Well I'm back to the right seat in the bug-smashers out here in LA...and its quite the difference from the E145.

All-in-all I missed it... I didn't miss students no-call/no-showing me but still...I missed my old groove...

 

I got my ASES rating in a J3 a few years back. What a great experience, flying at 300 feet with the door and window open and watching the water splash along the floats on touchdown.

 

GA is where my heart lies anyway. Been flying fairly regularly since I quit 121.

 

I have been flying for three companies since my furlough. I fly a 172 doing aerial photos, I fly a Bird-dog(L-19) and a Pawnee Towing banners and I rt seat part 91 in a Lear-60 too. still not flying enough to pay any bills. but I'm flying and it's NOT GOJETS.

 

Just out of curiosity, how do you go about finding an aerial photography outfit?

 

I fly GA very often typically weekly in a plane that my father and I built. You can do a search there are quite a few photos on here of it and the price is right.

We typically burn 4 GPH average and it will take 100LL or autogas so we can usually get out of it for 12 bucks an hour plus the hangar cost and insurance and a few misc items. Id say high end is 30 bucks per hour we fly it.

I dont care what anyone says part 121 flying does not compare to the enjoyment of flying 50 feet over the ocean off the beach and then putting it down on some obscure strip that is smaller than your driveway.

 

C47 for an air museum,and every Champ I can get my hands on. I was a DC3 freightdog starting out,and skipped the regionals,though many friends and my wife took that path and loved it. I still love the DC3.

 

While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I think that's entirely subjective to the individual. I enjoy 121 a lot more than I ever enjoyed flying cessnas, but that's just me, it varies from person to person.

 

Had I not been laid off I believe that I could have stayed away from General Aviation and never looked back. Two summers ago I bought a Cessna 150 to be able to build the minimum of 50 hours a year to stay current in the eyes of most airlines. And, to my surprise I am having a blast with it.

I must admit that by the time I bought it 14 years had passed since I flew a 150 and I was a bit nervous about the prospect of getting into small GA planes again. It seems that airline pilots crash an awful lot in small planes. My sense of security had become dependent upon thrust, glass and the system.

To go back to packing five gallon cans of gas and relying on what basically is a lawn mower engine attached to a leaf was not all that reassuring. However I have flown it more than 100 hours and love the heck out of it. Now I can not imagine going back to procedural automation.

My instructing career is even kindling back to life a bit. Students seem to be coming out of the wood work. I just turned away another one last week.

Skyhigh

 

On highspeed reserve at Mesaba (7pm-12am) and not getting much flying. I'm going to apply at a few places and instruct during the day to have a little bit of fun and get paid for it... It's been about 8 months since I've been in a two or four place haha can't wait!