Ubiquitous wrote:Electronics aren't my thing. I'm not (exactly) saying they are evil, but a whole lot of people that I interact with use them as a crutch to avoid doing things in what i consider to be "the right way."

Everything in life is a trade off. Starting on the date of my first flying lesson, I have logged over 200 hours per each succeeding 365 day period. If I found a "gizmo" no matter how useful, and the cost to buy it, install it, and pay for five hours of flight time learn to be proficient in it's use was $2000, then the trade is 70 hours of fuel, maintenance reserve, and insurance cost on the Cub. Considering my mission profile I'd choose the extra 65 hours of experience. "Dave," a mythical pilot, may choose the gizmo and he may well be correct for his mission profile.

Apparently the same rules existed back when I trained, but I was not aware of them. It seems that there are at least two different CFI certifications. One allows you to train people for a PPL-- it requires an IFR rating and a CPL, which also requires complex certification (does a Mite count?). The other is a "Sport-CFI" which has different requirements and only permits the holder to teach towards a "Sport License." For the "Sport" no CPL or IFR rating is required-- I have neither.

"the-Adam," BCP member Adam Rosenberg, (http://the-adam.com/adam/index.html) seems to think a Cherokee 140 is a back country airplane. He has hundreds of experiences, many older than I am, to support this proposition.

My great-grandfather, and my grandfather were my age when they RETURNED from the ETO, and Vietnam (the average age of a US soldier in Vietnam was 19). Compared to them, I have no experience in life and I know nothing. Compared to so many pilots here I am still very wet behind my ears.

But as someone with over 650 hours in "proper" aircraft with the third wheel 170 or so inches back where God himself intended for it to be, I have to giggle-- or laugh out loud-- when a CFI with 450 total hours tells me that "it's too difficult to learn to fly in a tail-dragger."