Dear Gramps,
What is it like flying an airplane by yourself? Is it much different than flying as a passenger on a commercial jet? When did you learn to fly and which is your favorite airplane to fly? How can I experience the thrill of flying in a smaller plane without having to learn to fly or pay much money? Please be as descriptive as possible for us want-to-be pilots.
Peter, from Thousand Oaks, California

Dear Peter,
The difference in flying in a light plane and in a commercial jetliner is about the same as the difference between sitting in your living room and tearing down a winding road in a Harley Davidson motorcycle! Also, there is a significant difference between being the passenger and the pilot in a small plane. As a pilot, there are no surprises. In a sense, it’s also like sitting in your living room. The plane goes where you put it. You anticipate the motion by moving the controls. As a passenger, you perceive and respond to any motion after it has begun. Because of this, there is a much greater tendency to air sickness during maneuvers as a passenger than as a pilot.
I got my pilot’s license at age 69, after I retired. Two years before that, during my last year of employment, wanting to know if I could really manage an airplane, I bought some dual time in a Pitts S-2 at the Hawthorne, CA airport. The kindly pilot, after taking off, allowed me to fly the airplane and do whatever I wanted with it!!. After three hours (three different flights) of complete exhilaration, I said, “It’s been very kind of you to let me drive this thing all over the sky, but why don’t you teach me something?” So he got out a log book, and I have recorded as my first ten hours of dual instruction, full bore aerobatics in a Pitts S-2! As an example, here are the instructor’s notes in my log book for my first three hours of dual instruction– Loops, basic and advanced rolls, inverted flight–1.0 hrs. Loops, basic and advanced rolls, hammerheads, Cuban 8s–0.9 hrs. Loops, hammerheads, Cuban 8s, snap rolls, 4-point rolls–0.8 hrs.
After retiring a few months later, and spending two years in South America, I moved to Bountiful, Utah, and the first thing I did was to get my pilot’s licence and, with three other pilots, buy a Starduster Too open-cockpit biplane.
What is my favorite airplane to fly? I wouldn’t even get in an airplane with only one wing! Nothing for me but an open-cockpit biplane tail dragger! (We call tricycle landing gear training wheels!) There’s something romantic and nostalgic about flying an open cockpit biplane–that’s all they had when I was a kid growing up. I’ve acquired 500 hours stick time with 70 hours of aerobatics before I had to sell my Starduster Too because I ran out of money.

About the only way that you can experience the thrill of flying in a smaller plane without having to learn to fly or pay much money is to have a very good friend who has a lot of money and has his own plane. If you have to ask how much it costs to learn to fly and get your own plane, you can’t afford it.
Gramps