Hi All-I have been watching the discussions on this group for some time, and thank you for all the opinions and information. I am 65 years old, not able to fully retire because of the money thing. I have a 47 Stinson in my Shop, 108-1, 4 place, that I work on in my spare time. Also have a Heavy Tierra T-bird I built in the late 80's, and am lightening it up to become a true ultralight so I can fly it out of the farm. Also am in the long slow process of building a Mosquito ultralight helicopter, about 2/3 done, only holdup there is money for the parts. Soloed in 1970, in my first T-Craft. Flew it on a student ticket, then sold it and bought another T-Craft and flew it. Built the T-bird, and quit flying it when they started to get serious about the weight limits. Bought the Stinson, and flew it (Alone, on my student ticket) until a hurricane came through South Florida and a wall fell on one of my wings. Had the wings repaired at a shop there. Took her apart after lots of falderall and put her in the hanger at the farm here in North Florida, and work on repairing all the little things that hadn't been kept up over the years. About ready to repaint the wings, put the interior back in, and put the wings back on, then get everything signed off again. I was a crew chief/mechanic on Hueys in Vietnam for 2 tours, so learned to fly Helicopters there. My uncle was a CIA pilot and taught me to fly fixed wing when I was still in my teens. I keep up my physical, and take a hour here and there with a flight instructor in whatever they are using for a trainer, although it seems to be only about once a year. Built a helicopter and fixed wing simulator, and use Microsoft and X on both of them. Now live on a little farm in north central Florida, North of Tampa. I put a lot of thought in "what to do about the aircraft and should I or should I not get my private? I have taken and passed my written 3 times over the years, but life always got in the way of taking the check ride, and now it appears to be even harder. The written is only good for 2 years, and that goes by quickly. I would guess there are quite a few of us out here in similar situations to me. Our children never seemed to become completely self sufficient, and a lot of time we thought was going to be ours is not. The financial crisis didn't help. However, I still have hope, the only thing is staying healthy and living long enough! The reason I have not yet considered Sport Pilot seriously is the fact that I own a 4 place airplane, and there is no market out there to sell the Stinson and trade down to a T-Craft again, which I would love to do. GA is not taking off again very well yet, as we all hoped it would do. Was hoping the Homeland security thing would die down and go away, but it seems to be getting stronger, and seems to be targeting GA even more. The FAA has not been friendly to the EAA and Experimental crowd either, making less and less young people interested in aviation. It stays interesting, but doesn't seem to help me make a decision. Hope this finds you all well, and I wish you blue sky's!
Rolland Christians
christiansnaples@aol.com
christiansnaples@aol.com
__._,_.___
No comments:
Post a Comment