My Sunday ride (3 wheels but also 2 wings)

GSXRMovistar

GSXRMovistar

GSXRMovistar

Soldato
Joined
6 Nov 2002
Posts
9,879
Location
London UK
Thought this would be more appropriate/appreciated in here rather than GD. On Sunday a friend took two of us up in a PIPER PA-28-180, tiny little thing that being made in 1974 made it two years older than all those on board.

Enjoyable trip; flew out of Southend airport, west towards Dartford then down into Kent heading east over Canterbury before heading back. Flight itself was quite entertaining as it was fairly windy making it a rather bumpy ride at times, plus the tight turns made you feel like you were on a rollacoster.

During takeoff you get a slight sense of speed by as soon as you are up in the air (travelling at around 2300ft) it feels like you are crawling along even though you are flying at 100mph. But at one point we ended up in the middle of three circling gliders where all of a sudden the sense of speed and closeness seemed a lot more apparent. :p

Not sure if I would opt for flying over bikes and cars but it was lots of fun none the less and enjoyable to try out another form of motoring (albeit as a passenger rather than pilot).

A few pics of the beast and flight:-

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Sin_Chase said:
Great pics :)

I love being in the air in small aircraft, wonderful sensation.
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Cheers, yes very odd sensation especially when it's your mate who's normally a drunken beer monster in control. :eek:

gurdas said:
Awesome photos, what camera and lenses were you using?
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Nothing too fancy, Canon 400d and a Sigma 10-20mm. Still trying to justify the purchase of a 5DII. :p
 
Yeah it was really cool being able to recognise everything we flew over, went over my house but didn't think to take a pic (Doh!).

Does your Dad work at Brands or just really close?
 
He's an instructor, does rally and circuit and track day tuition privately, among other things. He fits kitchens half the time though, money's better. It's a fine balance for him between paying bills and keeping his sanity by doing something he actually likes :D
 
PardonTheWait said:
He's an instructor, does rally and circuit and track day tuition privately, among other things. He fits kitchens half the time though, money's better. It's a fine balance for him between paying bills and keeping his sanity by doing something he actually likes :D
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Sounds like he has it all sorted so very jealous here. Even the kitchen fitting sounds more fun than my job. :p
 
Glad to hear you had a nice time, always good to see people experiencing aviation for the first time. Its even more fun when its you actually flying the plane! So don't compare it to riding till you have a proper go! Maybe think about going up for a trial lesson? Gliding is also great fun to try as well and generally quite abit cheaper to learn the powered flying.
 
Looks like you had a great day. I remember the first time I went flying, and the pilot tried to fly over where I lived. I had no idea where we were so just pointed out the house with the largest swimming pool and claimed it was mine :p It was great when the pilot was like "so do you want a go at flying?" and handed control over :D I agree with Blinkz, gliding is great fun too, although that's mostly down to the launches IMO! but I much prefer powered flight.

Makes me want to get back in the air again, that was 6 years ago now :eek:
 
I did that exact same route out of southend a few years ago, awesome experience :)

Those little planes bob up and down a bit though, my tum wasn't happy at the time hehe.
 
Sin_Chase said:
Great pics :)

I love being in the air in small aircraft, wonderful sensation.
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Ditto, but I get this urge to jump out... then again I get an urge to jump out of most planes and helicopters I go in :o

I was going for my PPL and got over 45hrs clocked to it, but had a huge amount of personal problems at the time and lost complete motivation and money for it. :( Really would love to get back into flying though.

And what fantastic way to spend a day! :)
 
Freefaller said:
Ditto, but I get this urge to jump out... then again I get an urge to jump out of most planes and helicopters I go in :o

I was going for my PPL and got over 45hrs clocked to it, but had a huge amount of personal problems at the time and lost complete motivation and money for it. :( Really would love to get back into flying though.

And what fantastic way to spend a day! :)
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You know all of those hours are still valid towards your PPL. All you would need to do was get back up to speed with the syllabus, pass some ground exams and (assuming you have the right mix of hours) you'll be able to take your PPL skills test. Its not like you have to redo everything ;)
 
Interesting... very interesting. Can't quite afford it at the moment (I've saved up for laser eye surgery) but that might be an option to look into in a few years. Hmm I wonder if I can still find my log book!
 
I too have ventured down the PPL route with around 10 hours on 152/172's but have not really found the time to focus and get it sorted. Fantastic feeling to be up there in control, nothing like it really.
 
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