Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Congratulations Pugs!... on your solo today

Rock on!

Front seater now!

Congrats, Pugs!

Smilin' here.

You need any prop wash lemme know.

Great pics. I miss flying out west. One of the local flying clubs has a 172, 182, an 182 RG and a RV-12. The other has is low-wing centric and has a Warrior, Archer, Arrow and Tobago. I'll have to figure to what to do after the the license. Both are considerably cheaper than renting but both are inside the capital SFRA area so more of a pain to fly from.

I'm thinkin he's gonna need a few yards of flight line too...

Congrats Pugs!!! Didn't know they fitted them things with booster seats and extensions on the rudder pedals.

Congrats on the re-solo, Pugs! That's a pretty nice feeling.

I started flying in 2013 at the ripe age of 60. I had no prior aviation experience, but a colleague who's ex-AF talked me into it. I got my PP not quite 2 years ago, after accumulating 135 hours of flight time (65 with instructor, fwiw). Not having an aviation background and being a stickler for understanding the principles that underlie the rules, I deliberately took a LOT more time than the FAA requires before taking my check ride. I am convinced that was the smart way to go for me as an older pilot. I've had a couple of potentially scary situations since then that weren't really all that scary because I took the time to get the greater experience prior to my PP.

I started my training by joining a local flying club, and that was a relatively cheap way to start out, but it has its limitations... beat-up aircraft, limited availability of aircraft, etc. Then the Club went bankrupt and I had to rent for a while, but as you know it's not much better than flying Club airplanes. Fortunately a nice low-hours Cessna popped up locally, the price was right, and I bought it.

Since I got my PP I've racked up another 200+ hours, almost all in 172's, mostly my own '77 172XP "Super Chicken" (195 HP Continental). It's all steam gauges, the only glass in my cockpit is in my handhelds, but that's no impediment. Last year Kamo_Gari saw pics of me and STXHunter flying in my plane to Ltppowell's dove hunt and dubbed it the "Oblivion Falcon". The name suits, so it stuck.

My costs for flying the Oblivion Falcon run about $100/hr, wet and hangared. I could do it for a bit less, but that's a false economy if you look at it over time. Smartest thing I did was buy this plane when I was about 80 hours in... I find I fly a lot more in my own plane than I did in the Club's planes, and way LOTS more than when I was renting. FWIW, a lot of people had told me this would happen, and sonofagun they were right. So let me echo their sentiments and advise you to buy a used airplane rather than continuing to rent. If you haven't looked at the market, you can get a quite decent 1980's vintage 172 or Cherokee 160 for under $50K, and after you've flown it for 300-400 hours it will still be worth what you paid for it.

If you're moving to NH, you should be able to find a nice small airport with hangar space, and the less crowded airspace will be a joy to fly in. I love the fact that I can fly the 2.5 hour trip to my other job in west Texas every month and rarely see another airplane the whole way, even with ATC advising me of traffic.

Anyways, good on yer, mate. Glad to hear you're back in the air.

Mighty proud I got these:

SNJ5 by Sharps Man, on Flickr

As well you should be! My Grandfather was a USAF Contract AT-6 Instructor in Columbus AFB MS after his Army Air Corp time prior to going to Eastern in 52.

Doc - looking forward to talking to you at the pig hunt. Hangars around here are a 2+ year wait and I can't see spending the money on an airplane and then having it sit outside. In NH my home field (if all goes as planned!) will be Laconia and it's a nice field with lots of hangars and a lot of great flying to do with the Maine coast and such right there.

The two clubs I'm interested in at this point are http://www.tssflyingclub.org and http://octopusflyingclub.com/octopus/ - Even if I end up buying it would be nice to have some time a variety of airplanes to form an opinion. It is should be noted our poster that spilled the beans (Roof) not only bought me a beer afterwards but has already been pushing his BIL to sell me on Moony's like he has.

Allen,

You are more than welcome to fly in my plane at no cost to you.

Steve

Well, I know you don't use it much.....

I can totally see the value of belonging to a club. When they work, they're great. When they don't... well, I lost almost $10K in investment when the local club went bankrupt. That's not a common flying club story, but it does happen!

But if you can limit your membership costs (if you have the option of not buying into the capital assets of the club, i.e. the airplanes) it's a decent way to go for a couple of years. I don't personally subscribe to the idea that you will learn anything of value by bouncing around from one airplane to another... the "exposure" to different platforms doesn't really give you anything of value, and you lose a lot of valuable learning time adjusting and re-adjusting to the different controls and flight characteristics. In my experience, and a lot of other pilots agree, if you can get into one aircraft and fly the s h i t out of it, you'll build and retain skills much more efficiently. So if you go with the club with the Cessna 172, 182, and 182 RG plus others, try to stay in either the 172 or the 182; ditto with the Pipers.

Once you get up to NH, your options will open up nicely. At that point you might just skip buying the 172 trainer and buy a REAL airplane, like that Mooney. Interesting choice! Not an airplane for noobs, as you probably know. Mooneys haven't killed as many people as Bonanzas, but that's mostly because Beech has built a LOT more Bonanzas. (Not entirely... the Mooney passenger compartment cage is state-of-the-art.) I believe enough in the Mooney mission that I'm planning to purchase a used Mooney myself, hopefully this year but more likely next.

I've only got 2 hours total time in one Mooneys, and 2 hours in Bonanzas, but that's enough for me to be able to appreciate the basics of the airframes. Most of what I'll need to know about flying a Mooney will be learned when I buy my own Mooney and start building hours. I've got a relationship with a couple Mooney guys, and my plan is to get a minimum of 10 hours with an instructor in the first month I own the airplane, interspersed with roughly 10 hours of solo time, before I start taking it out for recreation and business travel.

Anyways, good luck and good flying, amigo!

Have always loved the look of Mooneys. And the flight numbers. Once in a while I go online and drool at some of the ones for sale.

Damn. I'm talking myself into this, aren't I?

Worse things could happen, Rock.

Lemme see... 170 KIAS cruise/185 KIAS max, cruise at 11 gph, service ceiling 18,000 MSL, lowest crash injury rate of any single-engine light airplane, and you can buy a good used 80's model for about what you'd spend on a new Mercedes Benz automobile without having to deal with the depreciation. Fly from Forth Worth to Chicago Executive in 3 hours. And that's just the normally aspirated 201K. Once you put a turbo on it, look out...

Dance with the one that brung ya Rocky. Perhaps a little different than back in the day.

https://www.trade-a-plane.com/searc...p;listing_id=2310086&s-type=aircraft

I flew a 172 a couple days ago with an instructor. It was an absolute blast!

1975 MOONEY M20F
General Specs
Sale Status: For Sale
Year: 1975
Make/Model:MOONEY M20F
Registration #: N6848V
Serial #: 22-1241
Location: Kokomo, IN USA

Price: $49,900 USD

Aircraft Ownership Solutions
http://www.aircraftownershipsolutions.com
(765) 456-1772
Fax: (765) 456-1782
Aaron Bollhoefer

3603 E 400 N

Kokomo, IN 46901 USA


Contact This Seller

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Price: $49,900 USD


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I should point out Joe, that with you as a licensed private pilot who is very close to finishing his instrument rating this could easily be yours too!

SNJ5 by Sharps Man,

Gorgeous.

My dad and his T-6 in 1951... he loved flying acrobatics in it.

Im not so sure that IFR in a single engine piston is the best idea. I personally wouldnt be comfy with it. Just my 2¢