Hello

R

Rich D

Pre-Flight
Joined
Nov 15, 2011
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44
Location
Bellevue, NE
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Display name:
Rich D
Hello everyone,

I have been following this board for years and finally decided to establish an account.

A little about me: I finished my PPL in 1998 and have amassed a whopping 181 hours since then so my on and off again flying has been more off than on I guess. My hours are evenly split between Skyhawks and Cherokees.

I have taken the Instrument written twice and it is just about to expire again so it looks like I will be taking it a third time if I am going to finish my rating. Third times a charm?

I retired from the Air Force in 2003 and am currently working for the DoD as a civilian employee.

I have and continue to enjoy the enlightening discussions on this board from everyone. Especially noteworthy are: Dan, Ron, Jesse, Bob, Jay, Tim, and Grant.

Enough rambling - glad to be here!

Rich
 
Rich, welcome aboard...

Nebraska huh... Just mailed a large box of Michigan dirt to Nebraska - Midwest Labs to be exact... Doing my part to keep Nebraska fertile..

denny-o
 
Welcome. Glad to have another Rich here. Way too many Mikes, Davids, and Scotts. :D
 
I was a lurker for a while as well ! Welcome. I'm thinking about the Instrument rating as well, just haven't gotten started studying for the written much.
 
Rich,
I got my PPL in the 70's. Amassed a whopping 250 hours by 2006. It was just boring flying around in club planes near wherever I was located. After a 10 to 20 hours at any location I was tired of the local destinations and had no other options since any club wanted a minimum of hours on the plane to take it anywhere and the hourly costs were steep.

I can't say that ownership hours are much cheaper, but at least you are not paying someone else's profit. I bought an experimental and have more damn fun in it than I ever expected! Flew 100 hours a year for the first 5 years and only now am slowing down.

Don't get discouraged if you find what you're renting is kinda dull. There is a whole other world out there.....:yesnod:

Welcome to aviation and keep your options open.
 
Rich- welcome to PoA!

Get you to Lincokn, Jesse can get your IR tied-up in a jiffy. I'll vouch for him, plus he has time now since he just finished up another IR (David White).

Let us know more about you.
 
Welcome.

I'm also a member of the 3 time IR written club. :rofl:

This darn thing called a "job" keeps getting in the way.
 
Hey welcome to POA Rich! Glad you decided to set up a user account. Can I ask what made you finally pull the trigger? Any look forward to seeing you post.
 
Dr. O said:
Rich, welcome aboard...

Nebraska huh... Just mailed a large box of Michigan dirt to Nebraska - Midwest Labs to be exact... Doing my part to keep Nebraska fertile..

denny-o
Click to expand...

Denny,

Thanks for the welcome. I grew up in Michigan and lived there until I left for the Air Force. Lived in and around Detroit (actually lived in the city during the riots and moved shortly after).

Rich
 
Mike5250 said:
I was a lurker for a while as well ! Welcome. I'm thinking about the Instrument rating as well, just haven't gotten started studying for the written much.
Click to expand...

Mike,

Glad to know I'm not alone as a prior lurker! Hopefully you can finish your rating without taking the written multiple times like me. If nothing else I guess I am proficient at taking FAA tests and giving Laser Grade some extra business.

Rich
 
flyingriki said:
Rich,
I got my PPL in the 70's. Amassed a whopping 250 hours by 2006. It was just boring flying around in club planes near wherever I was located. After a 10 to 20 hours at any location I was tired of the local destinations and had no other options since any club wanted a minimum of hours on the plane to take it anywhere and the hourly costs were steep.

I can't say that ownership hours are much cheaper, but at least you are not paying someone else's profit. I bought an experimental and have more damn fun in it than I ever expected! Flew 100 hours a year for the first 5 years and only now am slowing down.

Don't get discouraged if you find what you're renting is kinda dull. There is a whole other world out there.....:yesnod:

Welcome to aviation and keep your options open.
Click to expand...

FlyingRiki,

How true, renting is a PITA. I would love to buy my own bug smasher to use whenever and whereever I wanted and at some point I am going to make that happen.

At the moment I am a member of an Aero Club and they are pretty liberal with allowing us to take the aircraft for extended periods of time so X/C trips are easier than when renting from other places.

You had 250 hours in 2006 - how many do you have now?

Rich
 
SCCutler said:
Rich- welcome to PoA!

Get you to Lincokn, Jesse can get your IR tied-up in a jiffy. I'll vouch for him, plus he has time now since he just finished up another IR (David White).

Let us know more about you.
Click to expand...

SCCutler,

Thanks for the welcome.

If my Aero Club instructors end up having problems meeting my schedule for IR training I just might be contacting Jesse for one of his patented accelerated programs! :yesnod:

Rich
 
denverpilot said:
Welcome.

I'm also a member of the 3 time IR written club. :rofl:

This darn thing called a "job" keeps getting in the way.
Click to expand...

Nate,

Yep, it's always something with trying to finish up a new rating. The key is to just keep plugging along and eventually the pieces will fall into place.

How much longer until your third written expires? Do you fly out of KAPA?

Rich
 
AdamZ said:
Hey welcome to POA Rich! Glad you decided to set up a user account. Can I ask what made you finally pull the trigger? Any look forward to seeing you post.
Click to expand...

Adam,

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Nothing in particular made me decide to set up an account, I just figured after all this time watching you all have so much fun that I should join in! :goofy:

Rich
 
Rich D said:
Yep, it's always something with trying to finish up a new rating. The key is to just keep plugging along and eventually the pieces will fall into place.
Click to expand...

Plugging along requires a CFII who wants to work some very strange hours. Jesse does, but rarely do many others. He's up there to the northeast where they have more cows and corn. Too far away. ;) Guys like Ron will come right to your doorstep but interruptions at the rate they're likely to happen right now would destroy any chance of him pounding anything into my head. ;)

I got called by work people needing Production system changes twice tonight while I was at an off-site work function. My boss even grabbed my laptop to send e-mails to coordinate a last-minute software update and late-night testing tonight that was requested by a customer. We're in our busy season.

(Oh well. At least the CEO was happy we had it all under control. He thanked us and apologized, he'd scheduled the off-site for a Friday hoping we wouldn't be interrupted.)

Rich D said:
How much longer until your third written expires? Do you fly out of KAPA?
Click to expand...

Scared to go look. Original plan was to do an accelerated course with the gobs of vacation time I had saved up at the previous employer, but an opportunity came along to both get a 4 mile commute (DTC) and go back to doing Linux full-time.

So the written sits. Flying happens whenever I find myself with a few hours to kill and the keys are always in my flight bag.

Most CFIIs can't work that way. (And I don't blame them!).

Almost went up tonight but the wind wouldn't die down. I avoided alcohol at the off-site thinking it'd mellow at sunset. It didn't. Should'a had a free beer or two instead. ;) Oh well!

If I had to deal with a rental schedule I'd probably be flying 20% less. Wouldn't be able to just go. The joys of co-ownership.

Was supposed to be off work today playing oxygen deprivation dummy in a USAF altitude chamber, but I got bumped off the list. Long story, but again related to delays in knowing I could take the day off. Sounds like they had a good time killing some brain cells.

When the calls came in at the off-site this afternoon I got to use the great line from Clerks, "But I'm not even supposed to BE here today!" ;)

I'll start looking at the whole IR thing again seriously after Christmas. If I try to cram it in before then I'm likely to tick someone off by missing a call at an inopportune time. The bosses are kinda stressed out right now. LOL.

A friend waited his whole career to get his ratings done. Heh. Took an early retirement package and went from Private to CFII in eight months.

I'd love a challenge like that, but the bucks have to keep flowin' for that one. (My flying account *is* growing in size though, which means I'm not flying enough!) :D
 
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