My dear fellow, I think you’ve got the wrong idea. You want to be starting to think of reasons why you are really not suitable to fly a Battle. In fact, if you give up flying now, your licence may not be current by the time it’s ready to fly. Unless you are desperate to fly an overweight, underpowered, unstable death trap.

Ah, but you’re talking about a Combat spec Battle. This one wont have guns, bombs, ammo, 1940’s radio etc etc… so will be much lighter for a start. Less weight should improve stability.

Mind you, your description of the Battle could easily apply to a number of planes I have flown, so no problem there really! 😀

I bought my 6 year old Daughter a Pink Camo Flying suit in the US this year!

We must think alike, I got my 7 year old Son a flying suit at Old Warden last year. It wasn’t Pink though!

Also just found him a really nice US style leather look flying jacket at Adams in Ely. Has Mig28(?) andTop Gun stlye patches on it and looks like genuine aged leather (its actually vinyl)…..for £12!! I was so jealous, I wanted one in my size but they only go up to age 10 🙁 Get your Daughter one! :p Here’s a link:

http://adams.co.uk/shop/product/products_id/2074.html

Flying suit:

Anything aerobatic
Anything in which it would be easy to lose a pen or something which could easily jam the controls (old stuff)

Civvies:

Spamcans!

AJ, I love your simplistic approach. However I now have a major dilema, what do I wear when I fly a Cessna Aerobat? Its both aerobatic and a spam can! :confused: Maybe a flying suit with a tweed jacket over the top? Maybe there is a market for flame retardant flying suits designed to look like the classic jeans/jumper combination 😀 I’m really confused now.

There has been some sort of stigma about flying suits in general aviation for years. Even when I worked at Duxford you were called a “wannabe” or a “poser” if you dared wear a flying suit in anything smaller than a Harvard.

I have to agree with the safety issues raised in the previous posts though. Its common sense to wear something that could give you some protection in the event of a fire, even better if it has built in knee boards, pen holders and zip pockets to stop yer loose change falling out.

I heard that this ‘race’ was banned in the UK, obviously for good reason.. :rolleyes:

That is a really dumb statement to make. That accident could have happened anywhere. Simply two aircraft racing who lost sight of each other on a turn, and sadly collided. Could have happened in Reno or even at the Schneider trophy in the UK last week.

If AERO GP is banned in the UK, I would imagine its got something to do with civilian aircraft carrying and dropping explosive ordinance. The racing they do is no more dangerous than the air races flown in the UK.

They also have a new employee collecting the inflated landing fee’s………..

You’ll have to take me for a spin! 😮 😀

Are you doing it in the Aerobat?

Yeah, Kilo Foxtrot is the machine in question, which is great as I dont have the hassle or expence of converting to a new type. Its also surprisingly versitile for a little Cessna. I have had aerobatic rides in P51’s, P40’s, a T28 and Chipmunks and the 152 is every bit as entertaining.

One thing that made me smile is on the 1st lesson we did wingovers amongst other things. I mentioned that Mark Hanna had taught me those about 20 years ago in a Pilatus P2 so I was asked to demonstrate one. The one I did was ok but perhaps a bit too aggressive. Ironic as Mark complained that I was not aggressive enough at the time!

The first thing any good instructor will ask is “Have you flown before?” If the answer is “yes” they will then talk to you to establish what knowledge you have and what sort of person you are. It may appear to be just an informal chat, but in reality they will be building a picture of the type of person they are dealing with….is this person competent, trustworthy and capable or are they trying to sound more experienced than they really are.

I would imagine WB’s instructor (who I know quite well) formed the opinion that he had a good understanding of how to preflight an aircraft, and that he would have the common sense to ask if there was something he was unsure of or couldn’t find. If there was any doubt about his capabilities, his instructor would have done the checks with him.