What got you into flying?

[red750]

Maybe its not so good to go there...(edcoatescollection) our proxy server says../QUOTE]No idea why it would say that, I've been using that website for years, and have contributed a number of photos to it.

 

Ed Coates was born in the UK and emigrated to Australia in the early 1950's. He then moved to the US in 1956, residing primarily in California. Over the past forty years he has lived in Taiwan, China, Kualu Lumpar and Saudi Arabia. Ed is now retired in North Carolina. He has a large collection of photos of VH- registered aircraft of the 40's and 50's era. The site has not only photos ofAustralian registered aircraft, but also:

 

New Zealand

 

U.S, (N,NC,NX,NL) Civil

 

Canadian Civil

 

Rest of the World:

 

The Caribbean & Latin America

 

Europe

 

Africa

 

Asia

 

His one criteria is that the aircraft must have been registered before December 31, 1970. Anyway, here are the photos I referred to.

 

 

 

[peterg]

A Chipmunk

 

 

[facthunter]

It ended up quite OK .I think I went through the lot. Nev

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

There was indeed a Zero...

Anyone know what became of it?

 

 

[pmccarthy]

A bit of googling tells me that it was actually Oscar 750 and is now fly able and in Seattle.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Thanks for that, P M.

 

Apparently often mistaken for a Zero (very similar, same engine.)

 

Nakajima Ki-43-I Oscar | Japanese fighter aircraft

 

 

[Bernie]

Bernie, that would've been Sid Marshall's DH Dragon ( not a Rapide though). My dad was mates with Sid and we'd go to the corner near Milperra road road for a chat every few weekends. If there weren't many passengers for the Dragon Sid would often say to me "you'd better hop in to keep the tail down." I got to see quite a lot of Bankstown and surrounds. Do you ever go up in his Avro Anson?

My mistake about being a Rapide twas the Dragon , did go in the DC2 cost a quid for that flight over Sydney Harbour Bridge .

I lived under the circuit area so seen most planes back then but was to young for identifying any .

 

Bernie .

 

 

[fred cenko]

For me it was seeing off the relos at Tullamarine airport as 14 year old and seeing those massive 747-100 jumbos taking off and climbing in the air and just being amazed by it all.Then

 

coming home and seeing those Cathay Pacific adds in the mid 1970s with the Barry White love theme music on the add ,still the best add I think.That is what made me want to fly.

 

 

[Romeo Juliet Whiskey]

I was about 14 when Top Gun came out so it was an easy choice.... "I want to be maverick"

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

My father flew a Cessna. As a kid I got to sit up front and fly everything but landings and radio. My father had strict ideas about what women were allowed to do, and although he let me do things he thought women shouldn't be doing, it was OK provided I didn't draw attention by admitting, or worse still, getting the licence. 1991 he died and I had to "get the licence". I asked my mother about Dad's log book but she couldn't remember one. Dad was not one for going to a doctor either. Later when I was having trouble with my medical (someone wanted me to comply with ATPL standard although I was PPL ... long 7 month story) when I rang I asked if my father had a medical - no trace of him - so I assume he never bothered with the licence either. Have been flying my current plane since 1995. I did my AUF conversion on a Lightwing at Barcaldine (now owned by Keith Page).

 

 

 

Mr FV - his father learnt to fly in a Gypsy Moth at Maryborough Qld before he got married. He told stories of flying to Sydney and meeting Charles Kingsford-Smith. He ran out of money, went farm labouring and married the neighbour's daughter and had 7 children in 10 years which put paid to any more flying. Mr FV (the eldest son) started in model aircraft and learnt to fly early ultralights (Scout, Thruster) and built others - Karasport, RANS and flew many others. His children don't fly. He also flew the same Lightwing I did my conversion in, at Gympie. I married him late in life when his children were middle aged. We still fly and hope to for years yet.

 

 

 

Sue

 

 

[gandalph]

A bit of googling tells me that it was actually Oscar 750 and is now fly able and in Seattle.

Some more history on this one:

Pacific Wrecks

 

 

[kasper]

At age 3 I managed to 'borrow' my elder brothers model and recreate the crash scene from a movie - that did not end well for me.

 

By age 10 I was building free flight gliders and flying control line power at school and I was bitten by the flight bug but lost several free flights for months ... especially if I put an .049 on the front of a glider and forgot to set the turning circle ... several came back after harvest - I put names on the sides.

 

By 14 was ground crew and 'ballast' for student balloon pilots out at Canowindra - student balloon pilots have an uncanny knack of finding the tops of every tree and fence within eyesight ... I ended ballast duty after Judy L took me through 2 trees and a fence on one flight ... I could see that this was not going to end well

 

By 16 I had spent every cent on building a nice 6ft span DH89 radio control ... and watched is burn to the ground before first flight when another model went out of control and made it toast sitting on the flight line ... decided to go full size because it took so much time and money to build ...

 

With a mate got hold of an old hang glider with 5 pages of A4 typed instructions - add 1 hill with various slopes and a lot of 'don't tell my parents' and had a lot of fun ... till I misjudged a landing and didn't get my legs back up before the top barb on the fence I was trying to get over cut through to the bone both legs ... parents found out when hospital called them ... it didn't end well for me.

 

Decided I wanted an engine to have a bit more control over where I arrived - joined SAAA and AUF ... and realized I didn't have enough pocket money ... yet ... but I had a cunning plan

 

By 23 I had my AUF certificate in LSA55 jabs with the 1600 engines and went on to become an instructor on Drifters and Jabiru - got to love the 2200 power - then L2 and SI before working in a factory in the UK doing all their composite work.

 

So I really have no idea what got me into flying - nobody in my family flies and husband has been up with me twice and decided if it does not come with a selection of movies and a meal its not his cup of tea.

 

 

[facthunter]

I never really thought I would fly for a living. I did it for fun and challenge but I always knew I was unlikely to be able to afford it. When I got to about 110 hours I heard about some commonwealth gov't scholarships that could be applied for as apparently they thought the industry was going to be short of pilots so I did and after a flight check with a Bob Jarvis, DCA examiner, it seemed I got a scholarship.

 

One of the conditions was I had to offer to take a job in the industry. It took me to CPL +instructor rating. I was already teaching Secondary science so instructing appealed to me.

 

Unsurprisingly jobs didn't appear to be thick on the ground so I just kept flying when I could at Bankstown then back to Newcastle when I got a transfer (teaching) and finished off the Instructor rating and did flying out of Rutherford, (West Maitland.) with RNAC again . This is getting a bit boring. for me so it must be at least as bad for you. so enough for now (or forever) Nev

 

 

[alf jessup]

Never get bored Nev with anyone's stories on flying

 

 

[2tonne]

When I was 19, I visited my dad in San Fransisco. My step-brother flew up from LA in a RG Cessna. Watched him land at San Jose, then we jumped in for a low level loops around San Fran (probably can't do that anymore) then landed over at Half Moon Bay. Jumped out, had a coffee, then back in for the return flight to San Jose. Then we watched a few aircraft doing circuits for a while. I was fascinated by it all, and was amazed when the brother in law told me that some of the pilots were practising glide approaches. Always thought aircraft would fall out of the sky without engine power. The seed had been planted, but study (and hence no money) meant I couldn't do anything about it for several years.

 

What turned out to be many years later, the wife bought me the book QF32. Strangely enough it got me really excited about learning to fly. Now have my certificate and am loving flying, just don't get to do it often enough.

 

 

[red750]

Thought I'd resurrect this old thread for some of the newer members. I won't rehash the details I posted in #20, but will add a little more.

 

Before taking the TIF, I made my first flight - as passenger - when I bought a joyflight with my brother in the Cessna 172G in the image below. It was the traffic patrol aircraft for radio station 3UZ in Melbourne, you can see the station ID under the wing. The pilot was the announcer who did the traffic reports. I also made several trips in the Ansett helicopter shuttle between YMEN and the original Yarra heliport. I borrowed the photo of the Cessna by Bob Neate from the Ed Coates Collection.

 

 

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Ironically, my parents separating got me into flying. I can't recall even knowing what aircraft were (well, not true; my brother used to assemble airfix models, but has graduated to become a white-knuckled flyer) before they were separated. When my parents separated, it wasn't easy for me, so my mother shipped me from Tulla to my grandmother's place in Bowen. I was about 9 years old. From memory, it was a TAA 727 and I recall the wonder of being thrust back into the seat and the view of the ground falling away - I was hooked. Then a visit to the cockpit with all the steam dials sealed the deal (I don't fly EFIS as I prefer analogue). The ride from Brisbane to Proserpine was, I recall, in a Fokker Friendship and I loved that even more - closer to the ground and a little more intimate. When I returned 2 weeks later, all I could blab on about was the flight and the aircraft, so my mother took me to the Aussie Air League; Every Monday night, I would eagerly anticipate going and it was great fun. The drill was a little boring, but the theory lessons and activites were good fun. We had a great squadron leader, Ricki Yousef, whose parents also owned a milk-bar - living the dream!. I digress.

 

My first flight was in a Cessna 172 at some outing with the AAL - It was the most memorable flight I have ever had (except I can't recall its rego). Anyway, I was going to be a pilot. Unf, things deteriorated and I had to move to my father's place, who was encouraging with most things, but hated any idea of flying. He wouldn't let me join the local AAL squadron and eventually, the spark faded. As I entered adulthood, I had all but forgotten about aviation until about the age of 25 or so, where I met who was to become my fiancée. Her younger brother (about 14) was big into aviation and asked if we could take him to YMMB to look at the aircraft. We did and walked into the RVAC (there was Shutts, Peter Bini, Civil and quite a few others at the time, but I figured a club would be more accommodating).

 

My then girlfriend declined to come into the building with us, preferring to watch the planes from near the tower. I was surprised at how accommodating they were, and an instructor took us out to look at VH-LBL. On seeing it, I was hooked again and when the instructor suggested a TIF at around $20, I sort of took a little less than 0.1 of a picosecond to say yes. My girlfriend was less than impressed as I found out upon telling her she has a real phobia of flying and thought I was going to crash and die (Aussie media does sensationalise a lot of light a/c accidents, after all). Anyway, I went and that was it. I was going to learn to fly.

 

However, my girlfriend and I were at this stage living together (so we must have been engaged, thinking about it), and she was less than supportive. I selected an instructor on recommendation (never again, because who may be a good instructor for one person may not be quite right for another). Eventually, after an incident in which the instructor said, "That's a lesson in how not to do it", I decided time to change instructors. By this stage, RVAC had acquired a couple of 150s (1 or 2 aerobats, too). I decided to ask for the instructor who had the vintage plane - turned out to be Dick Gower. In our first lesson, he decided an aerobat would be a better choice than a PA28. We did some upper air work for him to assess where I was at, and it culminated in a barrel roll (to my surprise, with Dick having a laugh). I was hooked.

 

So much so, I got the GFPT and did aeros; after which I moved to the UK, but with a job that had me in many parts of the country, I would take instructor-assisted flights now and then. Finally, I got a job that had me in one place, the company had a "flying club" and one flyout I joined, was to meet up at Le Touquet in France. I elected to fly with a pilot from the closest airfield, in a PA28 Warrior. It was in good nick and the flight, although amongst some clag, the flight was amazing and we were within the hour, seated at a fancy restaurant eating nice food and I got to enjoy a glass of red. I immediately inquired if a share of the a/c was for sale - it was, so I bought it... then submitted my log book to the CAA who said, just get your theory done and when your school thinks your ready, take the flight test - no min hours to convert, even though I probably had 3 hours of Nav training at best...

 

Long story, but JAA license has just lapsed and waiting for an EASA replacement; moved from London and waiting to look at a 172 share down in Devon...

 

 

[red750]

Some interesting names there, Jerry. I can't exactly remember who I did my TIF with, although I have a feeling it might have been Shutt's. Anyway, it was quite some time until I started learning, and I commenced with Civil, flying Beech 19 Sports and Musketeers. Peter Bini was CFI at Civil at the time, and did my restricted PPL checkride. Civil moved from Beech to Piper and I transitioned to the Warrior. They still had a couple of Bonanza's, VH-CFH and VH-CFK. There was also a lease-back PA-28R Arrow, VH-CBK on the line, but to hire it, you had to be checked out on the V-tail. So I got my endo on both. Also checked out on the Airtourer, but I was interested in cross country with 3 pax so stayed with the larger aircraft. Moved to Sydney in my job, and flew with Chieftain, where I checked out on Cessnas and the Grumman Tiger. When I moved back to Melbourne, I returned to Civil for a while, but educating 3 kids put an end to all that.

 

 

[red750]

Click on Upload a file, below the Reply box.

 

 

[Commander Mckoy]

I got a very special gift when I was 3 years old back in 1990. I'm quite sure that it changed my life forever and it made who I am today. I'm documenting my biography through Youtube, since I've stopped flying, due to some unfortunate events. Back then I was recording my flights with my students and made the videos available for study reviewing.

 

The gift itself is a surprise in this personal video I've made last week, I had to re-buy it, since I no longer had it with me (it's in Portugal and I'm now living in The Netherlands):

 

 

I'm really sad that I'm not flying anymore, but I find comfort in making these videos. The memories just keep popping and I look back in time, and what a journey I've made since then.

 

The dream stayed dormant until my teenage years, where I bought the FS2004 and spent countless hours flying and flying. I could fly everything, from the Cub to the Boeing 737 to the Bell206. And then I just dived in to the CPL(A) course at 18 years old. Followed by the CFI. I flew for 10 years.

 

I'm now making a series on how I've became a pilot "From Zero to Hero" and later on I'll make a new series documenting how everything went downhill.. "From Hero to...."

 

I hope you enjoy the video. Anyway, thanks for giving the ability to share my story with you.