Do We Have Any Aviation Fanatics Here?
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If interested, I can also recommend an aviation hair dryer: Princess Juliana International Airport - Wikipedia[^] :laugh:
Mircea
As you come out of the National Airport in Washington, DC to go towards the city, there is a place with a parking lot where you can pull in and watch the airliners come in for landing. Awesome, close views of the planes!
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charlieg wrote:
You are not alone.
That's nice to know. I'm glad for that. :thumbsup:
charlieg wrote:
They had a balcony that overlooked the taxi and run ways. We would watch for hours...
Yes, for hours and hours. The last time I visited the airport to watch planes take off and land was just a few years ago. I loved it. When I was a kid, I'd bring along my telescope and binoculars. Nowadays, bringing a telescope, binoculars, and even a camera can grab the attention of the police. It's not illegal to use those things at a non-military airport, but I know many people who have been hassled by the police for taking photos. Some people actually make a living from taking photos of airliners. The largest aviation photography site that I know of is https://airliners.net, and if you take a look at its number of members, you'll see how popular aviation photography is.
charlieg wrote:
the best part (for me) was the jet fuel exhaust.
I know. That's my favorite. I've probably lost a few brain cells from the aroma of avgas in my time. Jet fuel used by airliners is my favorite. It's got that hint of kerosine that I love. It's usually called Jet-A. JP-8 which is the fuel used in many fighter jets is just as good. I wish there was a Jet-A fuel cologne you could buy. Imagine one of those cologne commercials you see on TV. ...Aviation Turbine Fuel Eau De Toilette, A Fragrance For Men, by Boeing. :laugh:
charlieg wrote:
About as close as I came to being a polite was when I got bit by the sailplane bug.
Yes, I hear that often. Gliders/Sailplanes seem to be the overall favorite by a long shot.
Steve Raw wrote:
Aviation Turbine Fuel Eau De Toilette, A Fragrance For Men, by Boeing.
With a lid that falls off. :)
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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I've seen several threads posted here related to aviation. I'm curious, do you have an interest in flight, like I do? From as far back as I can remember, I've been infatuated with anything that flies. My father worked at Boeing as an Aeronautical Engineer. If I had a nickel for every aviation question that I asked my dad, I could buy a corporate jet. We would go to the airport and watch planes all the time. If I was drawing a picture, it would be of a bird or an airplane. I had an obsession with birds. I had several bird books that I'd look through for hours. It was all so magical to me. In 2005 or so, I took my first flying lesson. I initially considered becoming an airline pilot, so I attended an airline training academy in case I chose to make it a career. I stopped short of getting my Airline Transport Pilot rating. I still love flying planes. The aircraft I enjoy flying the most is an ultralight. It's basically a hang-glider with an engine. I've heard that flying a glider is the best, but I haven't yet done that. I want to go hang-gliding, but it's super dangerous. I like jumping out of airplanes, but only with a parachute. That's also dangerous, but it's also so fun! :thumbsup: What about you? What do you think of aviation? Do you enjoy flying?
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I've seen several threads posted here related to aviation. I'm curious, do you have an interest in flight, like I do? From as far back as I can remember, I've been infatuated with anything that flies. My father worked at Boeing as an Aeronautical Engineer. If I had a nickel for every aviation question that I asked my dad, I could buy a corporate jet. We would go to the airport and watch planes all the time. If I was drawing a picture, it would be of a bird or an airplane. I had an obsession with birds. I had several bird books that I'd look through for hours. It was all so magical to me. In 2005 or so, I took my first flying lesson. I initially considered becoming an airline pilot, so I attended an airline training academy in case I chose to make it a career. I stopped short of getting my Airline Transport Pilot rating. I still love flying planes. The aircraft I enjoy flying the most is an ultralight. It's basically a hang-glider with an engine. I've heard that flying a glider is the best, but I haven't yet done that. I want to go hang-gliding, but it's super dangerous. I like jumping out of airplanes, but only with a parachute. That's also dangerous, but it's also so fun! :thumbsup: What about you? What do you think of aviation? Do you enjoy flying?
Here in the UK we have an aviation charity called Aerobility it's main intention is to get the disabled into the air and behind the controls of an aircraft. My wife and I do our best to put our twin adult disabled sons into the air with them once a month. One of the son's flies a Piper "PA-28 Warrior" and the other a "Grob109B" Touring Motor Glider. The lads have almost no functionallity in their hands and forearms so the instructors (amazing folks) assist but only where necessary. What an fantastic therapy, they land and life has been different for a while. The sparkle in their eyes says it all, muscular dystrophy and all the baggage that goes with it is forgotton about for that joyful hour. It is not as expensive as flying for the able bodied but still hurts the wallet but our philosophy is to make every day count, you can't take it with you!
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Here in the UK we have an aviation charity called Aerobility it's main intention is to get the disabled into the air and behind the controls of an aircraft. My wife and I do our best to put our twin adult disabled sons into the air with them once a month. One of the son's flies a Piper "PA-28 Warrior" and the other a "Grob109B" Touring Motor Glider. The lads have almost no functionallity in their hands and forearms so the instructors (amazing folks) assist but only where necessary. What an fantastic therapy, they land and life has been different for a while. The sparkle in their eyes says it all, muscular dystrophy and all the baggage that goes with it is forgotton about for that joyful hour. It is not as expensive as flying for the able bodied but still hurts the wallet but our philosophy is to make every day count, you can't take it with you!
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OriginalGriff wrote:
Several decades ago I did start doing my PPL(H) training, but my circumstances changed and I couldn't afford to complete it
If God had wanted us to fly, he would have given us bigger wallets. I want to fly, but since I haven't the financial resources to do so, I downloaded the Microsoft Flight Simulator. I tried doing this years ago on one of my older laptops. The first time I attempted to run the flight simulator, it errored out. The message of the error basically said, "Your machine does not have the minimum requirements to run this program." and when you clicked "OK", it would exit. I went into a long period of deep despair after that. It was a very dark time in my life. All I wanted to do was run a flight SIM. I can't afford to fly right now, nor could I do so back then. What is the cost of renting a Cessna Skyhawk 172 these days? 17 years ago it was $120 per hour plus fuel. To imagine what it would cost nowadays? I don't want to know. Eventually, I recovered. I bought an updated copy of MS Flight Simulator on the laptop I am using now. It's fairly new. Upon first running the sim two days ago, a message box popped up. It said, "Your machine does not have the minimum requirements to run this program." After that, it froze. I feel very depressed now. I need your thoughts and prayers.
To run flight sim you need a PC with a bit of grunt and a decent graphics card such as the Nvidia RTX series that supports multiple monitors. On a flight sim I was roped in to assist on the owner had built a cockpit simulation and with all the switches and controls hooked into a USB joystick interface with simple push in wire connectors for the necessary buttons, potentiometers, sensors, rotary encoders and switches. An excellent set-up but a lot of work and all enhanced with terrific sound card and speakers to add to the realism. I have just purchased a Meta Quest 3 to see what it is like on my son's sim, I reckon that will add an extra dimension to things.
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I've seen several threads posted here related to aviation. I'm curious, do you have an interest in flight, like I do? From as far back as I can remember, I've been infatuated with anything that flies. My father worked at Boeing as an Aeronautical Engineer. If I had a nickel for every aviation question that I asked my dad, I could buy a corporate jet. We would go to the airport and watch planes all the time. If I was drawing a picture, it would be of a bird or an airplane. I had an obsession with birds. I had several bird books that I'd look through for hours. It was all so magical to me. In 2005 or so, I took my first flying lesson. I initially considered becoming an airline pilot, so I attended an airline training academy in case I chose to make it a career. I stopped short of getting my Airline Transport Pilot rating. I still love flying planes. The aircraft I enjoy flying the most is an ultralight. It's basically a hang-glider with an engine. I've heard that flying a glider is the best, but I haven't yet done that. I want to go hang-gliding, but it's super dangerous. I like jumping out of airplanes, but only with a parachute. That's also dangerous, but it's also so fun! :thumbsup: What about you? What do you think of aviation? Do you enjoy flying?
I could fly before I could drive. As a kid, I was able to recognize jets by their sound only. I wanted to be a fighter pilot, got the exam (not wanting to prise myself, but honestly was not a piece of cake, cleary a highlight of my life), got rejected a week later due to bad eyesight. For reasons, I had to do the medical check after the two sports-and-maths-and-psycho tests, because usually you start by checking if everything is OK and only go the hassle of the tests if you are apt. To precise, bad eyesight = I have exceptionally good eyesight, but was diagnosed with a probability to loose some of it on my right eye over the course of the 13 years training & service, which was sufficient for kicking me out of the program. The doc said "0,05% that it happens, but there are another 7000 furious waiting in the line behind you who are almost as good as you and with better condition, so why should we give you a chance ?". This was so abrupt that I completely cut with aviation from that on. But in my deep inside, I love it. And the Rafale is the best fighter in the world. :-D I
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I've seen several threads posted here related to aviation. I'm curious, do you have an interest in flight, like I do? From as far back as I can remember, I've been infatuated with anything that flies. My father worked at Boeing as an Aeronautical Engineer. If I had a nickel for every aviation question that I asked my dad, I could buy a corporate jet. We would go to the airport and watch planes all the time. If I was drawing a picture, it would be of a bird or an airplane. I had an obsession with birds. I had several bird books that I'd look through for hours. It was all so magical to me. In 2005 or so, I took my first flying lesson. I initially considered becoming an airline pilot, so I attended an airline training academy in case I chose to make it a career. I stopped short of getting my Airline Transport Pilot rating. I still love flying planes. The aircraft I enjoy flying the most is an ultralight. It's basically a hang-glider with an engine. I've heard that flying a glider is the best, but I haven't yet done that. I want to go hang-gliding, but it's super dangerous. I like jumping out of airplanes, but only with a parachute. That's also dangerous, but it's also so fun! :thumbsup: What about you? What do you think of aviation? Do you enjoy flying?
I was a big fan of aviation in my teens up to my mid 30s. I did 3 static line parachute jumps in my teens and later a glider flight as well as started flying lessons stopping when it became obvious how expensive it would be to maintain a license. So I channeled my enthusiasm into hundreds of hours in flightsims, the 747 being my favourite aircraft to fly with the Kai Tak approach (PMDG 747). One of the first projects I set myself in .NET back in around 2006 was to write a voice recognition application so that I could give commands to a virtual co-pilot to lower the landing gear, flaps etc.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Mike Hankey wrote:
I didn't fly them< I was transported to areas that I didn't want to be.
Ah, Okay. I misunderstood. Either way, I respect that you served regardless of what you did.
Thanks, at the time I didn't have much choice.
If you can't find time to do it right the first time, how are you going to find time to do it again? PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.4.0 (Many new features) JaxCoder.com Latest Article: EventAggregator
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For about 8 years I worked for an airline company (in IT) and some of the flying stuff rubbed off me. Seems that somehow all my life I’ve been doing software related to things that move: planes, cars, boats, subs, you name it. :)
Mircea
In a previous life, I was an aircraft mechanic for an airline (veteran USAF mechanic). 3 of us were going to buy and share an older 4 seater. I signed up for lessons. First lesson, instructor is a no show. Figured: 1. Bad Omen. 2. As mistake-prone as I am, bad idea. Got married, had kids. End of flying career.
>64 It’s weird being the same age as old people. Live every day like it is your last; one day, it will be.
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I've seen several threads posted here related to aviation. I'm curious, do you have an interest in flight, like I do? From as far back as I can remember, I've been infatuated with anything that flies. My father worked at Boeing as an Aeronautical Engineer. If I had a nickel for every aviation question that I asked my dad, I could buy a corporate jet. We would go to the airport and watch planes all the time. If I was drawing a picture, it would be of a bird or an airplane. I had an obsession with birds. I had several bird books that I'd look through for hours. It was all so magical to me. In 2005 or so, I took my first flying lesson. I initially considered becoming an airline pilot, so I attended an airline training academy in case I chose to make it a career. I stopped short of getting my Airline Transport Pilot rating. I still love flying planes. The aircraft I enjoy flying the most is an ultralight. It's basically a hang-glider with an engine. I've heard that flying a glider is the best, but I haven't yet done that. I want to go hang-gliding, but it's super dangerous. I like jumping out of airplanes, but only with a parachute. That's also dangerous, but it's also so fun! :thumbsup: What about you? What do you think of aviation? Do you enjoy flying?
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I've seen several threads posted here related to aviation. I'm curious, do you have an interest in flight, like I do? From as far back as I can remember, I've been infatuated with anything that flies. My father worked at Boeing as an Aeronautical Engineer. If I had a nickel for every aviation question that I asked my dad, I could buy a corporate jet. We would go to the airport and watch planes all the time. If I was drawing a picture, it would be of a bird or an airplane. I had an obsession with birds. I had several bird books that I'd look through for hours. It was all so magical to me. In 2005 or so, I took my first flying lesson. I initially considered becoming an airline pilot, so I attended an airline training academy in case I chose to make it a career. I stopped short of getting my Airline Transport Pilot rating. I still love flying planes. The aircraft I enjoy flying the most is an ultralight. It's basically a hang-glider with an engine. I've heard that flying a glider is the best, but I haven't yet done that. I want to go hang-gliding, but it's super dangerous. I like jumping out of airplanes, but only with a parachute. That's also dangerous, but it's also so fun! :thumbsup: What about you? What do you think of aviation? Do you enjoy flying?
Some of my earliest memories are of my Grandfather taking my brother and I for ice cream near the Memphis airport so we could watch the planes takeoff and land. :) His love for aviation stemmed from over 20 years overseeing the maintenance shops at Warner Robins AFB, GA. Many years later, after his retirement, he would take us to the regional air shows. Great times! :) One of his favorite stories was about going down to a local garage owned by one of his friends. When he walked up, he saw two feet sticking out from under a Caddy. Assuming it was his friend the mechanic, he lightly kicked them to get his attention. 'Hey Red, it's Jack...' The guy rolled out, stuck out his hand and said 'Paul Tibbets. Nice to meet you Jack.'
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse "Hope is contagious"
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I've seen several threads posted here related to aviation. I'm curious, do you have an interest in flight, like I do? From as far back as I can remember, I've been infatuated with anything that flies. My father worked at Boeing as an Aeronautical Engineer. If I had a nickel for every aviation question that I asked my dad, I could buy a corporate jet. We would go to the airport and watch planes all the time. If I was drawing a picture, it would be of a bird or an airplane. I had an obsession with birds. I had several bird books that I'd look through for hours. It was all so magical to me. In 2005 or so, I took my first flying lesson. I initially considered becoming an airline pilot, so I attended an airline training academy in case I chose to make it a career. I stopped short of getting my Airline Transport Pilot rating. I still love flying planes. The aircraft I enjoy flying the most is an ultralight. It's basically a hang-glider with an engine. I've heard that flying a glider is the best, but I haven't yet done that. I want to go hang-gliding, but it's super dangerous. I like jumping out of airplanes, but only with a parachute. That's also dangerous, but it's also so fun! :thumbsup: What about you? What do you think of aviation? Do you enjoy flying?
I think I heard a comedian put it best... I love flying, but I'm the sort of person who forgets their car keys. This makes me the sort of person you don't want flying a plane. If I had way more disposable income/time I would near definitely try to get a license anyway though. I've thought about an ultra-light... Basically a go-cart with a parachute and a really huge fan. You can fly those here without licensure. I got into R/C flight back when batteries/electric were a fringe cutting edge thing and everything was still this sort of special diesel. The electric stuff is just way easier to deal with now and I'd guess more popular (have not done for awhile). A 1/6th scale B-52 with all the engines going on diesel is just an awesome thing to behold. The bigger draw for me there is maybe the overlap with history buffs and the folks into it tend to be much older. I tend to get on better with folks who have some years on me.
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To run flight sim you need a PC with a bit of grunt and a decent graphics card such as the Nvidia RTX series that supports multiple monitors. On a flight sim I was roped in to assist on the owner had built a cockpit simulation and with all the switches and controls hooked into a USB joystick interface with simple push in wire connectors for the necessary buttons, potentiometers, sensors, rotary encoders and switches. An excellent set-up but a lot of work and all enhanced with terrific sound card and speakers to add to the realism. I have just purchased a Meta Quest 3 to see what it is like on my son's sim, I reckon that will add an extra dimension to things.
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Here in the UK we have an aviation charity called Aerobility it's main intention is to get the disabled into the air and behind the controls of an aircraft. My wife and I do our best to put our twin adult disabled sons into the air with them once a month. One of the son's flies a Piper "PA-28 Warrior" and the other a "Grob109B" Touring Motor Glider. The lads have almost no functionallity in their hands and forearms so the instructors (amazing folks) assist but only where necessary. What an fantastic therapy, they land and life has been different for a while. The sparkle in their eyes says it all, muscular dystrophy and all the baggage that goes with it is forgotton about for that joyful hour. It is not as expensive as flying for the able bodied but still hurts the wallet but our philosophy is to make every day count, you can't take it with you!
Member 16128696 wrote:
aviation charity called Aerobility it's main intention is to get the disabled into the air and behind the controls of an aircraft.
I know of a girl who earned her pilot's license using only her feet. She was born without arms, but she does just fine. It's remarkable to watch her at the controls. I wonder, do we have a charity in the US like the one you mentioned?
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For a long time I wanted to learn to fly but for many reasons (lack of funds mainly) I never managed it. I did have a sample lesson for my 70th birthday, but again, I couldn't justify the expenditure to go further.
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I was a big fan of aviation in my teens up to my mid 30s. I did 3 static line parachute jumps in my teens and later a glider flight as well as started flying lessons stopping when it became obvious how expensive it would be to maintain a license. So I channeled my enthusiasm into hundreds of hours in flightsims, the 747 being my favourite aircraft to fly with the Kai Tak approach (PMDG 747). One of the first projects I set myself in .NET back in around 2006 was to write a voice recognition application so that I could give commands to a virtual co-pilot to lower the landing gear, flaps etc.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
GuyThiebaut wrote:
747 being my favourite aircraft to fly with the Kai Tak approach (PMDG 747).
That would keep me busy for hours!
GuyThiebaut wrote:
One of the first projects I set myself in .NET back in around 2006 was to write a voice recognition application so that I could give commands to a virtual co-pilot to lower the landing gear, flaps etc.
How did the project go? Did you use machine learning? I've always wanted to be able to communicate with ATC verbally in flight sims. With all the progress in AI, that's now possible.
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GuyThiebaut wrote:
747 being my favourite aircraft to fly with the Kai Tak approach (PMDG 747).
That would keep me busy for hours!
GuyThiebaut wrote:
One of the first projects I set myself in .NET back in around 2006 was to write a voice recognition application so that I could give commands to a virtual co-pilot to lower the landing gear, flaps etc.
How did the project go? Did you use machine learning? I've always wanted to be able to communicate with ATC verbally in flight sims. With all the progress in AI, that's now possible.
The voice recognition app went really well with lots of extra stuff in it including the app speaking back confirming the command to be executed(the confirmation could be customised) and the ability to ask what the status of various systems was such as asking "Landing gear status?" and application speaking back "Landing gear is down." It was a while back but I didn't use AI, I used a standard .NET voice recognition and speech module which could be taught independently. You could also tie the mic to a button on the joystick for PTT, so that while the button was pressed the app would listen to the command being given - for extra geekiness I also got the app to beep with the Apollo beep after the PTT button was released. I should did it out again at some point although it was written in VB.NET(so I might consider rewriting it in C#) as I was very new to .NET at that point.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Some of my earliest memories are of my Grandfather taking my brother and I for ice cream near the Memphis airport so we could watch the planes takeoff and land. :) His love for aviation stemmed from over 20 years overseeing the maintenance shops at Warner Robins AFB, GA. Many years later, after his retirement, he would take us to the regional air shows. Great times! :) One of his favorite stories was about going down to a local garage owned by one of his friends. When he walked up, he saw two feet sticking out from under a Caddy. Assuming it was his friend the mechanic, he lightly kicked them to get his attention. 'Hey Red, it's Jack...' The guy rolled out, stuck out his hand and said 'Paul Tibbets. Nice to meet you Jack.'
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse "Hope is contagious"
kmoorevs wrote:
One of his favorite stories was about going down to a local garage owned by one of his friends. When he walked up, he saw two feet sticking out from under a Caddy. Assuming it was his friend the mechanic, he lightly kicked them to get his attention. 'Hey Red, it's Jack...' The guy rolled out, stuck out his hand and said 'Paul Tibbets. Nice to meet you Jack.'
Seriously? That's a story I'd like to hear. How did your grandfather react upon meeting Paul Tibbets?
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I think I heard a comedian put it best... I love flying, but I'm the sort of person who forgets their car keys. This makes me the sort of person you don't want flying a plane. If I had way more disposable income/time I would near definitely try to get a license anyway though. I've thought about an ultra-light... Basically a go-cart with a parachute and a really huge fan. You can fly those here without licensure. I got into R/C flight back when batteries/electric were a fringe cutting edge thing and everything was still this sort of special diesel. The electric stuff is just way easier to deal with now and I'd guess more popular (have not done for awhile). A 1/6th scale B-52 with all the engines going on diesel is just an awesome thing to behold. The bigger draw for me there is maybe the overlap with history buffs and the folks into it tend to be much older. I tend to get on better with folks who have some years on me.
jochance wrote:
I've thought about an ultra-light... Basically a go-cart with a parachute and a really huge fan. You can fly those here without licensure.
Ultra-lights are my favorite aircraft to fly. It's more of a pure flying experience. You get the wind on your face, you don't need to use a radio, or a transponder. It's that freedom that I absolutely love. It's a lot like the experience of riding a motorcycle, whereas flying a single-engine Cessna is more akin to driving a car.
jochance wrote:
I got into R/C flight back when batteries/electric were a fringe cutting edge thing and everything was still this sort of special diesel. The electric stuff is just way easier to deal with now and I'd guess more popular (have not done for awhile). A 1/6th scale B-52 with all the engines going on diesel is just an awesome thing to behold.
That's something I'd like to see. I built a model glider once. The nail of the glider was "Gentle Lady". I really enjoyed the building process. It was simple. All you needed was a two-channel radio to control the vertical and horizontal stabilizers. Beyond that, it was about finding the thermals. You could fly it wherever you wanted to. Just choose a mountain. There is no need for dealing with gas engines or bulky batteries. 4 AA batteries were all that was needed to operate the two servos. The only sound you would hear is the wind flowing through the evergreen trees. It makes for great therapy, especially if you can't afford the therapist. :thumbsup: