Pilot Rank & File

Who's Top Gun

  • Total voters
    34
SoonerAviator

SoonerAviator

Final Approach
PoA Supporter
Joined
Jul 21, 2014
Messages
9,770
Location
Broken Arrow, OK
Display Name
Display name:
SoonerAviator
Thread to discuss the hierarchy of pilots. Discuss.

1. Muti-engine radial tail-dragger
2. Single-engine radial tail-dragger
3. Taildragger (SE piston or Turbine)
4. Whirlybirds
5. Glider/Balloon/LTA
6. Multi-engine turbine/piston (MU-2 goes here, Ted)
7. Seaplane
8. Nosewheel Bugsmasher
9. Airbus driver
10. Flight Simmer
11. Drone "Pilot"
12. Cirrus Driver

edit: added poll, ran out of poll choices.
 
Last edited:
iu
 
Someone has to say it:
1. Me.
2. Chuck Yeager
3. The Wright Brothers
4. All y'all - you can fight out the specifics amongst yourselves.
And I'm pretty sure Chuck Norris and Neil Peart should be high on the list...
 
@SoonerAviator the MU-2 clearly doesn't belong with other mere multi-engine turbine/piston - it's the only one in that category that got its own SFAR.

I think it belongs between whirlybirds and gliders. :)
 
Hang glider? Powered parachute? It's not like you're landing your Cirrus in the McDonald's parking lot. Sheesh.
 
G-Man said:
Someone has to say it:
1. Me.
2. Chuck Yeager
3. The Wright Brothers
4. All y'all - you can fight out the specifics amongst yourselves.
And I'm pretty sure Chuck Norris and Neil Peart should be high on the list...
Click to expand...

Don't forget Sky King.
kayoh190 said:
I dunno man, helicopters are weird.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they almost need an asterisk next to them like baseball players who used steroids.
 
G-Man said:
Someone has to say it:
1. Me.
2. Chuck Yeager
3. The Wright Brothers
4. All y'all - you can fight out the specifics amongst yourselves.
And I'm pretty sure Chuck Norris and Neil Peart should be high on the list...
Click to expand...

This made me chuckle.

In the mid 80's I worked on software for a private flight school for F-5s. GE built the school in Tempe, AZ so they could pick up trainees from the 425 Tactical Fighter Training squadron based at what was then Williams AFB. The director of the school was a retired F-4 pilot and all of the instructors were also retired (or separated) Air Force fighter pilots. While I was there, Yeager's autobiography ("Yeager") came out. I don't know if you've read it, but regardless of who he was/is as a person, he was one heck of a pilot (and also lucky!). I remember several of the instructors, including the director, passed it around and read it. Their comments, at the most generous, were "He was pretty good." Not how exceptional he was.

Those boys (and at that time they were all boys) had egos as big as all out doors. After reading "The Right Stuff" I get it. Without that much confidence, no sane person would have been flying military jets in the 50's and 60's-much less fighters.

For those on POA that did these things, my hat's off to you.

John
 
SoonerAviator said:
11. Drone "Pilot"
12. Cirrus Driver
Click to expand...
A drone is arguably harder to fly, and lacks a parachute. So I can excuse this.

SoonerAviator said:
Whirlybirds
Click to expand...
I was going to admonish the inclusion of those flying beasts, but some of the best James Bond scenes (we'll pretend Brosnan and Dalton Bond films don't exist) were shot in helicopters.. so I'll forgive its inclusion

Mtns2Skies said:
*cough* @Tantalum *cough*
Click to expand...
I'm just glad Cirrus made the list and the Skyhawk (the Toys 'R' Us of planes) did not
 
Tantalum said:
I'm just glad Cirrus made the list and the Skyhawk (the Toys 'R' Us of planes) did not
Click to expand...

Skyhawks fall under #8 Nosewheel Bugsmashers. 4 Spots above the Cirrus. Cirrus driver will have buy a drone, get into flight simming, and get type-rated in an Airbus before he's as cool as a Skychicken flyer.
 
Where does a Dornier do 28 fall? It's a ME piston tailwheel, #3 is only SE piston or turbine tailwheels.
do28d2_kp.jpg
 
So my dad's grumman widgeon, of which I have a couple of hours in, would rank pretty high, lol. Right below the PBY I assume.
 
G-Man said:
Someone has to say it:

0.5 Neil Armstrong
1. Me.
2. Chuck Yeager
3. The Wright Brothers
4. All y'all - you can fight out the specifics amongst yourselves.
And I'm pretty sure Chuck Norris and Neil Peart should be high on the list...
Click to expand...


FIFY
 
SoonerAviator said:
It's German, they lost the war. They don't get a say in where it falls. :)
Click to expand...
Fineeeeeeeeee, what about the de Havilland Mosquito or the Avro Lancaster? These surely should be in a different and much higher category than the MU-2.

artifact-avro-683-lancaster-x.jpg de-Havilland-Mosquito-British-airplane-World-War.jpg
 
I dunno. I think helicopter pilots don't belong on this list since helicopters don't actually fly. They just beat the air into submission.
 
bflynn said:
I dunno. I think helicopter pilots don't belong on this list since helicopters don't actually fly. They just beat the air into submission.
Click to expand...


I thought helicopters were mostly a bunch of loose rivets and panels being blown in the same general direction by a big fan.
 
Tantalum said:
View attachment 84155

I'm curious what the design advantages of that plane are..
Click to expand...

Like a helicopter, it's so ugly that the Earth repels it. This means you don't have to spend as much effort on aerodynamics and it operates from shorter runways.
 
"Fixed wing" implies they were previously broken. Just say'in.

It's just too bad more ordinary pilots can't be rotary wing aviators. :p
 
Tantalum said:
View attachment 84155

I'm curious what the design advantages of that plane are..
Click to expand...

I think the D models are less appealing. The A and B models look better to me. Here's my friend's that I maintain and fly. They're a short field airplane that can haul a good load. Leading edge slats, 55 degrees of flaps, 40ish mph stall. But they don't go terribly fast, think 182 cruise speed on 30 gph.
 

Attachments

  • do-28.jpg
    do-28.jpg
    94.8 KB · Views: 17
mondtster said:
I think the D models are less appealing. The A and B models look better to me. Here's my friend's that I maintain and fly. They're a short field airplane that can haul a good load. Leading edge slats, 55 degrees of flaps, 40ish mph stall. But they don't go terribly fast, think 182 cruise speed on 30 gph.
Click to expand...
Interesting, thanks

it certainly has some appeal to it and would attract a crowd at the next fly in or burger run
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top