Do I Still Fly?

........that's a question a friend of mine asked recently. The short answer is YES to private flight, NO to commercial flights except in dire circumstances. That was the short answer. Here's the long one....

When I was 10 or 12, and bored out of my mind in mid summer, a friend and I would occassionally ride our bikes to the local airport and watch the little airplanes take off and land. I leave it to your imagination what fantasies filled our minds as we hung on the chain link fence at the end of the runway. On one of these trips we rode over to an old, abandoned, empty hanger. Not much to look at in there, but around the back of the building was the find of the summer.

picture courtesy of Boeing Aviation

What we found was the fuselage frame of a "taildragger". Aircraft you might be familiar with, like the Cessena, are classified as "trike gear", that is, two main landing gear and a nose wheel. Taildraggers have the two main landing gear and either a "skid" or a very small wheel under the tail - hence the name. Taildraggers were widely used earlier in aviation, and were the aircraft of choice for the barnstormers of that era. Got away from the story there... sorry. I use this picture just to give you a flavor of what we found and what became my favorite toy.

The engine, wings, landing gear, and skin of the airplane were all gone. All the instruments were missing and all that remained of the seats was a rotting plywood base. But the throttle control, "stick" and rudder pedals were all there. And that was all a 10 year old boy with too much imagination for one person needed. Sitting in the cockpit, I couldn't see over the instrument panel - well I could because there was no fabric, cowling, or engine blocking the view. Well, you know what I mean, right? So my first job was to fix that seat and I did that with bits and pieces of lumber, sheet metal scrap and an old tarp I found. Now, sitting there I could reach the rudder pedals with my feet and the stick with my right hand, and the throttle with my left hand. A broom stick became my machine gun. I wanted some "instruments" to help me when I was in the clouds and definitely wanted to know just how fast I was going. So I measured the the openings with twigs and snapped them off at just the right diameter, later that night at home, I drew an air speed indicator, and a couple of gauges with an arrow on them. Don't recall what they were suppose to be but I hated those holes in the panel - so I filled them up.

Next time at the airplane I was by myself. I got my instrument panel fully equipped, propped the tail up with an old gas can, got my machine gun tied down and was ready for takeoff........

And I could fly... as fast as one could imagine. That was pretty darn fast. I had brought a lunch with me that day because I knew it was going to be a long flight. I'll never forget sitting there in that WWII fighter of mine doing loops and spins and shooting down the Red Baron. I also remember how good the ride back to the base was, eating my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I ate it with one hand never letting go of the stick with my other hand.

That airplane and I shared many flights together and I was sure that if it had feeling, it would really have appreciated its second life with me in the air.

My love of flight continued for many years. I joined the Air Force and spent four years accruing over 2,000 flight hours mostly to and from Viet Nam - but that's another story. After discharge, and four years of college, I took flying lessons and once I had my "ticket" signed up for aerobatics training. I trained with one of the best in the San Francisco Bay Area - Amelia Reid (no kidding on the name) at Reid Regional Airport in San Jose, CA. My qualifications for aerobatics opened a whole new life in the air and over the next several years, I spent more time in the air flying inverted than I did straight and level. Each type of aircraft a private pilot wants to fly requires a "check out". In total I was checked out in Cessina C-150's, C-152, C-152 Aeobat, C-182, Beechcraft Sundowner, (all trikes) and a number of taildraggers - namely the Citabria, Decathelon, Super Decatheon and my absolute favorite, the Great Lakes 2T-1A-2 open cockpit bi-plane.

I haven't flown in years now and between then and now, have lost track of my flight log book. I believe I logged about 370 PIC (pilot in command) flight hours. Whether I was flying aerobatics solo, or had a passenger, those earlier days of static flight in back of the dilapidated hanger would come vividly to mind and yes... that's exactly how Immelmans, Loops, Aileron, Snaps and Barrel Rolls felt then... and now!

So... to interpret the long answer for you... YES I still fly (wink wink).