Are you a pilot? Show me the coolest thing you've flown.

[Scutter01]

I'd like to get into a P-51 Mustang, an Extra 300S, and a P-38 Lightning. Who am I kidding, there are about a hundred others I'd like to get into.

 

[sloughfoot]

I learned to fly in a Cherokee 140 at Flying Cloud Municipal (FCM) in 1981.

I have owned a Warrier, Arrow, Seneca, and an old 310C.

Here is a pic of the Arrow, the one I should have kept. When I moved to the twins, I couldn't believe how fast the money flew out of my wallet. it soured me on flying for almost 20 years.

I am currently flying Civil Air Patrol aircraft on various missions. My squadron is currently assigned a 182 with a G1000 panel. Its kind of nice to have someone else pay for the flying. There is a pic here..... http://www.capmembers.com/

All you pilots, and non-pilots who want to be part of an aircrew, should consider joining CAP.

I have always wanted to fly a P38 or a P40.

EDIT to add: I forgot about the 172 on floats that I flew. Water operations are way cool. That IS the coolest that I have flown.

 

[kawtech87]

Im not a pilot but my father is. When we were younger my brother and I helped our dad restore a 1948 Ryan Navion. Its not the most spectacular of airplanes but we did win "Best of Class" at the Oshkosh air show in 1997. Also we won the American Navion Society trophy in 1998. That was alot of fun.


Edit: I was looking on thier website for pics of our plane but thier photo gallery doesnt go back that far. My dad won the trophy in St. Josepeh Missouri in 1998 and had to give it back in Cody Wyoming in 1999. You can only keep it for a year and then you can never win again with the same plane. Unforutunately we no longer own the plane and all the pics of it are on film. It was also featured in "The Navioneer" magazine in I think 1999 or 2000. Not the most impressive of planes but my memories of it and the times we had in it are priceless.

 

[Vince49]

So many.

Wow,so many years! I made my living in a cockpit for over thirty years but here are some of my favorites. My all time favorite though was the Army OH-6 (Loach). My logs show a total of 1487 combat hours in Viet-Nam of which a little over 1000 was in this wonderful little warrior. I retired flying the Beechjet 400A in 1996 with 13,488 total flight hours over a thirty year span. In addition to these my logs show that I have flown (some extensively) more than 80 different aircraft. The smallest a Breezy and the largest a DC8.

Started out in these and thought I would never want more!

Then got in to this the OH-6 which is still my all time favorite!

Warwagon 11 over the Delta 1970. Me-Kong river in the background.

After the Army I spent the next 18 years flying one of these.

And finally spent the last six years herding this thing around.

 

[a.bentonab]

And finally spent the last six years herding this thing around.

Do you fly out of IND? Just wondering because I flew through MillionAire once with an organ transplant team from IU.

I'd like to eventually get my pilots license and fly myself, but I'm kind of leery because of the nickname the small planes get (Doctor killers). The name comes from all the doctors who buy a plane and get their license but don't have enough time to stay proficient and end up crashing them. I'm in medical school.

 

[Vince49]

Not recently.

Do you fly out of IND? Just wondering because I flew through MillionAire once with an organ transplant team from IU.

I'd like to eventually get my pilots license and fly myself, but I'm kind of leery because of the nickname the small planes get (Doctor killers). The name comes from all the doctors who buy a plane and get their license but don't have enough time to stay proficient and end up crashing them. I'm in medical school.

I am from Indy and made my last landing on 23L at IND on November 10, 1996, but my corporate career was in Ft.Wayne and Elkhart, IN. I flew the King Air for Peter Eckrich & Sons Inc. in FWA. And a King Air and later the Beechjet for Excel Industries Inc. in EKM. The only time I actually flew out of Indy was back in 72-73 when I was a flight instructor and charter pilot at the old Sky Harbor FBO at Eagle Creek Airpark.

PS: My flying days came to permanent end on 10/28/1998 when I had my first MI (heart attack) and then a second one on 07/12/2000 which ended any chance of ever getting my medical back.

 

[Vince49]

Only the bold ones!

Do you fly out of IND? Just wondering because I flew through MillionAire once with an organ transplant team from IU.

I'd like to eventually get my pilots license and fly myself, but I'm kind of leery because of the nickname the small planes get (Doctor killers). The name comes from all the doctors who buy a plane and get their license but don't have enough time to stay proficient and end up crashing them. I'm in medical school.

It's not all the small planes. The Beech Bonanza is the one we all referred to as,"The Forked Tail Doctor Killer". Not a fair reference as it is a excellent airplane. The reputation came to be because it was a very expensive single engine airplane which it was thought only a Doctor could afford, and it is also a rather complex and very high performance single engine aircraft that is not very well suited to an inexperienced or inattentive pilot. I do remember hearing more than once,"Ya'know, if it wasn't for the Bonanza we'd be up to our a** in Doctors"!

 

[sloughfoot]

Vince49, if you still want to be involved in aviation in a non-pilot role, CAP could really use your expertise. On a CAP mission, the pilot just flies the aircraft to where the Mission Observer tells him to. It is the mission observer (right seat) that is in charge of the successful completion of the mission. If you were my Observer, you could handle the controls as much as you liked. The scanner in the back seat operates the camera.

At the very least you would be around aviation again. We don't just bore hole through the sky. Homeland Security and disaster relief photo recon, Search and Rescue (actual and practice), counter drug missions put hundreds of hours on our Air Force supplied aircraft every year.

For the medical student, there is lots you could contribute to the mission as well.

I invite you to check out the Civil Air Patrol. The official US Air Force Auxiliary since 1941

 

[pinshooter45]

I'd like to get into a P-51 Mustang, an Extra 300S, and a P-38 Lightning. Who am I kidding, there are about a hundred others I'd like to get into.

May be you should try to get freindly with the guy who owns General Devices over beside Post Air Aviation that he owns. Was there with my oldest son several years ago for "The Young Eagles" program. And saw him fly in on a WWII Navy Torpedo Bomber. They were offering rides in the other air craft but I couldn't get a ride in the Navy plane! He had just flown it in from Texas and It had to be serviced. Got to sit in the cockpits of several Lear type Jets when I serviced a Copier at Executive air service. Talk about the sports cars of the air!!!

 

[IndyGunSafety]

This is what I fly for work: ( ATR 42/72 Captain)

The ATR 42 & 72.

I used to fly the Fokker 27 as a First Officer, and then later as a Captain:

F-27 Cockpit:

Did my time in The Cessna 208 Caravan as well. Fun plane to fly and well equipped.... but SLOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW, lol!

But the COOLEST thing I ever flew was an Agusta 109. I rented a crash pad to the pilot that flew for the guy that built Metropolis Mall. They had 2 of them. He was an instructor and took me out for 2.3 hours of dual! I got 10 take offs and landings, lots of hovering and plenty of fun!

I used to live in Kingston Jamaica and flew a King Air 90 back and forth to Tuxtla, Mexico single pilot over the western Caribbean.

 

[Hiker1911]

sloughfoot, that looks like a nice Arrow! While teaching the straight-tail, and the T-tail Arrow, my preference was very much for the Piper PA-28R-200 like yours.

 

[Vince49]

This is what I fly for work: ( ATR 42/72 Captain)

I am surprised that the ATR 42 still has the,"steam gauges". We were flying a all glass cockpit back in '91.

 

[sloughfoot]

Yes sir, and 63 Hotel was a good airplane in many ways. It was one of those "golden" trimmed aircraft. The book said I would get 130 knots at 8,000 but I always got 138 or so. I installed a LORAN receiver (way before GPS) and flew direct all over the country in it. One memorable flight from Boise to Rapid City showed a 250 knot GS most of the way on 9.5 gph. i should have kept it but was lured to the Seneca.

I flew a t-tail once. only once. No thanks.

It is really nice to be on INGO and be talking to pilots and seeing the pics.

 

[jetmechG550]

Honeywell Primus Epic w/ Planeview cockpit:

Synthetic Vision II on the co-pilot's display:

it's not very detailed at FL470

 

[kmorris]

I am a private pilot and have flown the following aircraft. My favorite by far is the B35!

172

182

A36

B35

 

[Scutter01]

Almost all of my time in the left seat is in Cessna 152's and 172's, with the exception of the aircraft in my OP.

 

[jimmyw86]

Its a little slow and I think it might be a little too big for my style of flying but it does destroy planets so thats a plus.

 

[LockStocksAndBarrel]

Its a little slow and I think it might be a little too big for my style of flying but it does destroy planets so thats a plus.

"Look at the size of that moon!"

"That's no moon!"

 

[Preacher715]

Licensed pilot and A&P mechanic...

Flown:

-Staggerwing D-17s
-Australian Tigermoth
-Homebuilt Pitts S-2-S
-Christen Eagle
-Air Tractor 301
-Air Tractor 801
-Air Tractor 501
-Bell 206
-Several Bonanza's
-Piper Tripacer
-Piper Cub & Super Cub
-Piper Navajo
-Homebuilt Mesquito Helicopter
and a few more...

 

[IN_Sheepdog]

It was extremely awesome. As I said, I don't have a lot of flight time, but since I did have experience I was allowed to man all of the controls the whole time. Normally your instructor will fly in and out of the game area, as well as manipulate the throttle during the game (normally, the student just operates the yoke and nothing else). IIRC, the only thing he did was man the radio.

Pretty much the same with my son. He had enough time with me in the different planes, (as well as countless hours on Microsoft Flight Simulator) they basically let him do everything but the last couple hundred feet to final.
I agree with you. Highly recommended, even for the non-pilot to have a great experience. They usually come back through the Midwest at least once a year...