I'm interested in what other pilots started their trainning in, i'd also like to now what you thought of the aircraft

My first was a PA-38 'Piper Tomahawk' a 112 hp two seater

if you goto pictures forum there is a topic on page 2 called pretty interesting theres a pic of it there

Luscombe 8E
Jan. 1958

x

I've never had any formal/official flight lessons, but some of you may remember that I have a friend who is a CFI who took me up about a month ago. It was a Cessna 172

If any one wants to see the Tomahawk that i fly click on the link below

Air Centre Albury


It's interesting seeing that some of you have started out in gliders, that suppriesed me  (don't know why),  the tought that people start in gliders never occured to me.

For those people that have flown in gliders would you reomend it, just for a different expirience.

LOL Hagar...i get the same question asked all the time about my RC sailboat.

"What makes it go?
Well, it's a sailboat.
"I understand that...but, what makes it go?

Couple of times I've had to lift it out of the water to prove there is no prop.

My first training flight was in a Scweizer glider (don't know what model). First powered flying in a T-33. Both cases were informal training in the Air Force.

Powered aircraft - RAF de Havilland Chipmunk (still one of my favourite planes )
Glider - RAF Viking, a terrifying death trap of a thing, and put me off gliding for life. I need a big engine up front, not a manky VW Beetle engine jammed behind me as a launching device, lets just say landing was really exciting as you didn't know if the engine mounting bolts were up to it.... and a 4cyl. engine in the back could ruin your whole day!
Helicopter - Bell Jet Ranger. Love it 8)

Cessna 152, at RAF Manston, although i had a few Chippy and Bulldog flights before then...

Charlie

I'd deffinetly recomend Gliding , engines, who neds em?
I flew the Grob Viking with 662 VGS at RN Condor and loved it (first launch scared the S*** out of me though).

Piper - PA-38 - Tomahawk.

Got my licence on it but still prefer anything else 

Hagar's piccy above is of a Grob Twin Astir I believe.

My first Instructional flight was in one of these.
My thoughts......... If the Instructor has a heart attack or does something really stupid..... I can handle it! Might not be pretty, but I'll walk away!

I had been flying sims for thousands of hours before the first flight.

I shared time in my early training between the Grob (a high performance sailplane) and a Blanik L-13 (lower performance).

I found that by flying both aircraft in my early training (in all weather conditions), gave me a lot of confidence and verified what I had learned on simulators.

This had the side effect of my instructors believing I was over-confident when I actually had the ability.

I went solo after 10 hours of instruction and on reflection, this was only just enough time to be safe.

On my third solo, I was thermalling at cloudbase and realised I didn't know how to read the metric altimeter in the Blanik. I had always flown "seat of the pants" using angles, sound and judgement with occasional reference to the airspeed indicator for verification of launch and landing speeds.

I think soaring in sailplanes is one of the purest forms of flight because you fly an extremely efficient and controllable machine using weather as an energy source. I love it.

Quote:

This shows the difference between now & 40 years ago. In June 1959 when I took my first gliding course on the T.31 it was somewhat different.
Minimum requirement before being allowed solo = 20 launches.
Qualify for A & B civil gliding licence = 3 solo flights.
Total = 23 launches.

I qualified in the minimum time on the second day of the 1 week course. I still have the licence although it is no longer valid. Unfortunately I lost my logbooks some time ago. Remember the average time for each flight was 2 1/2 minutes. 2 1/2 x 23 = 57 1/2 minutes.  

PS. Total cost of the course, including rail warrant & meals was 8 shillings (or 40 pence).

Hagar, I soloed in the L-13 Blanik, flight no. 41, so I guess my flights were about 15 minutes average. This included a few flights of over an hour. And we get about 1800' AGL on the winch launch which gives us a bit of time to find a thermal.

My first lesson was in a Piper Comanche out of Flying Cloud field (KFCM) in Minnesota.  Part of an MAC community of airports including (KMSP), Minneapolis/St. Paul International.  I loved it even though it was a little complex for a training flight, retrac gear and all.  From there I flew a Piper Tomahawk twice, then on to 6 or so flights in a Piper Warrior II.  Other traing I have is one half hour in a tailwheel, Boeing Stearman, 2 summers ago.  Lastly, a few hours in a Beechcraft/Raytheon King Air B200 out of Anoka (KANE).

Mike

The only aircraft I flew in just for fun and could not count any time in is a Cessna Caravan on floats.

Piper Pa-28-150

Well, not quite up to the standard of all you old hands, but I had my TIF today.
I don't think it's supposed to be an official lesson but the instructor will count the hour on my 'card'.

It was in a Beechcraft Skipper but I'm too big for the liitle fella' so (when I pass my medical - fingers crossed) I'll be in a Beechcraft Sundowner. 

This will sound wierd but a King Air B200 with my mom at the age of 11.