graham@orca.UUCP (Graham Bromley) (12/07/84)
Ye gad! Here I am, thinking I might take the plunge and get my pilot's license like I always wanted, and all I hear about is how to land in trees, how to get your airplane into a flat spiral which can't be exited, and what to do if your elevators and ailerons get stuck - both at once? Come on guys, give me a break!!!
doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (12/10/84)
> Ye gad! Here I am, thinking I might take the plunge and > get my pilot's license like I always wanted, and all I hear > about is how to land in trees, how to get your airplane into > a flat spiral which can't be exited, and what to do if > your elevators and ailerons get stuck - both at once? Come > on guys, give me a break!!! Sorry, my friend, but when you start your pilot training you will learn that learning to fly a plane takes only a few hours to do. The rest of your training is in how to prevent thorny situations, and how to deal with them when they arise anyway. Before you are allowed to solo, you will have to learn how to keep from stalling, how to get out of a stall, and how to make a forced landing. And there's more after you solo. Even so, the longer one flies, the more hopeless the situation seems. Too many of my acquaintances who fly have died over the 7 years I've been flying. A couple of weeks ago, one died of natural causes, in his sleep, at age 76. This is the first one who didn't die in his plane. Same weekend, the most popular free-lance flight instructor at my airport killed himself and his wife by flying into the side of a mountain in bad weather. Fact is, flying is dangerous. The less dangerous you THINK it is, the more dangerous it is to YOU. Personally, I've nearly killed myself twice (and the same mistake both times, you'd think that I would learn). Safety First, Second, Third, Fourth, etc. Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug
marcum@rhino.UUCP (Alan M. Marcum) (12/11/84)
In article <orca.1218> graham@orca.UUCP (Graham Bromley) writes: > Ye gad! Here I am, thinking I might take the plunge and get my pilot's >license like I always wanted, and all I hear about is how to land in trees, >how to get your airplane into a flat spiral which can't be exited, and what >to do if your elevators and ailerons get stuck - both at once? Come on guys, >give me a break!!! Hmm, yes, sometimes we do give that sort of impression. What's really happening (at least from my prespective) is that pilots value our lives. Given that lack of a shoulder by the side of the airway (or at least the large vertical distance thereto!), we think about these things so we might have a good idea of what we might do BEFORE we're faced with them. The whole notion of contingency planning is missing in driver training (unfortunately); a reasonable amount of effort is put into that in primary (and advanced) flight training. Yes, sometimes it seems morbid, but it's actually precisely the opposite. The sky is a beautiful, but very unforgiving, mistress. -- Alan M. Marcum Fortune Systems, Redwood City, California ...!{ihnp4, ucbvax!amd, hpda, sri-unix, harpo}!fortune!rhino!marcum
lgl@cbosgd.UUCP (Lionel Lynch) (12/13/84)
In article <1218@orca.UUCP> graham@orca.UUCP (Graham Bromley) writes: > > Ye gad! Here I am, thinking I might take the plunge and >get my pilot's license like I always wanted, and all I hear >about is how to land in trees, how to get your airplane into >a flat spiral which can't be exited, and what to do if >your elevators and ailerons get stuck - both at once? Come >on guys, give me a break!!! True, the conversation can get a bit depressing,'but, better to read about it here than experience many of the forgoing mishaps firsthand! -Lionel