Flying in small aircraft.

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Today I had the chance to fly in a private little plane from Martha's Vineyard to Provincetown. There was not a cloud in the sky. We went to visit WOMR, the community radio station there, with a group of volunteers from MV community radio. One of our volunteers is a pilot. It was such a lovely experience. On the way home, the sun was a big fat ball going down over the landscape. Such a beautiful day.

Do any of you have a pilot's license or friends who do? Do you fear flying or love it? (I also was a little afraid, but it was so nice. I'm glad the weather was fine.)

― Maria :D (Maria D.), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 03:23 (nineteen years ago)

Pilot's speak a different language. On the way back, I rode shotgun and had headphones on and listened in to the chatter from the control tower. They often said "touch and go". I meant to ask what that means in Pilot.

― Maria :D (Maria D.), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 03:25 (nineteen years ago)

I love small planes. My 75 year-old aunt and uncle both have pilot's licenses; they live in northwestern Ontario where bush-pilots are relatively common.

My uncle recently crashed his sea-plane into a lake. It flipped over so that the pontoons (the floats where wheels would be on a land-plane) were the only things visible from above. He was standing on one of the pontoons using his single oar he kept on the plane for emergencies to paddle to shore but was rescued by a pilot friend of his who spotted what appeared to be a person standing up in a kayak paddling with one canoe oar and buzzed down for a closer look.

― Thea (Thea), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 03:38 (nineteen years ago)

I flew in a helicopter over the Finnish coast about a year ago. Pretty fun, but by the end of the ~2 hour flight I was ready for Terra Firma. I'm at the far right. "Touch and go" is when you touch down on a runway and take off immediately, it's for practicing landings.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/nickn/FFGFinlandCrewHVIx.jpg

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 07:43 (nineteen years ago)

Is dude on the left wearing his jacket inside out?
No reflective shoulders + zipper goes \ instead of /

― StanM (StanM), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 08:20 (nineteen years ago)

Just noticed that, I think they are all zippered straight down the front (|, no jaunty angle), it was just that we had just put them on and hadn't straightened them out yet. Mine looks pretty centered. As for the reflection, maybe he was angled too much away from the flash, so they weren't highlighted.

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 08:24 (nineteen years ago)

Doesn't matter though. You survived. :-)

― StanM (StanM), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 08:26 (nineteen years ago)

I've never been in any sort of plane, but I've flown in a Coastguard helicopter a couple of times. It's great fun.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 09:29 (nineteen years ago)

I must scan in my pictures of flying in helicopters and small plains across the himalayas and through the deserts of Kazahkstan

― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 11:01 (nineteen years ago)

Have been in one 3 times and each time i had to jump out.

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 15:52 (nineteen years ago)

Way back when, when I was in junior high school (so, like, 25 years, OMG), my mother dated a guy who had a small plane and a pilot's license. He used to take me up every weekend, and he'd let me fly a little bit once we were in the air. Nothing major, just level flight and doing a few turns over Lake Erie, things like that, but I loved the hell out of it.

I've been on one helicopter flight, in Australia, over Ayers Rock and the Olgas. It was very unnerving.

― phil d. (Phil D.), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 16:01 (nineteen years ago)

I've ridden the commercial puddle-jumpers between Little Rock and Houston and hated it with an intense passion.

In college, one of my roommates was took the first flight out of our small town airport to the big city, 120 miles away. He boarded the plane and discovered that he was the only passneger for the flight. He said that the co-pilot came out to the cabin, sat down, and quietly said, "It's federal law that I do this, okay?" and then softly muttered the whole how-to-fasten-your-seatbelt and where-the-exit-bays-are speech to my roommate as my roommate closed his eyes to steal a few winks.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 17:01 (nineteen years ago)

Pleasant, LIT-IAH are regional jets, at least these days. Still plenty of props in commercial service. The Beechcrafts that Continental flies around here don't have restrooms, so make sure that you go before boarding.

― Jeff Wright (JeffW1858), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 17:35 (nineteen years ago)

i flew on a plane from washington DC to knoxville once and it wasn't like SMALL small but maybe 30 seats? anyway for some reason there were some vacant seats somewhere near the back and some people had to volunteer to move seats SO THAT WE HAVE A BALANCED LOAD

WTF what would happen if people move seats mid flight will that make the plane spin out of control!??!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 17:49 (nineteen years ago)

or maybe they just had to ask people to volunteer because we were heading for the VOLUNTEER STATE.

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 17:50 (nineteen years ago)

I guess ultimately you could actually steer a plane by making the passengers move from side to side, if the hydraulics in the steering system failed.

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

however, you would assume that a normal functioning plane would be able to fly straight even if there are 5 more people sitting at the front than the back, or left than right??????

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

You want a balanced load for take off and landing generally. Once the plane is airborne it's not of an issue.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

errrr - not much of an issue.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

Small planes are great! but the odds of something bad happening are worse than big planes, obv. I never used to think about that and have been up in 4 seaters (float and not) and a couple other smaller planes, but then this Christmas I took a cessn@ c@ravan (single engine, pretty old) over from Vanc0uver to Nanaim0 - we were supposed to go T0fin0, but the winds were crazy, so the pilot, after much deliberation with the company and passengers, decided to just fly it over to Nanaim0 (all flown over water) where we'd then be driven the rest of the way. That flight = THE 15 MOST FRIGHTENING MINUTES OF MY LIFE SO FAR. So much so that it felt like a kind of bonding experience with the pilot and the other 6 passengers (two of whom were parents with a new baby.) Afterwards, we asked the pilot, a young, affable guy, if that kind of turbulence was normal and he just held his mouth tight and shook his head No.

We took (non-flash) photos (kind of random b/c of all the bumping around) and my brother read the horoscope out loud (haha) to get our minds off the sudden drops and extreme side-to-side turning. Didn't really work...

wing + view, near end of flight:
http://static.flickr.com/41/102679761_bcbe549051_o.jpg

my bro and I, scared:
http://static.flickr.com/34/102679762_5f2cab01dc_o.jpg

prettiness of water/mountains belies wind velocity/power, my slight smile belies fear level:
http://static.flickr.com/33/102679759_613124adbe_o.jpg

On the way back, I decided to get a ride and the ferry...

And then, less than a month later, that same plane crashed. The pilot, the same guy who flew us, did the right thing to save as many people as possible. But mygod, this still makes me shiver. Very, very, sad. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/01/21/1405280-cp.html

I still think small planes are really great and fun though. In the right conditions. Which isn't flying over an island in winter.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:39 (nineteen years ago)

I've been 'load-balanced' on 50-seat regional jets before, so it's not just props that are affected.

― Jeff Wright (JeffW1858), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 20:25 (nineteen years ago)

Smallest plane I've been (a few times each year until recently) on is a Shorts 360 which is one of these:

http://www.shanaberger.com/airlines/skyway_short360.jpg

and I really like them, except in really high crosswinds when you get buffeted a lot. I've never been in a private small plane, but I think I'd be OK with it.

I've been asked to move seats on a 737 due to balance. It's not even restricted to small planes.

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 20:35 (nineteen years ago)

i think "touch-and-go" means to touch down on a runway as if landing, then taking back off again. my brother used to have a pilot's license, and the one time i went flying with him (in a single prop) he did this at a small airport in southern indiana.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

The one I flew in yesterday was a four-seater. Snug. I would think a plane would have a rear-view mirror, but this one didn't. It was too loud for us to be able to converse. I was surprised at being able to see the bottom of the ocean where the water was fairly shallow. From the air, the tip of Cape Cod looks really cool, like Spiral Jetty.

― Maria :D (Maria D.), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 22:57 (nineteen years ago)

I would think a plane would have a rear-view mirror, but this one didn't.

Those only come in handy during a dogfight.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:15 (nineteen years ago)

rrrobyn that sounds awful. The worst sustained turbulence I ever experienced was in a prop plane (Saab, Embraer, Brasilia, I can't remember which) trying to land at DFW during a thunderstorm. The view out the window was nothing but roiling gray cloud, and it took almost an hour to land from the time we reached a holding pattern (the flight time itself was only supposed to be an hour). The pilot kept trying and failing to approach. I was reading a book about the history of footnotes, just trying to focus on one word after another to take my mind off things, and I don't remember any of what I read. I hate flying in propeller planes, and they are the only way to visit my aged grandmother.

The smallest plane I ever flew in had about 9 seats, and was sort of perched up on its front two wheels. It took me from Albany to Toronto with nary a quiver.

Maria, it does look awesome! I always enjoy the view flying into Boston on a clear day and seeing the tip of the Cape.

I've never been on a helicopter. Someone told me recently about a guy who threw up so much while on a helicopter ride that he dislocated his jaw.

― sgs (sgs), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:29 (nineteen years ago)

I too have never been on a helicopter. I met someone in Vancouver who was at a summer bbq and they needed ice for their gin and tonics so they got into the host's little sea-plane parked on the water (somewhere near Burnaby, I think) and flew up into the mountains to a lake beside glacier. Chipped off some million-year-old-ice into a bucket and flew back down to join the party.

So yeah - who needs a freezer when you have a small aircraft handy? Obv the guy was showing off but it's a good "little plane" story, I guess.

― Thea (Thea), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 23:50 (nineteen years ago)

I took only one photo but managed to get our house:

http://dutchtoenglish.com/feb2006.JPG

― Maria :D (Maria D.), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 14:58 (nineteen years ago)

The plane I flew in is the same exact one that is in Willy M.'s Oxygen video.
http://www.contactmusic.com/new/home.nsf/webpages/willymasonx20x01x05

― Maria :D (Maria D.), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 19:34 (nineteen years ago)

the smallest I've flown in was a prop plane from major city to Durango, CO. I'm scared of anything sub-737/DC-10. apparently, my sister got to try flying her (now-ex) boyfriend's Cessna in the Cascades some time back.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 19:43 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

I AM FLYING A SMALL AIRCRAFT TODAY!!

No seriously, in a few hours my thesis advisor, who used to fly planes for the Navy way back in the day, is going to let me take the controls of a little 2-seater we're renting for an hour. I'm assuming he'll take off and land let me do the in between stuff. In other words, citizens of Ithaca, take cover, because I'll be flying over your houses today!

― ZS1983 (Z S), Saturday, 11 April 2009 19:05 (sixteen years ago)

One of the most dangerous things you can do. Flying in a small plane, that is. When they crash, few participants ever survive to tell about it. But it hooks people because it is such a visceral and amazing experience.

― Aimless, Saturday, 11 April 2009 19:10 (sixteen years ago)

btw, good luck and happy times

― Aimless, Saturday, 11 April 2009 19:11 (sixteen years ago)

More dangerous than riding in a car, with 40K+ fatalities a year in the U.S?

(that's a genuine question, because I realize that the number of people riding in a car each day is far greater than the number of people flying in a small aircraft.)

― ZS1983 (Z S), Saturday, 11 April 2009 19:18 (sixteen years ago)

Any time you are inside a small object travelling at high speeds you are at high risk. In this case there are not many other vehicles to collide with, so most collisions are with the earth, a rather large, unyeilding object.

Pilots of small aircraft probably can tell you the relevant stats. If the stats favor small aircraft in any way, they would cling to this fact for justification. If not, they would shrug it off as a side issue.

― Aimless, Saturday, 11 April 2009 19:27 (sixteen years ago)

nine years pass...

Future is here 😍 pic.twitter.com/P6g3rM4dhH
— Physics & Astronomy Zone (@ZonePhysics) October 15, 2018

― calzino, Monday, 15 October 2018 09:10 (seven years ago)

i know this was a conversation nine years ago but i’m pretty sure the stats favor small aircraft, at least going off of my dad who flies them

― princess of hell (BradNelson), Monday, 15 October 2018 10:22 (seven years ago)

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