retired corporate pilot

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3958v
Posts: 543
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2002 12:00 am

retired corporate pilot

Post by 3958v »

Last week I had the pleasure of giving a ride to a man who had spent his whole life as a corporate and airforce pilot. I found it interesting that he had never flown in a tailwheel aircraft, he had never landed on grass before and never flown in a plane as old as the 170. The other interesting fact was that he did not have a single engine land rating. Of course I have never flown around the world in a G5
Polished 48 170 Cat 22 JD 620 & Pug
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Poncho73
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Re: retired corporate pilot

Post by Poncho73 »

3958v wrote:Last week I had the pleasure of giving a ride to a man who had spent his whole life as a corporate and airforce pilot. I found it interesting that he had never flown in a tailwheel aircraft, he had never landed on grass before and never flown in a plane as old as the 170. The other interesting fact was that he did not have a single engine land rating. Of course I have never flown around the world in a G5
There are a ton of pilots out there that have made their living flying like that but have never flown a "real" fun aircraft. I just spent sometime checking out a 15000 hr pilot on his first tail wheel airplane. He had no idea what was involved. He is hooked :D
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Bruce Fenstermacher
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Re: retired corporate pilot

Post by Bruce Fenstermacher »

I once transitioned an Air Force to Airline guy. Retired 27000 hour type flying heavy metal. Didn't want to taxi out of my parking spot until he received clearance at our uncontrolled field. When questioned after thought he did remember flying something as small as a T-34 but never at an uncontrolled field. He could fly the VASI like the plane was on rails after about the third approach. He never really got the site picture down to pull off the runway on the taxi way without going in the grass. When I asked why he said the L-1011 he flew last had had the nose well 30 feet behind his seat.

Wanted to train in my J3 after all it was a trainer, so he could buy and fly a Stearman which he eventually did. 8O

He actually adapted and flew the plane, my first 170, very quickly and flew it very well. Well all except the turn off the runway.
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Bruce Fenstermacher, Past President, TIC170A
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hilltop170
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Re: retired corporate pilot

Post by hilltop170 »

I had a similar experience with an Air Force trained Vietnam pilot who had then subsequently been furloughed by Eastern and was working at Bell Helicopter when I was on my engineering co-op program there when I was in college. He had all kinds of time in OV-10s, C-141s, and whatever Eastern was flying at the time but told me he had never flown a taildragger. He picked up the feel of the 170 taxiing out to the runway and I never touched the controls the whole time he was flying. He "got it" immediately when I explained what he needed to do. He was either the fastest learner I have ever flown with or was sand-bagging me the whole time and laughing his a## off.
Richard Pulley
2014-2016 TIC170A Past President
1951 170A, N1715D, s/n 20158, O-300D
Owned from 1973 to 1984.
Bought again in 2006 after 22 years.
It's not for sale!
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GAHorn
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Re: retired corporate pilot

Post by GAHorn »

A couple weeks ago I attended my Mom's side of the family's reunion in Hot Springs, and met a cousin I'd never known. Larry was retired Air Force (F-111's) and after a couple days of family-stuff he approached me and mentioned he'd heard I was a pilot and had flown a personal airplane up. I took him out to the airport that night and introduced him to his first tailwheel experience. It was a smooth and clear night and flying over the central Arkansas hills and lakes was a real experience for him.
Here is what he said to me in an email a few days ago:

" I want to again thank you for that very enjoyable flight in your Cessna 170. It was a thrill to fly such a well-mannered aircraft and particularly to enjoy the new experience of flying a tail-dragger..."
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention.
An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons. ;)
russfarris
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Joined: Wed May 15, 2002 2:25 am

Re: retired corporate pilot

Post by russfarris »

That's great George; did you let him land it? :P

I was lucky to get the tailwheel thing done way back when as a student pilot (Taylorcraft). Flew most of the light tailwheel airplanes up to the Cessna 180 and about 1,200 hours in the DC-3. A little bit like learning to drive a stick shift, once learned you can always go back (I hope)!

Russ Farris
All glory is fleeting...
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GAHorn
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Re: retired corporate pilot

Post by GAHorn »

russfarris wrote:That's great George; did you let him land it? :P
...Russ Farris
Yes, we attempted 3 times to let him do it ... but I had to "help" out a little each time. I wish we'd had a grass strip available for him.
Larry clearly has good potential tho'. I kinda have my doubts about guys that have only "high tech" prior experience but he displayed a real understanding of the problems inherent to taildraggin' and I"m certain that with only a little more time he'd have it down.
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention.
An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons. ;)
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