I am several years out but the more I think about it the more I would like to have a small plane, something like a Cessna 182. I would like to have 1000 miles of range. I don't know about cost or anything yet, so I don't have a budget, we are talking a few years down the road.
My big concern is I am color blind, as in I have no red-green color vision, can I get a pilots licence? Or should I let this dream fade?

I've got a buddy who's a pilot and has red/green color blindness. Said he had a 50/50 shot when he was tested and guessed correctly.

I have a pilot's license and I'm partially red/green color blind. I've never had a problem with traffic signals or color-coded wiring. But, when they put those pastel color-blindness charts in front of me, the ones with all of the dots, I miss about 2/3s of them.

I had to get a medical waiver to fly. I had to go to an airport with a control tower and they shot the light gun at me, green/white, and I had to guess correctly every time in front of a FAA medical examiner. I got a 100% on the test and was able to get my license.

Flying is very expensive. You pay a lot of money just to drill holes in the air. If you buy a plane, you'll plan a trip for a Saturday morning, fly a couple of hundred miles, eat a burger at the FBO, and fly back. You'll soon discover that it's a $500 hamburger.

I'd rather squander my meager wealth on rifles.

If your condition is mild enough, you can get a waiver. If it's severe and you cannot distinguish the two colors in real world conditions, you cannot.



Travis

I have one of those colored dot test books. Printed in Japan in the 1920s.

Not yet,...but I got my buddy down to Mt Sterling lookin' fer a barn to rent with a smooth grassy strip nearby.

$5500 will put me in this one.

I'm gonna have to hit the yogurt, however.

'Bout 220 lbs is all it'll handle.

That looks spiffy. Does it have gun mounts?

wheeeEEEEeeeeee!

If I get down to about 165, I can take an FN FAL along,...

that's my concern, to quote the eye doc when I was a kid,


do the use the dot test to determine, if so I'm screwed.

There ya go, problem solved.

I've got the cash squirreled away.

Of course, I'd have to have it checked out.

But it's a fairly simple device.

The motor is a V-Twin Kohler,...like something that comes on a mortar mixer.

,..extremely low tech.

I've got a couple of buddies who play with them.

One has a pair of broken legs right now.

He landed bad,....but he's going to go back up when he gets the casts off.

It didn't fuggup the plane too bad.

A couple of his buddies are putting it right again.

I've gone hang gliding before and was the champion of my class,....so I think I can pull it off.

The only hold back is a place to keep it that has a straight strip nearby,...that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

If that turns up,..I'm gonna do it..

I'd suggest maybe 130#!!

lolol,..130?

Hail, far, man!

I'm 6' tall!

130 was about 4th grade fer me.

specs

http://www.airdromeaeroplanes.com/thedreamclassic.html

A local guy has one similar to that picture. Thought he was pretty good with it. Late one afternoon he took off and stayed pretty close to his landing strip but no one noticed when he went down.

Was near midnight when they found him, wasn't hurt too bad but was tangled in the wreckage and couldn't get loose. Dang fire ants had like to ate him alive before they got him out.

WyoCowboy:
Check into LSA, Light Sport Aircraft. No medical required, only a drivers license. Some older Certified planes qualify. The biggest obstacle is max gross weight of 1320#.
The EAA has good info on the LSA.
Good Luck.

My understanding is that you can actually go up in a plane, with an instructor (you won't be piloting obviously) and at an actual airport they will verify what you can, and cannot identify.

I'm no expert. But my father (instructor) and my brother both fly. And a friend of mine had his private even though he was color blind, but he could not fly commercially.

As far as owning aircraft, I can't recall my father not owning one. But they ain't cheap.


Travis

Bristoe, have you looked at the Challenger ultralights? Little bit more money, but considerably more substantial too,plus you can get floats and ski's for it. Used omes can be had for quite reasonable prices. I'm hoping to make it a reality in a few years time.http://www.challenger.ca/lightsport_cdnhq.html

For a 1000 mile range to much use in Montana, you probably are gonna need an instrument rating, radar and de-icing capability. Otherwise the 500 hamburger is about the only reliable option.