Looking for that love of flying

[kmead]

My whole life has been spent in airplanes, my dad flew for a living and taught me how to fly in high school. I felt that I could never stop flying, I loved every minute of it. Then get married, kids, moving off, building a carreer, building my own bussiness, dad's airplanes and credit card gone, and all of the other reasons.

26 years later I buy a couple airplanes and get current again. The only thing that doesn't come back is that love of flying. I would rather just bring in a pilot and sit in the back and go for the ride now. The mechanics use my 172 more than I do. My wife knows how I drive and prefers the Malibu with a professional pilot.

So I lurk around several web sights in search of what I'm missing. Everybody seems excited. What keeps you going? I'm sure that someone has gone through this before. I've been thinking getting another rating might help but I really can't devote the time to that kind of project.

Any thoughts?

 

[bbchien]

Kevin, do what I did. I am a up-there-in-time operator with 132,000 lb aircraft time, and was a bored-as-a-stiff multiengine operator. It was just a station wagon.

Then one day one of my friends called me up and said I had to buy a piece of a Cessna 140 with him. "Like heck" says I. "I need another engine like a hole in my head".

Six years later I can't bear to think I really SHOULD sell it.
Four years ago I renewed my interest in Sportsman class aerobatics- but did not pursue it (time considerations).
Now I teach. Two Instrument students and one PVT ASEL.

I really look forward to the sessions and devote FULL energy to making their $40 per hour really count for them!

Looking back in time, my father, now beyond being able to give history, was an aviation officer in the Chinese AAF (Kunming China) and it has been in my family.

I suggest you look at something COMPLETELY off the wall- how about an Albatross or a Pitts. Tailwheel. I never got into skydiving but have been the jump plane pilot- but never the jumpmaster. It's out there, you just gotta grab it.

Malibus, with which you are infinitely familiar, are just as fussy as my Seneca II. Stop being a systems operator and find a venue to be a pilot again! The wife is the WRONG way to judge this. She would rather you fly a Gulfstream (What a pig!...the Gulfstream, that is).

 

[VtPilot]

My love of flying comes from, turning that 4 hour drive in traffic to visit my sister into an hour flight. Shes always excited to meet me at the airport. The ride is much more relaxing looking down at I-93. It sounds like you used to go with your dad alot? That must have been the part of the puzzle. I take my parents on rides for breakfast. I would sit all day at my uncles hanger telling stories.

 

[Anthony]

I agree with Dr. Bruce. Get some tailwheel time, aerobatics, stick and rudder flying. Low and slow stuff. When the airplane becomes a bus, its time to play with something a little different.

 

[colomtnflyer]

kmead-
The first question I would ask myself was where did the original interest or passion for flying come from... Was it intrinsic or externally derived? (was it your idea or your fathers?) If it was truly yours, then you have hope. If it was extrinsic, then I fear you will remain sitting in the back. It is so easy to find excuses NOT TO move forward with another cert or rating. Pilots who are intrinsically passionate about flying will make up excuses TO go flying.

No doubt there are times in every pilots flying that their interest is diverted or wanes somewhat. Like you said, marriage, career, family- all of these conspire to take up your time. Or perhaps from the view point of someone who does it too often, maybe you have just gotten stale.

I taught/coached snow skiing full time (still do part time) for over 35 years. And during that period, I had times when I was just mentally burned out by it, though I have always been incredibly passionate about that sport. What would refire my passion would be seeing the simple joy and wonderment in the eyes of a student, seeing it through their eyes as if for the first time.

It is the same when teaching flying, the way the student sucks in their breath at lift off, as they realize they have just left the security of the ground. When they realize they are now doing something which most people deem an unreachable goal, or insanely risky. If only those who are ground-bound knew what they were missing! But perhaps becoming an instructor, or a pilot mentor will allow you to once again experience thos simple joys and thrills, albeit somewhat vicariously.

Find excuses TO go for a $100 hamburger. Take someone along who has never been in a smaller aircraft before, and let them experience the wonder and freedom we all (hopefully) feel while flying. Take off with no other plan than to fully enjoy yourself and the experience, not have a particular mission planned... let it happen.

These are just a few of the ways I find to cheer myself up, to bust up the tedium of daily life. And before I know it, without struggling to find it, my passion finds me once again.

 

[Diana]

Everybody seems excited. What keeps you going?
Any thoughts?

Gosh, that would take several pages and even then I don't know if I could describe how passionate I am about flying and how I keep that passion alive. So, here's a partial list:

Sharing that passion with newbies
Doing aerobatics
Making videos of my silly flying and putting them to music
Meeting fantastic people through my flying and making incredible friends
Taking Young Eagles
Taking anyone for their "first" anything in an airplane
Always stretching and growing in different directions
Being a mentor
Flying low and slow
Enjoying the journey (which usually takes a long time in the Citabria)

There's more, but I've only had two cups of coffee so far.

OH, and I know I'm a bit crazy, but I LOVE my airplane! When I'm flying in my Citabria, I feel like I'm home.

 

[tdager]

How about a Piper Cub or Champ? A slow luffer that can let you and her experience the wonders of low-and-slow flying again.

Or a helicopter?

How about fun places to go by yourselves?

It sounds like money is not an issue, but that actually may be the problem. She sees small planes as merely transportation...do you? If you do than perhaps the back is the place for you, but if not, if knowing YOU are in control, that YOU planned the flight and flew, if that makes you grin than get up in the front seat of something that speaks to you.

We just had a wonderful fly-in and the fly-in community I have property at.

Telling tall tales and laughing with fellow aviators over a coke and a hot dog, taking complete strangers and their kids flying, that is just a great time.

Then there is the Commemorative Air Force where you can possibly fly WWII birds, the CAP for service, man the list goes on when it comes to aviation.

 

[tonycondon]

my short list:

teaching, and in particular soloing and getting people past checkrides
soaring
flying cross country in my glider
tailwheel
sunrise/set flights with great visibility
IFR on top of endless cloud decks

Malibus are great travelling machines. not quite so much as far as fun machines. its kinda expensive to load the friends up and take them up for a ride in the malibu.

 

[bbchien]

Kevin, why, when he went missing, do you think that Steve Fosset was flying a CITABRIA?!

 

[Henning]

My whole life has been spent in airplanes, my dad flew for a living and taught me how to fly in high school. I felt that I could never stop flying, I loved every minute of it. Then get married, kids, moving off, building a carreer, building my own bussiness, dad's airplanes and credit card gone, and all of the other reasons.

26 years later I buy a couple airplanes and get current again. The only thing that doesn't come back is that love of flying. I would rather just bring in a pilot and sit in the back and go for the ride now. The mechanics use my 172 more than I do. My wife knows how I drive and prefers the Malibu with a professional pilot.

So I lurk around several web sights in search of what I'm missing. Everybody seems excited. What keeps you going? I'm sure that someone has gone through this before. I've been thinking getting another rating might help but I really can't devote the time to that kind of project.

Any thoughts?

Find a good flying buddy, someone you have fun and enjoy being with, someone who makes you laugh. I enjoy flying, but I don't really have a "love" of flying anymore. Just too many hours alone in a plane doing a job. I do love the people I meet and the comraderie involved though.

 

[KennyFlys]

After I meet my new AME this Tuesday morning, I may find a new insight to the passion of flying. It struck me as pretty interesting for a MD to have a ATP certificate. A quick look-up on the guy revealed he's a board-certified cardiovascular surgeon.

After a couple missed voice mails and my calling back again, he personally answered. I had scheduled out a week ahead. He warned me he sometimes picks up charter flights and may need to reschedule.

What person gives up a career where potential income is well in excess of a million bucks in order to fly part-time charter? He flies on-call doing charter flights. I'm betting there are days he makes over a hundred bucks on those charter flights.

This will indeed be an interesting visit.

 

[silver-eagle]

For me, flying is all recreation. I enjoy introducing people to flying, mentoring for a couple of AOPA members and a friend, fly young eagles, practicing, testing my personal limits, and siteseeing mainly coastal lighthouses. Different days, different missions, all fun. If it wasn't, I wouldn't do it.
If all your time is spent around planes, you need to find other interests. Go on vacation. Go visit a museum (but not an airplane museum). Go take a golf weekend. Mix flying with other things you like doing. It's not just the destination, it's also the trip.
Mix it up. Have some fun. It's not always about flying.

 

[Pilawt]

We've enjoyed our Bonanza for the past five years and it has served us well.

But it is for sale.

We've ordered a new Sport Cub.

Some think we're crazy, and they might be right. Maybe it's midlife crisis, aviation-style. But we're trading the autopilot, oxygen bottle and airmet zulu's for low-and-slow, stick-and-rudder flying on nice days.

(Attached photo: my wife's first ride in a tandem-seat airplane)

 

[kevin47881]

All the flying I've done the last couple months has been under the hood while working on my rating. Last week I just needed a break from the "high pressure" flying.

As such, I took the plane up for a couple hours just boring holes in the sky and grabbing a bite to eat. It was a nice diversion from what has been happening as of late.

For me, this minor diversion was all I needed to remember I actually do love being in the air.
​

 

[Shipoke]

WELL Kevin, if you really want to enjoy flying again get involved with the EAA and the Young Eagles program. Taking Kids for thier first ride in a plane or even a ride cause they been in a plane before is very enjoyable. I got involved at our Fly-in at KCXY that we do each May ( iwas a vette driver that rode the kids around). I sort of got forced into a plane cause they told me i had to go for a ride. Now i not only do the fly-ins if some kid says i'd like to try that , UP we go. I bought my plane 4 years ago and now have somewhere around 150 kids flown. The look on thier faces when I let them fly the plane is great and very rewarding to me .
Young Eagles program is the best thing that happened for me as far as flying goes, and i think it will help with your problem too.
David J Gaiski

 

[Shipoke]

Kevin here are some pics. of what Young Eagles are
Dave
P.S. as you can tell from the collage YE are not just kids we do these for Special Needs Kids also. And i do consider all the kids as my Very Special Friends.

 

[SCCutler]

Hinted-at above, K, but for me, the best thing has been the remarkable people I have had the chance to meet through my new hobby of aviation.

I love being able to go places that are too far by car for the time allowed, and too difficult (or impossible) to reach by commercial carrier. And, flying has allowed my family to buy a vacation home in a place we love, a place which is too far to rationally drive for weekend use, but is an easy 1.4 hour flight.

Sometimes, it comes down to just loafing along on a beautiful day, admiring all I can see and thinking how lucky I am to be a pilot.

But still, the best comes down to the folks. Take a look at www.gastonsflyin.com to see what I mean. Come join us next June.

/s/ Spike

 

[rottydaddy]

I can't say flying was getting stale for me, but learning to fly a Champ definitely was an innocculation against future boredom.

I agree that anything "outside the box" does wonders: the more unfamiliar, the better.
Part of it is getting back to that "beginner" mindset: as you learn a new way of flying, you may find yourself flashing back to when flying was a big adventure for you. I sure did...

Tailwheel, floats, soaring, aerobatics, ultralights... there are a lot of possibilities.

 

[Ghery]

I can't say flying was getting stale for me, but learning to fly a Champ definitely was an innocculation against future boredom.

I agree that anything "outside the box" does wonders: the more unfamiliar, the better.
Part of it is getting back to that "beginner" mindset: as you learn a new way of flying, you may find yourself flashing back to when flying was a big adventure for you. I sure did...

Tailwheel, floats, soaring, aerobatics, ultralights... there are a lot of possibilities.

I must be easy to please, 'cause I'm happy when a CFI takes the time to teach me something new during a BFR. Never mind the drinking from a firehose learning to fly on instruments at the level necessary to get my IR.

Wonder why a had an engine failure in a dream last night (and stopped the plane in about 15 feet after a deadstick landing)?

 

[flyingcheesehead]

We've enjoyed our Bonanza for the past five years and it has served us well.

But it is for sale.

We've ordered a new Sport Cub.

Congrats! Have fun.

 

[kmead]

Thank you for the response. My biggest problem is time, working 7 days a week doesn't always leave much time. My wife thinks I should just schedule time and go flying. ( she's always right) I like the idea of trying something with a tailwheel. I don't want to buy another airplane, so maybe I can find something to rent locally. One post made sense, it could be that I'm feeling my airplanes are just transportation now. I need to really think about that one. With retirement ahead there might be more time to play. My wife has been wanting to get started flying. She can fly and I can sleep.

Thanks, Kevin

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

A few years ago it got boring letting flight students try to kill me an average of once every 15 minutes because they just do the same things and I'd flown to all my favorite places accessible in production aircraft many times -a rather limited list because of their limited performance.

Since nothing was available to buy that would get me into very challeging new places both land and sea that also met all the mission tasks, I started building a STOL Amphibion and we're almost done now. Then all will be well again when airborne.