Some aircraft I bond with, they become much more than machinery to me... Some don't. I cant put my finger on what it is. Do you think you can bond with any airplane given enough time or is there some special "X" factor? What is that X factor to you?

There are many missions. Bonding may never happen, if hardware is wrong for the intended outcome, maybe even uncomfortable and dangerous. Know the limitation well.

There have been a couple I could get misty-eyed over if I let myself.

A ratted out '56 C180 and a C207 with 30,000 hrs on the airframe. Sit in 'em for enough thousand hours and always getting you home, you get attached.

Go figure...

Gump

For me it's a plane that many here would turn their nose up at.

It's the 2001 172 that I learned to fly in. By the time I had a couple hundred hours in it I knew it like the back of my hand and could make it do anything I wanted whenever I wanted. Even greased a landing once.

I'm 50 hours into Maule time now and nowhere near that level of comfort. For example, early in my 172 days I would regularly come in too fast and even had to wave off a couple times as a result, but I got to the point where I knew exactly what to expect in terms of glide in pretty much any loading configuration the plane was capable of carrying. Today, I still find myself flying the fat and slow Maule like a 172, which means that I end up having to add power back in to make the runway in far more landings than I'm happy about. (Who knew there was a plane that made a 172 feel like a slippery little glider!)

I've only flown five different types of airplane enough to know them. The 172 is the one I bonded with.

First requirement: Tailwheel

robw56 wrote:First requirement: Tailwheel

ehhhh I'd say speed is nice along with an easy to control nosewheel!

What is that X factor to you?

Bush planes.

All of them! Over 50 different types now and I like em all! License at 16, my first plane was an MX Quicksilver I bought at 17.. I was very fortunate to be let loose in everything from 503 powered Sadler vampires to 210's, Bonanza's, Mooney's, 180's, Maules of all description, just about every Cessna and Piper before I was 18

Fond memories of carrying spare TSIO-520's for 402's and toolboxes in the back of an old 260hp fixed pitch Cherokee Six, looking through the corrosion holes in the floor to navigate.. Priming an ancient E-225 powered Bonanza with the wobble pump before stupidly taking off switched to a single mag and wondering if I'd clear the trees... Nearly floating a 210M into the trees on a hot day while the customer watched... Sitting in a Drifter ultralight for hour after hour after hour with 16 knots groundspeed, three 20 litre cans of premix strapped into the back seat and landing on claypans to refuel every 4 hours, staring at the destination strip for an hour! Ahh.. So many great bonding moments

I almost became "One" with a Cub some years back...is that bonding?

Every time I show the 170 to a potential buyer, I get a little uggy feeling. She's been a good bird.

After owning and flying the 185 for 37 years, we are bonded, she knows what I'm doing and I know what she's doing.
Ron

GumpAir wrote:There have been a couple I could get misty-eyed over if I let myself.

A ratted out '56 C180 and a C207 with 30,000 hrs on the airframe. Sit in 'em for enough thousand hours and always getting you home, you get attached.

Go figure...

Gump

I really think u can bond with certain air craft. My first A/C was a PA12 108 worn out to barley( maybe legal) legal. Always thought that 30 kt wind would turn the prop in the tie down. Brakes were nearly non existed, had to be really careful when
taxing made lots of 360's only one brake worked really looked forward to winter so could go to skies...no brake problems ...But in the winter the airspeed froze and would not work till spring so kind of a trade off the only plane I ever owned that would run out of oil before gas Ever try to thaw a qt of oil at -20 degs Had lots of good times with that old plane.

Had an old C207 in Btt for a winter it was the oldest the company had Had a real feeling with that old plane, used to talk to it...really... (didn't have a dog like Gump to talk to)...We survived the -60 deg wx and flew tons of hrs talking to each other. She would tell me to look out the window.... at the strut.....is that oil suppose to be there NO !!! Land now at Crevice creek beg some oil off Bill Fickius back to BTT. Went like that all winter. Take off AM before daylight. Set flaps for take off night before (Flap motor would not work at -50) Don't even think about cyc the prop ( before eng covers covered the prop dome) Oil pressure line In 207 went thru the forward baggage comp. No indication for an hour or so after take off. Flaps would come up on there own when u got up to warm air
You were a team with the sled....U took care of each other....Dam can't even remember the A/C # and spent way more time with it then my first wife

Dammit Don, now ya got me all melancholy like...

Missing the Sled and the Dog.



Gonna have to pop a bottle of wine and do some time traveling.

Gump

I'd say so if'n it's the same one that came back home to roost with you.

hicountry wrote:I almost became "One" with a Cub some years back...is that bonding?

I'm bonded with my Maule... Can't help it, she's so purdy!

I'm in the process of trying to find a faster commuter, but I'll never sell my Maule.

Jim

I got pretty emotional when the first Skylane taxied out with the broker who'd sold it, so I guess I bonded with it somewhat. But I really feel close to my current Little Red Bird. After losing her engine early in our relationship, but adding things and changing things here and there until she's very much the way I want her to be, and after some 450 hours of real enjoyment over the last 9 years, I think the bonding is complete. She seems happy to see me, disappointed when we don't go flying for some reason, melancholy when I have to leave her after a flight--of course, maybe I'm imagining those things, but I don't think so.

Cary