Richard Collins - FLYING Magazine

Jaybird180

Jaybird180

Final Approach
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Jaybird180
How many different types of airplanes did he own?
 
He owned some flight schools... Probably a ton.
 
I'm reading a couple of his articles and he talks about the time when he was flying his (type) or the time he was flying his (that) type.
 
I'm guessing in his 20,000 or so hours, plus growing up around his father, he's probably flown in pretty much every type known to man.
 
Jay Honeck said:
The only one I ever remember reading about was his P-210.
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When I started reading Flying he owned a Cherokee 6. IIRC he moved from that to a Skyhawk, then to a Cardinal RG, and then to his P210.
 
He also had a Piper Pacer tailwheel. It resides at my home drome.
 
In a recent piece he said that flew practically every SEL Retractable made while editor, among many other aircraft.

Of course he famously made the case that twins could be more dangerous than single foe many non-pros, or something like that. I miss his fact informed assessments of GA 's safety record.

Watching some of his videos, I think I learned more about the proper attitude to have about instrument flying.
 
I love that guy...own his complete AirFacts Sporty's DVD set...gave me the confidence to tackle my XC flights on those very first months right after getting my PPL...down to earth, knowledgeable, pragmatic.
 
Can't speak from personal experience, but I have a close family member who was a freight hauler back in the 70's and 80's. Got stuck with Mr. Collins one night in an airport somewhere in Indiana due to weather. Either Mr. Collins was having a bad night of flying or wasn't a friendly guy to begin with. Cursing out the line guys, dropping a few, "do you know who I am?"'s, etc.

My family member said it was his one experience with meeting one of his "heroes" and the guy turned out to be a jackalope... but I guess that's usually the way it works.

Just repeating the story....
 
Not as many as Jim Campbell though :)
 
ahkahn said:
...dropping a few, "do you know who I am?"'s, etc...
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The sad thing about that is that it's the functional equivalent of telling the world, "I'm a first class jerk!" :rofl:

My family member said it was his one experience with meeting one of his "heroes" and the guy turned out to be a jackalope... but I guess that's usually the way it works.
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I don't know what's usual, but I have heard of famous people who were/are very decent people.

I once met one of the early astronauts at an outdoor concert in Monterey, and he seemed like a very nice guy.
 
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Palmpilot said:
The sad thing about that is that it's the functional equivalent of telling the world, "I'm a first class jerk!" :rofl:



I don't know what's usual, but I have heard of famous people who were/are very descent people.

I once met one of the early astronauts at an outdoor concert in Monterey, and he seemed like a very nice guy.
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I prefer ascent people myself. :wink2:
 
Palmpilot said:
I don't know what's usual, but I have heard of famous people who were/are very descent people.
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They are usually more level...

I have met a number of famous people and they tend to be just like everyone else. The occasional jerks I fly tend not to be famous, just wealthy.

The ones I have been the most surprised by are the ones who have strong public viewpoints which I do not share, but they end up being just fine in person.
 
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I'm gonna be contrarian and say I found his articles to be opinion masquerading as facts.
 
Tx_Flyboy said:
I'm gonna be contrarian and say I found his articles to be opinion masquerading as facts.
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That's not really all that contrarian. I've seen a lot of posts expressing similar opinions over the years.
 
More than anyone else, his articles about single engine single pilot IFR and flight safety along with his practical down to earth style, got me into flying, and specifically instrument flying, years ago.
 
I used to read his stuff as a lad. Never found him to be all that "controversial" or anything like that.

Didn't find him hugely interesting either. Not bad but he wasn't Baxter.

Like others have said, I probably learned a little about how well a single can be used as a traveling machine from reading his articles where he described a difficult weather flight.

He was also a reminder that aviation editors do stuff the mere mortals can't. Kinda like J. Mac always was too. (And still gets crap for. )

Nobody puts 9000 hours on a P210 owned from new unless they have an iron clad way to write it off for business purposes and a job that's nothing but travel.

It appeared that iron clad thing was flying somewhere to go fly someone's new "something else" and then flying back home.

I've been secretly hunting for that job my whole life. Needing to fly my own airplane purchased new around 300 hours a year. Sounds great. Hahahaha.

I haven't read Flying in so long now, I wouldn't know any of the authors anymore. I liked it in my 20s when I thought they were reviewing and taking about affordable stuff. As the GA market went north of half a million on new certified aircraft I decided there was no point in reading reviews anymore.
 
I'm 63, and I've probably every issue of Flying since I was 12.

I remember Collins had a Cessna 172 certified for Cat II ILS approaches once. He did like the gadgets.

Frankly, in his last few years his articles tended to pretty long and tedious.

The new crew at Flying is doing a great job, the magazine has never been better. If you haven't seen it in a while, check out a current issue some time.
 
JimNtexas said:
The new crew at Flying is doing a great job, the magazine has never been better.
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what bothers me what the new magazine owner Bonnier Corp. is doing to the editors-in-chief of FLYING, second (or third) firing in two years. Still a very good magazine worth reading.
 
JimNtexas said:
The new crew at Flying is doing a great job, the magazine has never been better. If you haven't seen it in a while, check out a current issue some time.
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Thanks for the PIREP.
 
JimNtexas said:
I'm 63, and I've probably every issue of Flying since I was 12.

I remember Collins had a Cessna 172 certified for Cat II ILS approaches once. He did like the gadgets.

Frankly, in his last few years his articles tended to pretty long and tedious.

The new crew at Flying is doing a great job, the magazine has never been better. If you haven't seen it in a while, check out a current issue some time.
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Their biggest problem is they have so little to work with. Not many new aircraft types or serious upgrades come out today. Once upon a time, there was so much more to write about.
 
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