer scale, and mph on the smaller, inner scale, in 1976. Piper, Beech and Mooney switched in 1977.
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I found it amusing the airspeed indicator in my 1996 Aviat Husky is in MPH, as are all the speeds in the POH. I think they maybe got a bit carried away in their desire to emulate the Supercub.
 
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That was very enjoyable. Thanks for sharing. I'm old enough to remember hanging out at our local airport when I was a kid in the 60's. It was just like the film. People dressed up, the airport was busy, & there were lots of people flying. My father & uncle bought a used Cessna 170. The were both student pilots & took lessons in it. That was when I got hooked. I'll never forget my airplane rides in that brown & white C170.

My 182 is from that era too. I remember my Dad showing me his friends 182. It was green & black & aluminum...no white base coat. I thought it was the coolest airplane ever. When I bought my 57 182 I had serious flashbacks. That's why I'm trying to keep my instrument panel as original as possible.

Oh, the golden years of general aviation
 
Tantalum said:
This just proves that I was born in the wrong generation
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I periodically feel the same way. The manners, customs, culture, and more of the late 50's and early 60's in many ways are better than what we experience today.

Not to mention cost of flight training was way, way less expensive.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Looking at it through 2019 eyes.
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Yep.

And this is just 50+ years ago. A time when some of us were alive.

I think its nuts when people judge those from centuries ago by today's perspective and standards.



Wayne
 
AggieMike88 said:
It was also interesting to see how well dressed we were 50 years ago.
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Yea, I used to have to wear a ****ing tie to work every day even though I spent a good part of the day under the hood of a car working on running engines (setting idle speed, idle mixture, ignition timing, etc.).
 
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Back then if you were flying IFR you were flying the needles. You were navigating using pilotage, wasn't much else. Lots of guys got lost, lots blundered into weather. I like things way better now. We're in the golden age of general aviation.
 
steingar said:
Back then if you were flying IFR you were flying the needles. You were navigating using pilotage, wasn't much else. Lots of guys got lost, lots blundered into weather. I like things way better now. We're in the golden age of general aviation.
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IFR via pilotage??? Ooooooooooooooooooooookaaaaay.
:rofl:
 
EdFred said:
IFR via pilotage??? Ooooooooooooooooooooookaaaaay.
:rofl:
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Clumsily phrased. If you were VFR you were flying pilotage, wasn't anything else. Look at old crash reports, in lots of them folks get lost, run out of gas and die.
 
Yeah, if anything to me that movie looked depressing - we are much better now.
 
steingar said:
Clumsily phrased. If you were VFR you were flying pilotage, wasn't anything else. Look at old crash reports, in lots of them folks get lost, run out of gas and die.
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That makes a bit more sense.
 
Cool! Thanks for finding and posting. Got involved in flying at the tail end of that era (1973). Similar experience, was something different than today, much more activity and a more "relaxed" feeling to it all. Just for grins, looked up the PA28140 I took my private in and it's still flying! Wish I'd kept some of the sectionals of that time.
 
Blatham489 said:
58 Willy !??
Guess the phonetic alphabet hadn’t been invented yet.

?
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Phonetic alphabet changed in 1956....W became Whiskey.
R changed from Roger to Romeo....I’ve always assumed Roger was shorthand for Received before then.
 
Blatham489 said:
58 Willy !??
Guess the phonetic alphabet hadn’t been invented yet.

And 600miles in 4hrs in exactly what Cherokee of that vintage?
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Well, when I was in the military ca. 1969 to 1971 W was Whisky and as best I can remember, the entire alphabet was the same as we use in aviation today.
 
Pilawt said:
The manufacturers were reluctant to make the switch from statute to nautical. After all, a cruising speed of 160 mph looked a lot better in the brochure than did 139 knots. o_O

The manufacturer-members of GAMA finally agreed to switch to knots as primary. Airspeed indicators on Cessna airplanes switched to knots on the outer scale, and mph on the smaller, inner scale, in 1976. Piper, Beech and Mooney switched in 1977.
Click to expand...

Our 1975 Cessna has MPH outer ring and knots in a Kollsman window on the inner ring. They tried to hide it. :)
 
GRG55 said:
Couldn't help but note there was no mention about use of the rudder when "turning the airplane to the left" or right. :D
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Not that it makes much difference in a Cherokee ... which is part of what made it a mediocre trainer. :cool:
I found it amusing the airspeed indicator in my 1996 Aviat Husky is in MPH, as are all the speeds in the POH. I think they maybe got a bit carried away in their desire to emulate the Supercub.
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Same with my 2007 Sport Cub.
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Yea, I used to have to wear a ****ing tie to work every day even though I spent a good part of the day under the hood of a car working on running engines (setting idle speed, idle mixture, ignition timing, etc.).
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I had to wear a tie while flight instructing. I wasn't comfortable about it either, so I only wore clip-on ties. My business card, 1971-72:

 
The Golden Age of Flying.............. If you had money and time.
Many did have both, and took up flying for fun.

An alternate was the hard, but solidly educational way, line boy and helper in the shop. I just posted this elsewhere, but fits here well.

In those days, there were a lot of man hours at a small airport that never caused any money to change hands, the kids who did it were living at home, and likely rode their bikes to work. One of my high school class mates went that route, and ended up as a test pilot at Boeing.

Line boy hours for training hours ratio, back in the '50s.

One summer day, daylight to dark, or beyond, equaled one hour in a well worn Piper J3 Cub, fit in when there was an instructor with no student scheduled, and no hope of one showing up. You may go for a week to get any of your flying, and it may be on a day with a light drizzle, but just legal visibility. The beyond dark was sweeping and mopping the office and lounge, scrubbing the toilets.

A week of line boy paid for an hour in the Cessna with a radio, but the same restrictions on when you could actually fly.

Line boy included washing planes for the school and tie down customers, the school got the payment for the customer wash, you got the tips for superior work. Helping in the hanger was not generally expected.

Helping in the hanger was better compensated, but still, no money changed hands. A day paid for an hour in a complex aircraft, and one of the better instructors, such as a CFII. You were also learning the mechanics of airplanes, potentially very valuable knowledge.

When your skills in the hanger reached the point that you could do proper oil changes and spark plug replacement, unsupervised, you were valuable enough to get an hour in the Beech 18 per day. It was a well worn military surplus trainer, but the log book entries were solid gold.

The instructors were not paid for this either, it was just log book hours toward their future careers, instead of sitting on the couch waiting in case a new student walked in.

My first lesson was in 1957, and paid cash from my hard earned $60 a month as a draftee in the Army.

Everything that I flew up until years after I received my PPL had airspeed in MPH, no inner Knot scale.
 
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