I just joined this forum, this is my hello.

John Baker

John Baker

Final Approach
Joined
Oct 4, 2008
Messages
7,471
Location
San Diego, California
Display Name
Display name:
John Baker
I belong to another forum that is related to my industry, picture framing. Anyway, we kind of like it when new members spend a few minutes to introduce themselves. I have no clue what y'all appreciate on this forum, so I'll just check in and see what happens.

I don't like to hide behind my posts, so my name is out front. John Baker, I'm 65, I took to flying when I was 61. I own a nice little Pipler Warrior II, N997SG. I am a mono vision pilot (student).

MY first mistake in taking up flying was to join a flying club/school. It was more of a business than a club. After two years of musical instructors (as in musical chairs) and nothing but pattern flying, it became obvious that they had no intentions of ever getting me close to a check ride, I was, what is well known in most industries, as a "cash cow".

I solved the problem by purchasing my own airplane and getting my last instructor to continue me on toward my check ride. I also changed airports to one that is more geographicly desirable. I lost another year and a half getting medical and legal problems sorted out before I actually got into some serious training.

I have now completed all the requirmets to take my check ride, and should be doing just that in the next few weeks.

I own my own picture framing business, my military was with the 101st Airborne back in the early 1960s. I have fifty military jumps and was discharged a Sgt. E-5. My formal education ended with my sucsessful completion of the 9th grade. I'm sharing that with you in an effort to get some understanding with my command of comunications.

Anyway..........Howdy!

John
 
Good Luck, John. Keep at it until you can get it done!:yinyang:
 
John Baker said:
I belong to another forum that is related to my industry, picture framing. Anyway, we kind of like it when new members spend a few minutes to introduce themselves. I have no clue what y'all appreciate on this forum, so I'll just check in and see what happens.

I don't like to hide behind my posts, so my name is out front. John Baker, I'm 65, I took to flying when I was 61. I own a nice little Pipler Warrior II, N997SG. I am a mono vision pilot (student).

MY first mistake in taking up flying was to join a flying club/school. It was more of a business than a club. After two years of musical instructors (as in musical chairs) and nothing but pattern flying, it became obvious that they had no intentions of ever getting me close to a check ride, I was, what is well known in most industries, as a "cash cow".

I solved the problem by purchasing my own airplane and getting my last instructor to continue me on toward my check ride. I also changed airports to one that is more geographicly desirable. I lost another year and a half getting medical and legal problems sorted out before I actually got into some serious training.

I have now completed all the requirmets to take my check ride, and should be doing just that in the next few weeks.

I own my own picture framing business, my military was with the 101st Airborne back in the early 1960s. I have fifty military jumps and was discharged a Sgt. E-5. My formal education ended with my sucsessful completion of the 9th grade. I'm sharing that with you in an effort to get some understanding with my command of comunications.

Anyway..........Howdy!

John
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Welcome aboard John! Your introductory post was a great idea, it's always easier to conversate when you have some idea who you're talking to.

This is a fairly social group with many opportunities to meet face to face, something that's obviously facilitated by our flying pastime. Perhaps we'll see you in person sometime.

I'm glad you managed to restructure your training into something that resulted in actual progress. As to the looming checkride, see if you can locate Ron Levy's checkride checklist. I don'r remember much of it but it's chock full of good thoughts with the word "relax" sprinkled liberally throughout.
 
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ApacheBob said:
Good Luck, John. Keep at it until you can get it done!:yinyang:
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Thanks, after all I have been through, there is no way I am going to quit now, I'm so close I can taste it. I never have been much good at quiting anything, just have a real aversion to it. That probably comes from my military years. If you see a nice little Warrior up for sale in San Diego, that will mean that someone else told me to hang it up, not my decision.

John
 
John, Welcome to the board!

Keep at it and get that "green card" in your pocket.

You'll have to share more of the story about the "musical instructors." I've seen that from both a student and an instructor. I hate what it does to student performance. Unfortunately, it sometimes falls beyond an instructor's control. Someday, I hope to be in a position to have more control over such situations.
 
Welcome John.

If I can make it to checkride you sure can. :) It took me over 7 years and 23....yes 23 CFI's to get me to that point. (Checkout the September issue of Flight Training Magazine. My article is in the middle of the magazine. I hope it give people inspiration to finish.)

Good luck.

Brook
 
OH yeah...another thing...I am jealous that you are training in CA and live in San Diego. I might be going back there next spring to meet my new baby cousin. If I do, we will have to meet for lunch at Casa Machado's or something.
 
HPNFlyGirl said:
If I do, we will have to meet for lunch at Casa Machado's or something.
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Does Rod Machado have a restaurant there, or do you just normally hang with him, Brook? (Or do you mean this one? http://www.casamachadomexicanrestaurant.com/)

And John, welcome to the board! Sounds like you've already gone through a lot to get the certificate, and I have no doubt that you'll see it through!
 
John,

Thanks for your service!

Welcome to the forum!

Congrats on owning your own aircraft, we will all patiently wait for pictures to be posted.;) It sounds like your check ride is just around the corner, have fun, show that your safe and you should have no problems. Of course we will also be looking forward to that post checkride write up.:yes:
 
Welcome to the Board John. I know you know you can do it so I won't even bother to tell you that you will pass. Heck if I can do it so can you (no remarks requested/required TYVM :no:).

BTW John ESCELLENT choice of planes. :yes:

Dave---Warrior 43685 :blueplane:
 
John Baker said:
Thanks, after all I have been through, there is no way I am going to quit now, I'm so close I can taste it. I never have been much good at quiting anything, just have a real aversion to it. That probably comes from my military years. If you see a nice little Warrior up for sale in San Diego, that will mean that someone else told me to hang it up, not my decision.

John
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Congratulations on nearing your checkride, John--we can't wait to read your checkride story in the near future. And welcome to POA! Your 'get-to-know-me' post was fantastic. :cheerswine:

I was going to ask where you live, but I think, from this reply of yours, that you're in southern California. One thing you'll find about POA is that we're MORE than "internet friends"--for those that desire to do so, we actually get together and meet in person, whether for lunch or for multi-day fly-ins. I hope to get to meet you at one of those in the future!

Picture framing is a good business--I had a girlfriend once that was very good at it, ran her own shop.

Good luck to you on your upcoming checkride!
 
Welcome to the boards, John - nice to have you here! What field is your plane based at? I was at Miramar with it was the right colors (blue and gold) and lived in Escondido for a lot of years.
 
Hi, John:

Keep at it! I'm, also, a one-eyed student pilot who's just a short time away from check ride. And I've been at it since 1999, what with the succession of instructors who manage to keep getting deployed to other parts of the world via U. S. Navy, National Guard, U. S. Army. I, too, bought my own plane before I was ready for solo.

Have you done your SODA flight, yet? I found it(successfully) to be a good idea of what shall be involved in the upcoming check ride. Welcome to the PoA board.

HR
 
Welcome, John, to the best front porch in aviation. You'll find that we are not much on ceremony here, and when some of us get together (and we do that, too), it's all about aviation and aviators. Tons of fun.

For an example of what happens when a raft of PoA-ers gather, see: www.gastonsflyin.com, or take a look at the various threads in the Wings Fly-B-Q or 6Y9 Fly-In sub-forums.

Some of us will truthfully say that we have met some of our best friends right here. that ain't bad!

Keep us posted on your checkride.
 
Welcome John others have described it best as the front porch of Aviation. Were generally a friendly bunch (until we get to Spin Zone anyway LOL) Enjoy and ask questions. By the way don't worry about education levels. This board has Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Sales People, Nurses, Professional Pilots, Truck drivers, Military personal Professors ,students, computer folks,Farmers, folks that operate machinery for other people and lots more Its not the education that matters here its that you love to fly.
 
I'll add my WELCOME too John.
We have alot of good people here to help with anything and i'm hoping you'll be one of them also.
Dave G.
 
It seems I have stumbled on to a great forum, thanks for the nice welcome. My bird is tied down at Montgomery Field at Gibb's Flying Service. Brook, call me when ever your out here, 619-223-5313 I've always called it that Mexican Restaurant, Casa Macado, how about that? They do have great food though, I always enjoy having lunch there.

I would keep my plane in a hanger, however, I'm a picture framer, I'm surprised I actually own a plane. I am on the waiting list for a covered tie down, I can afford that at least.

It sounds like I have had it better than a few of you. I only went through about nine instructors. I did have a tough time learning how to land, just could not judge distance at all. A big part of that was I had a cateract in my one remaining eye, so it was always like a mild IFR aproach for me. My first attempt to land an airplane, I actually started my flare about one hundred feet AGL, at least that is what my instructor claimed.

I had a friend who was an eye surgion, I talked him into giving me cateract surgery. Talk about sweating bullets, one eye left, and he was going to cut into it. I had to really think about acomplishing this flying mission I had given myself. Anyway, the results have been fantastic. I have 20/15 vision out of my left eye. My latest student medical just says 'must wear corrective lenses', they are no longer asking for a SODA. My AME will probably want one though.

A Frenchman I had as an instructor was about the best. He took the time to read up on mono vision pilots. He had me greasng it in almost imediatly. Instead of looking at hight, you look at the end of the runway. When your cowling is just a hair below the end of the runnway, you just hold it there, works like a charm.

The Frenchman is the fellow who I left the "school" with. He realy was trying to get me to a check ride, the owner of the school was not happy and started treating him not so well. He finally got himself a nice job hauling cargo in a Caravan. He turned me over to a very experianced instructor who is finishing me up.

I don't want to use names without permission, to expalne my vagaries. I have not figured out how to post pictures on the internet. I am devoting all of my learnig curve to one thing, trying to figure out how to make my airplane go, that's it.

John
 
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Welcome to the crew, John. And on a side note, I didn't know we had another celebrity in our midst. Congrats Brook on sticking to your goal. I read that article and thought, "wow, that's gotta suck. but good on her!" Way to go!
 
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John Baker said:
I own my own picture framing business, my military was with the 101st Airborne back in the early 1960s. I have fifty military jumps and was discharged a Sgt. E-5.
John
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Welcome to POA!

Thank you for your service to our country during "difficult" times.:yes:
 
and John, here's a welcome from the east coast. Glad to have you on board sharing your experiences. This is a great group.
 
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