Who here fly 1:1 scale?

Anything you like!
Stew
Posts: 495
Joined: 02 Mar 2018, 10:21
Location: Staindrop, Darlington.

Re: Who here fly 1:1 scale?

Post by Stew »

That's amazing Paul. What an experience, you must have quite a few anecdotes from flying all those different types. What a great career.
My only experience of the pointy end of a jet was getting a sit in the cockpit of a United 777 after flying from Heathrow to Chicago. (I was in my twenties lol). The captain stayed back and we chatted for ages. I was on my way to Florida to do some hour building.
My first though was what an utter tip!, I guess two or three chaps in a small space for hours on end must generate some rubbish! Second thought as I sat in FO seat was that the yoke was a lot smaller than I had imagined. I suppose because it's not connected to anything other than a bunch of wires. It felt like a simulator control really. Other than that, very impressive...and very brown....why on earth do Boeing insist on brown and beige for cockpit trim!
Modern airliners never seem to look like they have enough space to carry the amount of fuel those two huge engines need. I know they can cover vast distances, but it always looks like there'd never be enough fuel. Does that sound daft?
All my ATPL ground instructors were ex RAF, and they taught me the basic theory well enough to get high exam scores, but (happily I guess) there's still an element of childlike wonder when I look at these amazing machines.
Tobe
Posts: 665
Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 06:19
Location: Varberg or Stockholm, Sweden

Re: Who here fly 1:1 scale?

Post by Tobe »

Just a few reflections from my time when I was payed to fly.
First I have to second Paul, when you are trained in a proper environment and for me it was the in the service and in the airline every step in your training is extremely oriented toward the final product so when after ground school, simulator you are in the real thing you just feel it "almost as normal"...but you still make your first landing in the airplane with the cabine full of passengers!
We were not trained to be the best pilot in the world but trained to belong to the team of the best pilot in the world at least in the airline.
I have said it before and stand on it that I have enjoyed every moment of flying but also flying becomes like any other work where you have good and bad days. When I started in the 80' there was still some glamour and you had time to enjoy the life as I flew around 400 hrs/year but as time passed by and they asked you to fly 1000-1400 hrs a year, turn around a 737 in less than 30 min. which gave you barely the time to go to the loo and you left the Safety Belt sign off during embarcation as they were refueling the airplane at the same time...
In my life I have considered myself lucky having a "second" trade as engineer which gave me at my option bread & butter outside the flying industry.
Cheers,

Tobe
User avatar
_AL_
Posts: 160
Joined: 17 Feb 2018, 01:09
Location: Sydney Australia

Re: Who here fly 1:1 scale?

Post by _AL_ »

My plan in school was to join the Airforce. Obsessed after seeing the RAAF Mirage 3s blast up the coast not far off the water as a kid. My grades for Math & Science were good but English (literary) ability was sub par thanks to undiagnosed ADHD.
Unable to get in I took on a trade & started down the private license path until I realised the return on investment was obscenely low with wages for commercial pilots close to minimum wage despite the massive cost of obtaining a commercial license.

In the mean time I managed to get a fair amount of time in 2 seat single engine aircraft & sailplanes.
Sailplanes is my thing but unfortunately mortgage & kids got in the way so now days it's just toy gliders instead.
Attachments
img20200607_14203350.jpg
img20200607_14242062.jpg
img20200607_14215409 cropped.jpg
Pchristy
Posts: 413
Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 13:57
Location: South Devon, UK

Re: Who here fly 1:1 scale?

Post by Pchristy »

Found this old picture of a very young me with one of the aforementioned Piper Colts at Lulsgate - c.1966/7!

Image1966.PiperColt_Peter_1 by Peter Christy, on Flickr

I have to say, I really loved flying the Colt - it was just like a full-sized Super 60! Back in those days, we still had to do spin recovery training. The Colts weren't cleared for spinning, so the club kept an Auster for that. Before I'd got to that stage, they sold the Auster and replaced it with a Cessna 150. I never felt comfortable in the Cessna, which felt very delicate compared to the Piper!

Strangely, a few decades later, our model club invited a well known aerobatic pilot (Brian Lecomber) to give us a talk on full-size aviation. I recall asking him about the worst aircraft he'd ever flown, and he went into a long and hilarious tale about a replica Sopwith Pup someone had built around an original rotary engine, which he was charged with test flying. At the end of this tale, he concluded that despite all that, he still regarded the Cessna 150 as the worst aircraft he'd ever flown...! :lol:

--
Pete
Stew
Posts: 495
Joined: 02 Mar 2018, 10:21
Location: Staindrop, Darlington.

Re: Who here fly 1:1 scale?

Post by Stew »

The C150 is an aeroplane for car drivers. I think they even may have marketed it as such. I trained and later instructed in a Piper Tomahawk, and it was so much better. I flew a 150 in Florida and didn't care for it at all. Each to their own though. It does a job, just not with a great deal of style.
Spinning was, and probably still is a part of the instructor course, though sadly not the PPL, although i think it used to be. A Tomahawk will spin and revover very nicely with the right inputs, although I don't care at all for the sensations... My instructor was ex RAF, so spin we did, until he was blimmin good and satisfied. I did not feel well at all after that session. After half an hour I felt like crying, and by the end I'd have happily jumped out to make it stop. I bit my lip though and managed to spin and recover enough to satisfy the requirements of the syllabus..
User avatar
PaulJ
Posts: 598
Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 19:01
Location: Ipswich, UK

Re: Who here fly 1:1 scale?

Post by PaulJ »

And talking of spinning........ I well remember (How could I ever forget!) spinning a Tristar. I was demonstrating a Barrel Roll, starting at 5000ft. Maybe we weren't quite fast enough or maybe I pulled a bit too hard as we went over the top but the result was that it flicked and went into a spin. Having been trained in the days when you were taught how to do spin recovery, I stuck with it, stopped it spinning and pulled gently at first but then a lot harder and we pulled out at 50ft!!!
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
Luckily it was only a simulator ;)

The simulators were wonderful machines and as long as you weren't being checked they could be great fun. :P

Paul
Stew
Posts: 495
Joined: 02 Mar 2018, 10:21
Location: Staindrop, Darlington.

Re: Who here fly 1:1 scale?

Post by Stew »

Paul, I was getting worried there!

My first flight on a jet was a Tri-Star. Heathrow to JFK with TWA. no seatback entertainment then. 1 movie. 'Splash' if I recall correctly!
Spike S
Posts: 181
Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 14:59
Location: Salisbury UK

Re: Who here fly 1:1 scale?

Post by Spike S »

Notwithstanding any false motion cues, disorientation in a sim can be quite disturbing.
I remember being able to hover taxy one particular sim across dispersal to hover outside the simulated sim building and then able to look through the window to see yourself in the sim ! That's the closest I wish to approach any 'out-of-body' experience. Flying through a hangar was too easy but it did raise the old Aviation Acronym of "You can only ever hope to achieve a tie for the lowest beat up"
Spike S
(Tune for maximum smoke)
Stew
Posts: 495
Joined: 02 Mar 2018, 10:21
Location: Staindrop, Darlington.

Re: Who here fly 1:1 scale?

Post by Stew »

Just heard Carolyn Grace has died. Car crash.
RIP a very talented and dedicated pilot.
Tragic to go the same way as her husband.
User avatar
Shaun
Posts: 1048
Joined: 15 Feb 2018, 21:49
Location: West Yorkshire

Re: Who here fly 1:1 scale?

Post by Shaun »

Used to do lots of gliding.

Blanik, Grob, ASW17, a good old SG38 (Grasshopper in the UK ) towed around the peri track by a Landover when the cloud base was too low to fly and a mates Fourier RF5.

Gliding was cracking fun especially when you got in the wave rotor. You could be up for hours.

Shaun.
Last edited by Shaun on 09 Dec 2022, 08:45, edited 2 times in total.
Post Reply