hicountry wrote:Inspiration for flying:
Some of you probably belong to the EEA and may fly Young Eagles.
I am the Young Eagle coordinator for Chapter 608 and have flown almost 100 young Eagles. We have pilots in our chapter who have flown almost 300.
A lot of kids just want the ride and may have flown before and it may or may not be a "Big Deal".
Every once in a while there is the kid who is really scared to get in the plane and it takes a lot of coaxing from myself and the parent to get the kid strapped in. The look on their face when you crank up the engine is "What am I in for"! Explaining everything going on as I taxi, do a runup, and take off makes you wonder if they hear a word you say because they just look straight ahead and don't say a word. Finally once in the air they eventually start to look out and their eyes start to get big and their mouth drops open. Eventually you can get them to talk a little bit about what they see and how they feel. The ride usually lasts from 20 to 30 minuntes. When you get them back on the ground and the parents walk up, the kid''s eyes are big, the kid's jumping up and down, the kids blabbering to their parents about the ride and they are ready to get back in the plane and do it all over again.

To me that's inspiration!

Good morning all ~ first ~ glad the earth pigs controversy resolved itself, although I learned some things in the process

Also ~ still seats available for the Sparky Imeson/Rob Hunter seminar this Saturday at 069 Petaluma for anybody inclined ... a few of your own will be attending; weather is going to be beautiful .... think about it!

As for your "inspiration" here hicountry ... speaks to the best of it. It really does. If you can light that spark when they're kids ~ in the ones that for whatever reason are born with it ~ it's a powerful thing.

The pilots I've interviewed for the most part all "had it" ~ that inner spark ~ as kids. As mentioned and talked about briefly here in another thread I think ... for some it manifested building models first; in others it was watching air racers as a kid, or going up with a barnstormer back in the day, or idolizing the World War Flying Aces; or reading about (for some "seeing")Lindbergh, Earhart ... *something* inspired the want to.

The Young Eagles program in this day and age? Crucial to giving kids a chance to get bit by the bug who otherwise might not. With the adult pilot population dwindling; the proliferation of technology to fill in "free time" for kids and teens - there's not the opportunity there used to be for youth to get exposed to what GA can offer.

And of course what's great about the kind of flying you all do? By its nature it lends itself even more so to creating a sense of adventure and freedom in someone's mind ~ be it child OR adult.

You can either fight for it all ... or watch it slowly fade away. I really have a sense of that. Hope ~ it's the former....

eddie wrote:Sorry, I surender

Don't you dare surrender

In the Airborne we called them " Airplane / Rotor Chauffeurs" because once they get above 800 feet we can leave that "perfectly good Airplane".

And for the record the only thing that falls out of the sky is "Paratroopers and Mana from heaven"

I remember being called a rotor head Of course the aircraft I flew was called a "trashie" not an Apache. If you were maintenance you suffered from AIDS, Apache Induced Divorce Syndrome.
In the Cav, the pilots washed the aircraft, unloaded and loaded the trucks for the field, cleaned and put away the tents etc. which left the crew chiefs free to maintain the aircraft, but we didn't dare let the grunts know we ever got our hands dirty, it would hurt the prima donna image
Sometimes we had BFMD's, Birds fly, Men Drink, where we would launch the scouts out early to claim the good tables at the O club, and the pool tables. Ever heard of a game called Crud? We had a "rule book" The WOJG, Warrant Officer Junior Grade kept the book. There were many rules, like using the wrong radio freq., being promoted, mentioning another troopers wife etc. etc. All infractions of the rule book had to be paid at BFMD's by buying a round.
Lord, I don't miss the Army, but I shure do miss the people that were in it.
If you ain't Cav, you ain't sh**