Hangar Flying at the Gun Club?
It is a little known fact about myself that I’m a pilot (although, like most pilots, I try to work that information into every conversation possible). The license that I hold is classified as “VFR, Single Engine Piston”. This means that I can only fly a piston powered, single engine plane in weather conditions designated “Visual Flight Rules”. Visual Flight Rules weather has to have a visibility of at least 3 miles and to be able to stay 1000 feet away from the bottom of clouds (as well as 2000 feet away from the sides and 500 feet from the top of clouds).
I also live in Florida which has weather patterns that can best be described as “severely bipolar”. It can go from bright and sunny to borderline hurricane conditions in less than 5 minutes with no warning. We call them “summer squalls” and they pop up almost like clockwork in the summer months (point of reference: Summer in Florida is March through November).
There has been more than one time where I’ve left my house on a beautiful day with no rain in the forecast to arrive at an airport soaked with torrential rain and gale force winds. When faced with this all too common situation, I do what many pilots do: I sit in the hanger or the FBO and talk with the other pilots. We call this “hanger flying”. I have learned more from those hanger flying sessions than I ever did from my flying lessons. The best ones to talk to are the old crusty pilots that have been through everything you can think of. Wing fell off? “Yeah, I remember back in 1943 when…” Snake in the plane? “had that happen in the congo looong before Samuel L Jackson. Had to hold a viper down with my foot while…” Heck, I now know exactly how to land a plane that is filled with bees, thanks to the advice of one of the pilots there.
As I can see this devolving into one of my typical long winded introductions, let me get to my point. If you’re a member of a gun club, have you ever thought about hanging out there at times when you might not actually be able to shoot? No cash for ammo or raining, perhaps? Just go there, and talk with some of the others there. Every time I’ve gone to the club, I see the same group of people. They’re not employees and they definitely haven’t been shooting that morning. They’re just there hanging out and shooting the breeze. Their conversations always seem to be about guns or politics. Usually guns.
These old timers have probably been shooting for longer than you’ve been alive. Who knows what you can learn from them?
Image used under Creative Commons License from Smoobs.
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