Enough politics. Let's talk flying.
Gas, undercarriage, mixture, prop. Basic verbal checklist pilots learn. Recently had a ride in a C 210, right seat, keep mouth shut kind of ride. Did speak up about twenty seconds from touchdown. Asked the question, "When do you put your gear down"?
"Oh Shit," as he executed a go around.
Back in the college days, our flying club was sponsoring a pancake breakfast fly in that included a spot landing contest. The winner was the owner of a pristine Navion who landed gear up. His prop strike was just inches from the spot line. Strangely, he didn't want his trophy.
One volunteer (non pilot type) wheeled his pickup out to the Navion and proceeded to wrap a long chain around the tail. Was rather offended when his help was rejected.
Only had one ride in a Navion, Greeley, CO to Logan, UT. Liked the plane. A&Ps loved them even more. High maintenance.
4 comments:
Sad to see nice planes get crunched. Almost bought a Navion once. There was one abandoned at an airfield near where I learned to fly. Could have got it cheap by the A&P where I trained talked me out of it since it had no logbooks and it's history was a mystery. Add the fact that it had been sitting for a couple of years and it was more of a project than I needed.
@ Murphy. Airplane lust is terrible. Once bought a Beech D-17 Staggerwing with hail ruined fabric and glass. By the greatest good fortune, a bigger fool offered me a tidy profit. Hated to sell it but knew it was a bigger money pit than I could handle. Maybe my best aviation related decision.
Ah yes, Navions ARE money pits... A&P I knew in Baton Rouge kept his family fed off two Navions at Downtown airport... :-) One of them still had bullet hole patches from Korea in the wings and fuselage.
@ NFO. My understanding is North American drew extensively from their P-51 experience. Guess they didn't factor civilian owners lack of maintenance squadrons. Just saying.
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