Don't wait until you're 56, ok?

[Colonel]

[youtube][/youtube]


By the time you are 10, you should be flying tailwheel.


Teenaged son with daughter #3 in front seat:

[img width=500 height=281][/img]

[Gravel Digger]

Someone's eventually got to pay the bills so if you're going to play, be very very good at it and get paid to do it.

[Colonel]

be very very good at it

Exactly.  And this doesn't apply to just flying,
which is merely a matter of life and death.

Be very, very good at everything you do.

You know.  Give a shit.  Strive for excellence.

I have lived my life this way, and it has
worked out very well for me:


Work smart.

Work hard.

Give a shit.

If you do all three of the above, you
will be very successful, indeed.

[Slick Goodlin]

Work smart.


Work hard.

Give a shit.

Someone should really base a religion on this.

[Walter Sobchak]

Colonel do you make your living flying those Pitts?


Work hard at what you do and you can be anything you want is exactly what I preach to my kids. I really hope they do as I say and not as I do. I'm just a pilot. :)

[Colonel]

I write software and fly airplanes.  I
couldn't live without both.  I have more
fun than any 10 people I know, which
seems to really piss off certain people  ;D

[youtube][/youtube]

[youtube][/youtube]

I've had an incredible life.  Can't complain.
[img width=500 height=332][/img]
I don't even mind cleaning the bugs
off the leading edges afterwards.


Free advice:  during your lifetime, get
the following:

1) a 1000cc sportbike, built within the
last 5 years (doesn't matter what make)
that has never been crashed, and

2) a Pitts S-1S, and

3) an L29 with the Viper engine conversion.

It won't cost much money, but if you spend
the time to master all three, you will be a
very rich person indeed.

[img width=500 height=281]http://wingshots.foxalpha.com/2009/RENO/IMG_4801s.jpg[/img]

[Colonel]

PS  Fun with software:





13 (yes, THIRTEEN) microseconds through
a 500MHz SOC running a TCP/IP stack, CIFS
and a web server (!!)

On that same chip, I was seeing less than 6
microseconds interrupt latency at the thread
level, and under 3 microseconds interrupt
latency with a kernel interrupt handler.  That's
fucking awesome.


I did this with an interpreted LUA script (!!!)


Software is an awful lot of fun - you use mine,
every day - and it pays very, very well.

[woodzi]

For #1, I would substitute a 500cc 2-Stroke motocrosser.

[duCapo]

The Colonel is right, don't hesitate, don't wait, do it. If if I have one regret, it was waiting until I was over 60 to fly a Pitts.

[Colonel]

500cc 2-Stroke

The binary torque curve of two strokes
can be "interesting" when it comes on
when you don't quite expect it  >:D

waiting until I was over 60 to fly a Pitts

Hey, you did ok.  Frankly your tolerance
for negative G was amazing!

(L29 Viper) new to this list

It's simply amazing, for a straight-wing jet
with no burner.  Has to be experienced to
be believed.  The light wing loading and
the amazing thrust to weight ratio makes
it more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
"Ghengis" John Boyd would approve!

If the only airplane types you ever flew
were the Pitts and the L29 Viper, you
really wouldn't be missing a whole lot.
Ok, maybe floats.  Gotta do that.  And
skiis.  That's awesome, too.