Hi Bob,
Ha! Lots of guys on here have flown better, and way more varied typres than me. But to answer your questions;
I flew a bunch of airplanes as a kid with my dad, we had interest in a flight school and flew all of them before I was 12. Aeronca 7AC, 7ECA, 7KCAB, 8KCAB, Beech 35, Beech 17, Cessna 150, 172, 182, 210, 310, Riley Rocket, Waco Minerva, Cherokee Six, Bell 47's, then Dad soloed me in our 11AC and D-17S on my 16th. I had a music career going in my teen years so i was a slight impediment to my flying prep, so I flew around on a solo certificate or two for 4 years until I got my Private, Commercial and Instrument when I was 18 and 19. Finally seeing I was better off flying than contiuing in 70's rock and roll, I ferried airplanes for some time while pumping gas at Tallmantz Aviation in HS and college checking out in a lot of varied types from Commanders, prototype Aerostar, P Navajo, 421, 414, 401, 340, 320, T210, P210 and pressurized Mooney M22, 201, 231 and then got a job flying a brand new A-36 full time for a construction company. I towed banners with Maules and Scouts, ferried DC-3 and Twin Beeches, and then started flying warbirds for a couple of museums on the B-25, Stearman and T-6. The freight jobs were similar and I flew Twin Beeches for a couple of years for three different outfits and the DC-3 one summer before getting the oppotunity to fly for a new commuter in Phoenix called States West with new Short SD3-60s and i checked out as a Part 121 captain at 26. I was hired to TWA International Division as an L-1011 FE and thats when i met the east coast Stunt crew when i was JFK based. I checked out as FO on the 727 but flew the 1011 again until returning to the 72 when I lived at Windy's flying the Caribbean. Then the move to STL took me to Staggerwing Airshows and Evergreen Air Venture where I flew the Staggerwing, N3N and Bushmaster tri-motor and Stearman and T-6 respectively. In 1997 I was a senior Intl FO on the 76 and bought a very inexpensive O-320 powered S-1C short fuselage Pitts Special and left it in Phoenix. I started acro competition and then in 1998 moved there and raced it at Reno as well as acro comp. I checked out as DC-9 captain at TWA then and bought a new S-1D Pitts Special powered by an HO-360 helicopter engine and Dan McEntee and I upped the racing game returning to the National Air Races winning the first heat and nabbing pole position for the final. But my low racing line got us a low flying penalty with a fine and moved to the back of the field. All my fault, Dan. I married, quit racing and refined the Pitts and moved to Los Angeles but didn't fly it much and sold it at the top of the market in 2007. It races today, all of my mods gaining the 25mph we planned, as the 200 mph Purse Snatcher. Since AA bought TWA, up until last year it was kind of a limbo for us. I was released to be based out of Dallas in March of '15 and so now my position along with the USAir deal giving the pilot wage a big boost there may be another airplane in my future besides the MD-80. I think the Pitts S-2B might be the right fit.
Favorites, Beech Staggerwing, super stable, powerful and impressive it's a great ship I'll always love.
Pitts Special, a mind reader of control input ease, the perfect acro plane for the working man.
Transport favorite is the 757, a great flying airplane that has all of the power one would ever need and slow speed handling that is hard to believe. The perfect airliner.
No, I've never flown a Global Express, in fact i've never flown an executive jet. I was close to buying a Hawker Hunter jet fighter. Twice. and also my brother's Mig 15 but we never got it flying. Right place, right time kind of thing.
Have fun, I think that Swift with a fixed pitch and an O-300 would be a simple and easy ship to have, a lot of bang for the buck in my opinion.
Chris...
Topic: Not model aviation - general aviation: Globe Swift (Read 21668 times)