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Pilot license?

roguehillbilly

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Risk in terms of what?

Safety? Smaller planes are most certainly riskier than commercial flight.

I've heard most accidents are due to pilot mistakes, rather than equipment failures.

There is a definite risk to doing it, but there's also a risk to living a life where you never pursue something you're passionate about and regretting it later.
 

Kak

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@GIlman

I have considered this! I was on top of it for a little while and then I got my medical... I am colorblind, so I can’t fly at night. To me that is severely limiting.

Also, I wanted a plane with some real long range business travel capability. The likelihood of a new pilot being able to insure such a plane is low. All of this adds up to me just waiting until I can charter regularly, eventually buy something super capable, and hiring a pilot to fly it. I will still sit right seat sometimes because it is just downright fun to fly an airplane.

On the other hand... I am interested in VFR flying in a helicopter and might actually complete that training depending on where I am living in the coming years.
 
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ljean

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I just wonder if its foolish to fly in small 2-4 seater single-engine planes as a hobby when I have a young family to consider.
 

Kak

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I just wonder if its foolish to fly in small 2-4 seater single-engine planes as a hobby when I have a young family to consider.

I think it is a relatively safe hobby, but obviously accidents happen.

So I did have a lobbyist that had a pilot's license. He is lucky to be alive. He owned a Cirrus Sr20 and was flying at night. He had some gusts on landing that kept him from settling in... Once he had no more room to land, he went full throttle to circle... I think the drag from the flaps kept him screwed. As he hit the tops of the pine trees he pulled his full plane parachute as a last-ditch effort and the plane crashed, thankfully it did not burn. He needed lots of surgeries and stuff.

This was all before I met him, but he didn't fly anymore after that.

All of this said, airplanes also get safer as they get larger and more capable. Flying IFR in a turbine airplane is going to be tremendously safer than flying a piston plane VFR.

Something like a TBM 700 would be a very safe option for instance relative to, say a Bonanza or Mooney.
 

xmartel

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Canada, eh!
I just wonder if its foolish to fly in small 2-4 seater single-engine planes as a hobby when I have a young family to consider.

I have my private license.

It's an amazing thing and is a sense of freedom unlike anything else.

A small plane may be riskier than a commercial flight, but the risk factor is still incredibly low. Lower than driving in a car, and I'm sure you do that every day.

Crashes come down to human error, be a good pilot and make good judgment calls while flying and you'll be fine.
And if you ever encounter a situation where you have a mechanical failure, your plane still has wings. You just glide down and land.
 
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GIlman

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Small planes are about as safe as you are as a pilot. The more risks you take the more likely to have an accident.

Biggest risks:
1) Bad weather
2) Night flying
3) Too much airplane for skills.

I bought a diamond da40, because it is gentle, and hard to stall. They don’t burn when they crash due to engineering, and post crash fire is a major cause of death in survivable crashes.

I religiously avoid bad VFR weather.

I never fly at night. If I was IFR I would fly at night, but vfr night flight is significantly more risky than ifr.
 

c4n

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You have an actual pilot here with over 5000 hours of total commercial time and nobody paid the slightest attention while adventuring random opinions.

That's because everyone knows you guys can't fly a darn thing without an autopilot, and the focus of the topic is a small 2-4 seater/PPL :rofl:
 

Lucky Lu

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That's because everyone knows you guys can't fly a darn thing without an autopilot, and the focus of the topic is a small 2-4 seater/PPL :rofl:
 
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Lucky Lu

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I always drink from the knowledge of others in this forum and I appreciate it all the time.

I was excited about the first time I could be of help and teach something from a topic that I actually know more than 99% of the people, other than trademarks and peculiar fields of law.

My bad, never trying that again.
 
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c4n

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Dude, pull the something out of your something and relax. You should be able to recognize a joke then.

Air force captain here, teasing civil and helicopter pilots is in my job description ;)
 

Neko

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Dude, pull the something out of your something and relax. You should be able to recognize a joke then.

Air force captain here, teasing civil and helicopter pilots is in my job description ;)

What kind of bird are you flying?
 
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ljean

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I always drink from the knowledge of others in this forum and I appreciate it all the time.

I was excited about the first time I could be of help and teach something from a topic that I actually know more than 99% of the people, other than trademarks and peculiar fields of law.

My bad, never trying that again.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER85jJq9wtw
Please feel free to share anything of value. Otherwise GTF out of here.
 

c4n

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@levijean Check out this thread, a bunch of us posted some info there:

@Neko sorry, can't tell, still in active duty on a very specific type. Mostly doing ground attack (Close Air Support). Feel free to find me at the next summit (whenever that may be lol) and I will show you all the HUD videos you want ;)
 

Neko

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@Neko sorry, can't tell, still in active duty on a very specific type. Mostly doing ground attack (Close Air Support). Feel free to find me at the next summit (whenever that may be lol) and I will show you all the HUD videos you want ;)

Ahah no worries. I’ll be looking for you then!

Flying a jet must be an incredible experience.

I was lucky enough to fly as a passenger several times in an SA330 PUMA when I was in the national guard. Including a tactical flight with open doors.
That’s no fighter jet. Still, it’s one of the best experience of my life.

Stay safe out there !
;)
 
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Ing

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Flying is a very dangerous hobby, because You have to go there by car. And look at the Deads in car trafic!
 

ZCP

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i got my private pilot back in the day ..... stopped flying when had kids and the insurance policy clearly said no flying (had to get a policy that would allow it) ....... kids almost gone now. about to start flying again. i'll get my instrument ticket for the whole 'take off in the ground fog' situation and to just be a better pilot.

as @GIlman said ..... the pilot is the key. the planes are pretty robust. we regularly have one land on the interstate / etc. in ATL ...... crashes around here seem to be ifr / night / weather related....
 

Jon L

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I considered getting a license a while ago, but didn't because of cost reasons. While I was looking into it, I read through a bunch of crash reports on the FAA's website. They were pretty instructive. Almost none of them were due to mechanical failure. A few instances from memory:
  • Attempting a takeoff at high altitude, near max-load weight, when the temperature had increased a bunch between landing to refuel and taking off again. (whoops)
  • landing in near-ifr conditions when you are not ifr-rated
  • running out of fuel. (seriously)
  • Flying through bad weather when you have no experience with it

It reminds me of driving a motorcycle. If you're super cautious, you can reduce your overall chance of death to the equivalent of driving a car, but people get lax and start taking risks. Don't do that and you'll be fine.
 
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InspireHD

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If you’re considering it, then the best thing to do is to find your local airport and schedule a Discovery Flight. Buy yourself a log book and log it since it’ll be with a flight instructor. That will be your start. It won’t really be part of your training but it’ll still be time in the bigger scheme of things.

For a private license you will want to consider Part 141 or Part 61. Part 141 is like a structured curriculum. Part 61 is like looking at what you need to do to pass the requirements and getting it done. My advice for a PPL is to go Part 61. You might be able to do a lot of stuff like ground school on your own, which might save on cost. I started 141 and got my ground school done through the training so I had an instructor teaching me.

I got my PPL in something like 66 hours. That is on the high end. Much of that was caused by Part 141 before I switched to 61.

Something else interesting to note. Microsoft is releasing a new flight sim on August 18. It looks pretty incredible. I’m definitely interested. If that is something anyone wants to look into, please mention it before going off and preordering. I’m typing on my phone in the checkout at the grocery store and trying to type this quick while I wait.
 

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