So, you steere with your feet untill you get in the air, at which point you steer with EVERYTHING...

And then they get the chance to teach you how to Land...

Very well put!

cool he's driving that big thing

Little hard to keep track of what's happening when (I started to read top down, hehe dumb me). But, heh, now I've figured it out.

And, yeah, flying is one damned hard thing to do I'm sure... and yet you can get your pilot's license before your driver's license.

Yeah sorry, I was a little worried about that. I thought of putting arrows in for readers to follow along, but I didn't want them to block out any of the artwork. Glad you were able to follow.

I guess it depends on the state. As far as I know you can get your pilot's license at 17. I'm in California and I think you can still get your driver's license here at 16, at least that's when I got mine.

Well, started to follow the panels the plane hit as a line, but noticed it skipped a bunch of frames too. But, yeah, arrows wouldn't have looked good. Dunno, maybe numbers if you're feeling like having experimental frames (And I do encourage that! Standard pages get boring after awhile!)

I'm thinking I should have a lot more space between my frames since they're rather detailed.

I have SO many jokes for that first panel, especially since I thought his hand was in Ian's crotch, and then he starts talking about "intimate cockpits"!!

Ha ha ha, I knew that would catch a few eyes. They look like they're about to kiss in the second panel.

Ian must have a thing for non-stinky stinkers!

lol, I thought the same thing, I seriously thought something "Serious" was about to happen XD XD XD

I think I could fly a plane. I've played a LOT of Microsoft Flight Sim back in the day. taxiing taking off and flying is all good. Landing on the other hand...

lol, I once got a propeller plain to fly upside down... (after spiraling out of control and loosing much altitude), lol that was a funny achievement for a flight simulator XD

MS Flight Sim is pretty good. I haven't played it in a long time. But yeah, you can do just about anything with it.

Most fun thing to do was get a glider and start myself off in the middle of the atmosphere, and just loop around until I crash. :P

errr. plane

Landing is a continuous learning process, it's never completed.

hahaha, that's a good depiction of the first time taxing for most of my classmates when I took them on the taxiway for maintenance.

Yay! =D
We've all been there at one point. xD

Thanks dude!

oh hey! turn the ignition on, push the accelerator, and pray to God you don't crash and burn

Cya later Strange Kid who I hardly know or care about!

(atleast, that's the way my architecture teachers would teach if they were flight teachers...)

Scary thought actually... XD

Sounds like your architecture teacher was overly fond of 'Learn by doing'.

oh yes....

here's their basic teaching regiment

1) Here's vaguely you need to do
2) Good luck, and hope you pass

Nothing to it... Right?

Hey! I remember doing all of that!

This is awesome.

But damn, I didn't Nimsha did all of that. She must've been in tears after being told that.

Ian is too polite, he would have flown the whole lesson with her and told her at the end.

Oh so he told her afterwards and away from everyone else.

...and I suspect that Ian mentioned that to Chucky, with this thought in mind: "don't make a stink in the cockpit, and don't bring a stink into the cockpit". Silly Ian, skunks don't stink (unless frightened or infuriated).

I wonder, and not to get too technical about it, but isn't "cockpit" reserved for single-seater aircraft (or two-seater in-line), and "cabin" for two-seater (side-by-side) or larger?

I'm pretty sure cockpit originally referred to the old bi-planes when it really was a 'Pit' that the pilot sat in. The modern politically correct term is 'flight deck', but I still hear it referred to as a cockpit. Cabin is usually used in reference to where the passengers sit as opposed to the flight crew. But I've also heard cabin used in reference to the entire portion of the airplane that people can go.

Each panel, it is clear to see where the characters are and what they are doing. (The amount of detail is just right, and the color makes it easy to follow what is happening in each panel. Good choices for the panel layouts: It feels like highlights of a real experience to someone like me (who hasn't been there in the pilot's seat).

Glad you like it and were able to follow along. I'm still sorta sweating the layout. But then I've read a lot of comics where you have to look very closely to see what's happening.

so cool, i wanna fly... someday XD

Save up your $$$ or ask for an intro flight for your Bday, you can usually get one for $50-$75.

yeah they have that at my school lol, have you done it?

Really? May I ask what school? I did it when I was in college, not through the school though, I just went down to the local airport.

when i meant school, i meant college X3, Mt. SAC. just heard about that kinda thing around.

Oh you're at Mt. SAC? That's here in CA right?

yep yep

hehe, I always found the taxiing to be the easiest part.

It is once you get used to it. It could also be the difference between left and right brained people.

possibly. I'm good at feet steering. It's why I can play battletech in full advanced mode. XD

I get the impression that Ian does not care for sweaty squirrel and day-old borscht for some reason.

I'd probably put up with it to sit next to Nimsha.

As would I.

I've gotten to sit a the controls a couple times with an instructor. Steering with feet definitely does take some getting used to. I wonder why they didn't just include a small steering wheel on the side like I've seen in the bigger planes.

In small airplanes it would require more linkage and probably some kind of hydraulic boost, which means more $$$ and more weight. I think simplicity was the key in that line of thinking. Also, if you look at the old tail-dragger airplanes, it was the tail-wheel that steered you on the ground. That tail-wheel was right under the rudder, so you could have the linkage controlling both at the same time.

That reminded me of something called "What Goes Up Might Come Down!: the High-Flying Humour of David Gunson" (available here http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Goes-M.....p/B00002MOJK).

In particular, this passage, IIRC... "and you, your little eyes light up, as you get to turn your steering wheel as we taxi into position on the runway...just make sure that it's pointed straight ahead before we start our takeoff".

In it, which I have heard about half-a-dozen times, David Gunson describes his career and work, first as a pilot ("I decided to fly for the Queen, because She had more planes"), then as an air traffic controller ("...which makes me a self-employed civil servant. There's not that many of us, but we've got our pensions stitched up a tree, let me tell you."), and then describes how to fly a 747 from Birmingham [U.K.] to New York City ("...at 170, you yell 'Rotate', and I panic, because I've never heard that before..."). Worth the time and money, if you can get your paws on it.

I'd never heard of David Gunson, I might have to check him out. Thanks for the reference.

Ah, makes sense. Didn't think about the fact that a small steering wheel would be very hard to turn with no power steering.

Long EZ of the FUTURE

Say Chucky, I'm kinda curious..guess it's my nerdy side showing but umm, what kinda of fan tail bird is that? I haven't seen many like that, other than say Beachcraft's retired StarShips, by Burt Rutan.

LoL* and if your wondering, naw.. I'm not much of a "Wing nut", I'm more of a space cadet. My realm of furness exist down here on terra-firma and out among the stars. I kinda follow Leiji Matsumoto's Space Cruiser Yamato, as well as a pinch of Harlock and Emeraldas here and there.

But my nerdy side does kinda like following flying things, so when I saw this comic I was scratching my head, trying to figure out if this was another of Rutan's designs, or something those funky Europeans cooked up.

If I had a gold mine for chump change, and took up flying lessons, I think I'd probably scoot around our little blue marble either in a EuroCopter EC155, or Bell Augusta 609 production version of the ground breaking XV15.

*Giggle snorts* yep my nerdy side is a showin'...

The airplane is based off the Rutan designs, but I just made it up. I chose the canard and pusher prop look because it's futuristic and cool. It probably wouldn't be the best design for flight training though. I've heard they're not that forgiving to mistakes.

I plan to get a little more geeky with aviation in this comic as it progresses. But that will be a long time in the future with how slow things are moving.

Is it really that hard?

It's a bit goofy at first because it's unlike anything you've done before. We spend years driving cars and all of the sudden you're taught something totally different.

aviation is LOVE ^^ I plan on starting flight lessons myself next spring :3

Good luck! Where at?

KCLS

you must be in flight training yourself, amirite?

I'm not familiar with KCLS, flight school or college with a flight program? I did mine a while back, doing it for a living now.

KCLS is Chehalis-Centralia airport. in Lewis County in Washington State in the USA. it's small, one runway. the flight school has pilot finance inc. look it up :3 makes learning to fly a lot easier and more affordable

You're gonna love it dude. I think Washington State would be a great place to fly around. It'll give you some good weather challenges but make you move savvy. I learned at KSBP, San Luis Obispo California.

hehe, I've already had about 10 mins flying time in my friend's 1967 Cessna 182L Skylane (N3132R)


dude, i wanna chat with ya, hit up any one of my IMs or something xD just not ICQ. I haven't updated that one yhet

I've got some time in 182s, I really liked the way they fly. I also like that you can actually put 4 people in 'em with luggage and full fuel. Hey man, I don't do the IMs anymore because I find them so distracting. PM me anytime though.

hehe, the 182 is a good plane, but there's something about the Cessna Skyhawk I find irresistible. x3

1- VERY cute comic. Toob ad (get the pun?) you're NOT wearing a pilot's helmet. XP
2- Mind if I watch you?

Thanks! Please do!