Scudrunners

His choice, but while I am not timid, I am relatively cautious.  I don't shy away from stuff that I know how to do (training and experience), but I just don't care to take the risk of figuring things out on my own that have the potential to kill me (or cost me a lot of money if I screw up) - but that's just who I am.

[quote]I just don't care to take the risk of figuring things out on my own that have the potential to kill me[/quote]

Really?!

Quite seriously, if that was the case, I would
never go flying.  Or ride a 300 kph sportbike.

That's what makes it interesting, as opposed
to golf.

See previous comment about people not being
up for the moment.  Amazingly, they think they're
going to live forever.

You probably think I'm a looney, but go look up
what Charles Lindbergh had to say about aviation
and "flying the mail" before WWII.  He was a rock
star between the two wars, so maybe his opinion
counts for something, even though four bars are
disinterested in the history of aviation ...

Irony time:  both Charles Lindbergh and my father
lived to be very old, bold pilots.  The things my crazy
father tried to talk me into doing in airplanes ...

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Fairc ... B-52_crash] Bud Holland [/url]  never bent an airplane either; right up [url= he did.[/url]

I am going to suggest it is a pilot that is more interested in certification than qualification.

[quote author=Colonel link=topic=233.msg752#msg752 date=1434026136]
[quote]I just don't care to take the risk of figuring things out on my own that have the potential to kill me[/quote]

Really?!
Quite seriously, if that was the case, I would never go flying.  Or ride a 300 kph sportbike....[/quote]

You missed the "figuring it out on my own" part....
I just want someone who knows more about something show me the ropes first.
Sure, you feel comfortable hopping an in airplane now without instruction, but you didn't walk up to an airplane for the first time and figure out how to fly.  I'm different from you in that while I probably could figure out a different airplane without someone going along with me for the first time, I'm not comfortable doing so, so why would I?

And yes, I took a motorcycle course the first time I drove a bike.

My philosophy when it comes to trying new things is to not hold back from doing anything I want to do out of fear or perceived risk (mostly by others), but of minimizing the risks.  So when I drive my motorcycle, for example, if I have a long and fatiguing day and the car is available, I take the car and save the bike for when I will be alert and will enjoy it.  I tried parachuting a few times, which my friends thought was "risky" but I minimized the risks by going with folks that I knew were both accredited and safe.  Training for me is just part of minimizing the risk.  Now there are certain activities that I find low risk and not all that difficult, so for those I hop in and give 'er a go...

I don't think anyone hates training. I am pretty sure the colonel likes it sometimes.

I suspect he is just tired of hearing about things like. "I could not go flying today because my FTU has a 12 knot crosswind cut off, so since it was 17 knots forecast to be 19, the instructors were all sent home."

It does seem odd.

[quote]You missed the "figuring it out on my own" part[/quote]

The first time you went 300 kph on
a crotch rocket, was it solo or dual?

Many interesting aerobatic and WWII
aircraft are single seat.

You might not think much of the RCAF,
but every pilot that flew the F-86 Sabre
did so for the first time, by themselves
which TC these days would probably
consider careless and reckless.

I had an uncle killed in the RCAF, actually (1951).  He was landing in formation in a Vampire and got caught in the guy's jet blast (or something - I wasn't there) - flipped on landing.  I inherited his logbook, and it looks like he was pretty low time (relative to what you see people with now in jets).

Interesting thing about his logbook is that pretty well every second page during his training in Gimli has a note about an accident with other students and instructors that he knew (sometimes solo, sometimes dual).  Sometimes they died, sometimes they didn't.  It's pretty unsettling to read.

[quote]He was landing in formation in a Vampire and got caught in the guy's jet blast (or some[/quote]

Likely wingtip vortices.  They can be
nasty.  Been there.

Sorry to hear about that.  Those were
very different times from today.

I thought it sounded like vortices too, but didn't think they'd be as bad on landing.  But I suppose that when you're right against a guy it doesn't take much.  I guess he would've been okay being above and behind throughout the approach and only would encounter them on the ground as he hit the same level.

It's funny how you can feel an affinity for a family member who died over a decade before you were born, but Uncle Kenny was the only person in my family who showed any interest whatsoever in flying - both of my sisters are afraid to fly, with one being almost catatonic when she is forced to fly commercially.  I did have them both up when I first got licensed (I think that's when they both realized how bad they were - I know it was news to me.

My one sister that is absolutely phobic had a wild-eyed look not unlike a terrified horse, and with tears in the corners of her eyes started making a high pitched keening noise - scared me to death because I thought she was going to have a stroke or something.  She actually managed to get control enough to finish the (brief) flight, but was really scared of turns to her side.  Flew the entire flight doing left-hand turns only...
(Tower thought I was nuts when I asked for overhead crosswind even though I was perfectly lined up for joining right base)