Scudrunners

I'm kind of hard on four bars, sometimes. But not all are caricatures:



Anyone that lands on a gravel bar beside a river is cool in my books.

A neat place. It's still summer on the coast, and snow in the mountains.

-- EDIT --

I shouldn't but ... I made fun of Juan when he made a big deal of "winter preheat"
when it (gasp) dropped below freezing. I pointed out that Lycoming said it
wasn't necessary, the grade of oil was probably more important anyways, and you
very well could do more damage than good with a propane heater if you didn't know
what you were doing. You know, burn the fucker down.

I think the reason you give Juan credit, is that he’s really a three-bar…

Not sure his motivation for upgrade, which I’m sure he can in to the 737 in MIA…



I also postulate that all airline pilots should spend at least 3 hours a month flying taildraggers.

he’s really a three-bar

I knew a guy - Matt - who flew for AC. I think he was the most
senior right seater at the company (or pretty close), got paid
pretty well, and could choose when he flew. I was under the
impression they tried to pair the new captains with him, to keep
them out of trouble.

It would be tough for him, I understood, to downgrade to being
the most junior captain, even though in the long run, it would
probably benefit him.

I don't make a habit of hanging out with career right seaters or
navigators (shudder) but Matt loved Hurricanes. Loved, loved,
loved them. No idea why.

I remember he bought one, it was just a flat pile of corroded
aluminum sheets on a small trailer. But, it had a data plate.

all airline pilots should spend at least 3 hours a month flying taildraggers.

Or a glider. Or a hot air balloon. ANYTHING. A kitchen table
with an electric fan.

While this is sure to be considered a silly idea, I think it was JAL
a few decades ago, provided little bizjets to their long-haul pilots
to drive around, because even back then, everyone was realizing
that it's pretty hard to stay current with maybe one landing a month,
after you share them with the other guy, autopilot, etc.

My landings got a lot better after the first 10,000.

The seawall at SFO thanks ya'll for your proficiency.

Mike Mangold - a four bar for AA that did my L29 type rating - had
pretty horrible things to say about the skill level of the F-16 USAF
pilots he was checking out. Mike was an old F-4 pilot, which actually
had to be flown. You might also remember him from Red Bull.

I seem to remember some US airline (Pan Am? TWA?) buying a number of Ercoupes way back in the day for proficiency. While it doesn’t sound like the best tool for the job, they were apparently mainly to get pilots used to landing crabbed in a crosswind so they’d stop banging the outboard engines of 707s off the runway.

Oh yeah, I also heard Bombardier’s own flight department at one time had a 172 for employees to chew around in. At least one office worker even got their PPL/CPL in the thing.

My favorite fun flying was taking my Texas Taildragger 150 out early in the morning when there was no traffic and doing thirty second touch and go circuits left and right hand alternating.

It helps keep your hands and feet skills up to par.

I feel honored that I’ve suckered at least 4 other coworkers to buy a plane. Ranging from a Cessna 140 to Bonanza’s.

Still trying to sell (the idea of) a Mooney to a guy, so I can go fly it!