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Learning to fly in a different kind of ?7?

CFI1513840

CFI1513840

Well Known Member
The sign said ?Learn to Fly - $80?. It was posted near the entrance to the North Biloxi airport, a small grass strip not too far from the sprawling Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi. The year was 1957. How could a seventeen-year old E3 with a few bucks in his pocket pass up such an opportunity? It turned out that learning to fly meant going solo, after that more cash was needed. Still, it wasn?t a bad deal.

April 21, 1957. Sitting in the front of N84542, an Aeronca 7AC, I listened to Art Homer shouting at me from the back seat. No headsets or intercom in those days. It was one-way communication. Art, former potato farmer and crop duster, was hard of hearing on the ground and essentially deaf when airborne. He may have had a hearing aid, but if he did, I?m sure he turned off while aloft. That day the throttle linkage came off while practicing glides. I had a hard time explaining to Art why I wasn?t advancing the power after descending to about 500? AGL. Finally I got the point across by pointing to the throttle and flopping it back and forth a few times. Art took over and landed on a narrow country road, which was free of traffic, but with a fair share of trees and telephone poles on each side. The little Air-knocker had its wings badly dented, but we exited without a scratch.

Art didn?t want to give me too much time to mull things over and worry about forced landings, or worst of all, to quit flying. So two hours later, after arranging transport back to the airport for us and the Air-knocker, we were back up in another 7AC, this time N83338. Interestingly, Art?s endorsement of the flights that day makes no mention of our ?incident?, or even that we flew N84542, as if he wanted to pretend it never happened. I had lost my innocence, but thanks to Art?s persuasive methods, not my nerve - at least not entirely. After that, during every pre-flight, I made darn sure the throttle linkage was securely connected, being blissfully ignorant of all the other million and a half things that could go wrong.

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Sweet little plane

I've always loved the way the 7AC flies. Its one of those magical examples when the designers get everything right.
I owned a 7KCAB for a while - which could blow two cylinders and still outclimb the 7AC, but it retained much of the "lovelyness" of its ancestor.

Fond memories
 
Same story - different year

My story takes place 40 years later, in 1997, but isn't that much different. I soloed in a Cessna 152 and then learned to fly in a 1946 Taylorcraft BC-12D.

Alan Bobo was a young guy, but also a crop duster, glider pilot, and great guy. We communicated in the T-craft by screaming at each other without an intercom.

On the first run-up he asked me to check the alternator. As I searched the panel for the indicator, he laughed and reminded me that the airplane didn't have an alternator - thus no indicator - "This ain't no Cessna."

I learned to "keep it straight" as we fast taxied back and forth on the runway with me on the rudders and Alan on everything else. Tail up / tail down / one wheel - just keep it going straight.

Good experience. Made me a pilot, where the 152 had made me an airplane driver.

I believe it cost more than $80, though.
 
8+30

If I read this correctly you soloed after 8+30 hours of instruction. Just think what you would have missed in life had you never thought to learn how to fly. Like no RV...
 
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Bobo and his T-craft

JDRhodes said:
...and then learned to fly in a 1946 Taylorcraft BC-12D.

Alan Bobo was a young guy, but also a crop duster, glider pilot, and great guy. We communicated in the T-craft by screaming at each other without an intercom.
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Same instructor (Alan Bobo), same airplane (T-craft), slightly different memories:

1. When I got off the centerline he would say "if you're serious about doing this, then this settling-for-less-than-perfect-$h!t ain't gonna cut it!!!". I still use that exact line with my students....and it still works.

2. The "Carb Heat" knob looked EXACTLY like the "Cabin Heat" knob, and those were right next to the "Fuel Cutoff" knob. You pulled the knobs with extra care...or else! "Identify, Verify, Pull"

3. On one of my early flights (JDRhodes may have been my passenger....) I propped the plane off. Untied and unchocked it, and then the right knee on my skinny 17 year old leg hit the throttle while climbing in and we almost had a first class rodeo!

Good stuff!

CDE
 
1967 soloed C-150 ($100). Then bought a T-Craft BC-12-65 and learned to fly.
Continued to "Private Pilot" ASEL for another $312.
 
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Not to lament the passing of the good old days, but it's a shame that these days, many people have been priced out of learning to fly. It does not bode well for General Aviation in our country.
 
Pretty much the same experience here. June 1988 with an Areonca 7DC (C-90) off a grass strip in Omaha, NE. I always remember the instructor, who also happened to be the Assistant Deputy Commander of Maintenance for the Wing at Offutt, telling me that for some reason the airplane wanted to head for the trees in those first couple hours! For $19/hr (good rates for 2Lt. pay), we flew the snot out of that old Champ.

My understanding is that Champ is still owned by the same club and hourly prices aren't much more (adjusted for inflation).
 
JDRhodes said:
My story takes place 40 years later, in 1997, but isn't that much different. I soloed in a Cessna 152 and then learned to fly in a 1946 Taylorcraft BC-12D.

Alan Bobo was a young guy, but also a crop duster, glider pilot, and great guy. We communicated in the T-craft by screaming at each other without an intercom.


I believe it cost more than $80, though.
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I think I paid Alan about $250 for a 6 hour tailwheel checkout and biannual in his Taylorcraft in the late '90's. $ pretty well spent, IMO.

And now there's a Champ project in pieces in my hangar and basement - I'm currently rebuilding the wings. I've wanted one for a long time because a cousin who owned a Champ gave me my first airplane ride when I was 3 or 4 years old. I still remember how loud it seemed.
 
Learning to Fly

In 1970 fresh back from Vietnam with a few dollars in my pocket, I walked into the flying club at Naval Air Station Memphis, TN to see what it cost to learn to fly. They said about $500 for a Private ticket. I laid five $100 dollar bills on the table and went flying. About 45 days later I had my ticket. While stationed there, I was able to log PIC hours a C-150, C-172, C-182, C-206, C-207 and a T-34. I wasn't working on my multi-engine ticket, but I got a few hours in the Apache and Sky Master that the club had. Those years were some of the best flying I had. The best was when I was living in Butte, MT.
 
$9,000 for me in Oct 2008.

That is for 60 hrs of flight time and about the same for ground schooling. That did not include headset, books, misc supplies. I could have gotten it cheaper elsewhere, but not in 6 weeks.
 
There I was, staring at that ridiculously high nose, blocking out the runway. The empty seat in front of me made the old J-3 seem a lot bigger. When you take 200lbs out of a airplane with a gross weight of 1220, it really moves. Keep it straight, keep it straight, **** I hate pavement, and.... let it fly off. For this 16 year old, it was the best day of my life. No matter that I had already soloed a 152 a few hours earlier, I wanted to conquer the cub. Looking out that door at the runway (right traffic), whooping and hollering along, giddy at what me and the cub were doing is one of the best memories of my life.

That was in 2000, and all I paid for it (for the cub anyway) was a promise to stay involved in aviation. That instructor is still one of my great friends and my flying mentor, and it's a priviledge to fly with him when I can. Thanks John.

Did I mention John also took me up for my first (and only) RV ride in an RV-6?
 
cropdusterengineer said:
2. The "Carb Heat" knob looked EXACTLY like the "Cabin Heat" knob, and those were right next to the "Fuel Cutoff" knob. You pulled the knobs with extra care...or else! "Identify, Verify, Pull"
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It takes about 8 seconds for an A-65 to quit after you pull the fuel cut off instead of the carb heat on downwind. Ask me how I know.
 
Wow must have been nice learning to fly for that amount of money. I stopped counting when I hit 6K getting my ticket in 2004. I got my TW endorsement in a 7AC at Amelia Reid Aviation in San Jose, CA. Was the best 5 days and 15 hours of instruction I ever got. I've been hooked on stick and rudder airplanes ever since.
 
It takes about 8 seconds for an A-65 to quit after you pull the fuel cut off instead of the carb heat on downwind. Ask me how I know.
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Funny, I have that exact same story! And a wood prop will also stop spinning.
 
Great Planes

I owned two champs, a 7AC and a 7DC, great planes to fly. The 7AC was very light and with about 4 gals of gas the 65 hp would putt into the air with a super cub. The 85 hp was a gas also, I flew it on wheels, skies and floats. :)
 
Aviation is a small world

C5Engineer said:
Wow must have been nice learning to fly for that amount of money. I stopped counting when I hit 6K getting my ticket in 2004. I got my TW endorsement in a 7AC at Amelia Reid Aviation in San Jose, CA. Was the best 5 days and 15 hours of instruction I ever got. I've been hooked on stick and rudder airplanes ever since.
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I instructed next door to Amelia Reid Aviation in 1975-76 at Garden City Aero. In those days, Amelia used to do aerobatic demonstrations in her C-150 at local airshows and fly-ins. If I'm not mistaken, Sean Tucker also learned to fly at Amelia's.
 
I have a receipt in my log book from 1969 for one hour of dual in a 7AC for $13.33. In 1968 when I was 19 years old and attending A&P school I paid $540 for a complete private pilot course. It included ground school and 35 hours of instruction, got my PPL at 35.1 hours. By the way the school was based at KATL ( Hartsfield International ). I did go to a different airport for my first solo flight but after that I did all my solo flying from KATL. I did a lot of intersection takeoffs ( beats waiting in line with the DC-8's and 727's ). Landings consisted of circling off to the side of the runway until there was a gap and then firewall it until you got close to the turnoff, chop power hit the flaps and make a quick turnoff. The controllers were very patient as long as you did your best to not slow down the operation. I never remember anyone discussing wake turbulence ( maybe it didn't exist back then ).
 
Interesting post for more reasons than one, Ken.

I was at Keesler that summer in the USAF de-da school learning morse code to be an intercept radio operator. You were an E3 out learning to fly, I was an E2 cutting grass on base detail.

As luck would have it, I was pushing this mower one day in front an administration building and out on the front porch appears this sergeant and he says, hey you airman, git over here. He asks, do you think you are smart enough to get through the USAF academy prep school, to which I responded immediately, yes sir!

As it turned out, he was a recruiter and had just received a message from way up the chain of command - the USAF had decided to start up a prep school for the academy for enlisted guys and wanted all slots filled immediately. The assignment the first year was with the US Naval Academy Prep School in Bainbridge, MD. Orders were cut and I was on a train out of Mississippi in just a few days. Talk about being at the right place at the right time! Well, I was smart enough to get through that year with the Navy but not quite smart enough to land a slot in the academy. There were 44 of us were competing for one of 12 slots. I was not one of the top 12 in the class.

Well, one year later, I was still an E2 out on base detail again, this time at Offutt AFB, SAC Headquarters in Nebraska, this time digging sand traps for a new officers golf course. They sent me to SAC HQ with records indicating I had attended the de-da school but when my sarge found out I never completed the course, out I went on base detail.

As it turned out luck stuck again. The construction boss on the golf course job was a major (ex-fighter pilot WWII) and married to 4 star Gen Power's daughter. He took a liking to me because of my cultural back ground from Minnesota farm country where young guys are not afraid of work. He got me permanently assigned to that golf course detail and I ended up working in the pro shop and even popping pop corn one day for the big 4 star General who was the boss of SAC at the time. My boss, the major, knew how badly I wanted to be a pilot and one day he says we just found out the aviation cadet program is really cranking up right now, lets get an application ready and see what happens. Well, it took me about one minute to jump on that idea and get the paper work done and take some tests, physical and mental, and low and behold, about six weeks later I had a class assignment and was on my way to San Antonio once again back to Lackland this time for the hard nosed cadet training. I took to it like a fish to water and the rest is history.

Hope all this in not too boring...but you mentioning Keesler brought it all back into focus. :)
 
Old memories

This got me to looking at my first logbook. 1968 started in a Taylorcraft. Ready for solo and my instructor calls and says the plane has been crashed by another student and I have to have another hour dual in an Alon Aircoupe and then I solo. Total time, 6.9 hours.
Including books, E6B, groundschool and 35.7 hours of flying I had my PPL for a grand total of $432.00.
Those were indeed the good ole days, but I wouldn't trade my RV of today for anything.
 
Jerry,

Other than both being slow, I can't think of 2 more opposite flying airplanes than a T-craft and an Aircoupe. Surprised you didn't push dents in the firewall of the 'coupe with your feet every time you turned. :D
 
Aviation Cadet Program

David, great story, not boring at all. I had a similar, less successful experience. I wanted to get into the Aviation Cadet program also. I had to wait until I was 19 1/2 to take the tests. By that time, I was stationed at Norton AFB, San Bernadino. I took the tests, passed them with flying colors, then waited. I heard absolutely nothing and didn't pursue it. Just before I was discharged, a friend of mine who happened to be pulling CQ duty found my paperwork in a desk that had come from the Orderly Room when the squadron moved to a different location on base, obviously pigeonholed there by one of our orderly room types. Was it an oversight or intentional? I'll never know. I was still young enough, I could have gone to college/ROTC and got into Flight Training that way, but it just fell by the wayside. No regrets. I rationalize that if I had made it, I would have been flying F-4s in Vietnam instead of Cessnas in Lompoc.
 
Mixing it up with the big guys

tturner said:
...I did go to a different airport for my first solo flight but after that I did all my solo flying from KATL. I did a lot of intersection takeoffs ( beats waiting in line with the DC-8's and 727's ). Landings consisted of circling off to the side of the runway until there was a gap and then firewall it until you got close to the turnoff, chop power hit the flaps and make a quick turnoff. The controllers were very patient as long as you did your best to not slow down the operation. I never remember anyone discussing wake turbulence ( maybe it didn't exist back then ).
Click to expand...

Tommy, my advice for you would be to visit Vegas or Atlantic City. With luck like yours, you can't go wrong.
 
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