An Informal Experiment: Pilots, Check In

[Dave70968]

I've noticed a significant overlap between lawyers and pilots, both in real life (me, my dad, several people here, quite a few I've met at the airport), and in fiction (Cdr. Rabb in JAG being the most notable example). This is just an experiment to see who's who. You can check in with just your name here, or if you want to provide more details, that's your prerogative. I'm willing to provide my OBA and pilot certificate numbers, but if you don't want to, that's fine. I'm just curious to see how many lawyers we have, how many pilots we have, and what's the overlap? If anybody can suggest other interesting categories for analysis and overlap (ham radio, maybe), feel free to post a thread, and I'll play.

"Hey, who likes guns" is probably redundant.

For the record: 2711311, CP-ASMEL, former CFI and CFII (lapsed when I went to law school; I didn't have the time to keep proficient, so I decided to let it go and stay safe for my students and the other folks on the ground).

 

[chuter]

Does Sport Pilot, Light Sport Gyroplane count?
I built and flew one for a few years, let it go several years ago, then started putting time and money into firearms training. Now I seem to be slacking off of that a bit, don't have the money to do much serious training.

Oh, and my son's a lawyer in St. Louis, he's not on this forum though, and he's not a pilot........never mind.

 

[Jack T.]

Private ticket. . .but I'm in IT, not law.

Also have my ham ticket.

 

[mugsy]

I would bet there is a more general correlation between higher-income professions and pilots in general since it takes significant financial investment to gain a pilot's license - I feel confident you would see a similar pattern with doctors and higher paying white-collar professions in general.

 

[p238shooter]

Being a pilot, I have looked in overlap similarities in certain areas also over the years also. I am not a lawyer, but I have noticed a large number of motorcycle riders and ham radio operators are pilots as I am. Also people that have more money than time may choose flying to give them more time rather than driving somewhere would take. Unfortunately a lot of doctors fit this catagory. The V tail Bonanza had picked up a little bit of a negative nick name because the number of doctors that crashed several years ago.

I think in general, pilots are people that venture out and do other things rather than just being an 8-5 worker coming home to mow the grass and watch football on TV. Some of that is by pilots being more adventurous personalities, some of it by pure economics of the individual being able to afford to fly.

I consider my personal aircraft a pleasure to fly, but it is also a time machine. I frequently make a less than 4 hour flight that takes 11 hours by auto. I hate to drive it, but sometimes WX conditions make it the safest way to get there. Unfortunately many pilots cut that judgement too tight if their time is short.

Thanks for the post, it exercised my mind.

 

[SoonerATC]

Not a lawyer, but I hold an ATP-AMEL, CFI, CFII, MEI and just over 1400 hours.

 

[Speedrat]

Private Pilot, mainly tailwheel stuff! :-)

I'm in the telecom field.

 

[aviator41]

I'm a pilot. Private, Multi Instrument rated.

Not an attorney though. I'm in IT. I agree with the correlation between higher paying professions and pilots. I know several accountants and attorneys that are pilots. I also know several large business owners that either are pilots or were pilots when alive.

Used to be the airplane was the expensive part of flying, now the pilots license is the biggest expense. When I got my license and ratings back in the early 90's, it took an investment of $15K. Now that would barely get you to the private checkride.

 

[SoonerATC]

Private will be around $7-8K. You can reduce the cost slightly if you own your own airplane. Rentals run around $130/hr, and you can count on around 50-60 hours on average.

 

[3inSlugger]

Its been a long time since I've posted on OSA, but this thread caught my interest as I was just talking with my FIL about connections between CCLers and pilots.

My wife is recently a pilot, her Dad and two uncles are pilots, and her passed g-father was a pilot. I am not, but I go up with them and absorb a lot of their talk. I figure pilots in general have some spending money, a proclivity towards mechanical thinking, and a great deal of responsible attitudes. All these things are good factors for gun owners as well. Furthermore, pilots are always thinking about what-ifs and thinking ahead, a sign of good CCLers as well. I feel the two (pilots and CClers/gun owners) are well mated.