Why do people fly?

Because this is awesome


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Half Fast said:
Similar here, but I graduated in '84. Most of my fellow EEs played with electronics as a hobby, and all our desks held breadboards and soldering irons and multimeters, and a few of us even had o-scopes in our rooms. We pretty much breathed electrical engineering. Maybe it's still the same, but I don't really know.
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I don't think it is... judging by the recent graduate mechanical engineers I've worked with in the past few years. Smart kids, some of them, but no practical experience at all.
 
Dana said:
I don't think it is... judging by the recent graduate mechanical engineers I've worked with in the past few years. Smart kids, some of them, but no practical experience at all.
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It stopped being cool to get your hands dirty some 10-15 years ago, unfortunately.
If I had a dollar for every time I've been told by a mechanical designer that "it looked good in CATIA"...
 
RockyMtnFlyer said:
Wait; that works?


Guess I'm the wrong kind of engineer.

Besides; after flying, no money for chicks.
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I didn't say it works , but I am not giving up yet, because like you (and unlike Half Fast) my engineering degree was useless in that regard.
 
Ashara Keliyn said:
Scoring chicks.
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Well yeah. I mean, that's probably why I'm married. I know that a guy introduced himself to me once when I went somewhere with a club plane and said "I'm married because of that airplane." It allows those of us without any game whatsoever to find a girl we can ignore while we hang out at the airport.
 
Clip4 said:
Honestly, if you look at all the rules and every thing you have to know and learn today I am shocked anyone does it.
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I do it BECAUSE there are endless opportunities to learn and improve myself.
I do it because nobody ever was elated and said "I feel like I'm bowling!"
I do it because every kid has dreams where they're flying, and I get to make mine come true.
I do it because it's fun. I do it because I get to see things nobody else gets to see. I do it to tickle my engineer brain. I do it for the feeling of freedom. I do it so I can climb to 5,000 feet, look down at anything that's causing trouble in my life and say "Hahaaaaa, come get me now, suckers!"

And, of course, I do it so that my kids think I'm cool.
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Ashara Keliyn said:
Scoring chicks.
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It also works the other way 'round (probably better, actually). I only met my husband because of flying, so maybe if you have any single sisters or cousins who complain about not being able to meet guys, suggest they get into flying. ;)

Seriously, though, I have never found the equivalent for the experience of flying. When you are in tune with your airplane, it is like a majestic ballet between pilot, machine, and gravity - tranquility, excitement, and skill all wrapped up together. Some of my favorite memories will always include arriving at the airport in the hushed chill of summer dawn - pulling out the plane as the birds announce the cresting sun and keying up the mic to join their announcements on the silent CTAF channel, watching the sun spread light and shadow across the fields and towns some 3000' below, seeing the world start to wake up, beginning to be joined by other pilots from other airports on the shared CTAF that is progressively becoming less silent - and then coming back to homebase with a measure of peace and satisfaction that is impossible to measure.

I never found the book learning to be hard, but my parents taught me how to study and to learn and enjoy learning. I am glad I did most of my book learning before I started flying, as I was juggling working fulltime and lessons and that left precious little time for studying - but a book being dry or difficult to understand was less of a deterrant and more of a challenge to wring the information out of its cold, dead pages, whether it wanted me to suceed or not.
 
SkyChaser said:
It also works the other way 'round (probably better, actually). I only met my husband because of flying, so maybe if you have any single sisters or cousins who complain about not being able to meet guys, suggest they get into flying. ;)
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As I imagine to be true with any endeavor that tends to draw more males than females, gals at the airport and club do tend to be rather popular.
 
SkyChaser said:
Seriously, though, I have never found the equivalent for the experience of flying. When you are in tune with your airplane, it is like a majestic ballet between pilot, machine, and gravity - tranquility, excitement, and skill all wrapped up together. Some of my favorite memories will always include arriving at the airport in the hushed chill of summer dawn - pulling out the plane as the birds announce the cresting sun and keying up the mic to join their announcements on the silent CTAF channel, watching the sun spread light and shadow across the fields and towns some 3000' below, seeing the world start to wake up, beginning to be joined by other pilots from other airports on the shared CTAF that is progressively becoming less silent - and then coming back to homebase with a measure of peace and satisfaction that is impossible to measure.
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That is an amazing piece of writing, seriously.
 
It's the easiest way to hang out with pilots without being weird..er. Pilots are cool.
 
AV8R_87 said:
Except for the ones that insist on doing an overhead break in a pattern full of students.
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I would never do that. I also would not deny an ATC request.

Tower asked me to do a low pass this weekend.... I didn't have a camera, but flysto does a decent job rendering the flight data...

 
I started because I thought it would be fun. And because I'm tired of having my stuff searched by TSA (I must look sketchy). Then when learning was (way) harder than I thought it would be, I dug in for the challange and never let go. Now it's tough to think of anything else.
 
How often do one get to take your kid to the Miami zoo and fly by alligator Alcatraz with your Colombian mother
 

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SkyChaser said:
I have never found the equivalent for the experience of flying. When you are in tune with your airplane, it is like a majestic ballet between pilot, machine, and gravity - tranquility, excitement, and skill all wrapped up together. Some of my favorite memories will always include arriving at the airport in the hushed chill of summer dawn - pulling out the plane as the birds announce the cresting sun and keying up the mic to join their announcements on the silent CTAF channel, watching the sun spread light and shadow across the fields and towns some 3000' below, seeing the world start to wake up, beginning to be joined by other pilots from other airports on the shared CTAF that is progressively becoming less silent - and then coming back to homebase with a measure of peace and satisfaction that is impossible to measure.
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Poetry . . . and a book or movie proposal.
 
Lon33 said:
Poetry . . . and a book or movie proposal.
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Years ago, this question was asked on the old red (AOPA) board. One of the answers from a member of the AOPA staff, was something like "to go fast". I had never considered that, because to me, being able to fly is magical!
 
Dwayne said:
Years ago, this question was asked on the old red (AOPA) board. One of the answers from a member of the AOPA staff, was something like "to go fast". I had never considered that, because to me, being able to fly is magical!
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Flying a light single-seat glider, just fast enough that the pre-stall buffet goes away, in a tight but low angle-of-bank spiral, slowly . . . inside a weak but positive thermal. That is a feeling of true accomplishment. To spend hours going nowhere . . . just back and forth along a ridge with weak lift . . . catching every 100 feet you can 'till you reach Silver Badge altitude . . . that is beyond magical.
 
billsgs126 said:
Flying a light single-seat glider, just fast enough that the pre-stall buffet goes away, in a tight but low angle-of-bank spiral, slowly . . . inside a weak but positive thermal.
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While watching a lazy stork fly formation with you, barely moving its wingtips.
 
This is why. See the joy on these boys faces? And they’re on the ground.

For millennia, men have dreamed of flight. And we’re some of the fortunate few to “have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings”

Carpe diem.
 

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SFDukie said:
This is why. See the joy on these boys faces? And they’re on the ground.

For millennia, men have dreamed of flight. And we’re some of the fortunate few to “have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings”

Carpe diem.
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Enjoy ‘em while they’re young. Once they reach about 13 they won’t like you anymore.
 
So they can come up with excuses to miss the biggest flyin event of all time?
 
Good question, why did I fly.??

I mean every 6 months I had to do a checkride, sometimes with managements favorite employee that happened to talk himself into a company check airman and really does not know what a check airman does.

One time I did a checkride with a company check airmen, and 2 days later I found out the FAA never approved his check airman status. That ended with the pilots being forgiven and the company getting in all the trouble. And another checkride.

Then a medical every 6 months.

I once went to get a first class medical and the person doing the EKG messed up to the tune of costing near $20,000 to get the mess straightened out, requested by and under strict guidelines from the FAA.

One morning we showed up at the airport all prepared to fly. Instead we found the doors chained shut with a note saying CLOSED. And our flight bags and other personal stuff locked inside.

I have had dispatchers tell me to take off right now even though weather was below minimums, and if we refused we would be fired on the spot.

I have flown through icing conditions where I could hold airspeed or altitude, but not both at the same time.

I once walked into an interview, did well, job offer offered, and then went to lunch with the other pilot new hires only to return to find out the owner of the company sold the company that morning and there is no longer any job.

I have had people pass away on the airplane, but on the other side there has been a few babies come into the world in my airplane.

One time the company VP organized a company wide conference call to inform all the employees we would not be getting a paycheck. Seems the company decided to use payroll for ''other things'' instead. Long story short, that worked out badly for the company once we got a lawyer involved.

And other ''exciting adventures''. But all in all, knowing what I do now, I would still do the same. There are some flights I should have refused, there are a few flights I should have taken, and there are a few dispatchers I should have punched, and one fed I really should have punched.

P.S. I did fly for some great companies.!!
 
Dwayne said:
was something like "to go fast".
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And in my opinion not the case with single engine, piston aircraft. I mean, it works out 90% of the time but the 10% where it doesn't due to weather or maintenance, you get stuck to a point where you lose the time you gained in the other 90% of flights. Example: I flew to lots of conferences, client meetings, and to Florida for vacation this year. It sure was faster than driving or even the airlines (not that I would take the airlines anyways) but then there was also the Kansas trip, which by itself already was for the plane to go for its ADs so not really a "time saver" but a time loser as I wouldn't have done that trip, if it wasn't for the plane. Flying up, driving back to Texas, then driving back to Kansas and flying back to Texas. That would have eaten lots of the time savings from previous trips already. But, hitting birds on the way back and having the aircraft on the ground for another week in OKC added even more time. Extra night in OKC, driving back from OKC to Texas, a week later driving up to OKC, then flying back to Texas. I'm probably at breakeven for the year, best case scenario.

Having said that, despite this, I'd still choose to fly 7 days a week and twice on Sundays ;-)
 
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