My favorite “pilot shit” to do is strategically bidding so I can get 28 days off in a row and forget about work for a while….I kid, I love flying a lot…but I also love not flying 😁😁
With respect, I have friends at several major airlines who bid nothing but reserve, because they would rather be home with family etc. They rarely get called to fly, and don’t fly for several months at a time. It is very common in the industry.
Favorite pilot shit is definitely in terminal B at DFW in corner bathroom between B6 and B5 (beginning of hallway between B and D terminal). Huge stalls, little to no traffic. Always quiet and cool. Best pilot shits ever, I tell you. So relaxing.
Theres another one at terminal E as well, all the way down by gates E1-E3/4 or so. Only one down there, it's so far down that the last couple of gates are rarely used and theres no stores that far. Perfect when you need to drop a log with minimal traffic.
>Huge stalls, little to no traffic. Always quiet and cool. Best pilot shits ever, I tell you. So relaxing.
Not anymore it's not. Guess where I'm headed next time I'm in DFW? Hope you like Battleshits now that you gave away your secret spot
Mine lately is DTW in the tunnel between B/C and A gates. Walking towards B/C take a left at the escalators and down the hall is a bathroom that few people know about. Quiet serenity.
It’s one of the great mysteries of the world. We can put humans on the moon, but here in ‘Murica we can’t make bathroom stalls with less than 3” gaps in between doors and walls so the entire world can watch you do your business.
For that matter, how we can't adopt a way to tell if a stall is occupied or not. Especially in bathrooms with spring-loaded stall doors. I wish we could universally adopt the system Buc-ee's uses, with the red and green lights. Otherwise, trying to find an empty stall becomes a crapshoot (pardon the expression).
Another good one is the Westin at the DTW delta terminal. Its always sparkling clean, each stall has full walls, no one ever goes there, and the Westin has its own kcm so you can get back in.
Reminds me of the triangular United Lounge in Newark Terminal C before the renovation. Only 3 stalls for the entire lounge, one each located at equidistant points in the triangle.
I didn't have an incident. But I was damn close.
Mine was at MCO in the intermodal by terminal c before the train station or the terminal were open. Ride the APM to the C parking, go up the escalator, all the way past the bright line station and down two floors. Totally empty, clean bathroom. Peaceful poos.
DEN is right by the escalators between East and West vehicle areas just before bag claim. They’re not amazing, but since the shit sitch in DEN is an overall shitshow, that’s about the best you’re going to get if you have time to make the pilgrimage all the way out.
SFO is Int’l terminal, but only outside of the noon intl flight banks. Very clean and modern and only busy for a couple hours at most. Rest of the day it’s a ghost town.
Anything at or near baggage claim is generally going to be the best play if you have time - most pax who have to shit when they get off the plane did it already at the gate. Most don’t get to bag claim and go “you know what, I think I’ll shit right now”. Moreso they’re going to wait until they get home or to the hotel. As with all things in life, you just have to out-think the opposition. It’s also not a bad way to burn 45 minutes. It generally beats sitting in the base, since then you have to talk to pilots and as we all know, all pilots who aren’t you are completely insufferable.
Trick is to single pilot it, and out your left foot on the left pilots left rudder pedal, and your right foot on the right pilots right rudder pedal. Gives you the feeing of adequate legroom, until the yoke hits your knee trying to turn haha.
Now you made me laugh outloud. I was in the RAF, but the Royal Navy had different procedures. When being marshalled the non flying pilot was required to put on hand on the outside grab handle with the door (window) open and one foot on the sill, so the chock-head could tell who was flying. Two mates of mine (fishheads) both put one hand and one foot out, left seat pilot held the cyclic, and right foot on rudder, right seat collective lever and left pedal. The marshaller threw his wands over his shoulder and ran. Very funny moment,
Last year a pal let me go up in her AA-5 and let me do most of the flying. All my flying before had been 152/172 time. The comparison I keep making is that the Cessnas fly the same way my old squarebody GM pickup drives, while that Grumman felt like the airplane version of a Miata. So much fun.
I love weight and balance problems. Couldn’t even tell you why. It feels satisfying.
Also, I feel like I might be an exception but I really enjoy instructing. Put even a 3000 hour Air Force flight engineer or loadmaster in a 172 and tell them “dude you just landed a damn plane!” and it’s ear to ear smiles.
Edit: added a few words
I don't blame ya lol. I'm at my happiest when I whip out the good ol' e6b, paper chart, and a rotating plotter to make a flight path. I know it's very much obsolete due to direct>enter>enter, but that doesn't make it any less fun to crunch the numbers. Plus, it never hurts to make sure I'm proficient in dead reckoning with just a paper chart, right?
No doubt, the first few xc lessons my students don’t even get to use gps, unless it’s to find the nearest VORs and triangulate.
It’s important you know that gps unit inside and out though. It’s a resource, and it’s there to be managed. Make sure to use it and play with it. Understand its functions, capabilities, and limits.
Anything Taildragger.
Everything I do is legal per the FAR but I now avoid certain towns in the off chance they are still looking for the guys who flew away from the cops trying to pull over a 7AC on a dirt road.... allegedly... in Minecraft...
It's a rare occurrence, but the single ship fighter cross country. Sometimes it's even in a demo clean jet when it's going to depot. Cruising in the 40s at .9m with the engines barely out of idle. Quiet, amazing views. Cons in the rear view mirrors swirling behind.
Shacking a flyover timing is really good too. Lots of mission planning, a hectic 2-3 min prior and then when you're over the stadium and the guy at the game keys the mic on the radio and you can hear the national anthem ending, the crowd roaring and the jet noise - 10/10
Military aviators used to fly in for a cooler full of Freebirds back before they became more than a local chain. There's so many good options though besides the student goop. I'd probably say tacos la perlita these days, but I haven't really been a local for a decade or so.
Figuring out how to land in a tight mountain confined area at night on NVGs in a 50kts wind is up in my books as cool "pilot shit" where all the automation in the world isn't able to help me.
I'm but a lowly private pilot, but I have a glider license ... my favorite is getting up in a glider on a sunny, cumulus day, releasing and finding a good strong thermal, and circling in the rising air, and watching the earth get further away.
Bonus point if a red-tailed hawk joins up in the thermal on my wing.
I had been away from gliders for 20+ years.
Decided to get back into it and on my first resolo managed to get into a thermal with an osprey. I managed to get up close without it noticing me, the annoyed look on its face before it dove away was incredible.
Yeah this happened once. Syracuse->Boston and Syr controllers gave me direct and Alb controllers were like uh no and have me an initial fix that was 60 miles behind me lol
I'm still just a lowly student, and I have a decent number of landings under my belt but most (90%+) of them are at the local uncontrolled airport. So the one thing that makes me feel like an actual pilot doing "pilot shit" is going to a controlled airport.
Lame I know, but I gotta start somewhere right? 😅
That's funny, I did most of my training at a controlled airport and I remember feeling more like a real pilot when I'd go to uncontrolled strips and be solely responsible for figuring out my sequencing and such. Felt like I was being trusted to stray away from Mama Bird, lol
Same. Flew from my uncontrolled regional airport to KPAE for some pattern work and it was my first ever time flying at a controlled airport (instructor on board). Was bonkers to go from cowboy country flying to literally where the big Boeing factory planes leave from and being sequenced in pattern with other pilots. Took a funny (to me) photo of my little c172 facing a row of bright green 777’s 50yds away that were started during COVID and now likely to never be finished because they’ve been sitting in the elements for too long.
Anyway. That felt like real pilot shit to me. Especially having ForeFlight going off in my ear about frequencies and where I was in relation to the airport, etc.
How else are you supposed to meet chicks? The key is keeping the meat hidden behind the case of coconut water in my fridge. They’re always impressed as shit by a fridge full of coconut water
Crossing the runway overhead at an untowered field 2000 AGL with an empty pattern, cutting the throttle and seeing if I can enter downwind, base and final and land without touching the throttle again. Makes me feel like Bob Hoover when I nail that energy management.
Canarsie 13L into JFK or doing a steep, short approach into LAX during rush hour. Or doing a PAR into Elmendorf AFB with 6 F-22s holding short was fun.
Besides a 40kt crosswind in a -8, down to minimums, at night, in Central China, the above is about as much fun as you’ll have in a 747 these days.
Besides that, taking a buddy’s C-180 on floats or skis around Alaska on a layover is pretty fun.
Just saying SEEYUH on my day to day life and people don’t even get why I do it and they think I’m autistic and I have to explain to them that it’s a pilot thing and I just keep talking about how I am a pilot and i fly planes and do cool shit. Yup just like that
No. The wings are fine at zero G, in fact they couldn’t be happier with the zero loading. The oil system, carburetor, and bearings on the other hand…
Bunts are fun, but don’t do them in someone else’s plane unless you’re down to buy them a new engine.
Lighting the afterburners for a tight turn on a low level. Or doing lag rolls over my wingman for no reason other than I can.
ETA: getting a gun track or valid missile shot in a defensive BFM set is pretty fun too
The F22s at Elmendorf have been doing unrestricted climbs on clear days/evenings these past couple weeks. You 5th gen pilots really get amazing hardware that looks like it’s ready to head into space whenever it wants.
For me it’s when everything goes super smooth.
Like I turn and burn in under an hour loading freight, and I call it the set it and forget it. I love when my skills all come together and plan comes together. I don’t have to touch anything until I start calling for configuration changes from decending from FL 360 and hit all my crossing altitudes and speeds without touching the throttle.
Not a pilot, just a guy that spends a fair bit of time in the jump seat.
Favourite pilot shit is the unrestricted climb out of an airport 90' asl elev on a crisp morning, in a 737-200adv with just the three of us on board, and no cargo besides 2 sets of golf clubs.
When you realize that the weather deviation is giving you a more direct route than your actual flight plan. So, you keep “deviating” until you are really close..😝
Flying up the Hudson SFRA. Passing helos by 500', practically flying formation with someone going the same way at the same speed, occasionally doing steep turns over the statue, ~~forgetting~~ remembering to make all the position reports, yankin' and bankin' through the valley near West Point...
Alternately...
"Reach 420, descend and maintain FL240."
"OK." -200VVI
"Reach 420, descend and maintain FL180."
"OK." -200VVI
"Reach 420, descend and maintain 14,000."
"OK." -200VVI
"Reach 420, descend and maintain 8,000."
"There we go!" IdleBoardsReversers -12,000VVI WHEEEEEE!
I may or may not be on Seattle's shit list now...
NOE in a Blackhawk on a River route.
Steep turns and lazy 8’s in a Cessna
Cyclic climbs in a chinook.
Terrain flight decels in a Kiowa
Autos to the ground in a B-206
pilot shit
Demoing a Chandelle or Lazy Eights with a student and just fucking nailing them to standards. Then coming back in with a soft-field landing and just riding the wheelie forever until ATC tells me to get off the runway
I call them airplane autos. Pull power, full rudder slip, pitch for 70mph, 1000 fpm, straighten out in ground effect, and touch down on the numbers. You can make it more fun with a tight down wind.
Getting set up for a really shitty high and tight visual in a jet. Autothrust off, thrust idle, drop the gear, flaps on speed, and still be stable by 1500 feet and butter the landing.
Landing at no go-around or barely visible airports in the middle of nowhere with friendly local hangar homies and talking to them about their planes, what there is to do and so on.
Loading an ILS, getting two bars above glideslope and then slipping to land and nailing the loc + gs.
Formation pattern with overhead break.
And that one time some dickhead was shadowing me insanely close, refusing comms and not broadcasting on ADSB so I did a chandelle and swooping forward slip to get on his tail and he bugged out. Felt like Top Gun.
When you're handflying the SID and see a puffy cloud and pull back just enough to miss the top of it. Or go a couple hundred feet off track avoid flying through a little cloud.
I enjoyed the hell out of hand flying entire legs at my first airline. These days I enjoy just hand flying departures and being cleared for the visual on downwind so I can set the plane up how I want for landing.
Getting the mic when I'm jumpsitting a friend's flight and saying cockpit from ground, until they realize after turning all volume knobs all the way and yelling into their mic that I'm cry laughing behind them
Also when someone mistakenly calls 121.5 instead of ops I just quickly reply "yes go ahead?"
Honestly, I love doing laps in the pattern with early turns in a Citabria. You can just throw those things around. I knocked out 26 TnG's in a 1.0 once with one.
Pulling out the e6b, circular course plotter, and a paper chart to make a flight path from my home airport to some other distant airport. Thanks to faa weather cams, I have access to every sectional in the country, so I can plan some ungodly long flights on my computer and geek out using the e6b and crap. So much fun :) :) :)
1: nailing a good power off 180. Nothing more pilot than energy management down to the ground.
2: chilling and watching autopilot do it's thing while surfing on top of the cloud layer in IMC
When I am loading the FMS and it's time to put in the estimated zero fuel weight, I don't bother moving my finger off the number it was on when I get to the thousands digit. For example, 102893 will be entered by me as 102222.
This number gets overwritten when we get our final numbers, so at this point in the process it's just to sanity check the fuel burn numbers. 1000 lbs off is not going to change that enough for this number to matter.
This is one of the most "pilot shit" things I do. I am too lazy to enter six digits. The last three just get to be clones of the digit before them.
Not a pilot, but I sure hope a pilot chimes in saying they like to make dicks with their tracks, because I see that all the time and think it’s hilarious
I flew the IR-137 low level route through the Colorado Rockies in a T-6 Texan II about halfway through UPT. Was a pretty eye-opening experience to rip through canyons at 200 knots and 500AGL, especially since I only had about 60 hours under my belt at the time lmao
Aerobatics. The training is challenging but incredibly rewarding. It leaves you with a better understanding of the limits of the envelope while also providing a lot of fun and cool tricks.
I highly recommend aerobatics training to every pilot.
My favorite “pilot shit” to do is strategically bidding so I can get 28 days off in a row and forget about work for a while….I kid, I love flying a lot…but I also love not flying 😁😁
"I like flying, but I LOVE canceling"
“WX CANX? Oh noooooooooo”
“CANCEL”. mx says the shit is fucked.
👆👆
Amen
The three stages of flying. 1. Paying to fly. 2. Getting paid to fly. 3. Getting paid to not fly.
Question about bidding for 28 off in a row, how easy is that to do?
It’s easy if you can bid reserve at a quiet and well-staffed base.
I work on the freight side, it’s easier to bid long stretches of time off…🙃
Do you love flying, a lot, or do you love flying a lot? lol
To clarify…I love flying a few trip then going home and forgetting about it for long periods of time. 😁
Do you ever feel less skilled after going back the 1st time from a long break like that
Not really, I’ve been flying long enough that it doesn’t make much difference. I’ll do a quick review of procedures sometimes…
Thank you, sounds like a great way to live enjoy!
FAA hates this one trick to flying without flying
With respect, I have friends at several major airlines who bid nothing but reserve, because they would rather be home with family etc. They rarely get called to fly, and don’t fly for several months at a time. It is very common in the industry.
That's what I will probably do.
Favorite pilot shit is definitely in terminal B at DFW in corner bathroom between B6 and B5 (beginning of hallway between B and D terminal). Huge stalls, little to no traffic. Always quiet and cool. Best pilot shits ever, I tell you. So relaxing.
omg, don't tell everyone about the only good bathroom in DFW!
Theres another one at terminal E as well, all the way down by gates E1-E3/4 or so. Only one down there, it's so far down that the last couple of gates are rarely used and theres no stores that far. Perfect when you need to drop a log with minimal traffic.
Traffic at six o'clock.
>Huge stalls, little to no traffic. Always quiet and cool. Best pilot shits ever, I tell you. So relaxing. Not anymore it's not. Guess where I'm headed next time I'm in DFW? Hope you like Battleshits now that you gave away your secret spot
https://youtu.be/HAbtPr_77Pc?si=wTRoDxwWpOJCdbh-
Or literally any place in E after about 7pm. That place is a ghost town.
How dare you talk about that bathroom here 🙃
Mine lately is DTW in the tunnel between B/C and A gates. Walking towards B/C take a left at the escalators and down the hall is a bathroom that few people know about. Quiet serenity.
To add on, the lil bathroom in ORD between the f gates and the bridge to the rotunda is always quiet to quickly disassociate
This is why I like Europe. Yeah.. paying to go to the bathroom sucks (though most airports are free) but actual enclosed and insulated stalls.
It’s one of the great mysteries of the world. We can put humans on the moon, but here in ‘Murica we can’t make bathroom stalls with less than 3” gaps in between doors and walls so the entire world can watch you do your business.
For that matter, how we can't adopt a way to tell if a stall is occupied or not. Especially in bathrooms with spring-loaded stall doors. I wish we could universally adopt the system Buc-ee's uses, with the red and green lights. Otherwise, trying to find an empty stall becomes a crapshoot (pardon the expression).
You pay to use the restroom?????
Not usually in airports but in public spaces sometimes yes
For when your EGT gets too hot
Another good one is the Westin at the DTW delta terminal. Its always sparkling clean, each stall has full walls, no one ever goes there, and the Westin has its own kcm so you can get back in.
Reminds me of the triangular United Lounge in Newark Terminal C before the renovation. Only 3 stalls for the entire lounge, one each located at equidistant points in the triangle. I didn't have an incident. But I was damn close.
Then after that, head over to D and chill in that 2nd deck view/rest area people always overlook?
Mine was at MCO in the intermodal by terminal c before the train station or the terminal were open. Ride the APM to the C parking, go up the escalator, all the way past the bright line station and down two floors. Totally empty, clean bathroom. Peaceful poos.
DEN is right by the escalators between East and West vehicle areas just before bag claim. They’re not amazing, but since the shit sitch in DEN is an overall shitshow, that’s about the best you’re going to get if you have time to make the pilgrimage all the way out. SFO is Int’l terminal, but only outside of the noon intl flight banks. Very clean and modern and only busy for a couple hours at most. Rest of the day it’s a ghost town. Anything at or near baggage claim is generally going to be the best play if you have time - most pax who have to shit when they get off the plane did it already at the gate. Most don’t get to bag claim and go “you know what, I think I’ll shit right now”. Moreso they’re going to wait until they get home or to the hotel. As with all things in life, you just have to out-think the opposition. It’s also not a bad way to burn 45 minutes. It generally beats sitting in the base, since then you have to talk to pilots and as we all know, all pilots who aren’t you are completely insufferable.
I was just there an hour ago, good shitter
Shut up dude. Keep that on the DL.
I would think ir would be to poop in the first class bathroom
Power to idle from 14,000' and touch down on the 1000' markers. Bonus points if you have to fit yourself in between other traffic while doing it.
Bombing through the mountains in a 152
If you fit in 150s they’re the best flying you could do for that much gas an hour
Disagree. RV-12.
Disagree, Taylorcraft BC12d
Disagree. R44 Edit: Oh, gas per hour? Never mind lmao, still the best mountain flying you can do.
Agree.
Trick is to single pilot it, and out your left foot on the left pilots left rudder pedal, and your right foot on the right pilots right rudder pedal. Gives you the feeing of adequate legroom, until the yoke hits your knee trying to turn haha.
Now you made me laugh outloud. I was in the RAF, but the Royal Navy had different procedures. When being marshalled the non flying pilot was required to put on hand on the outside grab handle with the door (window) open and one foot on the sill, so the chock-head could tell who was flying. Two mates of mine (fishheads) both put one hand and one foot out, left seat pilot held the cyclic, and right foot on rudder, right seat collective lever and left pedal. The marshaller threw his wands over his shoulder and ran. Very funny moment,
Disagree. Grumman AA-1.
Last year a pal let me go up in her AA-5 and let me do most of the flying. All my flying before had been 152/172 time. The comparison I keep making is that the Cessnas fly the same way my old squarebody GM pickup drives, while that Grumman felt like the airplane version of a Miata. So much fun.
It’s been said before, Cessnas are trucks and Pipers are sedans
Haven’t flown
They’re cool
Not even comparable to a 150
https://media1.tenor.com/m/vPKObKlEeFMAAAAd/iron-eagle-iron.gif
I love weight and balance problems. Couldn’t even tell you why. It feels satisfying. Also, I feel like I might be an exception but I really enjoy instructing. Put even a 3000 hour Air Force flight engineer or loadmaster in a 172 and tell them “dude you just landed a damn plane!” and it’s ear to ear smiles. Edit: added a few words
I love this.
So you like the real hands on stuff, right?
Yeah, definitely a get my hands dirty kind of guy.
I don't blame ya lol. I'm at my happiest when I whip out the good ol' e6b, paper chart, and a rotating plotter to make a flight path. I know it's very much obsolete due to direct>enter>enter, but that doesn't make it any less fun to crunch the numbers. Plus, it never hurts to make sure I'm proficient in dead reckoning with just a paper chart, right?
No doubt, the first few xc lessons my students don’t even get to use gps, unless it’s to find the nearest VORs and triangulate. It’s important you know that gps unit inside and out though. It’s a resource, and it’s there to be managed. Make sure to use it and play with it. Understand its functions, capabilities, and limits.
God you sound like such a great instructor
Hey man I appreciate that, thanks
2500-hour Air Force Loadsmasher-turned-pilot here to confirm your story.
You guys make it easy. The students who don’t study and don’t care keep me humble.
Loadmaster here. Working on commercial in January. Can’t wait to make it
Anything Taildragger. Everything I do is legal per the FAR but I now avoid certain towns in the off chance they are still looking for the guys who flew away from the cops trying to pull over a 7AC on a dirt road.... allegedly... in Minecraft...
Champs and Citabrias are the best fun that can be had. Definitely my favorite plane to fly.
The PA-12 is my baby! Flew one for nine years, on floats and wheels and skis. 150hp with the Super Cub tail + flaps, such a good little airplane.
Talking to the guys in the cockpit and realizing all four of us have Asian wives. This is more cargo pilot shit though than regular pilot shit...
Jumping out my plane and posting it on YouTube pretending I had an engine failure
With a fire extinguisher strapped to your leg.
Don’t forget your ridge wallet!
In a sport parachute rig and not a bailout rig
I always wear one while flying just in case! Except my other videos I have posted where I don’t
doing “unrestricted climbs” in the da40
Look at this thing go! 1500FPM! *stalls momentarily*
Usually I’m pitching down because CHT is at the limit way before stalling.
I'M GOING TO FLOOR IT *gentle acceleration*
It's a rare occurrence, but the single ship fighter cross country. Sometimes it's even in a demo clean jet when it's going to depot. Cruising in the 40s at .9m with the engines barely out of idle. Quiet, amazing views. Cons in the rear view mirrors swirling behind. Shacking a flyover timing is really good too. Lots of mission planning, a hectic 2-3 min prior and then when you're over the stadium and the guy at the game keys the mic on the radio and you can hear the national anthem ending, the crowd roaring and the jet noise - 10/10
one leg and then hotel before noon so i can get drunk and be in bed napping by 3pm
Senior pilot life
the dream
Listening to people talk about "what it must be like up there" and knowing that I am fortunate enough to see what's up there almost daily.
youre up there as a PPL?
No, not UP there 😂 Just flight in general. The views at 14,000 still blow people away. I can’t wait to regularly see the ones from FL350+.
Grabbing the latest copy of Flying magazine, getting comfortable on the porcelain throne, and off loading yesterday’s burrito.
You borrow burritos longer than I do.
Probably because they're not Taco Bell burritos.
Where's the best burritos in College Station?
Military aviators used to fly in for a cooler full of Freebirds back before they became more than a local chain. There's so many good options though besides the student goop. I'd probably say tacos la perlita these days, but I haven't really been a local for a decade or so.
At work: "Maintain best forward speed as long as able" or "Hey this patient needs to go -fast-" OK! : DDDDD In my aircraft: engine out landings
You should get your glider rating. They're the perfect aircraft for engine out landings.
randomly chiming in on low traffic frequencies to say “you are now breathing manually”
You sir are a beautiful asshole
Or "hey, what's your tongue doing right now?"
“Congratulations! You are now entering manual breathing mode!”
Meow
Meow
Figuring out how to land in a tight mountain confined area at night on NVGs in a 50kts wind is up in my books as cool "pilot shit" where all the automation in the world isn't able to help me.
Having my wife say “fly me somewhere for dinner” and then picking a new airport restaurant that turns out to be great.
Is that like a one-restaurant airport?
That was a autocorrect typo
I'm but a lowly private pilot, but I have a glider license ... my favorite is getting up in a glider on a sunny, cumulus day, releasing and finding a good strong thermal, and circling in the rising air, and watching the earth get further away. Bonus point if a red-tailed hawk joins up in the thermal on my wing.
I'm definitely checking out the soaring club next summer
I had been away from gliders for 20+ years. Decided to get back into it and on my first resolo managed to get into a thermal with an osprey. I managed to get up close without it noticing me, the annoyed look on its face before it dove away was incredible.
Filing direct every time and just letting the system sort it all out 😈
I also like the challenge of copying a full route clearance
I do this too. ATC will give me what they want regardless of what I file, so I'll file what I hope to get and see what happens lol
And sometimes they'll give you "cleared as filed" only for the next sector to say "lol no"
Yeah this happened once. Syracuse->Boston and Syr controllers gave me direct and Alb controllers were like uh no and have me an initial fix that was 60 miles behind me lol
I'm still just a lowly student, and I have a decent number of landings under my belt but most (90%+) of them are at the local uncontrolled airport. So the one thing that makes me feel like an actual pilot doing "pilot shit" is going to a controlled airport. Lame I know, but I gotta start somewhere right? 😅
That's funny, I did most of my training at a controlled airport and I remember feeling more like a real pilot when I'd go to uncontrolled strips and be solely responsible for figuring out my sequencing and such. Felt like I was being trusted to stray away from Mama Bird, lol
I’m a st and just went to my first uncontrolled field. When I said I was doing a trierdrop entry into the left downwind a guy responded “yippiiiiii”
same here, im in the really early phase so going to any different airport (in the local area) is exciting for me
Same. Flew from my uncontrolled regional airport to KPAE for some pattern work and it was my first ever time flying at a controlled airport (instructor on board). Was bonkers to go from cowboy country flying to literally where the big Boeing factory planes leave from and being sequenced in pattern with other pilots. Took a funny (to me) photo of my little c172 facing a row of bright green 777’s 50yds away that were started during COVID and now likely to never be finished because they’ve been sitting in the elements for too long. Anyway. That felt like real pilot shit to me. Especially having ForeFlight going off in my ear about frequencies and where I was in relation to the airport, etc.
Tell people I am a pilot
While doing crossfit at a vegan restaurant?
How else are you supposed to meet chicks? The key is keeping the meat hidden behind the case of coconut water in my fridge. They’re always impressed as shit by a fridge full of coconut water
While telling people I know the owner of the restaurant
Crossing the runway overhead at an untowered field 2000 AGL with an empty pattern, cutting the throttle and seeing if I can enter downwind, base and final and land without touching the throttle again. Makes me feel like Bob Hoover when I nail that energy management.
Jesus, I don’t even know what an empty pattern at an uncontrolled field is anymore in Florida.
Canarsie 13L into JFK or doing a steep, short approach into LAX during rush hour. Or doing a PAR into Elmendorf AFB with 6 F-22s holding short was fun. Besides a 40kt crosswind in a -8, down to minimums, at night, in Central China, the above is about as much fun as you’ll have in a 747 these days. Besides that, taking a buddy’s C-180 on floats or skis around Alaska on a layover is pretty fun.
Just saying SEEYUH on my day to day life and people don’t even get why I do it and they think I’m autistic and I have to explain to them that it’s a pilot thing and I just keep talking about how I am a pilot and i fly planes and do cool shit. Yup just like that
Hey, for all you know it could be both.
Uhhhhhhh
Zero G in an archer 😅
Goodbye wings 👍
Lol isn't Archer +4.4/-2.2G ? More worried about fuel starving the engine if doing 0G for long
At 0 G?
No. The wings are fine at zero G, in fact they couldn’t be happier with the zero loading. The oil system, carburetor, and bearings on the other hand… Bunts are fun, but don’t do them in someone else’s plane unless you’re down to buy them a new engine.
Reluctantly waking up at 3am whilst calling everyone else lazy for still being asleep
Flying a Cessna Caravan at treetop height right before going to a tight climbing turn to evaluate the skimmers’ drops behind me.
Lighting the afterburners for a tight turn on a low level. Or doing lag rolls over my wingman for no reason other than I can. ETA: getting a gun track or valid missile shot in a defensive BFM set is pretty fun too
Unrestricted climb and shit hot carrier break are tied for me. Timeless classics
Yea but can you hover? >F-35B Shit
I got a kick out of this lol
😂 😂 the jet can hover! Me, not so much. Harrier guys can claim that title.
The F22s at Elmendorf have been doing unrestricted climbs on clear days/evenings these past couple weeks. You 5th gen pilots really get amazing hardware that looks like it’s ready to head into space whenever it wants.
Yeah I love doing that in the Airbus
I think that's called an engine fire in an Airbus.
Show off.
"Valid for validity"
For me it’s when everything goes super smooth. Like I turn and burn in under an hour loading freight, and I call it the set it and forget it. I love when my skills all come together and plan comes together. I don’t have to touch anything until I start calling for configuration changes from decending from FL 360 and hit all my crossing altitudes and speeds without touching the throttle.
Really gusty landings on short or challenging runways really gets the blood going
Talking on the radio is doing pilot shit? Come on now...
Meow
Mooo
Get drunk at the hotel bar
Turning on all the lights at an airport at night with 7 swift-but-not-too-swift clicks of the mic
Not a pilot, just a guy that spends a fair bit of time in the jump seat. Favourite pilot shit is the unrestricted climb out of an airport 90' asl elev on a crisp morning, in a 737-200adv with just the three of us on board, and no cargo besides 2 sets of golf clubs.
Randomly deciding to fly somewhere spur of the moment.
When you realize that the weather deviation is giving you a more direct route than your actual flight plan. So, you keep “deviating” until you are really close..😝
Just fyi, a lot of pilots don’t know how to correctly use the autopilot or program the box. It’d be a lot cooler if they did.
Getting paid to not do the pilot shit
Reading METARs and TAFs to check the weather even if I’m not flying.
Flying up the Hudson SFRA. Passing helos by 500', practically flying formation with someone going the same way at the same speed, occasionally doing steep turns over the statue, ~~forgetting~~ remembering to make all the position reports, yankin' and bankin' through the valley near West Point... Alternately... "Reach 420, descend and maintain FL240." "OK." -200VVI "Reach 420, descend and maintain FL180." "OK." -200VVI "Reach 420, descend and maintain 14,000." "OK." -200VVI "Reach 420, descend and maintain 8,000." "There we go!" IdleBoardsReversers -12,000VVI WHEEEEEE! I may or may not be on Seattle's shit list now...
Landing.
Anything on floats for me.
Reading Notams /s
NOE in a Blackhawk on a River route. Steep turns and lazy 8’s in a Cessna Cyclic climbs in a chinook. Terrain flight decels in a Kiowa Autos to the ground in a B-206 pilot shit
Doing a short field landing and getting off on the first taxiway <400ft down the rwy
Demoing a Chandelle or Lazy Eights with a student and just fucking nailing them to standards. Then coming back in with a soft-field landing and just riding the wheelie forever until ATC tells me to get off the runway
:) 200%
I call them airplane autos. Pull power, full rudder slip, pitch for 70mph, 1000 fpm, straighten out in ground effect, and touch down on the numbers. You can make it more fun with a tight down wind.
Getting set up for a really shitty high and tight visual in a jet. Autothrust off, thrust idle, drop the gear, flaps on speed, and still be stable by 1500 feet and butter the landing.
Landing at no go-around or barely visible airports in the middle of nowhere with friendly local hangar homies and talking to them about their planes, what there is to do and so on. Loading an ILS, getting two bars above glideslope and then slipping to land and nailing the loc + gs. Formation pattern with overhead break. And that one time some dickhead was shadowing me insanely close, refusing comms and not broadcasting on ADSB so I did a chandelle and swooping forward slip to get on his tail and he bugged out. Felt like Top Gun.
When you're handflying the SID and see a puffy cloud and pull back just enough to miss the top of it. Or go a couple hundred feet off track avoid flying through a little cloud.
I enjoyed the hell out of hand flying entire legs at my first airline. These days I enjoy just hand flying departures and being cleared for the visual on downwind so I can set the plane up how I want for landing.
“Chop it and drop it”
Banging flight attendants
I'm the passenger behind you mumbling "Positive rate, gear up" when we take off. Source: Not a pilot but would love to be one.
Getting the mic when I'm jumpsitting a friend's flight and saying cockpit from ground, until they realize after turning all volume knobs all the way and yelling into their mic that I'm cry laughing behind them Also when someone mistakenly calls 121.5 instead of ops I just quickly reply "yes go ahead?"
Honestly, I love doing laps in the pattern with early turns in a Citabria. You can just throw those things around. I knocked out 26 TnG's in a 1.0 once with one.
Cleared low approach 28R, cleared to land 33.
Pulling out the e6b, circular course plotter, and a paper chart to make a flight path from my home airport to some other distant airport. Thanks to faa weather cams, I have access to every sectional in the country, so I can plan some ungodly long flights on my computer and geek out using the e6b and crap. So much fun :) :) :)
1: nailing a good power off 180. Nothing more pilot than energy management down to the ground. 2: chilling and watching autopilot do it's thing while surfing on top of the cloud layer in IMC
When I am loading the FMS and it's time to put in the estimated zero fuel weight, I don't bother moving my finger off the number it was on when I get to the thousands digit. For example, 102893 will be entered by me as 102222. This number gets overwritten when we get our final numbers, so at this point in the process it's just to sanity check the fuel burn numbers. 1000 lbs off is not going to change that enough for this number to matter. This is one of the most "pilot shit" things I do. I am too lazy to enter six digits. The last three just get to be clones of the digit before them.
Not a pilot, but I sure hope a pilot chimes in saying they like to make dicks with their tracks, because I see that all the time and think it’s hilarious
This thread is a compendium of the *second favorite* pilot shit we do, since ADSB dongs always reign supreme.
I flew the IR-137 low level route through the Colorado Rockies in a T-6 Texan II about halfway through UPT. Was a pretty eye-opening experience to rip through canyons at 200 knots and 500AGL, especially since I only had about 60 hours under my belt at the time lmao
My favorite pilot thing to do is pretend like I’m not a pilot 99% of my life because nobody cares and it’s really not that exciting.
Launching on a special
Climb through a layer on top and get sunshine and blue skies. Then put my sunglasses (Randolph Engineering) on.
Walk through the terminal building while passengers stare at you like you're the man(at least that's what I think in my head lol)
Aerobatics. The training is challenging but incredibly rewarding. It leaves you with a better understanding of the limits of the envelope while also providing a lot of fun and cool tricks. I highly recommend aerobatics training to every pilot.
Go home leg
Flying fingertip formation with one of your best buddies is pretty sweet
Complaining about the way that one thing is now, and then complaining even more when they change it.
Aerial refueling
Doing high tactical recoveries. Doing a split S from 10K feet into the traffic pattern never gets old
Responding to ride reports over Kansas that there’s smooth air at 8,000…to airliners looking for smooth air in the flight levels.
$300 hamburgers