Warbird Information Exchange

Jill Manka wants to earn her pilot's license, but she also wants to do it in her own airplane. She put her flight instruction on hold and bought an Aeronca Champ, and she has spent the past two years working to restore it. "I've always been a 'get your hands dirty' kind of girl," she said.

http://www.generalaviationnews.com/2013 ... ng-to-fly/

Congratulations to her for having something sadly lacking in younger people these days-initiative.
A nice little 7AC is perfect to learn in!

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

I like this line from one of the responses:

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

In my experience, it's a good way for a student to start out, no matter what they will fly later on.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

Have about 300hr. of instructor time in various Champ/Aeronca products. Excellent plane
to learn in.. Remember fondly being passed by freeway traffic due to headwinds in a particularly
anemic 7AC (65 hp-maybe) ...
Good on her!!

Nice story, hope she's succesful!

I've met plenty of young people interested in aviation with lots of initiative. However, it's not (only) initiative that makes plane fly, it's money, and they didn't have that. And an A&P boyfriend as in this case is very handy too.

Very tempting to tint the reading glasses too rosy in this case....

Excellent choice!

I got my license with the Air Cadets in a Piper Cherokee. Then my Dad flew with me and I think he was secretly appalled. Shortly after that I announced I wanted to fly for a living, and we made a deal to buy a Citabria and for me to foot the costs of further training, to be repaid whenever I got a decent job in aviation.

Then he worked with me relentlessly and I discovered Airmanship, and the Rudder. The fact that I'm flying warbirds now is directly attributable to that time in the Citabria.

Dave

I love Aeroncas, luckily was taught to fly in them and soloed in an 11AC. Kinda like getting a multi in an Apache, you just learn a lot of critical things at minute levels otherwise it just won't work.
Chris...