Flying When Disco Was Cool
The current economic malaise and return of a young Democrat to the White House has me thinking about – and longing for – those good old 1970s; A time when this pilot had brown hair, a bushy mustache and a good attitude.
I also had leisure suits and wore them with a “full Cleveland†(white loafers and a white belt). Walking confidently out to the 172 or Aztec I was about to fly, I looked really cool in my polyester outfit and wowed the ramp crowd with my super groovy Rayban sunglass case that I had mounted on the front of my right hip, right on my belt.
Round C3 flight computer? Natch!
I never was geeky enough to wear my instrument hood on my head but a lot of my instrument students did. They also wore bell bottomed jeans, wide belts and mood rings.
The aircraft were, well… pretty much exactly the same airplanes we have today. A Cessna 172 of today looks almost exactly like the Skyhawks of the disco age. The avionics are a little different today. During the days of the swine flu shot and “whip inflation now†buttons, having a Navpac II option on a 172 was the best you could do. Now that we are getting older it is comforting to have a huge TV screen with large flight instruments.
Flight reviews were in the future and were for suckers. You could get an instructor’s rating without being instrument rated and transponders were something that only rich pilots had.
Flying back in the ancient 1970s wasn’t all fun and games. For example, we all “super freaked†back when avgas hit 49cents a gallon! I mean, up my nose with a rubber hose! return to kevincreates.com
Kevin,
It’s amazing, the difference of where you live in this country, has on what you wear. In ranch country, I still wear the same Wranglers or Levis and shirts that I wore in the 70s. Matter of fact, my wife thinks some are the very same ones. I do have Pendleton wool shirts from the 70s that I still could wear, but they shrunk. Matter of fact, I have that trouble a lot these years. I think they are making the soap different, so to solve that problem, I quit using soap. Now I get to spend a lot of time to myself, which reminds me, someone really smart said you should spend time with the smartest man you know.
I did wear Raybans on my belt because I wore hard contacts and could not stand any sun. Didn’t know they looked cool. The cows never mentioned it after they kicked me. I could have used a kind word about then.
I had to get a “waiver of demonstrated ability” after the Doc discovered them. Asked me, “Why didn’t you tell me you wore contacts”? “You never asked”. My medical always said, Must wear corrective lenses when operating an aircraft, which I did.
Karl S
Anonymous
November 12, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I wasn’t flying in the seventies, (the rudder work with platform shoes had to have been fun, and I imagine there was more than one bell-bottom slacks induced accident) they WERE mostly fun and games though. Both of the training 172’s I have flown were made in the 70’s.
Rock-n-Roll!
–Joanne
Anonymous
November 16, 2008 at 12:08 pm