Keith Lane
Pattern Altitude
This is kinda long sorry.
Where to start........
I wasn't going to be able to see my dad on Father's day so I took Friday off and drove down to see him and do whatever house/yard stuff I could help with. After we get done with the hard stuff, we were sitting on the carport having some water when he asks me about light sport flying. I'm not too familiar with it but I told what I thought I knew.
A little back ground needed here. My Dad was born in Macon, Ga in 1926 and still lives in Macon. Raised in a middle class home and always, since he was 10 or so has worked at some sort of job. He will be 84 in September, and still works part time for Georgia Power as an inspector, a job that involves driving as much as 400 miles in a day all over south Georgia inspecting the work of contractors for the power company. He is in pretty good shape for his age, with the usual old age stuff to go along with it. When he was about 14 or 15, he got interested in planes. At 15 he, unlike most adults he knew, and unknown to his folks, owned and drove a car. He earned about $10/week, more than most grown up at the time. He and a friend got to know a guy at the local airport and wanted to learn to fly the J-3 Cub at the field. So,in exchange for lessons, they kept the grass at the field cut. As far as I know he never soloed, but according to him, flying the plane came easily to him. He joined the Navy in 1943 and of course went "brown shoe" Navy (Aviation). Trained as a radioman/gunner, he never left the CONUS, but was assigned to a test squadron at Patuxent river Maryland with the job of keeping the Lockheed PV-2 flying as close to 24/7 as possible to ascertain the failure rate of components so the Navy could keep on hand appropriate spares for the fleet aircraft. What they ended up as, in reality was a taxi service for officers on the East coast who needed to go wherever to meetings and such. In that capacity he got quite a bit of right seat time, as the left seat guy was an Eastern Airlines pilot in civilian life and was marking time till the end of WW II so he could go back to flying "little 'ol rich ladies and gents around". Dad spent so much time in the air, after the war he didn't care about flying anymore. As a kid, I heard about all this and I got interested in flying. We kinda own the 172 "together" in spirit, and he seems happy to say it's really all mine.
Back to the present. He asked me if I thought he could fly a J-3. I said yes, I thought he probably could, with enough instruction. Then he hits me with "I'd like to buy a J-3 and get a light sport license". I thought I'd fall out of my chair. I'm pretty gabby, but I was so stunned, I literally could not form words for 15 seconds or so. He has said many many times he would have loved to have gotten a Cub when we bought the 172, but he now sounds serious enough to do this. We even looked at planes online just to see what they cost (roughly). Looks like from an hour online you can spend from 30K to the stratosphere on a J-3. I think he'd spend 30K on a simple one (handheld radio and such) in a heartbeat. All he wants to do is poke around the countryside at 65 miles per hour with the door open looking at the cows and such.
I think he could fly it. (If he could start it) I think he'd have trouble with the regulations for a while. I'm concerned that his feet might not be quick enough for gusty crosswind landings, and I think he'd only fly it in the mornings when it was cooler and calmer. My advice is that we look for an instructor who already has and teaches in a J-3 or similar, and let him try it out and see if it is what he remembers it to be. Also, I think I'd end up being the primary pilot, letting him fly from the front seat as much as he wanted. I myself have never landed or even taxied a taildragger, but I'm sure I coul do it after instruction. I have a friend in Alabama with a PA-11 who has been bugging me to come see him and fly his, and now may be the time to go get Dad and let him try his hands and feet at this. Who knows. He definitely has the money, and it sounds like he has the motivation. Who knows. The one bugaboo..... He has not told my Mom.
Where to start........
I wasn't going to be able to see my dad on Father's day so I took Friday off and drove down to see him and do whatever house/yard stuff I could help with. After we get done with the hard stuff, we were sitting on the carport having some water when he asks me about light sport flying. I'm not too familiar with it but I told what I thought I knew.
A little back ground needed here. My Dad was born in Macon, Ga in 1926 and still lives in Macon. Raised in a middle class home and always, since he was 10 or so has worked at some sort of job. He will be 84 in September, and still works part time for Georgia Power as an inspector, a job that involves driving as much as 400 miles in a day all over south Georgia inspecting the work of contractors for the power company. He is in pretty good shape for his age, with the usual old age stuff to go along with it. When he was about 14 or 15, he got interested in planes. At 15 he, unlike most adults he knew, and unknown to his folks, owned and drove a car. He earned about $10/week, more than most grown up at the time. He and a friend got to know a guy at the local airport and wanted to learn to fly the J-3 Cub at the field. So,in exchange for lessons, they kept the grass at the field cut. As far as I know he never soloed, but according to him, flying the plane came easily to him. He joined the Navy in 1943 and of course went "brown shoe" Navy (Aviation). Trained as a radioman/gunner, he never left the CONUS, but was assigned to a test squadron at Patuxent river Maryland with the job of keeping the Lockheed PV-2 flying as close to 24/7 as possible to ascertain the failure rate of components so the Navy could keep on hand appropriate spares for the fleet aircraft. What they ended up as, in reality was a taxi service for officers on the East coast who needed to go wherever to meetings and such. In that capacity he got quite a bit of right seat time, as the left seat guy was an Eastern Airlines pilot in civilian life and was marking time till the end of WW II so he could go back to flying "little 'ol rich ladies and gents around". Dad spent so much time in the air, after the war he didn't care about flying anymore. As a kid, I heard about all this and I got interested in flying. We kinda own the 172 "together" in spirit, and he seems happy to say it's really all mine.
Back to the present. He asked me if I thought he could fly a J-3. I said yes, I thought he probably could, with enough instruction. Then he hits me with "I'd like to buy a J-3 and get a light sport license". I thought I'd fall out of my chair. I'm pretty gabby, but I was so stunned, I literally could not form words for 15 seconds or so. He has said many many times he would have loved to have gotten a Cub when we bought the 172, but he now sounds serious enough to do this. We even looked at planes online just to see what they cost (roughly). Looks like from an hour online you can spend from 30K to the stratosphere on a J-3. I think he'd spend 30K on a simple one (handheld radio and such) in a heartbeat. All he wants to do is poke around the countryside at 65 miles per hour with the door open looking at the cows and such.
I think he could fly it. (If he could start it) I think he'd have trouble with the regulations for a while. I'm concerned that his feet might not be quick enough for gusty crosswind landings, and I think he'd only fly it in the mornings when it was cooler and calmer. My advice is that we look for an instructor who already has and teaches in a J-3 or similar, and let him try it out and see if it is what he remembers it to be. Also, I think I'd end up being the primary pilot, letting him fly from the front seat as much as he wanted. I myself have never landed or even taxied a taildragger, but I'm sure I coul do it after instruction. I have a friend in Alabama with a PA-11 who has been bugging me to come see him and fly his, and now may be the time to go get Dad and let him try his hands and feet at this. Who knows. He definitely has the money, and it sounds like he has the motivation. Who knows. The one bugaboo..... He has not told my Mom.
. Careful planning and proper stick placement are needed to get the inboard foot past the stick. For a less agile person, getting in first and scooting one's behind beyond the centerline might make it much easier. 
.
