1975

[Cat Driver]

No GPS - VOR/ADF was it.

Ahh, but we had the Radio Range and the receiver was affordable. The first item on an IFR rating ride was assuring that you could read morse code.

As to cost, yes it was never cheap in 1953 I had to pay the 8-10 dollars an hour from my pay driving a delivery truck for $35.00 a week.

[Prairie Chicken]

Ah, Cowboy McKlosky and Captain Ace McCool are blasts from the past! Although those were good days, I have to agree with Hedley--I wouldn't want to go back to that type of flying. Thanks for the post!

[trey kule]

bobm posted

I married the one on the far right. I will let her tell the story though.....

she looks a bit young bob!

Lots of great things , both in the past and present. Interesting though, that while we might make our living flying the newest and greatest, when it is for pure recreation many of us turn to the oldies...which I have noticed, are actually shrinking. I used to be able to jump in one of those little rascals in a flash.. Now they seem to have shrunk so much that getting in should almost require a license endorsement. Any of you other old types noticed that.

The article did bring back some great memories, including the back page stories of DEI and AM. in Canadian Aviator, or whatever it was called. Like Doc I dont read flying anymore. I got a bit disallussioned when the flying articles evaluating aircraft morphed in to comparing them to a specific car..I understand advertising revenues but that was a bit much for me.

In any event, thanks for taking the time to post the article. It brought back some great memories.

[Doc]

Ah, Cowboy McKlosky and Captain Ace McCool are blasts from the past! Although those were good days, I have to agree with Hedley--I wouldn't want to go back to that type of flying. Thanks for the post!

Kind of disagree with you there Chicken. We used to rent a 150 just to fly to a nearby airport for a slice of pie. The flying in the '70's was FUN. The way it was meant to be.
"Chrome plated triple, Nickel Eight-Ball Ten, you have the nod to hit the sod......"
If I could grab a small aircraft today, and just bug off to the Bahamas, with no hassle, like I did in the '70's, I'd go tomorrow. The world has become a shit hole, run by anal retentive folks who have long since lost any semblance of a sense of humour. General aviation (you know...the FUN part of the industry???) is gone forever. Thank you government. Thank you Canadian Sheep. Keep thinking "Big Brother" knows best. Folks, it's totally "Big Brother's" fault it's as screwed up as it is!
1975? Bring it back!

[mrsbitchy]

Ya Doc, to be 10 again and doing chandelles and hammerheads with Dad! But at least flying the MU2 has still kept the fun in flying. Hedley, it was Bill Whaley that taught Lisa, Cathy (and tried to teach mom, lol) to fly, and Cathy worked two summers for Bert! Both Bert and Dad made sure we were all able to take planes and cars apart and put them back together again, before we were allowed to drive/fly. My first sail boat ride too (and capsize) was in Bill Whaley’s boat. Time flies. btw Doc, Bob still loves your biker chicks

[Hedley]

it was Bill Whaley that taught ...

Bill Whaley was an incredible person. Quiet and incredibly generous with his time. He just loved to fly Hound Dog Charlie, his Piper Tri-pacer (loved flying it to Oshkosh and Timmins) and instruct on the Cessnas. CFI for 30 years. They don't make them like Bill any more.

It was a sentimental trip for me, to help Bill's son get his rotary-engine-powered homebuilt flying recently, and to get him checked out on tailwheel. On numerous occasions I felt like saying to him, "You should know all this stuff! You're Bill Whaley's son!"

[Doc]

Ya Doc, to be 10 again and doing chandelles and hammerheads with Dad! But at least flying the MU2 has still kept the fun in flying. Hedley, it was Bill Whaley that taught Lisa, Cathy (and tried to teach mom, lol) to fly, and Cathy worked two summers for Bert! Both Bert and Dad made sure we were all able to take planes and cars apart and put them back together again, before we were allowed to drive/fly. My first sail boat ride too (and capsize) was in Bill Whaley’s boat. Time flies. btw Doc, Bob still loves your biker chicks

This one's for Bob!

[bobm]

trey k: I waited until she was 21! I do have to say though...Christmas in Smiths Falls with Laurie and the six sisters partying...I could not keep up. I took earplugs so I could sleep now and then.

Doc! Thanks again!

[Big Pistons Forever]

BPF, not an attempt at "one upmanship" but I paid 16$ an hour WET for a NEW 150! It was one of the pretty (?) "Discover FLYING" green and orange ones. They were indeed the hay day of general aviation in this country. Today....not so good. We used to have FUN!!!!

The first airplane I owned was a 1969 150 with the incredibly ugly original pastel green and orange "Discover Flying" paint scheme. I can only marvel at what drugs the designer must have been on . I bought it in 1990 for $8500 and sold it 4 years and 300 hrs later for $11,000. The reason I sold it was because my home airport had gone to transponder required airspace and I was unwilling to spend almost $2000 dollars to fit one. Hard to believe there was a time when a 30 year old full time regular line flying instructor could afford to own his own airplane....

[Doc]

BPF, I think it was Champion Aviation who tried to market a Champ with a 65hp two cylinder Franklin engine around the end of the '60's. They were about 6500$ NEW! Times, they are a changing....

[Big Pistons Forever]

BPF, I think it was Champion Aviation who tried to market a Champ with a 65hp two cylinder Franklin engine around the end of the '60's. They were about 6500$ NEW! Times, they are a changing....

I saw one of those in the mid 70's I think. Leggat's had imported one of the first ones made and were on a road show with it. The owner opened up the cowl to check the oil and my first thought was "where's the engine?" It was mostly open space except for the two little cylinders stuck right up at the front. My understanding is not many of the these were ever made and most have been converted to Continentals.

[Hedley]

The world has become a shit hole

That's a bit of a sweeping statement. One thing is certain: things change. Some things get better, some things get worse.

I remember when the muscle car era came to an end in the early 1970's. Emission controls, catalytic converters, 5 mph bumpers, Ralph Nader, the Arab oil crisis of 1974. The fun was all over, we were told. No more performance cars. Boy, were they wrong about that. The performance cars of today are 10x better than the 60's muscle cars.

And motorcycles. Holy Christ. You can buy a 300 kph crotch rocket that will do the quarter mile in under 10 seconds for $5000 today. The technology in crotch rockets today is simply incredible. They make old motorcycles look like junk in comparison.

I like my composite propellers in my aerobatic airplanes. We didn't have them back then - the aerobatic airplanes of today make the aerobatic airplanes of 1975 look ridiculous. I am quite fond of my ANR headset, my portable GPS, my fuel totalizer, my smartphone that I can read email on and browse the internet with.

Remember back in the 1950's and 1960's when people built radiation bomb shelters? Even in the 1970's and 1980's we were told that any minute, the world might be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust if a trigger finger got itchy in the Soviet Union, which history tells us nearly happened. Every day, we were told, could be our last day - we were ground zero for the next Hiroshima.

Things change, Doc. It's a bad habit of people to remember only the good, and forget the bad.

Nostalgia just isn't what it used to be

[ogc]

it was Bill Whaley that taught ...

rotary-engine-powered homebuilt flying recently

What kind of Rotary?

If my Mazda experience has taught me anything it would be to never put one of those motors in an airplane

[Hedley]

Yup, a Mazda 13B aka wankel engine, from an RX-7. It took quite a bit of work to develop a cooling system that would keep the temps down to acceptable values.

I did the flight testing in it because no one else would. The rayban/brown-leather-jacket crowd sure talk a good game, but they always seem to disappear when a different or challenging aircraft needs to be flown.

Pilots these days have extremely narrow skill sets, IMHO. They only fly one (at most two) different types, and two is a real mental stretch. To be trained to fly a new type requires that they fly to some exotic locale to the type gurus who administer weeks of ground and flight training on the new and mysterious type with hitherto-unknown characteristics and systems.

Male Bovine excrement. I regularly fly at least 15 radically different types of aircraft, and according to many people here, I'm not much of a stick compared to them, so what's the big deal?

[ogc]

Yup, a Mazda 13B aka wankel engine, from an RX-7. It took quite a bit of work to develop a cooling system that would keep the temps down to acceptable values.

Those engines love running hot, drinking oil, vapour lock and flooding.

But they sure do make a lot of power for how much they weigh...

Although he must have a massive reduction gearbox because they are torqueless wonders and make zero power down low.

I would never have thought someone would use one as an aircraft engine...

What kind of kit is this?

[Hedley]

I would never have thought someone would use one as an aircraft engine

Apparently there are quite a few people doing it. It sees nearly 6,000 RPM on takeoff. It sounds really odd, a bit like an ultralight, but with doppler (which no ultralight has) because it flies much faster than any ultralight (see below).

Personally, I woulda used an O-360 Lycoming.

Ultralights: they scare me. A collection of lawn chair tubing and bedsheets, powered by a chain saw engine. I was once flying close formation in the winter on an ultralight that tried to go 90 mph. The doors blew off and went throught the pusher prop. Shards of plexiglas in the bright winter sunlight everywhere. The ultralight landed on a frozen lake below. It had no choice - the prop was chewed down to around 11 inches in diameter.

Ultralights scare me. Surface level aerobatics is much, much safer.

[Beefitarian]

Tough decision for sure.
I like hedley's 2008 telephone with the bird slingshot and over 100 8-tracks in it. However
I rather like to tell how I entered the US&A without showing picture ID just because I was flying an airplane. I'm only going back to 1997.

[Hedley]

Heh. You think EAPIS is bad, try getting an OC from Transport. Strap yourself in for years of paperwork Hell.

[Doc]

Ah Hedley, anybody can ride a GSX750R, fast. Can you ride a 441 Victor, fast? Most folks today couldn't even get one running! There is NO doubt we have improvements in technology today, we only dreamed about in the "60's, and '70's, and most are guilty of only remembering the good......but, I'll maintain that general aviation was simpler, less hassle, more attainable to the average "Joe", and just more "fun" than it is today.
The slowest F1 car of today could "eat" Jimmy Clark's Lotus....but that's not always the point, is it?

[Hedley]

anybody can ride a GSX750R, fast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUYyiTqkH-A

[Beefitarian]

Ah Hedley, anybody can ride a GSX750R, fast.

You must be forgetting, that's what a lot of people thought in 1985 and that was why there was such good deals on low mileage used ones that didn't get crashed in the first month.

Headley's right mostly. I don't want to lose all the great toys from the last 5 years or so. I just want these young TSA people to get off my lawn!

[Hedley]

I don't want to lose all the great toys from the last 5 years or so

Yes, remember that toys are what make our nation great.

I just want these young TSA people to get off my lawn!

Blatant heresy follows:

I know the government is trying to (appear to) keep us safe. However, one has to wonder if the cure is sometimes worse than the disease.

It is the responsibility of every citizen to oppose the natural tendency of government to grow endlessly, without boundaries. Not unlike a vine that needs pruning, governments need to be reined in every now and then.

Unfortunately Canada does not have a very good track record of performing this citizenship duty. Rather the opposite, in fact. Canada is the poster child for apathy, and that's not good. Freedom surely ain't free.

Canada has never had a revolution, and while that is in keeping with our mild-mannered nature, is not always a good thing.

[Beefitarian]

We might need a new thread for this.

Since Diefenbaker cancelled the arrow and tied our dingy to the US&A's aircraft carrier, mounting this revolution might be tougher than a loud protest and beaver pelt collecting boycott of days gone by.

Off to the American aquired "Canadian tire" for some rakes and pitch forks?

[ez4u2say]

In order to appreciate both worlds of aviation, old vs new, you pretty well have had to had the opportunity of experiencing them personally as most the old timers here have...I know myself that I preferred the old times..and could probably write a book on it...if I could write..

[Pirate Pilot]

Well, I had a matching numbers orginal 1969 Mach 1 Mustang 428 c.i. with the "shaker hood" that I sold in 1982 for $5000. In order to buy a 1968 177 Cardinal for $11,000. Sold the Cardinal in about 1986 for $16,000. The car would now be worth what? + 60,000. The plane? who knows but probably 35, to $40,000. Go find a new SRT 8 Challenger or an SS Camaro and take it for a ride. Much nicer, faster and stronger, steers where you point it and STOPS when it is supposed to.
If I want a little trip to nostalgia land I just need to go up to the airport and climb into the 1962 182 that we regularly fly. Nothing has changed there.