Your other interests...

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Helicopters are tricky but it's just because the wings are in a different place. Left and right and up and down are about the same but it's the forward and back that confuses most people. The big difference between the rotary wing and the fixed wing is that helicopter pilots don't carry a parachute. However if FW looses power it can glide some. A chopper goes straight down for the most part.
I watch MASH almost everyday on METV and I love to see the 47's come in and take off. Almost wish I had gone on to pilot school when I had the chance back then but it's too late now.
I don't recall there being any heater in those 47's but maybe there was. We didn't have any doors on ours anyway so the heater wouldn't have worked anyway. Bet it was cold going over those mountains. Pete
 
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I only had one incident in a helicopter. I was cruising at 500 feet and lost a trim tab off of the main rotor. It wasn't much fun. Vibration was bad with any power and I went into autorotation aiming for a parking lot at a hospital which was empty because it was at night. The landing wasn't has because I gave a bit of power just before touching down. When I got out, one of the skids on the 47 was hanging over a canal. I calmly went to the emergency room and had the pilots seat surgically removed.
 
I got my revenge later that day... Took one of the patrolmen pilots up in an airplane and let him fly it. He wanted to slow down and go into a hover so badly. I was like, nope we got to keep the airspeed up...hehe
 


Ha! WE lose more seats that way. That patrolman is a good example of why everybody doesn't get to fly a helicopter. I was lucky because I had been to the Ft. Rucker mechanics school and pretty much knew how and why they fly. That helps a lot. My pilot friends where always after me to go to flight school but I would have ended up in Savanna,Ga from Atlanta and would have lost my job. Couldn't give up the income so I stayed a cook in Atlanta till the end in 1970. Should have stayed in though and learned to fly with my friends even if I wasn't official in the eyes of the Army Guard. But it's too late now. Ha! Pete
 
I was fortunate on getting my rotor rating. The state paid for it. I already had commercial, instrument and instructor rating at the time with about 1,200 hours in the log book. I was a lot cheaper for them for me to get upgraded because at the time it only took 40 hours. Cheaper than training someone from the ground up.
 
I am just about done with a 71 cutlass sx and race it show it and hunt with it. I have had this car for about 25 years first used then I rebuilt it and upgraded to todays standards across the whole line. I am using a old rebuilt 455 olds. I build my railroad over the winter and it too is almost complete all before I am 45. I do resto work for a living on cars and go to a train swap meet 6 times a year.
 
My other interests are Harleys,my wife has an 89 Heritage, I have an 89 FLHT and son has 86 Sportster and I've currently finishing up a 97 Super Glide for my son for when he graduates College nextyear. I do all my own wrenching.And have been riding for 35 years. IMG_0151.jpgIMG_0742.jpgIMG_1445.jpgIMG_3013.jpg
 
I'm sure you helicopter guys have heard the saying "Helicopters can't fly. They are so ugly, the Earth repels them!"
 
I fly light fixed wing airplanes for a living, and love every moment of it. I have just enough time in a helicopter to presume I could get it on the ground intact, with no points for pretty. I know several guys who are dual rated.

As to other hobby interests, I have a life-long interest in model airplanes. Hubby and I have settled into the niche of electric powered self-launching sailplanes. They climb up hundreds of feet under their own battery power, and then you shut the motor off and the propeller blades fold back and streamline, and now the sailplane is in it's element, riding the columns of rising hot air. In the right conditions you can keep it up for hours. It's a fun hobby, outdoors, and fair-weather dependent. They are fun to build too.

Diane
 


Years back I used to fly helicopters and really enjoyed it. I only had one incident that scared the C**p out of me. I was on the highway patrol cruising at about 500 feet at night when I had a trim tab on the main rotor come off. With power I had little control, but when I went into autorotate, I could "aim". Luckily there was a hospital parking lot close by, and being it was at night, one lot was empty. I was able to set it down, infact pretty softly, but when I got out, the front of the left skld was hanging over a canal. I calmly walked to the emergency room and had the pilot's seat surgically removed. Other than that, helicopters are a hoot!
 
Work, kids, wife, house... pretty much only have spare time for trains. Used to home brew, and collect 50's-60's brit roadsters. But had insufficient time to do any of em justice. So culled the hobbies to just trains.
 
montanan said:
Years back I used to fly helicopters and really enjoyed it. I only had one incident that scared the C**p out of me. I was on the highway patrol cruising at about 500 feet at night when I had a trim tab on the main rotor come off. With power I had little control, but when I went into autorotate, I could "aim". Luckily there was a hospital parking lot close by, and being it was at night, one lot was empty. I was able to set it down, infact pretty softly, but when I got out, the front of the left skld was hanging over a canal. I calmly walked to the emergency room and had the pilot's seat surgically removed. Other than that, helicopters are a hoot!
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Montanan,
Yet again, you've convinced me to stick with fixed wing, multi engine turbines...(: flew one (with a trooper coincidentally once) and it was very strange to me.

Azdiane,
Been awhile since I was PIC of a SE airplane. Went up with a friend two years ago and made clear to him nicely that he was pic. I flew it for about a minute, amazing how much I have forgotten. I keep my CFI current, but I'd need some SE time before I was to ever think about training anybody again.

Brad
 
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bigB said:
Azdiane,
Been awhile since I was PIC of a SE airplane. Went up with a friend two years ago and made clear to him nicely that he was pic. I flew it for about a minute, amazing how much I have forgotten. I keep my CFI current, but I'd need some SE time before I was to ever think about training anybody again.
Brad
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Isn't that a strange twist in the FAA regulations? You can hold a valid CFI and be so rusty you would scare yourself. Our FAA at work. And surely there are Fed regs about railroading that are as goofy.

Diane
 
azdiane said:
Isn't that a strange twist in the FAA regulations? You can hold a valid CFI and be so rusty you would scare yourself. Our FAA at work. And surely there are Fed regs about railroading that are as goofy.

Diane
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Yep, all about the currency, being professional, and of course, self-preservation. (:

Brad
 
- someone mention "dinosaurs"? Yeah, me, too. But I was convinced into believing I'd be too late to make any new discoveries to make it a career.
- I've had a passion for writing before I could do it (would "squiggle" in a Composition book as I dictated stories to myself)...it's not just a career...it's my lifestyle (so I guess it's an "interest")
- passed over for entrance into all the architectural schools, in which I applied, ended up being an architectural draftsman (anyway) and have designed two residences that have been built(one of which is my own)...more of a hobby than a "career" but would like to make money from it...I have a portfolio of homes I've "doodled" over the years...beats doing a crossword puzzle (IMO)
- cross-country bicycling (haven't done since I got married)
- European (freestyle) travel (no itinerary, by backpack...got wife into this, too)
- now getting into Victorian antique furniture
- Paleontology, Archeology, Geology (just love those "-ologies")
- woodworking (mostly restoring/reusing "curbies" things off the curb, though I've been doing the finishes in/on our house
- architectural restoration/renovation (not the 'updating' kind of renovation... the historically sensitive type...similar to Nicole Curtis on Rehab Addict)...okay, I get paid for this (though I don't do it full-time) but I do love it, too (I'd do it for free, maybe)
 
I do it for recreation so I guess you can call it a hobby.

IMG_02365-1-1.jpg


I love offshore fishing for Tuna and Shark but since the heart problems I stay inshore, well within 15 miles anyway and fish for Stripers Tog other smaller game fish.
 


James Olson said:
- someone mention "dinosaurs"? Yeah, me, too. But I was convinced into believing I'd be too late to make any new discoveries to make it a career.
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We must have both had the same stupid adviser.

- passed over for entrance into all the architectural schools, in which I applied, ended up being an architectural draftsman
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My architectural career began in grade school when I read my mothers college text books on the subject, and worked great through Junior high in their drafting program. It ended sophomore year of high school when I switched to a school that did not have a drafting program. Lost focus on it and computers took over by the time I got to college.
 
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