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Tell me, does EVERYONE get this hankering to look at airplanes and dream of owning their own as soon as the flying bug hits?

YES

I've been doing this for years...my family think I have some serious screws loose. Are they right?

NO. I think people who are NOT interested in flying are the ones with the 'loose screws'.

Charlie Rowlett
Southern California, USA

Thanks very much to everyone, and also for some very interesting ideas. I am working on getting the medical now, and the outcome of that will determine what I do next.

Thanks very much to all also who offered to show me around if I am ever in their areas...most gracious and kind of you! And I look forward enormously to meeting some of you on the East Coast if that works out for everyone when I visit in the spring. Thank you to all!

It looks like it is quite a bit easier and more affordable to own and fly a plane in America than it is to do so here. In the area I live, there is a several year long waiting list for hangar space, and the spectre always looms over Kjeller Airport of being shut down to make room for housing. Located as it is near Oslo, it is in a high pressure area. What keeps it going is the fact that the F-16s continue to have certain parts of the servicing done at the far end of the runway. When they are gone, the Armed Forces will almost certainly sell the airfield to the highest bidder, regardless of its history. There's been alot in the aviation press here lately about the future fate of Kjeller...and there seems to be a sort sense of resignation and inevitability over it. It is some years in to the future as yet, but most people seem to feel that the day will come when there will no longer be an airfield here. So with the congestion, lack of hangar space and exorbitant costs of insurance and annuals, and servicing that already prevail here, I think airplane ownership in Norway is out of the question for me. Here if you are going to fly, unless you are quite wealthy or own your own land whereby you can put in a farm strip (assuming you can get planning permission), it makes more sense to do group ownership or rent from a flying club. But this flying club has alot of members, and not all that many planes, so again, you have to wait your turn.

No, I am thinking it makes more sense to try to do this in my own country...the good old US of A. It is getting more expensive there too, but by comparison to most other places, it is still land of opportunity in many respects, still a place where a "can do" attitude prevails. Yes, I will probably need to get into group ownership there or at the very least, a trusted partner or some kind of agreement with a club or something to keep the plane healthy and ticking over (I understand it is not good for them to just sit)...but it would have the benefits of getting me home more often than I do now, and just that in itself will make me far less ratty to live with!

So I hope I manage to pass this medical. Nearing fifty, I am at the age when bits and pieces start wearing out and busting...though I don't see how I could keep shoveling heavy snow and lifting feed sacks and hay bales if I was that frail!

Wish me luck. And I might just call on that Aeronca, depending on what the medical says. Knowing my luck (I know Murphy really, really well, much better than I want to :-( )....they'll find something wrong, and I'll only be able to do LSA...in which case, with the heavier engine, this one will probably not qualify! Nor will I be allowed to fly a 150...........

well, must be optimistic!!!!

Thanks again to all,

Jennifer in Norway

If you are willing to jump. You can see how many of us are here to help catch you.

As an oldest child, I had the responsibility gene. That guilt continually delayed my flying. My wife told me at one point. As long as you can afford it, I'm ok with having a plane. What a sweetheart. I knew I'd chosen well.

If you get near Oshkosh Wisconsin, let me know. Cathie and I would like to meet you and will provide the lodging, plane ride, EAA tour, and our specialty, the friday lunch fly in.

I just got my medical a couple of months ago and it was pretty simple here in the US. I'm counting weeks to get to the big 5-0. Unless you know there's something wrong already, I don't think you'll have a problem with a 3rd class medical. You just have to find the right AME.

Where would you base your plane? It is true that it's not good for it to just sit for long periods of time. I would want the engine turned over at least once a week, and preferably the plane should actually fly so the engine does more than just turn for a few minutes.

You can keep it up here

There are basics to tailwheel airplane operation that are common to all conventional geared planes. Get the basics nailed down and you can fly just about anything safely. Dancing on the rudder pedals, keeping the stick back on the ground, looking ahead for the straight line reference, speed control on final, using brakes only for the runup and never stop maintaining positive rudder control until the plane is in the hangar are a few of the good habits to cultivate. I have over four thousand hours of tailwheel airplanes in DC-3s, L-18 and L-12 Loadstars, D-18s, Pitts Skybolts and most GA airplanes. The basics apply to all of them. I flew with Dick Fischer here at SMX in a Taylorcraft L-2 for tailwheel currency prior to first flight in our C-150TD, and it prepared me quite well. The only difference was the landing attitude, something you can get by sitting in your airplane. You should poll some the other 150TD owners on the forum, they helped me with the transition from a nose wheel eqipped 150 to landing the same plane converted to tailwheel.