Hello everyone!
Some of you remember me, some maybe not, but FWIW I'm back. I joined the site in the early days when Mike created the site, and was a heavy user for many years, up until about 2010.
The great recession of 2008 had me re-assessing my professional life, and like so many I changed careers and had to spend a lot more energy on making a living. I switched from the computer industry to the solar industry, re-tooling and re-learning along the way.
This is me cleaning my array :-) I now work for a company called Tigo Energy in Los Gatos, CA as a Sales Engineer. We make DC optimizers that help arrays produce more power.
I dabbled with drones for a year or so, but decided it wasn't something I wanted to do full-time.
In 2015 I decided that if I wanted to learn to fly FS, I had better do it soon because at 58 I already notice senior moments starting to creep in :-) I decided to start with gliders. I flew the Grob 103 out of Byron, CA for a little over a year and logged 18 hours.
I'm sharing my FS flying experience not to brag, but because I figure that some of you (like me) may consider doing it, and maybe you can learn something from my experience.
I decided to switch to powered a/c at that point for various reasons. The biggest reason - there is a powered flight school much closer to my house. I ended up at Aerodynamic Aviation at Reid Hillview Airport in San Jose, CA. Great operation, run by a super lady named Jen. I had some great instructors and logged over 100 hours in the Bellanca Citabria.
The Citabria is a sweet plane, stick and rudder flying at it's best. I did about 4 hours of solo flying, including some awesome fly-overs of San Luis Reservoir and nearby solar farms.
Last month (Jan 2019) after four years of flying, I decided to stop for a variety of reasons: - Safety -- I made a few mistakes which were potentially dangerous. It brought it home how high the stakes are when flying FS. Accidents result in more than a truck full of broken airplane :-)
- Fatigue -- For four years we have had to plan weekends around flying. When I don't fly, I get rusty -- fast. Even 2-3 weeks with no flying and there is noticeable regression, making the training take that much longer and more frustrating.
So, like so many others (roughly 80% of those who start the training) I have decided to stop for now. I may try again after I retire. I'm almost 59, so that's only 6 years away. Training more often allows the lessons to more effectively build on one another, allowing you to get to that depth of experience where complex, difficult tasks become ingrained and nearly automatic.
Flying full size is largely a mental exercise. To be a good, safe pilot, you need to be able to perform 3-4 complex, difficult tasks at once. For example, in the pattern, you need to: - Listen very carefully to the radio. This is challenging because there is always a lot of noise in the background, the voices are often unclear, people talk fast in jargon, etc, etc. You have to be able to pick out the things that are relevant to you. Tough.
- Keep an eye on other traffic. Other airplanes are often hard to spot, a mile or more away and they are a tiny moving spec moving across a background that is not uniform.
- Watch your attitude, altitude, airspeed. This is especially critical in the pattern when you are at low altitude. Many accidents result from stall/spin in the pattern.
- Set up your approach. Carefully control your energy and flight path so you arrive over the numbers at the proper height and airspeed.
Get the idea? It's definitely not for the faint of heart :-) The mental and vision degradation that inevitably comes with age doesn't help. I have found myself wishing I started earlier.
Also -- the airspace I've been flying in is very complex and very *busy*. That means you have to be constantly on the lookout for other airplanes, and the radio is constant non-stop chatter that you *must* listen to carefully to pick out the information that you need.
In four years of flying and a bit over 120 hours, I've spent about $30,000 (don't tell the wife that number :-) So, it isn't cheap either. Many people quit because of financial exhaustion.
Having said all that, it's an amazing experience that you'll never forget. For me at least, it is definitely worth all of the effort and expense. But, you should go into it with your eyes open and with full knowledge of what you're up against. I think some people go into it with unrealistic expectations and they are the first ones to quit.
Gary
__________________
Gary Hethcoat
Building: 43" Heinkel He 100
Wings on the Web
|
![]](/skins/text/forum_images/header-bg.gif)
Portal Home
Forum Home
![]](/skins/text/forum_images/top-left.gif)
![]](/skins/text/forum_images/left-side-table-bg.gif)
It's not that I'm a bad RC pilot but eventually, either via a mechanical problem or dumb thumbs, the model makes a "very sudden" landing. So no full-scale flying for me, thank you.
![]](/skins/text/forum_images/right-side-table-bg.gif)
![]](/skins/text/forum_images/hide_min.gif)