Hey I figure if you guys can talk guns and corvettes, I can talk about airplanes.

Long story short, I've been flying gliders since I was 13 and the. tow plane for a glider school in SC since I was 18. I did that for a few years and built my time until I left for college. After I finished I got a job at a commuter airline and now I've been flying the Airbus 320 for American Airlines for about 4 years now. Sailplanes still have a special place in my heart. It's the most pure form of flying. Very bird like. And the tow plane, an old crop duster, is a 225 hp 1000 lb fabric covered plane that is meant to fly slow, and carry a lot of weight. It makes a perfect tow plane.

Anyway, last weekend I had an opportunity to fly the tow plane in an air show. To top it off, it was at my brothers Air National Guard base where he flies F16's. Truely an amazing opportunity.

I just thought I'd share a quick video I made. If anyone has ever had an interest in aviation, I can't recommend finding your nearest glider school and at least taking a ride. I promise you'll be hooked.


https://youtu.be/8odWPfFU16w

Haven't seen the vid yet, but a friend of mine started as a light plane instructor, and is now a 747 captain. He even spent some time flying out of Kauai. I almost went that route, but went the land lubber direction.

Oh yea, you can talk airplanes here. The 320 is supposed to be a nice bird. Though I've never had the chance to fly on one. I'll have to check out the video. That sounds like a pretty awesome weekend.

The following information may come as a surprise to many of you because it doesn't come up much around here.

I always wanted to fly. Wanted to fly fighters, but had no idea how to actually accomplish that (and I was a bit of a screw off in school). I spent a few years as a civilian avionics installer/technician. I worked at Hagerstown Aviation Service ( at KHGR). I worked on everything from kit planes to the occasional 727 (just altimeter certs on those for a ferry flight down the coast). I even logged a few training hours at the FBO next door. I quit when my instructor made a full stall landing 6" before the paved runway started in variable gusting conditions with a stiff headwind that would come and go (Cessna 152). He wanted to make the first turn off and avoid needing to work with ground control to get back to the apron. It was dumb and dangerous and I quit after those hours. He was an Embry Riddle graduate (which is where I always wanted to go). I expected him to be smarter. Though the landing went ok, I wouldn't have pushed it that much just to be lazy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagerstown_Regional_Airport

I installed "everything". Autopilots, GPS approach coupled autopilots, intercoms, storm scopes, instruments, transponders and encoders, I did Pitot-Static checks, etc. Richard Collins of Flying magazine brought his Cessna 210 to our shop for equipment installations when he was testing equipment for the magazine. I used to work on this plane a few times a year:

http://airfactsjournal.com/2014/09/logbook...ing-turbulence/

I last worked on that aircraft in 1998. sadly, I later found out that he scrapped it in 2007. We joked that it was a mini 727. He had more instrumentation in this aircraft than you can begin to imagine. It was seriously equipped.

http://copa8.blogspot.com/2007/12/richard-...-his-plane.html

I also worked on all the company aircraft for Propilot magazine. Usually Murray Q. Smith would fly them in personally (top left corner of the link below).

http://www.propilotmag.com/about.html

He was an absolute gentleman to talk to and he was a great guy. Some aircraft owners are too good to talk to "mechanics", but Murray was as friendly and personable as they come. He would pull up and we'd push the plane in the hangar, he'd hand me a huge ring of keys (like the wardens had in old movies), fill me in on the job for the day, chat a few minutes and scurry off to the restaurant next door to a meeting.

I left Hagerstown Aviation Services and headed south to Bridgewater, VA and went to work for Dynamic Aviation.

http://www.dynamicaviation.com/

We did all kinds of things and they seem to do more now. I spent some time in Nicaragua to fix a couple autopilots and complete some altimeter certifications. Ultimately I didn't like the company and I moved to Ohio and closed out my chapter in the aviation world.


One of the craziest things (looking back) that I ever did.... We were chasing an electrical issue on a Piper Navajo (twin engine, piston driven, light aircraft) and I wound up standing between the engine nacelle and the fuselage with my back to the prop and my waist against the leading edge of the wing during a full power engine run up so we could try to find this issue (I was holding a test probe on a charging circuit on the engine). I'm not sure how many other people on this planet have done such a thing...but the ones who haven't are far smarter than I was.

We live in the flight pattern of a Pearland Regional, which is home to a lot of interesting birds. It's the southeastern base for Hermann Hospital's Life Flight helicopters, and base for several of the T-6's and 'Zeros' for the Commemorative Air Force. There's a trio of Yak/Ilyushin aircraft, and somewhere there is a hangar with a P-39, among others.

We have an air advertising company that works out of there, and two of the birds they fly are those crop dusters. Yes they can haul a LOT of stuff, and fly slow. It's amazing to see them dragging a big banner into a stiff wind. They look like a hoot to fly.

I have a little time behind the stick, flying with my Dad when he worked as a pilot for an oil company. I have minutes flying everything from a STOL-equipped 172 (one of the company owners would be flown to their beach home on the Gulf, and they'd put the plane down right on the beach) to a Falcon 20 and G-II.

One of my favs in their fleet was a twin Bonanza. It just flew nice.

We got planes from the Maryland Warbirds Museum (T6 Harvard and others). One day I was working on a Cessna and a Grumman Tiger (the owner bought a new plane and wanted me to swap all the electronics from his Cessna into the Grumman and swap the Grumman stuff into the Cessna so he could sell it). I'm upside down under the dash of the Cessna and I hear a heavy metallic "THUD". I rolled out of the plane and realized my friend had bumped the tailhook release on the old bird he was working on from the warbirds museum. I yelled to JD "your tailhook is down, make sure you snag that cable". He laughed a big laugh and said "Is that what that was?". lol. We were putting a GPS in it, but I forget what plane it was now. It's been a while.

Did work on lots of Cessna Citations, the occasional Saberliner 65, I have lots of time tearing down 152/172, etc Cessnas and a bunch of time tearing down Beech stuff (bonanza, twin bonanza, Baron, etc). Some Cessna Centurion time, lots of time tearing apart King airs (and non pressurized ones...we had a bunch of those at dynamic aviation). Had a customer with a Navion, one with a Kitfox and I forget what else (Turbo Commanders with the Garrett turbines are ear splittingly loud when they roll up out front). The occasional Cessna "Mixmaster". Some helicopters (Bell 22a) and a Fairchild Hiller FH1100. You never knew what might show up at the shop on any given day.

I tried to get into the military with the intention of going to flight school, likely marines. Unfortunately this was 2011 and they could afford to be picky, so my sleep meds kept me out of all branches.

My cousin is at ER right now for drones.

I get to see all kinds of military aircraft with where I live. I get nice low flybys every now and then. I believe they use a bridge right around the corner from me for training. I still want to take a ride in a fighter jet. I don't really care which one either lol.

Seems like most car guys have their "other machinery thing". I like bikes/quads and trains. But I'm not buying a train any time soon.

I was planning to go to Texas A&M and do AFROTC, but they said my allergies would keep me out of the pilot seat, so I went another direction. Turns out I could have probably gotten a clearance, but didn't know it then. We still enjoy the variety of aircraft that fly over the house every once in a while.

Piper PA-25 Pawnee?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-25_Pawnee

Count me in the bike camp. Upgraded a few weeks ago to a Speed Triple that really needs a front tire (previous owner has it but we haven't met up since). My solution has been to just not let it touch the ground

I think that's a motorized unicycle.

But I do like your style!

Hey, it worked for Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible...

Heh, back in the days when Pro Stock had a weight break depending on displacement, I used to help a friend with a SBC Camaro. There was a big event at a local track,and another acquaintance who ran both pro Stock bike and a Super Gas truck was running his bike in qualifying.

He left the line, pulled the front wheel, and his left hand slipped off the handle bar, pulling the front wheel full right. While swinging for the left grip, he had the wherewithall to short shift the bike to 2nd gear before the front tire hit the pavement, so he could carry the front end long enough to grab the left handle bar, and straighten the wheel before it touched te ground.

It was then I was convinced that the bike riders had more dollars than sense.

Dad was lifer USAF (tankers, intelligence, fighters) and so I grew up on AFBases. Been to Oshkosh several times and was a ramprat in highschool and college. Solo'd in a taildragger.

Me and a buddy took his Mooney to OSH several times, the last in 13. Took his then 8yr old son and my then 5yr old daughter. Got a snap of our (oldest now) daughter in the nose of a b17 going over OSH during the show when it is packed with planes. #LifeGoals. We still talk about that trip and will likely make another one here soon.

Would love to get a plane...

One of the best shirts I've seen says "If I was flying, Goose would still be alive".


Costas
cars and such...