Fujifilm Acros 100, Neopan 400 & Provia 400X availability

Life's a bitch, then you die

Roger Cole said:

Here's the photo of my wife from our honeymoon last year, flying kites on Jockey's Ridge at Kitty Hawk, Pentax MX, Vivitar Series 1 28-105..

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Dead Link Removed by Roger Cole, on Flickr

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Based on your Subscriber Photo all I can say is how did a guy like you get a girl like that!
PS I'm a Pentax man myself and I can't say my Pentax MX does much to attract such women.

brianmquinn said:

Based on your Subscriber Photo all I can say is how did a guy like you get a girl like that!
PS I'm a Pentax man myself and I can't say my Pentax MX does much to attract such women.

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What can I say? She says she likes the rugged masculine type and thinks I'm that - she also took that subscriber photo and bought the hat I'm wearing so...

She does like artists, a published author herself (she has a poem in the September issue of Asimov's!) and being a photographer helped, but she isn't very interested in gadgets so I don't think the MX did it either. Taking her on a site seeing flight around the lake in a 172 in the first month we started dating helped more.

Ah so I see that a that all I need is a Cessna. Silly me to think a camera body or lens would do it.

I don't own one either. I'm a renter when it comes to flying!

Roger Cole said:

I don't own one either. I'm a renter when it comes to flying!

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Shhh..... she doesn't have to know

Oh she knows - but is encouraging about my owning a plane or share in a partnership some day and never says a word about what photo gear and materials I buy.

I have a feeling buying a plane is in the same territory as buying a boat. Course the latter doesn't usually involve boating clubs and renting out, hence engine hours get covered, but still.

Further OT but - decent used plane in that category can be had for the price of a new SUV or mid sized decked out sedan, less if you settle for visual flight only. The problems are the fixed cost of ownership (tie down outdoors is fairly cheap, hangars vary from not bad to outrageous or completely unavailable depending on area, insurance and annual inspection) and, far worse, maintenance costs. Splitting these anong 2-4 owners makes it a lot mare manageable and it's better for the plane to fly regularly anyway.

Just curious, what does it cost to rent a plane?

Depends on the plane and area. The 172 in question is $124/hour plus 6% sales tax. Hours are based on a meter that runs off oil pressure - you pay for the time the engine is running so if you fly to lunch somewhere you don't pay for time sitting on the ground not running. Most places have overnight minimums though which can make multi day trips prohibitive for renters.

Roger Cole said:

Depends on the plane and area. The 172 in question is $124/hour plus 6% sales tax. Hours are based on a meter that runs off oil pressure - you pay for the time the engine is running so if you fly to lunch somewhere you don't pay for time sitting on the ground not running. Most places have overnight minimums though which can make multi day trips prohibitive for renters.

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So if you get enough altitude, you can switch the engine off for a short time and glide, thus saving money. Very interesting.

I'm a semi nervous flier (despite well over 250,000 miles flown, at least), and cannot imagine flying my own plane.

RattyMouse said:

So if you get enough altitude, you can switch the engine off for a short time and glide, thus saving money. Very interesting.

I'm a semi nervous flier (despite well over 250,000 miles flown, at least), and cannot imagine flying my own plane.

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You've been watching too many action movies with airplane stunts in them


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Roger - you can hire a 172 for 124 p/h???? In Sydney the price is around 210 p/h!

spatz said:

Roger - you can hire a 172 for 124 p/h???? In Sydney the price is around 210 p/h!

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Less in some places, a bit more in others. Those are early 1980s vintage P models. The newer ones are more, but not THAT much more, about $15/hour. I know we're very lucky in the US in that general aviation is still (barely, and often with sacrifices) within reach of the middle class professional. Much of the reason comes down to lower fees (no user fees for ATC services, at least so far and we've been able to fight it off every time since we pay a fuel tax for that) and taxes resulting in less expensive fuel. Fuel is outrageous here (about $6 gallon +/- a dollar if you avoid the really big operations that really don't want piston engine business anyway and price to keep you away) but not as much as in most of the rest of the world. That price, BTW, is "wet" meaning fuel included. If you refuel away from the place you rented you save the receipt and they knock the cost off the rental (up to the discounted price THEY pay for fuel where I fly, which means you pay a little more to refuel away, but not that much.)

I've been flying a rental Mooney lately. More money per hour ($154 plus tax) but it's about 30 knots faster to make up for the $30 more, so on a cross country it costs the same or less, gets you there and back faster, and builds my time in "complex" aircraft (retractable landing gear and adjustable prop.)

As for shutting off and gliding - that's not really practical, nor safe, to do routinely and repeatedly. Plus those frequent restarts and the relatively rapid cooling of the engine on the way down would not be good for it. When we practice engine out forced landings as students and later for refresher we just do it at idle throttle.

And to make this photography related, I have shot photos from the air, even when I was a student pilot on solo flights, but never so far with film, only digital, so not suitable for posting here. My wife and I took a ride in the restored Ford Tri-Motor belonging to the Experimental Aircraft Association and I shot some photos with my Yashica 124, but I haven't developed that roll yet.