The hardest part about flying

455 Bravo Uniform

455 Bravo Uniform

Final Approach
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455 Bravo Uniform
is figuring out what to do, where to fly to, when I have nothing to do or nowhere to be. Is it just me?

It was a great VFR day. I must’ve wasted a couple hours on the ground watching planes come & go and preflighing and just generally burning good daylight trying to plan a cool flight for myself. Ended up doing a few T&Gs, then flew towards Lake Michigan.

Stopped at KMGC. Forgot the time difference...thought “hey, why is the sun so low?” Ooops, might not make it back before dark. Didn’t, but was a cool ending. First night landing in 6 months.
 
I do the same thing. I spend more time thinking about where to fly to than it takes to get there. Half the time, I’m halfway there and pop into a random field I’ve never been to, unplanned, and head back.

I need to make a list of burgers to eat in the SE or something.
 
Someone once said, the hardest part of flying is knowing when to say no.
 
RyanLikesFlying said:
...I need to make a list of burgers to eat in the SE or something.
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I've added u to the list of southisheastish PoA peeps for when we try to organize some kind of fly-in/meetup. but yeah, there are a bunch of cool places to fly to eat in the area.
 
Up here in Quebec the weather is usually nasty in one part or the other of the province. So I call up FSS and ask where They forecast the weather to stay vfr all day long and the this is where I go.
 
You're at Purdue, fly over to Ohio State and have breakfast at Barnstormers. Then fly down SR315, over the top of the 'Shoe and head home. If Barnstormers is closed, there's i74 Urbana Grimes for a 100$ burger right on your route.
 
Having enough money to fly as much as one would like to fly. ;)
 
Sounds like need of a “mission”. I used to think that was hard too, but then I realized any flight can be turned into practice for something or checking of skills.

Great VFR day? How are those short and soft field landings looking? Done any in a while? Stuff like that. Anything in the ACS is fair game if there’s “nothing else to do”.

I’ve also noticed the aerobatics crowd never seems to have any shortage of things to do aloft. They’re always practicing. :)

Also can find a list of airports in a state and start hitting all of them. Can give a feeling of “accomplishment” to just flying around.
 
Pilots n Paws
 
Take some bystanders hanging around the airport for a ride, especially if they're a kid and parents approve.
 
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455 Bravo Uniform said:
is figuring out what to do, where to fly to, when I have nothing to do or nowhere to be. Is it just me?
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I don't have that problem at all. I have a 26" folding bike that fits in my airplane. I really like flying down to the Georgia coast, eating seafood and riding around the islands. I flew down to St Simons Island yesterday. I also like to bike around Jekyll Island and Amelia Island (Fernandina Beach).

I have one brother near 1A3 and the other brother near 1A5. If the weather is not good toward the coast but looks better in the mountains, I'll fly up there for the day, especially in the summer and I want to get a break from the heat and humidity.

Clarks Hill lake (Lake Thurmond if you're from SC) is just northwest of Augusta. If I am taking a friend up sightseeing, flying up to the lake makes a good trip.

Even though I have ordered a good bit from Aircraft Spruce, I have never been to their store in Peachtree City. One of these days I want to fly up to KFFC, Atlanta Regional Falcon Field, and check out their store and also ride my bike over to Lake McIntosh Park which is close to the airport.

Between flights I make flight plans in WingX for places I want to go visit. When I have a day I can go flying, I look through my flight plans the night before and decide where I want to go. So many places to go, so little time.
 
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I flew to every public airport in my state. Closest first, furthest last. Then I started on adjacent states. I don't think anyone has landed at every airport in the nation. So that one is still not done yet.
 
coloradobluesky said:
I flew to every public airport in my state.
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In South Carolina they had a program (I think they still do) where you can earn a leather bomber jacket if you fly to all of the airports in the state. They had a 'Passport' book that you could order from whatever the organization was that sponsored the program. Each FBO or pilot shack had a rubber stamp for that airport. After you stamped all of the locations in your passport book you could redeem it for the leather jacket. I thought it was a very neat program. I ordered the information package and passport book but with my working schedule it just was not feasible for me. If they still have the program after I retire, I think it would be a fun thing to do.
 
coloradobluesky said:
I flew to every public airport in my state.
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Wonder if anyone has flown to every public airport in Alaska. That wound take some time...:)

MickYoumans said:
In South Carolina they had a program (I think they still do) where you can earn a leather bomber jacket if you fly to all of the airports in the state
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That sounds like a fun program, might be due able in SC, Alaska I'm not so sure..:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Hardest part of flying for me is finding the time and VFR weather to fly
 
AKBill said:
Wonder if anyone has flown to every public airport in Alaska. That wound take some time...:)
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Oh sure, you had to make it public strips....... would that include the modified moose trails some villages call landing strips?
 
I landed on an airstrip that ended on main street in some town just inside Alaska. Locals looked at me in wonder. INDIANS! Here come white man! HOW. BYE BYE. Varooom!!!

No offense to anybody I've offended or affected.
 
Always a good idea to practice skills like Nate said.
I'm on a mission right now to visit airports that rent different types of planes so I can get checked out in several.
Trainers galore.....172's (even a Cutlass), DA40's, Cherokees and Warriors.
182's seem to be like unicorns around here though.
But it's a fun mission so far. Flew to one today, and have the option to fly a twin Comanche.. so that'll happen some time hopefully this summer.

Wanting to grab a pilot buddy (or CFI) and doing some right seat stuff, both for fun and safety.

Some other things we plan to do either in the summer, or maybe better in the fall, is take a couple photographers up and get some really good aerial pictures of family members homesteads. Print them out, frame them and give them as Christmas gifts.

May 19th there's a Young Eagles event, and they are asking for pilots to volunteer. You might check into that around your area if you haven't. Doesn't screaming kids in your plane after pancakes and syrup sound fun? :)
 
I thought the answer was “flapping your arms fast enough to lift off”...
 
Way back in the early days of POA, Nick (and Chip, I believe) put together Go Fly America, and we all flew out to "claim" airports. It was quite fun. All one had to do was to fly to an unclaimed airport at least 50mi away from your home base, take a pic, and claim. We had a few POAers with quite a number of claims.

@SkyHog , did the data ever get captured before the web site went away?
 
I’d have to agree with hardest part being finding the time and I’m only 15 minutes from my plane. Between work and familial responsibilities, I have to put my foot down and make at least one flight every two weeks a priority (the excuse I have to use is that it is important for the health of my engines). If weather goes to crap, it has held me on deck for up to a month. Hate it though as I nearly always feel rusty.
 
I made a list of every single airport in AZ and planned to visit every single one, so far at 60% thru that list. Even passing 25% was a sense of achievement
 
ND and MN have a passport program, I am on that mission. SD I believe have one too but way more cumbersome just to get the passport


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Personally I still dig just flying, enjoy going up and just doing touch and goes, lazy 8s, stalls, or just flying along the rivers

In the nice weather it's a 1 minute walk from work to my hangar, sometimes I just fly home and leave the car at work.
 
For me, the hardest part of flying is getting the plane back into my very tight hangar without rashing a wingtip!
 
RudyP said:
For me, the hardest part of flying is getting the plane back into my very tight hangar without rashing a wingtip!
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Man. I like my hangar more and more after I’ve seen a few folks with really tight ones.

One of the airplanes I’ve flown recently that wasn’t mine literally touches a glued on strip of foam rubber on the back wall, where a chunk of the wall had to be cut out with tin snips, so the spinner doesn’t get hit by the door closing in front.

That’s really tight. I’ve got a foot in front and at least three in the back.
 
MickYoumans said:
In South Carolina they had a program (I think they still do) where you can earn a leather bomber jacket if you fly to all of the airports in the state. They had a 'Passport' book that you could order from whatever the organization was that sponsored the program. Each FBO or pilot shack had a rubber stamp for that airport. After you stamped all of the locations in your passport book you could redeem it for the leather jacket. I thought it was a very neat program. I ordered the information package and passport book but with my working schedule it just was not feasible for me. If they still have the program after I retire, I think it would be a fun thing to do.
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There's a program in Maryland (https://marylandairportmanagers.org/explore-maryland-by-air/) and one in Virginia (http://www.doav.virginia.gov/vaap.htm). The latter page lists the NC and SC programs too.

I got my jacket for Maryland. Nice jacket.
 
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