Learning To Fly: The Tech Guy – Dr Al
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Note from the Editor:
This article was kindly written for the SDC by member @Doctor Alan.
Motivation to Fly!
To be able to fly is a dream held by many youngsters. Seeing the grace and apparent enjoyment of birds in flight has piqued man's interest since the beginning of time.
I am the ‘middle brother’ and was two years younger than my older brother, John. (Was? – yes, he’s gone now. It happens.) John was able to gain a Private Pilot’s licence, and although he could never afford his own aircraft, having my own aircraft and the qualification to fly were goals that I strove to attain.
I think I got the bug for flying an Ultralight aircraft in NSW, where we lived in Western Sydney. They had what was once termed an ‘Auto-Gyro’ – like a helicopter, but the rotor wasn’t powered. In their case, for training purposes, they would tow this aircraft behind a small car, and trainees would soon get the hang of controlling the height and so on. I understood that after sufficient time, the trainee could then buy or build their own Gyrocopter (which has a motor behind the pilot with a propellor that drives the unit forward – the airflow rotates the slightly angled large rotor that consequently lifts the unit off the ground) or ‘Trike’ (Basically, a hang glider with a motor!) I made an appointment for a try-out, but when I arrived, they were busy picking bits of the aircraft out of the bushes. It had crashed!
When we lived in Western Australia, I found that there was an Ultralight Flying Club that used a small runway in Bindoon, not far from where we lived in Gingin, so I made myself known there. I joined the Club (The Superlight Aircraft Club of WA – SLACWA) and found that somebody was selling an Ultralight called a ‘Thruster’.
Of course, I needed somewhere to keep it, and luckily, I found that I could rent a hanger there for $24 a week from a bloke who was a qualified flying instructor. Lessons would cost me $130 an hour in the air, plus extra time spent on flying theory.
The aircraft cost me $3000 – I found out later that it was way overpriced, but I had ‘stars in my eyes’, I reckon. It was in pieces when he gave it to me, but all the parts seemed to be there. It couldn’t be flown before the engine had had a complete overhaul, so the bloke said. I was more interested in learning to fly at that stage – maintenance could come later before I went ‘solo’.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque in diam id erat facilisis consectetur vitae vel urna.
Ut lacus libero, suscipit auctor ipsum sit amet, viverra pretium nisl. Nullam facilisis nec odio nec dapibus. Integer maximus risus et velit porttitor ullamcorper
This article was kindly written for the SDC by member @Doctor Alan.
Motivation to Fly!
To be able to fly is a dream held by many youngsters. Seeing the grace and apparent enjoyment of birds in flight has piqued man's interest since the beginning of time.
I am the ‘middle brother’ and was two years younger than my older brother, John. (Was? – yes, he’s gone now. It happens.) John was able to gain a Private Pilot’s licence, and although he could never afford his own aircraft, having my own aircraft and the qualification to fly were goals that I strove to attain.
I think I got the bug for flying an Ultralight aircraft in NSW, where we lived in Western Sydney. They had what was once termed an ‘Auto-Gyro’ – like a helicopter, but the rotor wasn’t powered. In their case, for training purposes, they would tow this aircraft behind a small car, and trainees would soon get the hang of controlling the height and so on. I understood that after sufficient time, the trainee could then buy or build their own Gyrocopter (which has a motor behind the pilot with a propellor that drives the unit forward – the airflow rotates the slightly angled large rotor that consequently lifts the unit off the ground) or ‘Trike’ (Basically, a hang glider with a motor!) I made an appointment for a try-out, but when I arrived, they were busy picking bits of the aircraft out of the bushes. It had crashed!
Generic Ultralight autogyro (N41XG). Image Credit: FlightAware
‘Trike’ Ultralight. Image Credit: AirBorne Australia
When we lived in Western Australia, I found that there was an Ultralight Flying Club that used a small runway in Bindoon, not far from where we lived in Gingin, so I made myself known there. I joined the Club (The Superlight Aircraft Club of WA – SLACWA) and found that somebody was selling an Ultralight called a ‘Thruster’.
Of course, I needed somewhere to keep it, and luckily, I found that I could rent a hanger there for $24 a week from a bloke who was a qualified flying instructor. Lessons would cost me $130 an hour in the air, plus extra time spent on flying theory.
The aircraft cost me $3000 – I found out later that it was way overpriced, but I had ‘stars in my eyes’, I reckon. It was in pieces when he gave it to me, but all the parts seemed to be there. It couldn’t be flown before the engine had had a complete overhaul, so the bloke said. I was more interested in learning to fly at that stage – maintenance could come later before I went ‘solo’.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque in diam id erat facilisis consectetur vitae vel urna.
Ut lacus libero, suscipit auctor ipsum sit amet, viverra pretium nisl. Nullam facilisis nec odio nec dapibus. Integer maximus risus et velit porttitor ullamcorper
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