True North wrote:
On Friday, 18 September 2015 10:40:10 UTC-3, Wayne.B wrote:
On Fri, 18 Sep 2015 02:25:53 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 9/17/2015 8:16 PM, Alex wrote:
Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 9/16/2015 8:00 PM, Alex wrote:
Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 9/15/2015 8:07 PM, Alex wrote:
Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 9/14/2015 8:15 PM, Alex wrote:


The motor on that door had such a high gear reduction I think it
would
probably lift the front end of a car off the ground with no
problem.
The Harley was close to 900lbs and it lifted it off the back of my
truck
like it wasn't even there.

If I remember correctly it took about 3 minutes for the folding
hanger
door to open halfway.




I can't believe the door didn't fold in half.


It did.


I meant horizontally - from the weight.


No way. The "garage" was actually a 32' by 46' aircraft hanger that
one of the properties we had in Florida had. The door was about 28'
feet wide and 16 feet high. It folded in half horizontally as it was
raised.

It had a very heavy duty frame (probably for hurricane codes) made of
square 4" by 4" steel tubing that ran horizontally and vertically
every four feet or so. Lifting a 900lb motorcycle was duck soup for
it to handle. The electric motor didn't even change pitch when
lifting it due to the high gear reduction.

During one of the hurricanes (we were not there) about 24 people who
lived in the gated community all moved into the hanger during the
worst of the storm because it was totally brick construction (other
than the door). From the stories I've heard they had quite a
hurricane party in it with generators sitting outside providing power.




Nice! Did you have a community landing strip in that development? There
are several scattered around FL.

There is a private airstrip in the community although our house was
not in that section. The hanger on our property was actually built
for helicopters.


I have always wanted to learn to fly. I have two friends who are GA
pilots and live in communities like that. There is one about 100 miles
north of me that has home sites on about 3 acres for only $30K. One
friend has a place there, too. I'm seriously considering grabbing o
to build on later. It might push me to get a license and a little
plane. He's offered space in his hangar if I want to do it.

I had always dreamed of getting a pilot's license since I was a kid
and finally pursued it when I was in my early 50's. Once I had my
ticket though I began to realize that the fun was the challenge of
learning to fly. I had no purpose for flying other than recreational
sightseeing and found that it wasn't exactly "relaxing". I continued to
rent a Cessna or a Warrior for a few years but also got into boating
which I found much more to my liking.

===

Every once in a while I get bitten by the "learn to fly" bug. I took
lessons many years ago but never followed through with getting my
license. Life, family, kids, jobs, boats came along and got in the
way, probably just as well. One nice thing about boats is that they
don't fall from the sky when the engine fails. And if you pooch a
docking maneuver the penalty is usually nothing more than a few bumps
and scratches. The thing that sometimes re-ignites my flying passion
however is the thought of being able to fly to the Keys or Bahamas in
an hour or two. On a nice day that would be really cool.

I'd have thought there would be cheap frequent passenger flights between
those locations from mainland Florida. For the amount of times you'd
actually do it..it would be a lot cheaper.....and then there's the
Bermuda Triangle to contend with..

Flying commercial is not fast for short trips. I live 350 miles from my
kids in Santa Monica. May be a little less tiring, but not much quicker to
fly as drive. 3/4 hour to airport, time to park, then security /check-in
is another 2 hours. 1.4 hour flight. 6.5 hours to drive. Cost is similar
for two people. I live near a GA airport. Friend has a plane. His wife
was in a rehab facility after a seizure down in Bakersfield. 4 hour
drive. He would fly down in about an hour and a half from his house. Was
very convenient.