How do you commit aviation?

[CAV0K]

Hey everyone,

 

I thought it would be cool to see how everyone commits aviation around Australia, if we are not flying as much as we would like, we might as well talk about it!

 

Do you just like to get up in the air for an hour to escape the chaos below?

Do you like to fly around the country exploring? or visiting other airfields?

Do you enjoy fly ins?

Bush flying and camping?

$100 hamburger? (is that even possible is Australia - seems to be more of a thing in the US with FBO's and Diners on the airfields)

 

There is purpose and a goal during training, but after that you have the freedom to choose. So what encourages you to get airborne?

 

For me at the moment I just like to get up for an hour and enjoy the freedom that flying offers.

 

I look forward t reading everyone's response!

[Rastus]

Tow gliders with a Pawnee 235

[mnewbery]

Fly to a beach-side airport for a picnic

[Bruce Tuncks]

I love the freedom and spaciousness of being in the air. You effectively own the whole countryside and can go anywhere you like. And the view is wonderful.

[Butch]

Love the adrenalin rush when you push the throttle in!

 

The satisfaction when your back on the ground!

 

And that calm feeling after you park the aircraft away!

[Student Pilot]

Tow gliders with a Pawnee 235

Fly to a beach-side airport for a picnic

I love the freedom and spaciousness of being in the air. You effectively own the whole countryside and can go anywhere you like. And the view is wonderful.

All of the above are good, any reason to fly. Pawnee great little machine, coastal picnic great, any view from above is triffik. he changing 3D The countryside from lower (Legal) altitudes is mesmerizing.

I'm lucky enough to do this stuff

[facthunter]

Be in a glider towed by a Pawnee 235? Nev

[facthunter]

Get back in the Citabria I used to own. Nev

[facthunter]

Here's one I'd really like. Fly a DC-4 again... I got in one a bit over a year ago and it seemed small. Nev

[red750]

Almost 25 years since I flew in light aircraft (and almost 10 since in an airliner), but I liked showing friends, colleagues from work, or family, the countryside from the air. As a GA pilot, I flew four seaters (PA28, C172, B23 and 35) and really enjoyed taking three passengers, usually for their first flight in a small aircraft to places like Wilson's Prom., Phillip Island or the Vic surf coast, and when we lived in Sydney, to Manly and the Bridge, Wollongong or Warragamba.

[Flightrite]

Flying leaves ever lasting memories, something that land lubbers rarely get to see?

[jackc]

Trying to get to my flying school, when we all receive our ‘get out of jail’ cards,-)

[Jerry_Atrick]

For me - it depends. Before leaving Aus the first time, I would book an Aerobat aftewr work (summer) and take it for some light aeros in the Moorabbin training area.. I found that hour was so focused on flying, it was a great stress reliever. I also liked the competitions that RVAC used to do.. more for the social side than the competitive - but they would sharpen the skills a little.

 

Sometimes, I feel the need to circuit bash or practice things like stalls, PFLs, etc.

 

I like flying with other people and much like @red750, like to take people up for heir first flight in a GA aircraft.. When taking people up for the first time, it would be proprotional to the distances Red750 mentioned, but remember the UK is much smaller, so the distances are usually shorter.

 

But I mainly like longer 1 day trips and touring. I like the scenery, meeting different people, sampling different culture. I prefer over-nighters - camping at the airfield or a B&B/hotel (they don't really do motels here).

 

One of my fondest memories was one where I was not even flying - PA28 from Fairaks (South West of London, just outside the M25) to Le Touquet; a flotilla of about 5 or 6 planes all from work descended on the place. Lovely lunch, walk around the town and back

 

 

 

 

(Over the channel - taken with a then old Blackberry)

 

The steed that took us.. I was later to buy a share in it. Wish I never sold it.

 

 

Lunch in Le Touquet - The 2 ladies on the left are both Aussies - I used to work with the blonde and the brunette is her friend. I have to say, If both her and I were not spoken for, I would have gone for the blonde - lovely lady!)

[kgwilson]

For me it is a lot of things, the freedom, exhilaration of the surge as I take off, flying low along the beach, the camaraderie with fellow pilots, the entire circuit and landing, ever changing scenery, going to new places. I loved Alpine flying when I was in NZ. What a buzz it was flying through the mountains to Warbirds over Wanaka & being one of 600 light aircraft that flew in on the Saturday. I think though that the most amazing flight ever was from Queenstown to Milford Sound on a crystal clear Autumn day. Awesome scenery with a realisation of how small a 172 is when flying from sea level to 10,000 feet just to get over the top.

[facthunter]

An aeroplane cockpit is an office with the best view (s) on earth.... Sometimes "nothing".. Enter cloud at 400 feet and emerge from it at the same cloudbase somewhere else after a fair bit of effort.. Passengers have NO idea. .

Some of the best rides are at lower altitudes where you are more aware of moving. Burning off spoils the view a lot in Australia .You always got it in the DRY in the NT but now with cane burning and the bush It's pretty much likely all over at times..

Notable spectacular events that I recall on the spur of the moment...…..Skylab re entering the atmosphere at about 2 am when 100Nm south of Head of Bight. Incandescent Bit's covered most of the sky for around 20 minutes. Most incredible thing I'll ever see, probably. Another was entering a snowstorm near Kinglake returning from HOT Darwin via Mt ISA BNE SYD less than 10 hours before. With the Landing light's ON you get an incredible "tunnel" effect from the "illuminated" snowflakes streaming past as well as a weird soft rustling sound from them. Nev

[turboplanner]

Here's one I'd really like. Fly a DC-4 again... I got in one a bit over a year ago and it seemed small. Nev

If you haven't been for a while go to the Moorabbing Aircraft Museum. Someone has been building a lot of cockpits which you can sit in. They're all painted an ugly grey colour, and include a B737. The British designers treated the pilots like lever-pullers, jamming them up the very front of the aircraft in a tiny workspace able to look down at the ground, but so far forward it mkust have been difficult to get the feel of what the airctraft was doing.

[Yenn]

I just enjoy going for a short flight. Get off the grass and have a look at the ocean on one side and the hills on the other, run along the beach or even land on it at low tide. Just having a look at what is happening and listening to what is going on over a big area is great. Looking at my maintenance release and log book shows that I do only a few hours and a lot of landings. In the Corby I have over 400 hours and over a thousand landings, so short and sweet is my preference.

[facthunter]

I admire you for still having the Corby, Yenn . Not everyone flys them well.

. I've rarely just got up and had a fly. I've nearly always had a reason to do it. Somewhere to go for a reason. Someone to take somewhere or someone to be trained. or a plane to be tested. BEST is when instructing or someone invites you to try his (interesting) plane. When you are instructing you must keep ahead of what's going on and be on the ball. I think I'm naturally lazy and leave everything till the last minute. That's NOT good. I know I need the motivation and I can get bored easily. Nev

[farri]

These days, the only reason I need to fly is that I still want to. Though I`ve been flying since the mid-eighties, I`ve never lost the desire or the passion, if anything, it has grown stronger, in fact, I flew this afternoon.

 

I don`t need to fly far, I did plenty of that in the early days, I just need to be up there and enjoy the magic of it all, an experience I find difficult to put into words.

Franco.

[Flightrite]

Great photo that! ? I once flew along the Daintree river back in the 80's, rather low, was spectacular! Also along the Prince Regent River in a C210 rather low, two memorable flights ? Why do we fly? I don't try to answer that, I just do?

[Bryon]

I don`t need to fly far, I did plenty of that in the early days, I just need to be up there and enjoy the magic of it all, an experience I find difficult to put into words.

Farri, I am just like you. Everytime the wheels leave the ground, it is a magic experience

[jackc]

The most fun you can ever have, with your clothes on:-)

[antonts]

So what encourages you to get airborne?

 

Just to control another machine. Heavy truck, train (model and real), forklift, crane, intercontinental ballistic missile (I am not joking, this was my military speciality), motorbike, digital logic control, routers-networks-computers, now - plane. Without all these silly humans! Just machine and its possibilities, from the smallest to the biggest. Blue sky under feet, 100 tonnes behind, electronic system of 40-storey building, world wide network structure etc with me at the control. The Great Dark Power of technology!

 

And if it is possible to gain good money from this fun (not always, of course, but at least my main profession comes from this) - it is double funny!

[antonts]

An aeroplane cockpit is an office with the best view (s) on earth....

 

there is wellknown expression in Russian, created by Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky - "the best view to this city - if you sit in a bomber!" (Лучший вид на этот город - если сесть в бомбардировщик)

[Student Pilot]

To me the most basic flying is the most fulfilling. Having an open cockpit maximises the experience, something like a Thruster, primary, basic flying at it's best.