Re: Any pilots?
Private pilot SEL (high-power) and glider. Only have a couple hundred hours time. Also a handful of hours stick time on Hueys (simulator, UH1 and AH1 cobra) as a flight surgeon. Stopped flying in 2001 as the airspace requirements around DC got more insane after the terrorist attacks and one of my instructors bought the farm doing imminent stall practice on takeoff ON TAKEOFF and pancaked in killing himself and another instructor. Took my breath away. Then there was the rich entitled dentist on the eastern shore, some Air Nat'l Guard General who would fly his fucking Pitts into a landing pattern, right over my head and land ahead of me (and anyone else) while I was powering up for takeoff. He finally landed on TOP of another plane out at Easton, FAA fined him, but didn't take his ticket despite the - probably - thousands of complaints against him. The my kids lost interest in going out for $100 hamburgers with Dad on the weekends. The wife lost interest when had to fly a rental 172 back home without electrics once - family slept through it, I landed safely without lights using a backup radio I could only transmit on, receiver side decided to die. Six of one, half dozen of another, you know? Turn around, ground the plane, contact flight ops, wait for them to fly out a mechanic, take the bus home from Virginia Beach, or just fly the damned thing - no flaps, nothing, - into the very margin of civil twilight into Lee Airport at Annapolis. Figured with that kind of luck I'd stay grounded for a while. Sold my cozy Mk IV garage project plane with about 1800 hours into it and invested in machine guns for a couple years. Made a nice profit. But damn I miss flying.