Originally Posted by
Timbo
Hey, Jungle Bus, want to know what you have to look forward to when you get to Mainline?
I -had- a BMW R100S, and I -had- J24, and I -had- a 1946 Cub too! All those toys are gone now, thanks to marriage, buying a house, having 4 kids, 42% pay cut in bankruptcy, and now 3 kids in college...with one more to go! My Guard buddies named my twins, "No Boat" and "No Motorcycle"!
Heh...I do think that's what's awaiting me, not so much at mainline, as when I have kids! Bike will be the first to go, I'm sure
. We do want kids & have been trying for quite a while - hopefully it happens, but in the meantime am enjoying the bike/boat/plane while I have the time & money for them. Incidentally, the wife rides as well - she has a Yamaha FZ6 that she rode to Alaska and back with me - and loves to fly, I probably wouldn't have got back into flying small planes if not for her urging.
But I do live right up the street from Phil Lockwood, so I get to fly his Air Cam once in a while, it is a hoot! It's got two engines but it will take off, from the water, with two people on board, on one engine. He made a video of him doing a single engine takeoff, with his daughter in the back, right off the lake out back of my house. Here is Phil talking about the Air Cam on floats:
Aero-TV: Stunning Perspectives -- Lockwood's AirCam (Part 2) - YouTube
He originally designed the airplane for a photo-shoot of the Amazon for National Geographic, about 20 years ago, and he wanted two engines for safety, as there's not a whole lot of 'help' available in the Amazon Jungle! But it will take off, on floats, with only one engine running! (it's got two Rotax 914's, about 110hp each)
Very cool...the
original "Jungle Bus"
. There have been several IMAX films that were filmed primarily using the Air Cam...the Amazon one you mentioned, and Serengetti comes to mind. Neat airplane to get to fly...and best of all it's somebody else's airplane, the very best kind!
Besides the Cub, I have an arrangement to fly a guy's '49 C-170 when we're actually going somewhere and want to get there faster than 60 kts! I chip in money for maintenance/hangar etc, but it's far,
far less money than I'd spend owning....