Some of us who started flying in the 1960s and before recall the days when we really didn't get checkouts in many different airplanes.
You just sat in the cockpit, looked at the switches and knobs, started it up, and flew away. Particularly, if the airplane wasn't all that different from what you had been flying. I learned to fly in a Champ, and got my private in a Stinson. So when it came time to fly a C-170 and C-180, that's how I did it in those planes, just fire up and go. Same for a Super Cub, T-craft, and J-3. I did read up on a constant speed prop before flying the 180. Now, when it came to first flying a retractable, I did go around the patch twice with an instructor in a C-210. That was all in the mid 1960s. Long before any tailwheel or complex endorsements were even in the FARs. Thankfully, we all do a better job of checkouts now. Jerry E.
