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Mircea Neacsu wrote: What impressed me most was the camaraderie, what the French call the “esprit de corps”. It might hark back to the years of Saint-Exupery’s “Night Flight” (IMO required reading for any aviation buff), but if you were flying ZED fare, almost everyone would look at you as being somewhat part of the same family and try to help you. I still have many good friends from that time.
When my sister worked for American Airlines, I could fly standby to Dallas for the price of a cheeseburger. It was great!
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In a previous life, I was an aircraft mechanic for an airline (veteran USAF mechanic). 3 of us were going to buy and share an older 4 seater. I signed up for lessons.
First lesson, instructor is a no show.
Figured:
1. Bad Omen.
2. As mistake-prone as I am, bad idea.
Got married, had kids.
End of flying career.
>64
It’s weird being the same age as old people. Live every day like it is your last; one day, it will be.
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The nearest I've been to aerospace is sitting in a commercial jetliner.
Had the opportunity to once fly in an Airbus 380; and was allotted the last seat in economy in the aircraft, below the tail; all other seats in the last row were empty during the flight. Requested the crew to allow me to briefly go to the upper floor just to see, and they obliged.
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I'd like to see that. I've never been on the second floor of an aircraft.
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Several decades ago I did start doing my PPL(H) training, but my circumstances changed and I couldn't afford to complete it - it's an expensive hobby, particularly when Herself was doing much the same for fixed wing.
So we both dropped the idea (which was a pity) and never went back for a pile of reasons.
It was a huge load of fun, but as my instructor said: "Let's turn some money into noise!" 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: Several decades ago I did start doing my PPL(H) training, but my circumstances changed and I couldn't afford to complete it
If God had wanted us to fly, he would have given us bigger wallets. I want to fly, but since I haven't the financial resources to do so, I downloaded the Microsoft Flight Simulator. I tried doing this years ago on one of my older laptops. The first time I attempted to run the flight simulator, it errored out. The message of the error basically said, "Your machine does not have the minimum requirements to run this program." and when you clicked "OK", it would exit.
I went into a long period of deep despair after that. It was a very dark time in my life. All I wanted to do was run a flight SIM. I can't afford to fly right now, nor could I do so back then. What is the cost of renting a Cessna Skyhawk 172 these days? 17 years ago it was $120 per hour plus fuel. To imagine what it would cost nowadays? I don't want to know.
Eventually, I recovered. I bought an updated copy of MS Flight Simulator on the laptop I am using now. It's fairly new. Upon first running the sim two days ago, a message box popped up. It said, "Your machine does not have the minimum requirements to run this program." After that, it froze. I feel very depressed now. I need your thoughts and prayers.
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To run flight sim you need a PC with a bit of grunt and a decent graphics card such as the Nvidia RTX series that supports multiple monitors. On a flight sim I was roped in to assist on the owner had built a cockpit simulation and with all the switches and controls hooked into a USB joystick interface with simple push in wire connectors for the necessary buttons, potentiometers, sensors, rotary encoders and switches. An excellent set-up but a lot of work and all enhanced with terrific sound card and speakers to add to the realism.
I have just purchased a Meta Quest 3 to see what it is like on my son's sim, I reckon that will add an extra dimension to things.
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Member 16128696 wrote: a decent graphics card such as the Nvidia RTX series
I'm thinking the next laptop I get will be a gaming laptop. I used to have an ASUS gaming laptop and it was great for using 3D Studio and Maya.
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Here in the UK we have an aviation charity called Aerobility it's main intention is to get the disabled into the air and behind the controls of an aircraft.
My wife and I do our best to put our twin adult disabled sons into the air with them once a month. One of the son's flies a Piper "PA-28 Warrior" and the other a "Grob109B" Touring Motor Glider. The lads have almost no functionallity in their hands and forearms so the instructors (amazing folks) assist but only where necessary.
What an fantastic therapy, they land and life has been different for a while. The sparkle in their eyes says it all, muscular dystrophy and all the baggage that goes with it is forgotton about for that joyful hour. It is not as expensive as flying for the able bodied but still hurts the wallet but our philosophy is to make every day count, you can't take it with you!
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I've not heard of them, must look them up.
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Member 16128696 wrote: aviation charity called Aerobility it's main intention is to get the disabled into the air and behind the controls of an aircraft.
I know of a girl who earned her pilot's license using only her feet. She was born without arms, but she does just fine. It's remarkable to watch her at the controls. I wonder, do we have a charity in the US like the one you mentioned?
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For a long time I wanted to learn to fly but for many reasons (lack of funds mainly) I never managed it. I did have a sample lesson for my 70th birthday, but again, I couldn't justify the expenditure to go further.
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Richard MacCutchan wrote: (lack of funds mainly)
You're not alone in that.
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I could fly before I could drive. As a kid, I was able to recognize jets by their sound only. I wanted to be a fighter pilot, got the exam (not wanting to prise myself, but honestly was not a piece of cake, cleary a highlight of my life), got rejected a week later due to bad eyesight. For reasons, I had to do the medical check after the two sports-and-maths-and-psycho tests, because usually you start by checking if everything is OK and only go the hassle of the tests if you are apt. To precise, bad eyesight = I have exceptionally good eyesight, but was diagnosed with a probability to loose some of it on my right eye over the course of the 13 years training & service, which was sufficient for kicking me out of the program. The doc said "0,05% that it happens, but there are another 7000 furious waiting in the line behind you who are almost as good as you and with better condition, so why should we give you a chance ?". This was so abrupt that I completely cut with aviation from that on. But in my deep inside, I love it. And the Rafale is the best fighter in the world.  I
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I was a big fan of aviation in my teens up to my mid 30s.
I did 3 static line parachute jumps in my teens and later a glider flight as well as started flying lessons stopping when it became obvious how expensive it would be to maintain a license.
So I channeled my enthusiasm into hundreds of hours in flightsims, the 747 being my favourite aircraft to fly with the Kai Tak approach (PMDG 747).
One of the first projects I set myself in .NET back in around 2006 was to write a voice recognition application so that I could give commands to a virtual co-pilot to lower the landing gear, flaps etc.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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GuyThiebaut wrote: 747 being my favourite aircraft to fly with the Kai Tak approach (PMDG 747).
That would keep me busy for hours!
GuyThiebaut wrote: One of the first projects I set myself in .NET back in around 2006 was to write a voice recognition application so that I could give commands to a virtual co-pilot to lower the landing gear, flaps etc.
How did the project go? Did you use machine learning? I've always wanted to be able to communicate with ATC verbally in flight sims. With all the progress in AI, that's now possible.
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The voice recognition app went really well with lots of extra stuff in it including the app speaking back confirming the command to be executed(the confirmation could be customised) and the ability to ask what the status of various systems was such as asking "Landing gear status?" and application speaking back "Landing gear is down."
It was a while back but I didn't use AI, I used a standard .NET voice recognition and speech module which could be taught independently.
You could also tie the mic to a button on the joystick for PTT, so that while the button was pressed the app would listen to the command being given - for extra geekiness I also got the app to beep with the Apollo beep after the PTT button was released.
I should did it out again at some point although it was written in VB.NET(so I might consider rewriting it in C#) as I was very new to .NET at that point.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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GuyThiebaut wrote: The voice recognition app went really well with lots of extra stuff in it including the app speaking back confirming the command to be executed(the confirmation could be customised) and the ability to ask what the status of various systems was such as asking "Landing gear status?" and application speaking back "Landing gear is down."
That is so cool. 
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My favourite part of flying is when the plane stops at the terminal and I can get off.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
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Some of my earliest memories are of my Grandfather taking my brother and I for ice cream near the Memphis airport so we could watch the planes takeoff and land.  His love for aviation stemmed from over 20 years overseeing the maintenance shops at Warner Robins AFB, GA. Many years later, after his retirement, he would take us to the regional air shows. Great times!
One of his favorite stories was about going down to a local garage owned by one of his friends. When he walked up, he saw two feet sticking out from under a Caddy. Assuming it was his friend the mechanic, he lightly kicked them to get his attention. 'Hey Red, it's Jack...' The guy rolled out, stuck out his hand and said 'Paul Tibbets. Nice to meet you Jack.'
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
"Hope is contagious"
modified 17hrs ago.
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kmoorevs wrote: One of his favorite stories was about going down to a local garage owned by one of his friends. When he walked up, he saw two feet sticking out from under a Caddy. Assuming it was his friend the mechanic, he lightly kicked them to get his attention. 'Hey Red, it's Jack...' The guy rolled out, stuck out his hand and said 'Paul Tibbets. Nice to meet you Jack.'
Seriously? That's a story I'd like to hear. How did your grandfather react upon meeting Paul Tibbets?
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From my best recollection, he was shocked and somewhat embarrassed...then quickly relieved with the handshake and laugh of a true gentleman.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
"Hope is contagious"
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I think I heard a comedian put it best... I love flying, but I'm the sort of person who forgets their car keys. This makes me the sort of person you don't want flying a plane. If I had way more disposable income/time I would near definitely try to get a license anyway though. I've thought about an ultra-light... Basically a go-cart with a parachute and a really huge fan. You can fly those here without licensure.
I got into R/C flight back when batteries/electric were a fringe cutting edge thing and everything was still this sort of special diesel. The electric stuff is just way easier to deal with now and I'd guess more popular (have not done for awhile). A 1/6th scale B-52 with all the engines going on diesel is just an awesome thing to behold.
The bigger draw for me there is maybe the overlap with history buffs and the folks into it tend to be much older. I tend to get on better with folks who have some years on me.
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jochance wrote: I've thought about an ultra-light... Basically a go-cart with a parachute and a really huge fan. You can fly those here without licensure.
Ultra-lights are my favorite aircraft to fly. It's more of a pure flying experience. You get the wind on your face, you don't need to use a radio, or a transponder. It's that freedom that I absolutely love. It's a lot like the experience of riding a motorcycle, whereas flying a single-engine Cessna is more akin to driving a car.
jochance wrote: I got into R/C flight back when batteries/electric were a fringe cutting edge thing and everything was still this sort of special diesel. The electric stuff is just way easier to deal with now and I'd guess more popular (have not done for awhile). A 1/6th scale B-52 with all the engines going on diesel is just an awesome thing to behold.
That's something I'd like to see. I built a model glider once. The nail of the glider was "Gentle Lady". I really enjoyed the building process. It was simple. All you needed was a two-channel radio to control the vertical and horizontal stabilizers. Beyond that, it was about finding the thermals. You could fly it wherever you wanted to. Just choose a mountain. There is no need for dealing with gas engines or bulky batteries. 4 AA batteries were all that was needed to operate the two servos. The only sound you would hear is the wind flowing through the evergreen trees. It makes for great therapy, especially if you can't afford the therapist. 
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Sometime in my early teens, I got a little gas-powered plane that was controlled with strings. By the time it ran out of gas, I was so dizzy I couldn't stand! Thank gawd it was held together with rubber bands!
Earlier, you mentioned MS Flight Simulator. I've got a 2010 copy on my bookshelf, and a joystick controller, but haven't played it in over 10 years. My favorite was actually the glider training where the key was to find thermals/updrafts. Occasionally, I'll see hawks here flying circles effortlessly without flapping a wing, going higher and higher, and think about that game. I also have a Meta Quest that's been sitting dormant for over a year. Let us know how that goes.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
"Hope is contagious"
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