Quote:
Originally Posted by Adlerdriver
If people simply have no interest is that automatically a "dis" on GA?
I think you're drawing conclusions based on a particularly unique portion of society that may not necessarily be accurate. Military pilots spend a lot of time with job related duties, some flying, some non-flying. Maybe when they have time off, they just want to spend time with their family or do something unrelated to their job. I think that goes to personal preference rather than some "mindset" instilled at UPT.
You think there might be some auto mechanics out there that don't feel like going out to the garage on a Saturday and working on a '57 Chevy just for the fun of it?
When I was active duty and in the ANG flying F-15s, I had no interest in flying around in a light airplane on my time off. For one, I didn't (and still don't) have a PPL. I guess if I could have found a Skymaster, I could have exercised my commercial/center-line thrust privileges.
Additionally, since my time in light aircraft is somewhere around 35 hours, I gave GA a healthy respect due to my inexperience. So, I would have needed to spend some extensive time and money to get where I was comfortable. Even at the aero club it was expensive. Out on the economy when I was ANG, forget it. I had access on a very regular basis to a seriously high performance aircraft. It's not a "dis" - just reality - GA flying was nowhere near a fun or challenging, so why would I do it?
Even now, as a professional airline pilot, I feel zero draw to GA. I enjoy flying at work, I just don't feel the need to spend a lot of time or money on a regular basis to do it lower, slower and simpler.
I get that some pilots really enjoy all that goes into GA. I think you need to realize that some pilots just don't (and make that choice with no disrespect meant).
Different strokes for different folks and all that, but when I went through UPT (1983-4) there was a huge bias openly expressed by many of our senior instructors (Majors and up) against, "Those Dangerous Civilian Pilots!". They would quote accident statistics and tell horror stories about some idiot who flew his C172 into a cloud, got vertigo and crashed.
They didn't seem to mention the T38 that flew into the ground going super sonic doing the exact same thing, the week before we arrived.
I've flown with many, many military only trained guys at Delta who have told me straight up, they are afraid to fly little airplanes. I think it's due to this "Dangerous Civilians" thing that was being preached back then, and perhaps it still is in some places. But if you don't go out and experience the fun side of light airplane flying, well, you'll never know what you're missing.
I have no desire to own something like a Mooney, too expensive to maintain and if I want to go cross country fast, I'll non-rev on Delta with a beer in my hand. But I would love to own a Cub again. The most 'fun' flying I've ever done was always low and slow, into small grass strips or into a lake in an amphib. It's the complete opposite of military or airline type flying, no radios, no time constraints, do what you want, go where you want, just don't hit anything! True Freedom!
My neighbor is Phil Lockwood who manufactures the Air Cam. That is probably the most fun airplane I've ever flown. Check out his videos. He said most of his customers are airline guys who are sick and tired of going high and fast, straight and level. Yanking and banking down in the weeds is much more fun, in an open cockpit, more fun still! On floats? Even more fun!
Wait... let's do it in formation?? YES! More fun than you should be allowed to have!
Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maoHutUGv4U