What do you consider yourself an expert on?

In the spirit of what Face said, I will claim:

Master
Air Traffic procedures
Weather impact on aviation
Training of Air Traffic Controllers
Aviation accident investigation

Journeyman
Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) factors in automation
The novels of Robert Heinlein, Rex Stout, John D. MacDonald, JK Rowling, and John Varley
Competition Bridge (Duplicate and Rubber)
Colored Gem Identification
Private Pilot
Trivia games
Small Watercraft
Camping

Apprentice
Game Design
SCUBA Diving and Snorkling
History of Space Flight
Webboard Administration (not counting WoV)
Optimal Casino game play
Java programming

Not a clue but interested in
Fishing
Powerboating
Astronomy
a couple dozen more but blanking at the moment; an eternal student right alongside EB and Buzz

@Babs

First, if interested in fishing, some would say that's about all I ever talk about if not talking hockey. There's a very long and in depth thread here about it, which I'd be happy to have you participate in.

Second, private pilot? Do I take that to mean you are one?

Quote: Face

@Babs

First, if interested in fishing, some would say that's about all I ever talk about if not talking hockey. There's a very long and in depth thread here about it, which I'd be happy to have you participate in.

Second, private pilot? Do I take that to mean you are one?

Yes, I will go read your fishing posts. I took a very memorable week in Lake of the Woods, think it was summer 1997, and we had a small motorboat and fished for walleye and northern. My mom won the fish derby with a 39" northern, but my dad got the rappella stuck in his hand removing the hooks. My husband had a great time playing bridge, but didn't much care for the fishing.

I got my private license in July 1998. from an FBO in Yakima, WA. The owner was the oldest living active pilot at the time (on CNN and all; his name was Charlie MacAllister), and his license had been signed by Orville Wright in person. He specialized in gliders and Supercubs, though I got rated in their 1962 Cessna 150. I also got an acrobatic endorsment in a Great Lakes biplane, which my instructor owned (probably still does), who was a friend of Dick Scobee, the Challenger Commander who was killed in 1986, and Dick had signed the side of the aircraft just before I trained in it. That was a really cool backwoods of aviation pioneers up there; Ginny Richardson, one of the FAA's check pilots, had an FBO as well, and she was one of the founders of the 99's (the premier women's aviation racing and pilot's club) and flew WAAC in WWII. I met Pappy Boyington there when he came to visit. Bob Hoover, too. And lots of other old-timers that a history buff would appreciate would come through from time to time.

One of the best pilots who ever lived was a guy named Bob Heale who flew everything with wings, cropdusters, cargo Caravans, bizjets, just the coolest pilot in the sky. He flew the Miss Budweiser P51 Mustang in the Reno Air Races for years. FedEx tried to move him into B727's and he wouldn't go; he was having too much fun. He used to bring us "dog-nuts" about once a week and have a cuppa while they turned his airplane around. He could land and take off in 800' with that Caravan, and more than once he landed it sideways on the runway in the WIDTH of it in a strong crosswind. That's 150'. When he was bored sometimes, he would barrel-roll it, packages and all, before he landed. Just for the joy of it.

I bought him one of those kid plates shaped like an airplane with sections and a propellor on the front, with a sippy cup that fit in a section. It was a joke on a popular commercial of the time about carpet cleaning or something. He was such a sport, he took it home, filled the cup with koolaid and the plate with mashed potatoes, and had his wife film him eating from it like a baby, getting it all over himself, and then throwing it across the room (like the baby in the commercial). He was probably about 55 at the time.

He had over 35000 logged hours (almost nobody ever logs that high) when he died, piloting a Mudry at an airshow in Spokane at Fairchild AFB in September 1996. He was doing stunts and the wings locked up after an Immelman. They say he never panicked all the way down, telling the comm what he was trying to do to recover, talking calmly while the airplane fell apart around him. I'm not sure why he didn't eject because he was wearing a parachute, but he went in with the fuselage (he may have been trapped). It also didn't go bad until he was pulling out at the bottom of the maneuver and the ailerons locked, so he may have thought it better to try and fly it in when he was that low. Turned out they had wired the ailerons wrong when installing the smoke canisters. He was a pilot's pilot, and there is no higher praise.

He was a guy who lived in total joy, and it's really nice to remember him. Not sure why I got to talking about him, but you would have liked him very much. You have that same daredevil love of life on the edge, I guess.

Master:
Zilch

Journeyman:
Zilch

Apprentice:
Zilch

Drooling Idiot:
Any math beyond addition, subtraction
Anything to do with finances.

Quote: Fleastiff

Master:
Zilch

Journeyman:
Zilch

Apprentice:
Zilch

Drooling Idiot:
Any math beyond addition, subtraction
Anything to do with finances.

Nope. Sorry. Not buying it. You are a total renaissance man, with varied and esoteric gifts. I've read your stuff.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Nope. Sorry. Not buying it. You are a total renaissance man, with varied and esoteric gifts. I've read your stuff.

Agreed. Your days of fooling everyone are over, Flea. You're like Columbo. You can pretend all you want that you're somewhat of a bumbler, but I'm on to you.

I'd even hazard a guess that my use of "Columbo" isn't that far off. I guess we'll see ;)

Quote: beachbumbabs

Yes, I will go read your fishing posts. I took a very memorable week in Lake of the Woods, think it was summer 1997, and we had a small motorboat and fished for walleye and northern. My mom won the fish derby with a 39" northern, but my dad got the rappella stuck in his hand removing the hooks. My husband had a great time playing bridge, but didn't much care for the fishing.

Good on mom! Always wanted to hook something from the Esox family. So far I've only caught one northern, just a bitty little thing I pulled from a local pond.

No rush on getting to the thread, it'll be here a long time ;) We did take a detour to hunting and also my past addiction issues during the winter lull, but I go pretty hard on it. It's probably my longest multi-day thread and most updated project. (longest single project was the Wyoming trip thread, hands down)

Quote: beachbumbabs

He was a guy who lived in total joy, and it's really nice to remember him. Not sure why I got to talking about him, but you would have liked him very much. You have that same daredevil love of life on the edge, I guess.

I can relate. The first thing I thought of when you were describing his final minutes was performance driving. You really must have near infinite focus and unshakable concentration. There cannot be any "Jesus take the wheel" moments. Even in the process of crashing, sometimes even after you've already struck something, you must maintain focus in order to have a chance at regaining control. It sounds about how you described the pilot. You're not dead until you are; until then, you fight. Shame is was something as stupid as crossed wires.

But now, I'm going to get personal =) Ever since I began my racing career, I've had an empty bucket list. I had to put something back onto it, and it's right in your wheelhouse.

I want to fly. A very specific type of flying. Being such an avid fisherman, I want to be a bush plane pilot.

I'm not too familiar with commercial craft, being more of a strike/fighter fan post F4 Phantom. But I imagine it'd be sort of like a Cessna or a Piper. Something with floats, obviously. Something I could take off from here in Western NY and motor on to remote, uninhabited lakes in Northern Ontario, Saskatchewan, Minnesota, whatever.

Might you know the process involved? I'm talking anything and everything you can imagine to include. Cost of preliminary lessons, how and how much to get what I must assume is advanced lessons for water landings, cost of aircraft and maintenance, anything at all you can think of. This topic isn't exactly the easiest to Google ;)

For SEL (That's Single Engine Land) You need to have graduated from "ground school" and also had a certain number of flight hours, I think its 40 now despite all the talk of raising it to 60). About 15 to 20 of them will be "dual" the rest will be solo and your flight book must have your instructor's authorisation to take three solo cross country trips of his design with your logbook signed by someone at each place you landed. Instructors have to have at least ten students a year and eighty percent of them must pass their final exam.

For Floats,,, you need a designation that usually takes anywhere from one afternoon to two days to obtain.

Note: Bush pilots use Tundra Tires alot rather than normal tires and normal pressures but I don't know if there is a separate designation on your license for this or not.

Although there are a certain number of topics to be covered, instructors can and should choose: If you learn in Los Angeles, you will concentrate on air space restrictions and proper communication with Air Traffic Control. If you learn in Wyoming, you will concentrate on navigation and off-field landings.

Bush pilots do different types of flying. Mountain weather knowledge is important, but some pilots fly with their parkas on and the door propped open so if they go down they can get out of the plane fast. Most bush pilots need good weight and balance calculation skills because they fly so much oddly shaped cargo.

There are various One Week Programs but its best to stretch it out over a few months and let things really sink in. Some Fixed Base Operators run Singles Oriented flight schools, some run bare bones operations on the cheap, some run just about everything in between. Look around. I think BBB would be the first to tell you to steer clear of these Arrive on Thursday and leave on Tuesday with a license schools.

If you are going to be flying your own plane, maintenance is important and you might want to take an Airframe and Powerplant course so as to legally be able to perform your own maintenance. Its not just your annual inspection but even an oil change or a spark plug change that requires a LICENSED mechanic. Don't skimp on annual exams either, pay for a really good job.

Summary: Count on sixty hours of flight time (even if only 40 are still required) most instructors wont sign your log book until you have had about sixty hours of which fifteen are night hours. Count on 15-20 of dual hours. Two to Three thousand is reasonable. Bargains exist, but should probably be avoided.
You need a Medical Certificate... as a matter of fact its your medical certificate that doubles as your "Learner's Permit" but only for a certain length of time.

While learning you will want one million dollars worth of liability insurance which will turn out to be so amazingly cheap you will think they are kidding you.

Getting a license to fly and buying a plane are two different things, but if you truly want to do both, you can get a real bargain if you buy prior to your first solo flight: The Manufacturer sells the plane to you and you then lease it back to the Flight School and the FBO's commission will come from the Manufacturer instead of you. Saves you about two to three grand depending what you buy.

Every two years you need to take a brief flight with an instructor to show you ain't rusty.

NOTE: Going on to get additional licenses: Instruments, Instructor, Commercial or Multi-Engine can be done with loans. Instruments used to be hard but they made it easier so as to encourage more pilots to be qualified to fly in instrument conditions particularly if they find themselves in it suddenly.

That's a lot to absorb, some of which isn't totally applicable, but I'll try.

To clarify, I don't want to be a commercial pilot or fly for fare. I'm looking for purely personal use to fly myself and 1 to 3 other people to fishing hotspots. No great cargo load, just basic supplies. No ice landings or jaunts around mountains so high I can't fly over them, just the terrain typical of northeast US and the ability to land on water.

You're saying I can get the license and skills to do all that in just 60 hours of seat time for the cost of a used ATV?!

Quote: Face

You're saying I can get the license and skills to do all that in just 60 hours of seat time for the cost of a used ATV?!

I'm saying its reasonable. There are always loopholes and extras. If you were in the military, you can legally get by with five hours less flying time than everyone else.

Ground schools are anywhere from free to 200, with the average being 100.00 in tuition and 15.00 in supplies. YMCAs often offer them, FBOs usually do, so do community colleges.

Flying Lessons require the ground school and the forty to sixty hour process will cost you from one grand for a cheapie school to three grand for a school with fancy wine parties and rich female students. Look around, see what you like. See whats nearby. The one thing that is vital is to meet the instructor pilots. If you don't like the pilot... get someone else.

You CAN go to these schools in Tennessee or somewhere that pick you up at Memphis Airport and put you thru a crash program spitting you out in record time. I don't recommend them. It takes time to absorb the material rather than just cram for it before the FAA written test and Flight Test.

With your background, I would think 40 hours would probably be sufficient, but some instructors really do want more (after all they get paid more that way too).

You still have to take a "review" from an instructor every two years to stay current. Thats one to four hours, usually two.

That would be to fly Single Engine Land.

Floats are separate and run from free to one afternoon, depending on who you go to and where. One pilot who happened to be staying at an Inn in Alaska asked the hotel operator some questions about floats and the operator took him up and had him do some water landings and take offs. After they landed, the hotel operator told him, "If you want the float endorsement, give me your log book before you check out, I happen to be the FAA examiner for this area". It can be that informal.