6.01.2012

roll (pitch, yaw) call

Current Mood: hov'ring high in the sunlit silence

Let's shake things up a bit, shall we?

Here's a list of all of the significant airplanes in my life and career.  Not a list of my favorites (that would be a very long list) - but the ones that I have flown or worked on or otherwise interacted with.  They are near and dear to my heart, and even though there are faster or bigger or more dangerous planes out there, they will always be special to me.  With any luck, this list will get a whole lot longer before I'm done.

Cessna 152
In high school I started taking flying lessons, after school and paid for with my part time job.  I flew out of Clermont County Airport (LID), home of Sporty's Pilot Shop.  I completed most of ground school and my first solo flight (which I will never forget so long as I live), but unfortunately I ran out of time and money and didn't finish my training.  Some day, I would love to go back and earn my pilot's license.  This little plane was a single engine, high wing, tricycle gear GA classic and it was perfect - very forgiving, easy to handle, and fun to fly.

Boeing 727
FedEx donated this aircraft to Purdue University so that students in my major could beat the crap out of it learning to fix things, break things, turn things on, and turn things off.  It will probably never fly again, and some of the systems on there are disgusting, but boy if it isn't a hell of a lot of fun to mess around with.  I have crawled in, on, and around this thing all over and just seeing one in the sky makes me smile.

Cirrus SR20
Last semester I took a special maintenance course, and my primary job was taking care of 16 of these very new, very shiny airplanes.  They have an all glass cockpit with new digital displays, the engines have yet to be completely overhauled, and our highest priority was maintaining these to the highest standard - because they were used as the training fleet for our university's flight program.  I got to learn from some very skilled mechanics working on them and they are beautiful!

Boeing 737
This airplane is the flagship of Southwest Airlines, where I currently intern in the Maintenance Department (Technical Publications) as a technical writer.  I've flown in one a few times, and currently all of my work has to do with the systems and structure of these planes.  It is a workhorse, and I suspect most people would not believe the amount of work it takes to approve and ready these for flight every single day.  Gotta keep an eye out for any of the special paint jobs (called liveries) that Southwest is famous for.



http://burisonthecouch.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/shamu1.jpg
Do not ask me to board this plane.


2 comments:

  1. This is fun!!! Glad to hear your internship and studies are so super hands on. Would also love to see the list of your fave planes :D

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  2. Thanks Genia! Maybe I'll make up a list of some of my plane favorites for a later post :)

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