Real pilots?

[boomer108]

RE: Real pilots?

I may not be a pilot but I had the next best job in the Air Force. I'm a retired Chief Master Sergeant with 23 yrs. and 5000 hours flying on the KC-135 A&E models. I retired after 30 yrs. and still miss the flying. I was bit by r/c flying back in the 70's but had to give it up due to job and family and no extra time. Now that I am retired I got back into r/c and I'm flying again! I am 64 and love flying scale electrics. Thanks to Motion R/C I can feed my passion. Good flying!

                                                                        Roy B.

boomer.. Did you happen to know or run across SMSGT. Bruce C. Byington in your travels?

The name sounds familiar. Where was he stationed? I flew with the 126th ARW at O'Hare ANG base Chicago.

[retiredflyer]

RE: Real pilots?

I may not be a pilot but I had the next best job in the Air Force. I'm a retired Chief Master Sergeant with 23 yrs. and 5000 hours flying on the KC-135 A&E models. I retired after 30 yrs. and still miss the flying. I was bit by r/c flying back in the 70's but had to give it up due to job and family and no extra time. Now that I am retired I got back into r/c and I'm flying again! I am 64 and love flying scale electrics. Thanks to Motion R/C I can feed my passion. Good flying!

                                                                        Roy B.

My dad was in the Air Force like you boomer, and he too flew KC-135's. He had his private pilots license and would take me up every weekend. He just rented the Cessna for an hour at a time but I always looked forward to it. That was 45 years ago and I should have pursued my pilots licence then when it could have been had for a fraction of what it costs now. But, alas, my thoughts in high school weren't directed at flying as toward other interests. I even had a chance to go to the Air Force Academy, but again, stupid me decided against it. Deep inside I have always wanted to be an airline pilot! I could have done that if I took a different path earlier in life, but hindsight is 20/20, and I'm WAY too old now. Since I've retired I did take my private pilots ground school training, but have not gone any further.....COST!  Don't have that kind of disposable cash at present. 
So for now, the next best thing is R/C. A lot cheaper, (not according to my wife), and I can still fly.

[STOOPIDMONKEY]

RE: Real pilots?

I may not be a pilot but I had the next best job in the Air Force. I'm a retired Chief Master Sergeant with 23 yrs. and 5000 hours flying on the KC-135 A&E models. I retired after 30 yrs. and still miss the flying. I was bit by r/c flying back in the 70's but had to give it up due to job and family and no extra time. Now that I am retired I got back into r/c and I'm flying again! I am 64 and love flying scale electrics. Thanks to Motion R/C I can feed my passion. Good flying!

                                                                        Roy B.

boomer.. Did you happen to know or run across SMSGT. Bruce C. Byington in your travels?

The name sounds familiar. Where was he stationed? I flew with the 126th ARW at O'Hare ANG base Chicago.

He was my Grandfather (passed away in 2012). He was a crew chief for many years on 135s, he was stationed all over the world. He served in Korea, and Vietnam. He also was the crew chief on Balls 1 "The High And Mighty One" B-52 mother ship for the X-15 project (He was known for giving the finger to the X-15 pilots just as he dropped them from the wing). He dropped Alan Shepard in the X-15 the day he entered space for the first time, officially becoming the first american in space. After he retired, he went to work for Lockheed Skunk Works where he was a part of or headed many black ops projects. Projects like the SR-71, Stealth Fighter, and the AC-130 gunship among many others. Being a Marine I know the military flying community is a small world, I know it is a stretch but just curious if you had ran across him.

[Seadog]

RE: Real pilots?

I am not a pilot either however it seems that quite a few of the guys in my area are. I live in western MA and we have a few small public airports but we also have two air force bases about 15 miles from each other. One of them is a C-5 base and the other is home to F-15s. The F-15 base was recently in the news for loosing one of its heroes in a crash down south. Getting back to my question, I guess I was just wondering how many people took this hobby to the next level. Some day if my wallet will allow it I would love to give the real deal a try. Thanks for all of your inputs.

tchap sounds like you're just around the corner from me. Did you know you can fly at the Big E. The large parking lot we're allowed to fly at. As long as horse trailers aren't there or of course the big e is open.
[hr]
Not a pilot also. I was though Stationed on the USS America CVA 66. One big airport for sure. 1967-1968. 1968 was it's first deployment to the Tonkin Gulf. soooooo long ago. Use to love seeing the night launches etc.

[bradl4648]

RE: Real pilots?

Hi guys

I have 8 hours logged in on a 150 and 152. I have flown a PA-22 piper tri pacer many times with the owner of his plane, also his kitfox . I have done allot of re covering fabric aircrafts like ther tripacer,j3,funk,champ that has been wild. I have also helped rebuild a lycomming engine and worked for a company called Penn Yan aero that was fun too. Now all I have to do is win the lottery and get into flying the real deal haha. I guess one thing that is weird is that allot of full scale pilots have major issues learning to fly a mode,l it can throw them way off coming at them. Some will give up and say leave it to the little guy lol.

[pgiroma]

RE: Real pilots?

I used to be a "real" pilot, but am now an "armchair" pilot. I am one of the fortunate few who was able to live my dream. I received my private license in 1958, while in AFROTC at Ga Tech. Started USAF pilot training in Sep of 1959. Flew T34, T37, T33, F102, and F101B on active duty. After 6 years duty, I resigned my regular commission, and hired on with American Airlines in Jun 1965. Retired in Oct 1994. I have time logged,in addition to the aforementioned, in J3 Cub, Cessna150, 1/4 owner of Piper Cherokee 180, Stearman, DC6, DC7, Lockheed Electra, B727, B757, B767, and Airbus A300-600. Total time around 29,000 hours. I realize this very much sounds like bragging, and I guess it is, but I do feel proud of my career. I have been an avid modeler since age 9 or 10, and love it today as much as ever.

[Konrad]

RE: Real pilots?

Love it!
Many of us started our aviation careers (life) with models and will end them with models.

I hope that the powers that be understand the significants of models in the promotion and economic value of aviation. They need to understand much of this is from the taxes on our salaries. Aviation has afforded many of us high paying jobs to feed the government coffers.

All the best,
Konrad

[PappaBear]

RE: Real pilots?

I used to fly, and I owned a Kitfox at one time. I used to call it "Black hole", because I threw money at it and it just disappeared never to be seen again. I know a "home built", is cheap to own and operate, but not in the UK it isn't.

Martin.

[tdevince]

RE: Real pilots?

I started with RC, then got my private pilot's license. Then IFR rating. Then bought my first plane, then traded in on a second (Beechcraft Bonanza A36). At this point my time with RC was put on hold since I was spending so much time with the A36. Sold the A36 and quit flying about 9 yrs ago (the wife didn't like flying). Then came full circle back to RC. When I left RC in the '90s, everything was pretty much glow fuel as electrics had no power, and balsa was more common than foam construction. When I got back into the hobby I was surprised at the advances of the electrics. Last year I started to convert my glow to electric.

[Konrad]

RE: Real pilots?

Electrics had no power in the 90's? I was going straight up with my 27 cell FAI ships back then. How much power do you need?
By 93 I had given up on glow as they were way under powered and messy, and this is from a guy that built his own FAI F3D pylon engines.

All the best,
Konrad

[tdevince]

RE: Real pilots?

Maybe "no power' wasn't the right phrase, definitely not as prevalent or as advanced as they are today. I didn't know any electric rc pilots back then, now its a much different landscape.

[Konrad]

RE: Real pilots?

Yes, electrics have become main stream. Progress marches on!

[crxmanpat]

RE: Real pilots?

I'm not a full scale pilot, but I do have about 15 hours of stick time in various civvies. Took lessons when I was 18, solo'd at 6 hours in a Cessna 150. But alas, I never did have the time/money to finish my lessons. I turn 50 this year and hope to one day be able to finish lessons and get a PPL.

My club has several pilots in it, mostly airline guys. One of them is a Captain for Southwest, and he has the Windrider 737 that he had painted up in SW colors.

[F106DeltaDart]

I am a full scale private helicopter pilot, and flew full scale well before I started flying RC. My father owns an Enstrom F-28C and is a flight instructor, and I have grown up flying full scale. When I started out college 4 years ago, I took up RC airplanes because the campus had an RC field and the weather in Arizona was perfect for flying. I did fly RC helis for a few years before college because I could fly those in the backyard.

[Chief58D]

Retired OH-58D Kiowa Warrior Instructor / Test pilot.
Also logged some time in AH-1F Cobras, UH-1 Huey's, OH-58 A/C, and a few seasons flying sight-seeing tours around the Smoky Mountains area in Bell Jet Rangers and Long Rangers.

Military flying tours in Germany (before and after the East/West border opened), Desert Storm, Kosovo, and OIF.

Logged around 5000 hours before I had to hang it up due to medical reasons.

All my flying thrills now come from behind the sticks of a RC transmitter or flight simulator.
Fun - but I do miss the real thing sometimes!

This is of my favorite flying photos -
Took this one of my wing man (and good friend, now gone) flying over "Big Duke" on the border of Serbia and Kosovo in '05...

[Addison]

Chief 58D,
You gotta love the 58D model. That kind of looks like an old Prime Chance bird. I will never forget the constant "APR 39 Tracking" from Bitchin Betty. Pretty picture of it in the "overwatch" position anyway. Where did you fly the UH-1's at? Good to see fellow Army guys flying RC.

[Aros]

Perpetual Student Pilot. 8 whoppin' hours in a 172. I stopped after I was laid off from a previous employer and I would love to get back to it but for some reason RC airplanes keep showing up at my house instead.

;)

[Sky Wolf]

Started training in a Cessna 150, call-sign "Cessna 63 triple 0, out of Hayward Airport in Hayward, Ca. Solo 'd in 10 hours and got my license at age 16. I actually got my private pilots before I got my drivers license. I rode my bike to the airport when it was time to fly.

My Dad owned a Mooney 201, and kept it at a club there at the airport. The club rented it out one week to a group of 4 doctors who were going to a conference in Vegas.
I showed up at the airport that afternoon to watch planes and noticed the plane was gone, so I inquired about it. The club operator said, "You didn't hear about what happened with your Dad's plane"? I thought, surely he meant it went in for service, or was getting its "annual", or something like that.
I said, "No", what happened? He replied, "A group of doctors crashed it into the side of a mountain"! My mouth sank! He said that they went into thin air (common in Cali), and forgot to raise the flaps. They all lived to tell the story. NTSB noticed the flaps were still down. The two doctors flying admitted they didn't use the checklist. That's when I learned the old saying, and clearly understood why, that "doctors don't make good pilots". They don't fly very often and think they are so smart that they can remember everything that needs to be done. Not my words, any doctors out there. I heard that again in flight training.
Unfortunately, I was the first one who told my Dad about his plane. He had no idea.
Oh well, I did get about 20 hrs in a high-performance plane, in the seat. We took trips all over the nation back then.

Needless to say, all my flying stopped when college entered the picture. Dear old Dad wasn't going to pay for both.

I tried the Navy and Air Force, but was told I was 1 week too old to enter the pilot training program. I had a birthday the week before. Not sure what the age limit is now. But that was in the early 80's.

Yes, I'm one of those, like yourselves, who "Look Up" every time a plane goes above...ever since I was about 5.

Love flying!! And my hangar reflects it!

[fhhuber]

Just a couple of hours as a student pilot in a 172 many many years ago...
That would be: Trained to the level of being able to get a full scale plane to the scene of the crash.

I occasionally go up with a friend who lets me touch the controls and can hold a reasonably straight line while he reaches for something in his flight bag.

No delusions of flying models qualifying me to fly a full scale.

Father rebuilt a Porterfield 35W in our house. Later he was a Flight Surgeon rated for front seat of an F-4 Phantom.
Photo of the one with triple stripes in the Wiki looks just like his did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porterfield_35

(almost looks like him and me in the plane... but its the wrong airport)

[Aros]

Wow that's crazy Sky Wolf! They were lucky to live to tell the tale..."Doctors don't make good pilots", lol, that's funny! No offense to the doctors out there who ARE good pilots of course. I was about 2 hours away from my solo so I was really bummed at the timing of the lay off. I am considering going for a sports pilot license (eventually working towards a PPL) since it's roughly a third of the cost and I'm not interested in anything or than casual, VFR in good weather conditions.