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Whats your day job?

Wayne said:
The Cheyenne 400 LS is a good looking bird. I'll admit I had to look it up.
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My buddy decided to jump into aviation a little late in life. It has been interesting to watch his progress. He started off renting planes and about 10 hours in he knew this was a thing for him so he bought an old Money 20C and got his tickets in that plane when possible. I think he flew around 500 hours a year at one point. Luckily he had his own business to help support this. He then worked for a jump school to build time and get paid for it. This lead to a while working charter and then jumped into airline. The Covid period didn't allow him to fly much, but it allowed him a lot of home time with his young family. He is now going off for his captain rating with SkyWest. He still has his business, but it is no longer the primary as the airline gig finally pays the bills.

He likes to call and tell me about the stupid things that happen in charter/airline life and I always would respond with "hashtag Pilot Life". The life of the low hour pilot getting started and building time is not a great experience.

I will say that Skywest has worked out really well for him. He was able to secure SFO as his home base almost right away, so he would spend time at our house, and after maybe 2 months he was able to transfer over to his home airport. This eased the family life greatly. He has been there since. sadly his Mooney now collects dust in a hangar. He should probably sell it, but he is attached to it, and finally has it all upgraded with new interior and new paint, and modern avionics. They are good planes that don't drink the fuel too fast.

P.S. He has an architecture degree, worked that for a while and found it boring. He ended up falling back on one of his other passions, 4x4 adventures and started his business doing custom fabrication where he did many things but primarily competition rock crawlers and was crew chief for the Red Bull team. This changed more into a small manufacturer of jeep parts and this is what his business is today. Currently has a new Bronco on order as he would like to develop some parts for it. He rarely does just one thing, usually has his eye on several things and does them all pretty darn well. He is also in boats, powered and sail.

Sorry, that was sort of off topic, but sort of following a buddies career.
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He can probably sell that Mooney and make out really well as it is a sellers' market now and inventory is low -
 
Wayne said:
The Cheyenne 400 LS is a good looking bird. I'll admit I had to look it up.
1468793-large.jpg


My buddy decided to jump into aviation a little late in life. It has been interesting to watch his progress. He started off renting planes and about 10 hours in he knew this was a thing for him so he bought an old Money 20C and got his tickets in that plane when possible. I think he flew around 500 hours a year at one point. Luckily he had his own business to help support this. He then worked for a jump school to build time and get paid for it. This lead to a while working charter and then jumped into airline. The Covid period didn't allow him to fly much, but it allowed him a lot of home time with his young family. He is now going off for his captain rating with SkyWest. He still has his business, but it is no longer the primary as the airline gig finally pays the bills.

He likes to call and tell me about the stupid things that happen in charter/airline life and I always would respond with "hashtag Pilot Life". The life of the low hour pilot getting started and building time is not a great experience.

I will say that Skywest has worked out really well for him. He was able to secure SFO as his home base almost right away, so he would spend time at our house, and after maybe 2 months he was able to transfer over to his home airport. This eased the family life greatly. He has been there since. sadly his Mooney now collects dust in a hangar. He should probably sell it, but he is attached to it, and finally has it all upgraded with new interior and new paint, and modern avionics. They are good planes that don't drink the fuel too fast.

P.S. He has an architecture degree, worked that for a while and found it boring. He ended up falling back on one of his other passions, 4x4 adventures and started his business doing custom fabrication where he did many things but primarily competition rock crawlers and was crew chief for the Red Bull team. This changed more into a small manufacturer of jeep parts and this is what his business is today. Currently has a new Bronco on order as he would like to develop some parts for it. He rarely does just one thing, usually has his eye on several things and does them all pretty darn well. He is also in boats, powered and sail.

Sorry, that was sort of off topic, but sort of following a buddies career.
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The 400 is a T-Tail the Cheyenne II XL is conventional
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But I doubt it has the performance of the LS400 and a smaller cabin
 
Wayne said:
Raymond you have hit the nail on the head. For most of my life I have wanted to get into full scale aviation, but my life always took me in different directions. For a long time RC was just a stepping stone, or that is what I thought. I have always gotten a lot out of RC, but always had bigger ambitions.

Only recently when I really look at the big picture have I realized that I have never taken the step into full scale because I REALLY enjoy what I get out of RC. I think I have only had this realization in the last 5 years or so. It has been such a core goal of mine that even today I still have desires and dreams, but I have really come to embrace the RC hobby much more. It is my home, it is my constant. Nothing excites me more than this hobby. A new RC project really fills my brain and my heart with goodness.

I'll add that I also enjoy Aloft, in a way it is also a hobby and something I really enjoy.
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If we're all a bit honest, what I really like about full-scale aircraft is taking off and landing - the middle part is the boring part (until the stuff hits the fan) - I did enjoy boring some holes in the sky or going to a rural airport for the $100 hamburger but rarely traveled for long jaunts - the longest trip was a 6-hour trip in a 182 to Colorado - that would have been a 15-hour journey by car -I love watching planes land and take off and that's what you get with RC
 
This is true. Flown in the Mooney back to Oshkosh twice. On the way their we fly formation with other Mooney's and that makes the flying a lot more fun. Also the mission planning for the legs when you have newer, much faster mooneys flying with older models, and are picking up more planes mid flight. But the return trips were always solo and usually much longer days. The one benefit of solo times is picking your landing points and shorter fuel stops.

With RC I really enjoy flying with others. I LOVE introducing power pilots to slope flying. And nothing more rewarding than working with someone new to the hobby and taking them up for their first flight.

Hmm, I wonder if we could start teaching people to fly slope..? Our local power field does not want to allow us to do this. Never considered the slope. Hmm...
 
Wayne said:
This is true. Flown in the Mooney back to Oshkosh twice. On the way their we fly formation with other Mooney's and that makes the flying a lot more fun. Also the mission planning for the legs when you have newer, much faster mooneys flying with older models, and are picking up more planes mid flight. But the return trips were always solo and usually much longer days. The one benefit of solo times is picking your landing points and shorter fuel stops.

With RC I really enjoy flying with others. I LOVE introducing power pilots to slope flying. And nothing more rewarding than working with someone new to the hobby and taking them up for their first flight.

Hmm, I wonder if we could start teaching people to fly slope..? Our local power field does not want to allow us to do this. Never considered the slope. Hmm...
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I would love to have that community here in Central Oregon and the oppty to have a flight instructor with me when I maiden the Elf - I'm going to toss the plane on my own and hope that my current skills (and PicaSim practice) will carry the day - that's part of the fun, but also some oversight would be cool...
 
I started in real scale long before flying RC. Like most realscale pilots I thought RC would be easy. I was humbled and humiliated but also intrigued enough to not let some initial mental reverse sensing crashes deter me. Once I got the orientation down I started enjoying RC a lot more than realscale but realscale for me was always "work". I never flew realscale just for the fun of it for 30 years. I have several friends here with various GA aircraft that always ask me to go up with them and I have absolutely zero desire to do so. Now if they had a P51 or a motor glider I'd reconsider but boring holes in the sky @ 130kts. in a piper archer is not my idea of a good time. My interest is in powered gliders, specifically F5B gliders with obscene power. My Yuri models virage on 10s will gain 700' of altitude with just a one second burst of power and that's just so addicting, I never get bored with it. I recently bought a new Frsky X20 from Aloft and for the first time ever I now enjoy telemetry and a TX that is so advanced compared to my old Airtronics SD-10G that it still amazes me. It's a great hobby and allows me to scratch the aviation itch with little risk of personal injury or death and the best part is I get to do it when I want to, not when I'm told to. I had some passengers that would get angry if I had to cancel a flight because of weather (rare). I swear one guy thought if we crashed into a mountain, the plane would just bounce off and keep flying. I had his son on a flight to take him to college and we had some bad weather enroute. The kid didn't seem the slightest bit concerned which I guess is a good thing. I asked him after we landed if he enjoyed the light show from the thunderstorms and he said "yeah, that was cool" he then added "My dad laughs at the weather". Like father like son. His dad had no respect for the weather and what it could do to us and assumed we would fly regardless of conditions. I was tempted to fly him through a thunderstorm on more than one occasion but my job was to keep them safe and if they thought nothing bad could ever happen to them with me in the left seat then I guess I was doing a good job.
 
I've been in construction trade for most of my life. 5 years as a cnc machine operator during high school, 17 years as a glazier, 20 years general construction, Building and remodeling residential mostly. The last big job was 3 years as assistant superintendent on the new Willits hospital. I now own a small direct mailing business and screen print on the side .
I learned how to build and fly rc aircraft in the late eighties. But, haven't flow until the Sunset Beach camp and fly for over 20 years.
I learned how to fly full scale in the mid 90s in a Citabria 7ECA. I owned a 1976 Maul Lunar Rocket until I went through a bad split and sold it. I often think of getting a single engine plane again. But, the reality is that I probably wouldn't fly enough to warrant the costs.
I bought a couple of old balsa gliders cheap and look forward to meeting more of you while slope soaring this year. I'm also getting into scratch build again as building was one of my biggest pleasures back in the day.
Lee
 
Lee B said:
I've been in construction trade for most of my life. 5 years as a cnc machine operator during high school, 17 years as a glazier, 20 years general construction, Building and remodeling residential mostly. The last big job was 3 years as assistant superintendent on the new Willits hospital. I now own a small direct mailing business and screen print on the side .
I learned how to build and fly rc aircraft in the late eighties. But, haven't flow until the Sunset Beach camp and fly for over 20 years.
I learned how to fly full scale in the mid 90s in a Citabria 7ECA. I owned a 1976 Maul Lunar Rocket until I went through a bad split and sold it. I often think of getting a single engine plane again. But, the reality is that I probably wouldn't fly enough to warrant the costs.
I bought a couple of old balsa gliders cheap and look forward to meeting more of you while slope soaring this year. I'm also getting into scratch build again as building was one of my biggest pleasures back in the day.
Lee
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I’ve been part of a flying club. If you can get into a good one, that’s the ideal between owning and renting. My flying club had a good culture of safety and camaraderie. There is one starting up in my area and I may join.
 
I admire guys that can build a house, plumb a house or wire a house. I built a deck once and it came out pretty crooked. I never take anyone back to that house to show off the deck that I built there. Funny enough, the lady that bought the house LOVED the deck and it's what probably sold her on the house. I also helped a neighbor re-roof his house in the middle of August in PA. Hot and humid and absolutely the most miserable work ever. I know quite a few pilots that have very little mechanical or building skills. There are exceptions of course so to hear about a contractor that's also a pilot is impressive. The most skilled model builder I know was a professional truck driver, typical foul mouth road rage type but absolutely meticulous with his builds. To meet and know him, you'd never in a million years guess he had the patience and mindset to build stunning scale models.
 
tic said:
I admire guys that can build a house, plumb a house or wire a house. I built a deck once and it came out pretty crooked. I never take anyone back to that house to show off the deck that I built there. Funny enough, the lady that bought the house LOVED the deck and it's what probably sold her on the house. I also helped a neighbor re-roof his house in the middle of August in PA. Hot and humid and absolutely the most miserable work ever. I know quite a few pilots that have very little mechanical or building skills. There are exceptions of course so to hear about a contractor that's also a pilot is impressive. The most skilled model builder I know was a professional truck driver, typical foul mouth road rage type but absolutely meticulous with his builds. To meet and know him, you'd never in a million years guess he had the patience and mindset to build stunning scale models.
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Is his name @Txmustangflyer by any chance? lol
 
Odd side note, my wife was born legally blind (some sight) so she has never driven a car. One day I was driving along and I had a little rage going on. She asked me a question that I have always loved:
"What is it about driving that will change a nice person into a cursing raging mess?"

I had to laugh. I'm not saying I am the nicest person in the world, but her dad is pretty close, and I guess he gets colorful when driving. The one thing she really wishes she could do in normal life is drive herself around, but perhaps it is a blessing as she is a very nice person. (She only yells at me.) LOL
 
The opposite of boats. People step on a boat and are waving and smiling at others on boats. You wish car behavior was the same as boat behavior- true we’d all look silly waving and smiling at each other but perhaps it’d make the world a better place.

One thing about my wife that I admire. She very rarely gets irked while driving. When people tailgate, honk, pass aggressively she takes it in stride. When I ask her why she doesn’t react, she says it’s she starts with the premise that perhaps the other person is in a dire emergency and that pause stops her from setting her off. Man, I wish I could do that.
 
Wayne said:
Odd side note, my wife was born legally blind (some sight) so she has never driven a car. One day I was driving along and I had a little rage going on. She asked me a question that I have always loved:
"What is it about driving that will change a nice person into a cursing raging mess?"

I had to laugh. I'm not saying I am the nicest person in the world, but her dad is pretty close, and I guess he gets colorful when driving. The one thing she really wishes she could do in normal life is drive herself around, but perhaps it is a blessing as she is a very nice person. (She only yells at me.) LOL
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Danieli said:
Obvioulsy you have never been involved in yacht racing! I've left sailboats deaf from all the hollering, not to mention hours spent in protest rooms...
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I did Dinghy racing many years ago - less investment but the same yelling, same time wasting protests, same result (I left it).

Taught me an awful lot about wind AND thermals though.

Doc.
 
Wayne said:
Odd side note, my wife was born legally blind (some sight) so she has never driven a car. One day I was driving along and I had a little rage going on. She asked me a question that I have always loved:
"What is it about driving that will change a nice person into a cursing raging mess?"

I had to laugh. I'm not saying I am the nicest person in the world, but her dad is pretty close, and I guess he gets colorful when driving. The one thing she really wishes she could do in normal life is drive herself around, but perhaps it is a blessing as she is a very nice person. (She only yells at me.) LOL
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Wayne...you have full scale airplane parts in the garage..a half finished scout on the back patio..

Of couse she yells lolol
 
I was allowed to keep a new F5B glider on the living room coffee table for TWO WEEKS! I almost convinced my wife that the model was art. It's now in the basement with all the other planes but it was great while it lasted
 
tic said:
I was allowed to keep a new F5B glider on the living room coffee table for TWO WEEKS! I almost convinced my wife that the model was art. It's now in the basement with all the other planes but it was great while it lasted
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Alas your quest has been in vain...
the dreaded SWMBO strikes again...

Docspeare.
 
tic said:
I was allowed to keep a new F5B glider on the living room coffee table for TWO WEEKS! I almost convinced my wife that the model was art. It's now in the basement with all the other planes but it was great while it lasted
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Jane has asked me multiple times to have an airplane on display in the house. I tend to want to put a big one in, and our house is tiny. I might have to come up with a nice little display using a smaller plane, and have a little LED shinning on it to cast a shadow up on the wall. :) But it has to be able to go out and fly!!
 
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