Small plane discussion

[railiner]

Some 40 years ago, during my electrical apprenticeship I had a second job as manager of a roller skating rink. The primary owner was an experienced pilot, both fixed wing and helicopter. He wanted to get some time in, and rented a Cessna 172. There was a tiny airport near the rink called Flushing Airport that had a tiny sliver of a corridor through a very busy TCA. Went for a ride up to Middletown (Orange County) and back. Having all that LaGuardia traffic around us coming back in was to say the least "disconcerting"

Yeah...I remember "Speeds" flying service...I used to ride my bike over there, grab some food at Adventurer's Inn, and go watch the 'action', such as it was...

 

[PVD]

It was in bad shape towards the end. flooded, closed reopened. What I thought was cool was when they tied up an occasional Goodyer Blimp.

 

[railiner]

It was in bad shape towards the end. flooded, closed reopened. What I thought was cool was when they tied up an occasional Goodyer Blimp.

Yes, it certainly was a sad sight...towards the end I recall an NYPD and a radio news and traffic helicopter based there...

 

[PVD]

May have had a special reason to stay up there, their home base is Floyd Bennet Field. They have a pretty large fleet of modern turbine helicopters now. With the Coast Guard reducing presence in the waters around NYC, NYPD Air/Sea Rescue will respond to a 60 mile radius, and they get many calls from USCG since they have to come up from Atlantic City. 2 NYPD Scuba divers are always at the base to respond immediately and begin rescue, since they can often be there way before a boat. One of my assistant coaches for a few seasons when I was coaching was a scuba dive team officer who had that assignment. Sadly, his 9-11 recovery work scarred his lungs and reduced his breathing capacity, not exactly what you need for scuba......

 

[Asher]

A route that is fun to reminisce about here in So Cal Is the trip to Catalina Island from Long Beach in the 8 place Grumman Goose Seaplanes. They would land at Avalon out side the harbor, taxi inside to a dock to unload then go back out and take off for the west end of the Island and land on the backside of the Isthmus, taxi up a ramp and unload the passenger/ passengers where you got on a Model A Ford towed tram to the front side. I took that trip many times on Sunday and then sail back with my father who had sailed over on Friday. Those flights ended after a couple of incidents. One of which I don't think they ever found the plane or pilot. It was fun while it lasted though. A four engine seaplane flew to Avalon regularly from San Diego also. I saw it in the air, never was at Avalon when it landed, They always made a big deal of the occasion when I got there, so I'm told.

 

[PVD]

Not far from the location that Railiner and I mention there is a floatplane tie-off that served the EDO Electronics (military hardware/now part of L3Harris) factory on Flushing Bay in College Point near LaGuardia Airport. It still shows up on charts, the factory is long gone....

 

[NS VIA Fan]

France to Canada in less than an Hour on a Reims-Cessna F406!



I posted the link below several years ago. Currently flights to Canada are temporarily suspended due to Covid except an ATR 42-500 Turboprop to Montreal and also a Transatlantic '737 to Paris.

France to Canada in 44 minutes.

Home - Air Saint-Pierre

 

[Bob Dylan]

France to Canada in less than an Hour on a Reims-Cessna F406!



I posted the link below several years ago. Currently flights to Canada are temporarily suspended due to Covid except an ATR 42-500 Turboprop to Montreal and also a Transatlantic '737 to Paris.

France to Canada in 44 minutes.

Home - Air Saint-Pierre

Wow, Crossing the Atlantic in that Small of Plane!

How comfortable was it?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

[...]

 

[NS VIA Fan]

Wow, Crossing the Atlantic in that Small of Plane!

How comfortable was it?

St. Pierre is a Territory of France and the flight over the Atlantic (actually part of the Gulf of St Lawrence/Cabot Strait) to Sydney, Nova Scotia took just 44 minutes......and I assume that short a flight would have been quite comfortable on a Cessna F406.

If Covid hadn't hit this year.....a new Ferry service was to have started. Drive your car on in Newfoundland and 90 minutes later drive off in 'France'.

SPM Ferries

St. Pierre is 12 miles from Newfoundland. The citizens are French, the currency used is the Euro and the Wine.....Excellent!

 

[Bob Dylan]

St. Pierre is a Territory of France and the flight over Atlantic (actually part of the Gulf of St Lawrence/Cabot Strait) to Sydney, Nova Scotia took just 44 minutes......and I assume that short a flight would have been quite comfortable on a Cessna F406.

If Covid hadn't hit this year.....a new Ferry service was to have started. Drive your car on in Newfoundland and 90 minutes later drive off in 'France'.

SPM Ferries

St. Pierre is 12 miles from Newfoundland. The citizens are French, the currency used is the Euro and the Wine.....Excellent!

Thanks, I didnt know that and I'm a Big Fan of Canada!

 

[PVD]

The anti matter universe Channel Islands...

 

[siberianmo]

Figured I would chime in with some aircraft stories of my own.

Back in 1959 upon arriving in Anchorage Alaska (Elmendorf AFB) aboard a Pacific Northern Airlines (PNA) Lockheed Constellation from Seattle,WA I transferred to a PNA DC3 bound for Kodiak via Homer. The seat "back" I had was a washing machine - yes, a washing machine which was unloaded at Homer. The seat was then restored to a semblance of normalcy for the final leg to Kodiak.

During my 18-month stint aboard a Coast Guard buoy tender out of Kodiak I had the occasion to meet and befriend a local who owned a Piper Cub; sorry but I cannot provide any details other than: the "co-pilot" side door had no operating latch. However, there was a rope in a loop configuration that one wrapped around an arm to keep it shut whilst flying. Yes, that is no exaggeration.

How did I meet this guy? During in-port times and of course not having the "duty," I was a part-time bartender at one of several joints all lost during the 1964 quake and tsunami. We met up one night and for some odd reason just became friends.

This guy, an unforgettable character if there ever was one, taught me how to fly that plane - what an experience. We flew from Kodiak to Anchorage and back in Alaska-style; hopping from one air strip to another and at altitudes requiring frequent changes of underwear.

In those times, the GI Bill had a provision that would pay for flight school. I never pursued it and as luck would have it, that "benefit" ran out along with several others back in the day.

My flying experiences since have all been as a passenger and whenever take offs and landings occur, it is hard to forget the first time I did such a thing in that old Piper.

Cheers!

 

[siberianmo]

France to Canada in less than an Hour on a Reims-Cessna F406!



I posted the link below several years ago. Currently flights to Canada are temporarily suspended due to Covid except an ATR 42-500 Turboprop to Montreal and also a Transatlantic '737 to Paris.

France to Canada in 44 minutes.

Home - Air Saint-Pierre

Had to read that comment a few times in order to appreciate your meaning!

Been to St. Pierre by means of a US Coast Guard vessel - this all before your country had a CG of your own. Back then, we did the Search & Rescue, International Ice Patrol off of Newfoundland, Labrador and Greenland and of course the Grand Banks.

Nice looking aircraft . . .

Cheers!

 

[railiner]

St. Pierre is a Territory of France and the flight over the Atlantic (actually part of the Gulf of St Lawrence/Cabot Strait) to Sydney, Nova Scotia took just 44 minutes......

St. Pierre is 12 miles from Newfoundland. The citizens are French, the currency used is the Euro and the Wine.....Excellent!

And they drive Citroen's, Renault's, and Peugeot's.....

 

[ehbowen]

This ISN'T me, but this is the airplane which I learned to fly in...including solo and checkride. (No gyros [except TC]...needle, ball, & airspeed under the hood!)

Edit To Add: Oh, by the way...I was flying out of William P. Hobby airport! (Class B TCA primary!)



Some time let me tell you about my solo cross-country...

 

[Bob Dylan]

This ISN'T me, but this is the airplane which I learned to fly in...including solo and checkride. (No gyros [except TC]...needle, ball, & airspeed under the hood!)

Edit To Add: Oh, by the way...I was flying out of William P. Hobby airport! (Class B TCA primary!)

View attachment 18246

Some time let me tell you about my solo cross-country...

Most of us have some pretty good Hangar Stories about our Solo Cross Country Trips, some are even True!

 

[Asher]

Y'all wearing a nice shirt when you soloed that Citrabia

 

[ehbowen]

Y'all wearing a nice shirt when you soloed that Citrabia

Again, that's not my photo; I didn't want to break your monitor. (And I don't have any photos of my flying days, unfortunately.) Actually I brought along an extra T-shirt the day I soloed, thinking that my instructor might want to do the 'clipping' thing, but he was too busy that day. Oh, well.

I had two excellent instructors, both older gentlemen. Bob McDaniel, an Air Force Wild Weasel pilot, took me from first lesson through my solo in the Decathlon. Then he found an opening as a charter jet pilot; his plan from the beginning was to move me into a Cessna 172 for the second half of my instruction when I had to learn basic instrument maneuvers. Jon Disler, a superbly experienced instructor whose day job was working for NASA, took me up under the hood in that Skyhawk in actual IMC (just barely...light clouds/rain). When I didn't panic and kept full control of the airplane even when he partial-paneled me, he said, "You know, I think you really could finish this up in that Decathlon." And I did. He also taught me basic aerobatics after exacting a promise, which I kept, not to practice them solo until I had my private ticket in hand.

I was a student at Fletcher Aviation at Hobby; my checkride was administered by WWII flight instructor Maybelle Fletcher. I had a nervous moment when she wanted me to do a full power-on stall; in a Decathlon that's basically an aerobatic maneuver and you're hanging on the prop. Sure enough, it snapped. I caught it in a quarter-turn; she said, "WHAT was THAT?" But she was impressed that I caught it so quickly; she had me repeat the maneuver with a little less power and I had no problem with that. That was my only glitch, she signed my ticket as soon as we landed back at Hobby.

Did I mention that my final checkride prep dual lesson the night before finished up with spins and recovery, under the hood, at night?

 

[user 1215]

Trying to get back into flying after 20 years. Getting a second class medical next week. My body sure has changed in the last two decades! I keep my CFI current but it'll take a bit to get back into being VFR/IFR confident.

For thread continuity, I have a few hours in a Citabria. Great plane! Never got my tail wheel endorsement though. Finiky they are!

 

[Asher]

Again, that's not my photo; I didn't want to break your monitor. (And I don't have any photos of my flying days, unfortunately.) Actually I brought along an extra T-shirt the day I soloed, thinking that my instructor might want to do the 'clipping' thing, but he was too busy that day. Oh, well.

I had two excellent instructors, both older gentlemen. Bob McDaniel, an Air Force Wild Weasel pilot, took me from first lesson through my solo in the Decathlon. Then he found an opening as a charter jet pilot; his plan from the beginning was to move me into a Cessna 172 for the second half of my instruction when I had to learn basic instrument maneuvers. Jon Disler, a superbly experienced instructor whose day job was working for NASA, took me up under the hood in that Skyhawk in actual IMC (just barely...light clouds/rain). When I didn't panic and kept full control of the airplane even when he partial-paneled me, he said, "You know, I think you really could finish this up in that Decathlon." And I did. He also taught me basic aerobatics after exacting a promise, which I kept, not to practice them solo until I had my private ticket in hand.

I was a student at Fletcher Aviation at Hobby; my checkride was administered by WWII flight instructor Maybelle Fletcher. I had a nervous moment when she wanted me to do a full power-on stall; in a Decathlon that's basically an aerobatic maneuver and you're hanging on the prop. Sure enough, it snapped. I caught it in a quarter-turn; she said, "WHAT was THAT?" But she was impressed that I caught it so quickly; she had me repeat the maneuver with a little less power and I had no problem with that. That was my only glitch, she signed my ticket as soon as we landed back at Hobby.

Did I mention that my final checkride prep dual lesson the night before finished up with spins and recovery, under the hood, at night?

Congratulations on your accomplishment. I've spent a lot of time looking out the front window of small planes, very little from the left side though. My twin is a flight instructor, so I've had the opportunity, but never the desire. You will have to post your first cross country flight. It's a true experience.

 

[basketmaker]

Rode many a mile in that type of Plane! Called them TTA, Tree Top Airlines!

There was a "TTA" Trans-Texas Airways years ago. One of their DC-3's (N18121) still flies today at 83 years old. She flew from Albany, OR to France for the D-Day Memorial a couple of years. I've had the honor of being a flight attendant on her back in the 70's.

 

[B757Guy]

Some cool stories here! Thanks for sharing. I still recall the first day I flew the T-37 in the Air Force. My instructor was teaching me spins. He could spin the T-37, call a heading, and roll right out onto it. I on the other hand, was simply trying to remember if I leveled the wings first, or used opposite rudder, while trying not to puke!

 

[PVD]

Sort of funny how the bug bites some and stays for life, but some folks turn blasé. I have a friend who flew F-9s in a ground support role in Korea, but never flew again after the war...

 

[NS VIA Fan]

Here's some shots flying on a Twin Otter into Natuashish, Labrador for work (I posted a few shots previously from another Twin Otter flight)





Now heading home after a week in the Indigenous Community:





On the way back.....we stopped in Nain. A busy little airport with 3 flights from 2 airlines in at the same time (and I just walked around the ramp as we refueled)





.....then we continue on to Goose Bay.





There is no CATSA (TSA type) security on these small regional aircraft......but once back in Goose Bay there's full clearance required for the Air Canada Express CRJ over to Halifax.