Overlap between pilots and sailors

In another forum for homebuilt boats I raised the question of pilots who are also sailors. From my experience I've seen that many interested in sailing are also interested in aviation and vice versa. I'm not sure what the reasons for this are. Perhaps we just like expensive hobbies. Or maybe we are drawn to non conventional modes of transportation through non traditional media. Perhaps we are just drawn to the romantic views of the sky or waters. Anyway just wanted to see how many others were hanging around here.

Lots of pilots are also divers, and diving and flying have similar safety techniques, i.e. you want to make sure the equipment is working right beofre you go up or down...

sj

Very true. As a matter of fact I would like to get certified for diving as well. I had instructor that had been the president of both the FSU flying club and the sailing club and loved to fly to diving locations. the overlaps are very interesting. i wonder what the personality traits are that draw us to all of these different things.

Do you think it is some missing brain cells?

sj

if so, thank god that i've lost those brain cells that turn us towards more bland pursuits.

Conversely though I would say though that when it comes to most things we are a pretty logical lot. how else can we find ways to make arguments to justify some of the expenses owning planes and flying for hundred dollar hamburgers. We must have superior intelligence so that we can make these arguments successfully. Perhaps it is the rest of the population that is missing the brain cells that make them fun and as logical as the pilot population.

The answer to the brain cell loss or damage and pilots being an intelligent, logical lot is BEER.
As everyone knows alcohol kills brain cells. In the wild predators always seek out and kill the sickly and weakest of the prey..........this theory holds true with brain cells. Beer kills the weak and dullest of brain cells leaving the strongest and smartest............so, that explains why the more beer we drink the smarter we become.

cubdrvr said:

The answer to the brain cell loss or damage and pilots being an intelligent, logical lot is BEER.
As everyone knows alcohol kills brain cells. In the wild predators always seek out and kill the sickly and weakest of the prey..........this theory holds true with brain cells. Beer kills the weak and dullest of brain cells leaving the strongest and smartest............so, that explains why the more beer we drink the smarter we become.

Click to expand...

OK Dave, I'll be by today with a tape measure and a breath analyzer...

In law school we fully support/put into action the beer argument.

Pilots & Sailors

I always thought it was the challenge of getting home with the cub . . or the boat. Sorta testing fate. And testing fate is also part of the "Brain Cell Theory" that we have all participated in. I just hope I can continue to participate in all 3.

I spent 4 years ('92 to '96) cruising the Pacific in a 52' cutter rigged sloop. Managed to visit most of the islands in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, Spent a few months in the Visayas in the Philippines where I lost the boat in a typhoon. Anyone who has ever done any international cruising knows how expensive insurance is, so I didn't have any. Had to come back to the states and get a job.

I just recently got back into scuba diving and I find it very similar to flying, especially bush flying, and instrument flying with minimal equipment.

I am curious as to the number of pilots on this sight that are also Divers?

Tim

scuba diving and flying

Hey, be careful out there if you are scuba diving, then flying. One of the things I learned in going through the aviation medical examiner training was the importance of spending a day equilibrating after diving (depending upon the depth and length of dive) before flying. It can be safely done, though, and diving sure sounds like fun!

Randle, Thanks for the concern and warning,

Like as to flying there are some risks that have the potential to kill you! I am just now working on my Nitrox certification and I am continually amazed at all the physiology?, and other chemistry that I missed in school, Thanks to NOAA the Navy and many other courageous pioneers the sport is very safe for those that (like flying) don't venture beyond their limits, continue to learn and keep competent with practice, and as well keep their equipment in good order.

I am finding myself spending a lot of time on a great scuba diving forum similar to this one (great fellows/gals) with common interest, big dreams and yes even similarities in the wiliness to express opinions! gotta love it!

Tim

I've done a fair amount of diving in the past, somewhere around 200 cold water dry suit dives. I haven't done any for a few years now. I did about half of my dives off a very nicely operated boat, The Topline, run by a gentleman named Bryce Christie, operating near Sechelt, B.C. on the "Sunshine Coast".

An excellent coffee table book showing this kind of cold water diving is called
"The Emerald Sea: Exploring the Underwater Wilderness of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska", highly recommended.

Bryce operates his boat, he doesn't get in the water, and if you want a "dive master", you'll have to find one yourself. He allows his customers self-sufficiency, you are responsible for yourself. He has never asked me to sign a release. He's allowed me to solo dive from his 40' twin screw boat (sometimes a buddy is more of a hazard than a help), and I've never had a worry about him finding me when the currents have put me out of immediate sight. I've dived the HMCS Chaudiere several times from his boat, and saw the sinking of the HMCS Mackenzie, near Nanaimo as well (dove it that same day). The dives we've done in the Sechelt Rapids at slack were spectacular. Here is his scuba web page (a little out of date): http://www.sunshinecoasttours.bc.ca/scuba.html

If you know something about diving, spare me the lecture on diving solo. I decided I don't like it, and the difficulty in finding a buddy that is not a hazard, and that I like to travel with, is one of the main reasons I'm not diving these days.

I dive nitrox too. Don't forget that we're not physiologically similar to navy divers, and always keep a safe profile (I'd dive an air profile with a good margin using 32% nitrox, above 110').

Addendum: From his web site, it looks like Bryce isn't operating the Topline anymore. Too bad, it was a nice boat, but Bryce was what really made it work. I'd trust him to drop me in the water anytime, from any boat he was operating. I don't say that lightly, and there are plenty operators I've dove with that I would not say that about; Bryce is pretty much the only one. He's the best.

Cubdrvr,

I always appreciate the way you can take a complicated subject and make it simple for us, almost in a "Limbaughesqe" manner...



sj

Your right about pilots and sailors.. I love my SC but I also luv my Hobbie Cat (However I have never turtled a super cub...yet)

Jerry, I am not sure what 'turtling" is but if it is anything like putting the nose under water and then coming back up, I don't recomend it with a cub (they don't come back up) and last I checked you could by at least three cats for the price of a cub?

Tim

steve said:

Cubdrvr,

I always appreciate the way you can take a complicated subject and make it simple for us, almost in a "Limbaughesqe" manner...



sj

Click to expand...

Steve...

You sure you didn't mean "Limburgeresqe" manner, as in "something smells here"?...

I was a sailor before a pilot, but switched away from sailing to a powerboat when transportation and speed became more the factor than the romance and skill of sailing.

I now fly a PA-12 for the romance and skill, and I'm not willing to give up either for perhaps a more 'practical' plane like a 182, even though it's faster and could probably get into my primary strip.

Marc

I spent a lot of time (and money) on my catalina 34, but had to get rid of it due to an infestation of waverunners. Can I say bastards here? Cuz those noisey little bastrards took the fun right out of sailing. If I'm reading the prevailing theory right, those guys need to drink alot more beer
Ken

for the uninitiated turtling is completely flipping a boat over so that the mast is straight down. When you do this the hull of the boat looks like a turtle shell sticking out of the water.

in a supercub it looks just plane ugly! Check my photo gallery!

Thanks for the clarification.

Tim

tim, where is your gallery?

rrb said:

tim, where is your gallery?

Click to expand...

Tim went to take a pill... Here's the picture: http://www.supercub.org/gallery/view_photo.php?full=1&set_albumName=supercubs&id=aat

rrb said:

tim, where is your gallery?

Click to expand...

Another one: http://www.supercub.org/gallery/view_photo.php?full=1&set_albumName=supercubs&id=axf

"Yet a sailor's life is at best but a mixture of a little good with much evil, and a little pleasure with much pain. The beautiful is linked with the revolting, the sublime with the commonplace, and the solemn with the ludicrous."

R. H. Dana

"Apprenticeship is a necessary period in one's life as a sailor. There will be moments of elation when the future presents itself in all its boundless glory, while gazing at the stars; there will be moments of dark dejection in which one thinks of suicide. The rest of the time one will mainly feel hungry."

Jan deHartog

"Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade, as it consists principally of dealing with men."

Joeseph Conrad


Before airplanes were invented, pilots were sailors. Conversely, if airplanes had never been invented, I think we would all be sailors. My earliest memories are of being on a gill netter, and having to do chin ups on the transom to watch the winch pull the nets. Being on a small craft in truely big seas is much like flying.

Thanks for the advise Cuby, The pills worked. I am having fun now (even worked on the cub for an hour helped)

Scuba Diving is about the only thing I have done that feels freer from the bonds of gravity etc. than flying. You still need the airplane to get into the air and the ups, downs, rolls, ect. is limited to the airplane, but while in the water you feel weightless and all on your own.
Steve

Steve,

When I look at the quality of the products you produce, I can sense that you would make a good diver as well? Are you still diving? I am always looking for a good dive buddy?

I am going up to Hood canal in search of a peace of property that would be a good base camp for flying, diving, fishing and relaxing?

Diving an flying are very similar, fun, challenging, relaxing, and at time very anxious! And to boot, women make great divers too? (how about it Dana, Anne, and others??

Tim

rrb,

I have found the same correlations as you between flying and sailing. I race sail boats with a crew of 9. All but two are pilots as well. In the whole of the yacht club a large majority are also pilots as well a scuba divers.

Mark,

Thank-you for the insightful quotes. I particularly enjoyed the third.

Brenda