Between marriages I got pretty depressed, so my doc friend suggested I go
back to school or something.  I decided to get my instrument ticket.  It was
actually easier for me than someone with binocular vision because I was used
to seeing in two dimensions anyway.  Still, I would never knowingly fly in
bad weather or low visibility conditions.  When you train or take the exam
you wear a hood that (supposedly) prevents you from seeing outside the
aircraft.  If things get hairy you can always flip that sucker up and get
visual.  Can't do that in fog or thunderstorms.  You really need a
high-performance aircraft too--something that can get you around the
weather.  The junk I can afford to rent can't get out of the way of its own
shadow.

A good friend of mine flies left seat in DC-9s for a national carrier.  I
was trying to get home from DC (for Christmas) some years ago and I got
stuck in Pittsburgh.  There was a huge snow/rain/freezing rain storm over
all the northeast and flights were being cancelled right and left--including
mine.  I couldn't get a room, so I was prepared to spend the night in the
airport (that's a thrill not to be missed if you've never had the pleasure)
when I ran into my buddy.  Just so happened that he was dead-heading an
empty plane back to Columbus before the airport shut down.  Seems that the
airline decided the turbulence would be too rough for passengers, but they
needed that plane at CMH for an early morning flight.  Since it was just
himself and the copilot, he said that he could sneak me on the plane and I
could ride in the jumpseat behind his.  What a hoot!

It was illegal as all get-out (no pax in the cockpit, etc.), but no
questions were asked.  Had to ride backwards, which felt reallly, really
strange on takeoff and landing.  We were doing about 320 knots through this
rainstorm and I was sure the windshield was going to bust.  It was just like
someone had turned on a firehose six inches from the glass--loud as hell!

When we got to Columbus there was an 800' ceiling.  It was so scary to drop
through those clouds and see the runway RIGHT THERE!  Of course, these guys
let the autopilot take the thing right down the glideslope to the tarmac,
but it was still a wild ride anyway.  I would not want to have been back in
the cabin where I couldn't see what was going on.  I guess that's why I
don't like to fly commercially all that much--you're insulated from what's
going on up front.

-----Original Message-----
From: Bobby Greer [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 1999 10:56 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: I finally got to that 150


My brother flew for a while. We went from Memphis to Dallas and stopped in
Texarkana for some Mexican food. As we approached the run way in Dallas,
there
was this little black thunderstorm between us and the run way. We were at
about 2000 ft. and dropped 1000 ft. We went under that devil and I never
desired to fly private again.

Bobby



>makes more sense now  to just let the airlines get me there, but when i was
>young....
>
>also want to jump out of a plane. thought it would impress this pretty
young
>thing. she was interested, amazingly enough her mother discouraged her
>dating me. did not want her daughter to date a "cripple". what a dip (did
>not mind her dating someone who mistreated her). anyway when the dating was
>broken (and her plans for me being the jump partner) my interest in jumping
>out of a perfectly good airplane waned. ah yes,  youth...
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kyle E. Cleveland [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 1999 11:17 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: I finally got to that 150
>
>
>Sure, Ken.  You can get a class 3 medical as long as you don't have any
>chronic medical problems where you might keel over behind the yoke.  The
>only sticky wicket for CPers is that you are required to be able to speak
>very clearly over the radio (understandable).
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Barber, Kenneth L. [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 1999 11:09 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: I finally got to that 150
>
>
>kyle, great,!! the only thing i ever wanted to do was fly. i just never
>thought tha the faa    would even give me consideration.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Kyle E. Cleveland [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 1999 11:04 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: I finally got to that 150
>
>
>Tony,
>
>I finally got around to flying that Cessna you were interested in, so I
>obviously passed my medical.  Flight doc tagged me on "no night flight"
>because of the monocular vision.  I knew it would be a matter of time,
>anyway, but it's weird having an IFR ticket that you can only use during
the
>day. ;>).  Not that I fly much anymore, anyway.  Since Laura quit teaching
I
>can't justify spending the $$$$.  I get enough hours in to keep current,
but
>that's about it.  I'm going to check into one of those PC-based simulators
>that you can use to log time for certification.  I guess you just fly and
>then download the data to a zip drive--it has all the parameters just like
>the black box FDRs on the commercial aircraft.
>
>About that 150...I dunno, man, it doesn't seem like much plane for the
>price.  It's been 200 hrs SMOH on that little Continental.  Cranked fine,
>stayed up at 2200 rpm on both mags during runup.  Oil seemed a bit gummy,
>but no major leaks.  Found a mouse's nest in one of the cabin heater
>vents--only after I ran cabin heat for a while...fortunately before
takeoff!
>The smell of the dead beasties cooking would have been enough to make me
>squawk 7700 and put the sucker down on the freeway.  Got that taken care
of,
>but you'd have to get a detail shop to run an ozone generator in the cabin
>for a bit.
>
>Dad's caught a red-eye up from Florida beucause he wanted to fly it with me
>(think he really just wanted to see the grandkids).  Said,  "Why don't we
>buzz your house, since Laura's home?  You know, just like 'Flying
>Leathernecks'!"  Criminy!  What a jarhead, eh?  The old man's been out of
>the Corps since '69, but he still does the Marine Routine. Ha!  Anyway, he
>did some stalls and MCA stuff and said it felt "mushy" for a 150.  I
thought
>so too.  Crank in 20 degrees flaps, cut the go juice and most of those old
>Cessnas will just hang there.  This one wanted to roll off on the left wing
>pretty badly.  I tried one at 5000' AGL with no flaps and just about put it
>in a flat spin.  Dad's yelling at me the whole time, "Where'd you learn to
>fly? where'd you learn to fly?"  Once I recovered and I got my heart rate
>down below 200, I wanted to say, "You, Dad.  You taught me, remember?"  I'm
>glad I kept my mouth shut, because I'm pretty sure he knew he hurt my
>feelings.  He kept complimenting my crappy flying the rest of the
afternoon.
>:>)  It's a good thing private aircraft don't have cockpit voice recorders,
>because if I'd stuck that plane in the ground they'd have heard a lot of
>references to God and Jesus, that's for sure!  ;>)  Dad was laughing at me
>later because he said I'd plead with God for a while, then I'd cuss Him.  I
>don't know why Dad didn't  pull me out of that--guess he just wanted to see
>if I'd mess my pants!  ;>).  Thought I'd made him mad because he didn't say
>anything for a long time, then he said, "This dog won't hunt.  There's
>something goofy about this plane."  I think you'll be okay as long as you
>keep your airspeed up.  Just pray that little Connie doesn't quit on you
>when you're rotating, because you WILL fall off on that left wing right
now.
>
>The paint's done up in standard OSU scarlet & gray  (will they let you land
>this thing in Ann Arbor?..ha!).  Paint's in good shape, tires are thin-ish,
>the windows are scratched up pretty bad, so they'll need to be polished
out.
>It has the same Bendix radio stack that Dad's old Skywagon had--one comm,
>one nav, and a transponder.  They're not much newer than the plane, so I'd
>have them checked out.  Everything seemed to work ok, though.
>
>Tony, I would not even consider this aircraft for IFR certification.  For
>one thing, you'd have as much wrapped up in decent avionics as you would in
>the plane itself.  For another, it just feels funny.  I think it would be
>fine for daytime VFR, but I would not want to shoot an ILS approach in that
>plane in IMC or even marginal VFR weather.  You'll have to judge for
>yourself, but Dad and I came to a consensus that it just wouldn't be worth
>it.  I would consider a good GPS, though.  Dad brought his Garmin from his
>boat and he'd plugged all the data in beforehand for all his favorite grass
>strips around Columbus (like Jim Wilson's, et al).  Anyway, instead of
doing
>touch and goes at the same airport, we'd just fly from strip to strip
>without stopping the plane.  It would be great for you if you're planning
to
>do much flying in the UP.
>
>Dad caught another red-eye out for Tampa last night, so we tied down at CMH
>instead of OSU.  I'll get somebody from work today to take me over to Port
>Columbus after work and then I'll fly it back over to Don Scott and have
>Laura pick me up there.
>
>Anyway, we flew out of OSU around noon, flew to MRT so Grandpa could buzz
>the house and wave the wings at "those grandbabies", headed for Jim's and
>then did some cross-countries so Dad could check the NDB and NAV against
his
>GPS.  Had dinner in Marion.  About that time, I started getting antsy to
get
>back to CMH.  I told Dad, "Listen, I lost my medical for night flying and I
>don't want to lose my whole ticket."  He said, "Well, from now on I'll just
>be pilot-in-command" (which is what I think he wanted anyway, but was too
>gracious to say).  He also said that we needed to be out after dark because
>there was something he wanted to show me.  So we started to toward Columbus
>around 1930, cruising at 3500' MSL and the whole eastern sky lit up with
the
>Leonid showers.  Man, it was incredible!  It reminded me of the CNN video
>the night we bombed Baghdad in '91, except that the lights were headed down
>instead of up.  Tonight is supposed to be even better--up to 6000/min
>between 2100 and 0000.  Dad said it reminded him of a firefight they had
>north of Hue.  That was weird because you know he never talks about that
>stuff.
>
>So we get to Columbus approach, and even though Dad is technically PIC, I'm
>left seat and he's trying to see how many NBD/VORs he can pick up on his
>handheld.  I tell Dad that I am really not comfortable landing this thing
at
>night, in traffic, so he takes the yoke and asks me to get clearance.  What
>happened next was classic!  Went something like this:
>
>Me:  "Approach, this is Cessna 150 November-two-three-eight-three-echo,
>requesting clearance.  I have ATIS zebra"
>
>Approach:  "83 echo, squawk 283"
>Approach:  "Cessna 83 echo, you're third in the box.  I'll put you in
behind
>Southwest 330 for runway 28 left.  He's that 737 on your 2 o'clock.
>
>Me:  "Ah...roger, approach.  I have a visual."
>
>(Dad's ears perk up at the mention of the '37.  He looks over at me and
sees
>the sweat on my forehead and asks, "Did he say he was going to put you
>behind that SWA bird?  Hell, you can't put a 150 this close in behind an
>aircraft that big!")
>
>Approach:  "83 echo, can you pick up the airspeed a bit?  I've got a Lear
45
>on your 6 that needs 140 knots."
>
>Dad to me: (unrepeatable)
>
>Dad to Approach:  "Approach, 83 echo.  Request terminate clearance or clear
>for 28 right.  This is a 150, I couldn't get 140 knots with a 60 knot
>tailwind!"
>
>Approach:  "83 echo.  Say again and squawk ident.  This is not the same
>individual I was speaking with prior.  You were not cleared to land."
>
>Dad: "Approach, 83 echo.  This is pilot-in-command.  You were speaking with
>my right seat.  If we follow that southwest 37 I'm pretty sure I'm going to
>have problems with wake turbulence.  If I don't get out of this pattern
>right now I'm going to have a learjet enema."
>
>Approach: "83 echo...ah...ok...turn right, heading 120, climb 3000.  We'll
>see about getting you in the pattern for 28 right."
>
>We landed on 28R and I fully expected the taxiway people to ask us to
report
>to Flight Services, but nobody said boo.  I asked Dad about it later and he
>said he always reserves the right to opt out of the assignment.  I guess
>it's just my "controller as god" mentality.  He said that if a controller
>puts you in a tough spot and you stick it, it's YOUR arse in the casket,
not
>his.  That's why I don't fly class B airspace.  To damn much heavy metal in
>the air for me!  ;>)
>
>Anyway, I'd be happy to go over and show you the plane if you want to come
>down (after the Michigan/OSU game ;>)  ).  If I were you, though, I'd pass
>on this one and just rent until spring.
>
>BTW--Dad and I went pheasant hunting Saturday at the WMA.  I got lost in a
>sorghum field (of course).  I tell you what, I'm getting gimpier by the
day.
>I could only hunt about a half an hour before the pain got too bad and I
had
>to stop.  I felt bad because Dad had so been looking forward to us getting
>out (just like old times, he said).  He was so incredibly gracious.  I
>noticed that he kept glancing at me limping and he said, "Those grandbabies
>wore my ass out.  How's about we just pack it in?"  Now I knew this was a
>crock because he'd just done one of those geezer marathons two weeks ago
and
>Mom was bragging about how well he'd done.  Guess he just wanted to help me
>save face.  How I hate this wretched old body  ;>).
>
>The tears really flowed when he left Laura and the kids, and then again
when
>I left him at the gate.  I know he loves Florida, but I still get so damn
>mad at him sometimes for moving away.
>
>Well, let me know what you want to do about that airplane.  See if you can
>get your club plane in the next couple weeks and fly down.
>
>Are you going to Florida for Christmas?  We'd like to, but I can't scrape
>the jack together for plane fare for everyone--and I'm sure not gonna drive
>24 hours down I-75 with every other goober east of the Mississippi.
>
>Take care.  Give Cheryl and the girls a big kiss and a hug for me.
>
>I love you and I miss you (even if Mom does like you better).
>
>-Kyle