Courtesy car #2
One Saturday afternoon sometime during the late 80s or early 90s bride and I decided to go to Lancaster, Pa for a family style dinner at a place called Good and Plenty. (G&P) We landed at an airport called Smoketown, a small airport which just happened to be close to the restaurant in Pennslyvania Amish country. I remember seeing Amish farmers working the fields with work horses around the parking lot of the place.
Anyway this is the very short story about the courtesy car. We landed and had the plane topped off with gas. Then when I went in to pay I asked about getting a cab to G&P. This is a good way to find out about the courtesy car without actually asking to borrow one! As is usually the case a man there said take the car that’s here for that. Here are the keys, it’s that blue Oldsmobile out back, then he gave us directions to G&P. It just so happened that it was only about ½ mile from there.
The 20 yr old car started right up and off we started for G&P. It was a hundred or so yards to the first stop sign. Approaching the stop I applied the brakes and the car seemed to accelerate as we sailed right through the intersection. Bride had tried to push her feet through the firewall of the old car as if she could stop us from that side. If you’re anywhere near my age you probably remember dealing with vehicles like that. I pumped the brake pedal and got some back pressure and just like in the old days with my first cars if you plan your stops and pump the brakes as you approach them you can handle this. NO such thing as hitting the binders and locking her up in a panic stop. You always leave a ridiculous amount of space between you and the car in front of you in case their brakes work better than yours. You treat all traffic lights as if they are turning red until you’re into the intersection because you've got to keep pumping in case it turns red and you have to stop. Those behind you think you’re an idiot with your brake light flashing but you don’t care! We saw the entrance to the parking lot and started to plan our entrance from way back and we were successful parking the car. We had a belly busting meal, paid the bill and headed for the Oldsmobile. There she was waiting out there in the parking lot just weeping brake fluid on the ground. The big V8 started right up so I pumped the brake till I got some pressure and headed out of the parking lot, the challenge was to get her back to Smoketown Airport without hitting something. It was tense but we made it and managed to park her right over the wet spot where we found her. We went in to give the keys back and before I could say anything about the brakes the guy slapped himself on the forehead and said, “oh, I meant to tell you that you have to pump the brakes.” I asked him not to forget tell the next person.
Flew back to Blue Knob Valley Airport, Duncansville, Pa……. Life is good!
Fancy
Fancy over Indian River Merritt Island, FL
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Courtesy Cars
Courtesy Cars
During the course of my flying I’ve landed at a lot of small airports. Sometimes it is because I want to visit someone nearby or take wifey to a nice place to have lunch or a stop on a long cross country or maybe forced down due to weather. Most small airports are kind of out in the country unless urban sprawl has encroached upon them. What this means is unless you know someone who can pick you up or the restaurant or hotel is within walking distance, you have to get transportation of some kind to get to where you want to go. The FBOs at these airports know this and sometimes they keep an old car around to loan to fly in pilots. It’s a very handy thing to have access to a car for a couple of hours or even over night! All they usually ask is that you put gasoline in it before you bring it back. I’ve borrowed quite a few of these cars without ever even showing any ID. Of course they have your airplane if you don’t come back! Anyway this has been an interesting aspect of my visits to these places and I like to tell about a few of these experiences.
Experience #1
My child bride and I flew our 172 from Pa. down to Florida to visit my parents one year and on the way home we encountered a line of thunderstorms that we couldn’t penetrate. We tried scud running for a while and had to turn back and find a place to land. We were over one of the Carolinas and found an airport called Wadesboro and landed. I noticed as we taxied in that there were weeds growing up around the few planes parked there and the buildings looked sort of rough. There was a piece of tin on the roof of one of the hangars that was flapping in the wind. The place looked kind of spooky! We stopped at a block building that had a pay phone attached to the side of it. This was good because I needed to terminate my flight plan. As I was looking on the building wall for the phone number for the closest FSS, ( in the old days it was always scribbled somewhere on the wall) a man startled me as he came around the corner of the building. He had a ball hat on with the bill kind of aimed away at a 45 deg. Angle, he was smiling and his teeth were stained like a tobacco chewers might be. He said, “how ya’ll doing?” I told him that we landed because of the storms and I was trying to get FSS on the phone to cancel my flight plan. He said to come on in the building and use the phone in there. We did and made the call. Then he said why don’t you and the misses take the loaner car in town for lunch and maybe it would be clear enough for us to be on our way again. We told him we’d appreciate that. He handed us the keys and pointed to an old beige colored Chevrolet station wagon with the county logo on the front doors and said, “the air conditioner works too.” We got in the car and started for town Loretta said it must be a work car because there were remnants of hay and a couple of soda cans rolling around on the floor. Thankfully the air did work! As we were driving down a road that looked like something out of “Thunder Alley,” a 60s movie about moonshine runners, I said to the child bride, ya know I have a feeling like a Jackie Gleason type of cop with the big sunglasses and the Smoky Bear hat is going to jump out of the bushes and stop us and find some wacky weed in this wagon and say, “you in a heap of trouble boy” and off we’ll go to jail. Didn’t happen! We got to town, had lunch, and headed back to the airport. I called FSS for a weather briefing and the outlook was dismal for our direction of flight. The man at the airport said “there ain’t but two motels in town and one is a flea bag joint, I’ll be happy to call the other one for you and make arrangements if you want to stay.” He said we could have the car over night too. He called and found there was a room available for us. Bride and I got the luggage out of the plane and into the county station wagon and headed out again. I was over my fear abut the Gleason type of cop! We found the motel (would have loved to see the one he called flea bag!) The bride rejected it right away and said that I had to be kidding about staying there. It was kind of shabby and every door was painted purple and there was a plastic chair by every door. I would have had to stay there by myself. After considering this for about ¾ of a second I wheeled the big wagon around in the parking lot and headed back for the airplane. The place we had driven to was west of the airport and the skies looked OK in that direction so I checked the weather again and sure enough we could go west as far as Charlotte, NC. Back at the airport I handed the guy the keys and told him the gas tank was full and thanked him and told him we were going to try to get to Munroe county airport near Charlotte. No gas available there but we had plenty to get to Munroe. We landed at Munroe just ahead of a whopper of a thunderstorm. We made arrangements for a tie down and called the local Ford dealer to rent a car. We spent three enjoyable days there driving around in a very small Ford. Weather cleared and we drove the car back to the dealer and the owner of the dealership saw us and talked to us and told us he’d personally drive us back to the airport. It was a pleasant ride with him and he was interested in talking about our flying adventure. He was a pilot but inactive for some reason but loved the talking about it. Oh yeah, we had the car three days and he told the secretary at the dealership to only charge us for one day! About $30.00.
This post is a bit long so I’ll write more later about a couple of other loaner car experiences.
During the course of my flying I’ve landed at a lot of small airports. Sometimes it is because I want to visit someone nearby or take wifey to a nice place to have lunch or a stop on a long cross country or maybe forced down due to weather. Most small airports are kind of out in the country unless urban sprawl has encroached upon them. What this means is unless you know someone who can pick you up or the restaurant or hotel is within walking distance, you have to get transportation of some kind to get to where you want to go. The FBOs at these airports know this and sometimes they keep an old car around to loan to fly in pilots. It’s a very handy thing to have access to a car for a couple of hours or even over night! All they usually ask is that you put gasoline in it before you bring it back. I’ve borrowed quite a few of these cars without ever even showing any ID. Of course they have your airplane if you don’t come back! Anyway this has been an interesting aspect of my visits to these places and I like to tell about a few of these experiences.
Experience #1
My child bride and I flew our 172 from Pa. down to Florida to visit my parents one year and on the way home we encountered a line of thunderstorms that we couldn’t penetrate. We tried scud running for a while and had to turn back and find a place to land. We were over one of the Carolinas and found an airport called Wadesboro and landed. I noticed as we taxied in that there were weeds growing up around the few planes parked there and the buildings looked sort of rough. There was a piece of tin on the roof of one of the hangars that was flapping in the wind. The place looked kind of spooky! We stopped at a block building that had a pay phone attached to the side of it. This was good because I needed to terminate my flight plan. As I was looking on the building wall for the phone number for the closest FSS, ( in the old days it was always scribbled somewhere on the wall) a man startled me as he came around the corner of the building. He had a ball hat on with the bill kind of aimed away at a 45 deg. Angle, he was smiling and his teeth were stained like a tobacco chewers might be. He said, “how ya’ll doing?” I told him that we landed because of the storms and I was trying to get FSS on the phone to cancel my flight plan. He said to come on in the building and use the phone in there. We did and made the call. Then he said why don’t you and the misses take the loaner car in town for lunch and maybe it would be clear enough for us to be on our way again. We told him we’d appreciate that. He handed us the keys and pointed to an old beige colored Chevrolet station wagon with the county logo on the front doors and said, “the air conditioner works too.” We got in the car and started for town Loretta said it must be a work car because there were remnants of hay and a couple of soda cans rolling around on the floor. Thankfully the air did work! As we were driving down a road that looked like something out of “Thunder Alley,” a 60s movie about moonshine runners, I said to the child bride, ya know I have a feeling like a Jackie Gleason type of cop with the big sunglasses and the Smoky Bear hat is going to jump out of the bushes and stop us and find some wacky weed in this wagon and say, “you in a heap of trouble boy” and off we’ll go to jail. Didn’t happen! We got to town, had lunch, and headed back to the airport. I called FSS for a weather briefing and the outlook was dismal for our direction of flight. The man at the airport said “there ain’t but two motels in town and one is a flea bag joint, I’ll be happy to call the other one for you and make arrangements if you want to stay.” He said we could have the car over night too. He called and found there was a room available for us. Bride and I got the luggage out of the plane and into the county station wagon and headed out again. I was over my fear abut the Gleason type of cop! We found the motel (would have loved to see the one he called flea bag!) The bride rejected it right away and said that I had to be kidding about staying there. It was kind of shabby and every door was painted purple and there was a plastic chair by every door. I would have had to stay there by myself. After considering this for about ¾ of a second I wheeled the big wagon around in the parking lot and headed back for the airplane. The place we had driven to was west of the airport and the skies looked OK in that direction so I checked the weather again and sure enough we could go west as far as Charlotte, NC. Back at the airport I handed the guy the keys and told him the gas tank was full and thanked him and told him we were going to try to get to Munroe county airport near Charlotte. No gas available there but we had plenty to get to Munroe. We landed at Munroe just ahead of a whopper of a thunderstorm. We made arrangements for a tie down and called the local Ford dealer to rent a car. We spent three enjoyable days there driving around in a very small Ford. Weather cleared and we drove the car back to the dealer and the owner of the dealership saw us and talked to us and told us he’d personally drive us back to the airport. It was a pleasant ride with him and he was interested in talking about our flying adventure. He was a pilot but inactive for some reason but loved the talking about it. Oh yeah, we had the car three days and he told the secretary at the dealership to only charge us for one day! About $30.00.
This post is a bit long so I’ll write more later about a couple of other loaner car experiences.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
45th Anniversary of My First Solo
07 22 62 Piper J-3 N21609 1st supervised solo GMD 95275 1:00 solo.
This is the entry made by my flight instructor George M Donnelly on that day. I can remember our first flights in his J-3 Piper Cub manufactured in 1938. I was sitting in the back of course and in the front seat yelling at me almost constantly was this bald headed man who I considered to be very old. He was 43! George was a WWII Army Air Corps veteran pilot. To me it was amazing that someone who was this old could still do this.
Going through my log book the entries read, 06 15 62 stalls – turns, 06 22 spins – cord. Excersizes , 06 23 accidental spins, 06 30 four forced landings, S turns, stalls, spins TO & ldgs, etc. The good old days lots of spins and stalls! Anyway lots of yelling and lots of action. Of course we had no radio or intercom and the only way he could instruct was to yell. It was’nt all friendly yelling either. In fact one time one of the people on the ground said they could hear George yelling at me as we flew around the airport.
Anyway crunch time came after about eleven hours of this abuse. So on July 22, 1962 we flew from our home base of Williamsburg, Pa. to Mount Union about 25 miles away. I made a couple of landings that George approved of so when we made our last landing he had me taxi up to the falling down old wooden building on this airport. There was no one else around and George said he had to take a leak and I was to take the Cub around the patch three times and land to a full stop each time and taxi up to where he was and talk to him. He told me that the plane would feel different without him in it. His last words to me were “don’t you hurt my airplane.” So George headed off to go behind the old building to take care of business and I taxied out to the end of the cinder runway. I lined up on the cinder runway which was approximately 20 ft wide and brought the 65 hp Engine up to full growling power and was quite surprised at how quick we were flying and I was up to pattern altitude before I even got to the downwind leg. That had never happened before! Pulled the power off and carb heat on abeam the touchdown spot as we always did and because the plane was so light I wound up a little high on final and just like George had taught me I slipped her down to the runway and made a great landing. I taxied up to where he was standing with the engine still running and he shook my hand and handed me his half smoked Camel cigarette for me to take a couple of drags from. In those days we all smoked cigarettes and George and I were no exceptions. After the couple of puffs on the cigarette I headed out for two more take offs and landings. I could have flown without the airplane if no one was watching I was so excited! After all of this was over we flew back to Williamsburg and hopped in my 53 Studebaker Champion and talked all of the way home about that morning. I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough money to pay George for that day because I was only making about $50.00 per week. When I asked George how much I owed him he said “how does $7.00 sound?” I was relieved because I happened to have enough money to pay him. We probably put close to two hours on the Cub.
In approximately 1994 one summer evening, I had a student fly me to Mt. Union in a C152 as part of his XC training and he found the place. This was not that easy to do! The airport hadn’t changed that much in the 31 years that had past. There was a Beech Sundowner and a C152 tied out there with tall weeds growing around the wheels. No one was there so I asked Rick if he wanted to fly around the patch solo a couple of times and he said yes. It was a beautiful evening and it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling watching him take off and fly over the hills on the down wind leg and land on the cinder runway. He taxied up and there were no cigarettes this time because we are all a little wiser now! I climbed back in the 152 and we departed for our home airport, Blue Knob Valley (7G4), Duncansville, Pa.
Today I looked online at the sectional where the Mt. Union airport was and was saddened to see it is no longer on the map. Blue Knob is still shown but it hasn’t much life left in it either. Sad!
This is the entry made by my flight instructor George M Donnelly on that day. I can remember our first flights in his J-3 Piper Cub manufactured in 1938. I was sitting in the back of course and in the front seat yelling at me almost constantly was this bald headed man who I considered to be very old. He was 43! George was a WWII Army Air Corps veteran pilot. To me it was amazing that someone who was this old could still do this.
Going through my log book the entries read, 06 15 62 stalls – turns, 06 22 spins – cord. Excersizes , 06 23 accidental spins, 06 30 four forced landings, S turns, stalls, spins TO & ldgs, etc. The good old days lots of spins and stalls! Anyway lots of yelling and lots of action. Of course we had no radio or intercom and the only way he could instruct was to yell. It was’nt all friendly yelling either. In fact one time one of the people on the ground said they could hear George yelling at me as we flew around the airport.
Anyway crunch time came after about eleven hours of this abuse. So on July 22, 1962 we flew from our home base of Williamsburg, Pa. to Mount Union about 25 miles away. I made a couple of landings that George approved of so when we made our last landing he had me taxi up to the falling down old wooden building on this airport. There was no one else around and George said he had to take a leak and I was to take the Cub around the patch three times and land to a full stop each time and taxi up to where he was and talk to him. He told me that the plane would feel different without him in it. His last words to me were “don’t you hurt my airplane.” So George headed off to go behind the old building to take care of business and I taxied out to the end of the cinder runway. I lined up on the cinder runway which was approximately 20 ft wide and brought the 65 hp Engine up to full growling power and was quite surprised at how quick we were flying and I was up to pattern altitude before I even got to the downwind leg. That had never happened before! Pulled the power off and carb heat on abeam the touchdown spot as we always did and because the plane was so light I wound up a little high on final and just like George had taught me I slipped her down to the runway and made a great landing. I taxied up to where he was standing with the engine still running and he shook my hand and handed me his half smoked Camel cigarette for me to take a couple of drags from. In those days we all smoked cigarettes and George and I were no exceptions. After the couple of puffs on the cigarette I headed out for two more take offs and landings. I could have flown without the airplane if no one was watching I was so excited! After all of this was over we flew back to Williamsburg and hopped in my 53 Studebaker Champion and talked all of the way home about that morning. I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough money to pay George for that day because I was only making about $50.00 per week. When I asked George how much I owed him he said “how does $7.00 sound?” I was relieved because I happened to have enough money to pay him. We probably put close to two hours on the Cub.
In approximately 1994 one summer evening, I had a student fly me to Mt. Union in a C152 as part of his XC training and he found the place. This was not that easy to do! The airport hadn’t changed that much in the 31 years that had past. There was a Beech Sundowner and a C152 tied out there with tall weeds growing around the wheels. No one was there so I asked Rick if he wanted to fly around the patch solo a couple of times and he said yes. It was a beautiful evening and it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling watching him take off and fly over the hills on the down wind leg and land on the cinder runway. He taxied up and there were no cigarettes this time because we are all a little wiser now! I climbed back in the 152 and we departed for our home airport, Blue Knob Valley (7G4), Duncansville, Pa.
Today I looked online at the sectional where the Mt. Union airport was and was saddened to see it is no longer on the map. Blue Knob is still shown but it hasn’t much life left in it either. Sad!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
A Flight with Fancy in June
This month’s flyin
Kong Xinyan (we call her Tracy) was in Fancy’s back seat grinning and said “wow” as we left the ground at Dunn Airpark. A left turn out after taking off headed us for the swampy area over near the St Johns River. Upon arriving over one of the many lakes out there, one with an Island in the middle of it she said “wow, that look like Taiwan!” Interestingly enough, it does look like the shape of Taiwan! This was her first time in the USA. In China there is no private aviation and Tracy had not even ever seen a small private airplane until coming here to the USA. I’ve flown over two hundred Young Eagle flights since the beginning of the program and many other first time flyers, never have I ever had a passenger who was more excited about the flight! We flew down the river looking for alligators. She amazed me by spotting so many before I did. (Young eyes I guess) Around Lake Harney we flew and she oohed and aahed about the scenery. We flew along near the western shore of the lake and there were quite a few gators about a hundred feet from shore and there was a man standing in the water up to his knees about fifty feet from shore. She saw the man and the gators which were not far away and said “he very brave man, I hope he not get eaten.” It sounded very funny to me. When we got back to our hangar we entered the flight into my logbook. She wrote in Chinese and made some kind of statement about how she enjoyed the flight. The statement ended with smiley face after an exclamation point, or maybe these are Chinese characters, I don’t know. Guess I’ll have to wait until another Chinese person comes out and can read it to me.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Sun n Fun with fancy
Fancy and I flew a number of times in April and the most noteworthy flight was when Ben Charvet and I took her over to Sun n Fun one day. We departed Dunn at about 7:30 and flew down to Lake X and then direct to Lake Parker for the arrival to the show. Every time the controller at the power plant mentioned a yellow plane Fancy wagged her wings. Anyway once it was our turn to wag our wings to acknowledge the controller we complied and were instructed to follow the Piper Cub in front of us. The controller was saying “everyone, nose to tail maintain 100 knots.” The Cub pilot in front of us responded by saying he was unable to maintain over 60 knots. Fancy slowed to 80 mph and we seemed to maintain our spacing at that speed. At the golf course between the white round water and the wedding cake tower headed for the airport we switched to the tower freq. Still following the Cub and I was paying a lot of attention to the Cub, concentrating on keeping the spacing when the tower told me to turn base, now! It was a little odd because we were no where near the end of the runway. We turned base to final in a kind of sloppy manner and managed to get headed down the runway
Towards our landing spot, the green circle. We had to power up to fly to the green dot. The controller kept saying “fly all the way to the green circle.” The problem was that we were so low when we turned final I couldn’t see the green spot on the runway. No problem though, we just added a little power and flew till we saw the green and landed on it. There was some wind from the right but it didn’t bother Fancy much and she made a smooth landing. We taxied to the end of 27 right and then made a 180 and taxied all the way back to the East end of the parking for general aviation planes. Nice flight!
Towards the end of the show Ben and I walked back to where we had parked and waited for the show to end and the field to open. As soon as the red flag that signaled the re opening of the field was down, a lot of airplane engines came to life around us. We started Fancy and taxied out of the grass onto the taxiway and were in line about 100 spots back from the take off spot. Twenty minutes later we got the signal that it was our turn and in a few seconds we were flying again. The procedure for departure takes you three miles out before you can turn to an on course heading. We flew a little north of Lake Parker and turned east. We could see arrivals flying that course. A few go fast airplanes flew by us as we turned for Lake X again and then direct to Dunn. Wind at Dunn 080 at 8 so we did a straight in to runway 4. Another lucky landing! Two hours and eight minutes total flying…..Fun!
Towards our landing spot, the green circle. We had to power up to fly to the green dot. The controller kept saying “fly all the way to the green circle.” The problem was that we were so low when we turned final I couldn’t see the green spot on the runway. No problem though, we just added a little power and flew till we saw the green and landed on it. There was some wind from the right but it didn’t bother Fancy much and she made a smooth landing. We taxied to the end of 27 right and then made a 180 and taxied all the way back to the East end of the parking for general aviation planes. Nice flight!
Towards the end of the show Ben and I walked back to where we had parked and waited for the show to end and the field to open. As soon as the red flag that signaled the re opening of the field was down, a lot of airplane engines came to life around us. We started Fancy and taxied out of the grass onto the taxiway and were in line about 100 spots back from the take off spot. Twenty minutes later we got the signal that it was our turn and in a few seconds we were flying again. The procedure for departure takes you three miles out before you can turn to an on course heading. We flew a little north of Lake Parker and turned east. We could see arrivals flying that course. A few go fast airplanes flew by us as we turned for Lake X again and then direct to Dunn. Wind at Dunn 080 at 8 so we did a straight in to runway 4. Another lucky landing! Two hours and eight minutes total flying…..Fun!
Monday, April 30, 2007
My friend Ray
First solo (60 years ago) celebrated in flight in same airplane
Ray Thomas age 80 celebrates the 60th anniversary of his first solo in the very same airplane he used in 1947. The first solo occurred in Michigan on April 7, 1947. Ray celebrated this anniversary by flying the Piper Cub on April 7, 2007 at Dunn Airpark, Titusville, Florida.
Ray told me he first soloed in Hillman, Michigan. The J3 Cub he owns was owned and used by his uncle who kept the plane on his 30 acre farm in Michigan. Ray and his uncle made a runway on that farm using a horse drawn grader. They carved out a 900 foot long runway and crowned it just enough so that the water drained off of it rather quickly and was almost always useable. His uncle flew in and out of there year round, on wheels in the summer and skis in the winter. The Cub was kept in an open Quonset hut type of structure until 1970 when Ray reacquired it.
When Ray climbed into the Cub to fly I asked him how it felt and he replied and he replied, “exactly the same as 60 years ago except for the damn radio”. If you’ve ever flown a Cub you know just getting in and out of it is somewhat of a feat. Ray gets in and out of it at 80 years old very easily!
He checked the winds at Dunn and found that it was 310 at 6kts and said, “piece of cake!” We hand propped the engine which is the only way you can start a Cub and he taxied out to runway 33, went through all of the checks, and took the runway. In less than 300’ he was airborne climbing away from the ground. He made a short pattern and a low pass over the runway for old times sake then made another pattern and approach to the runway where he executed a beautiful wheel landing. The cub rolled out tail high for a 100 feet or so and settled on all three wheels. A beautiful landing, after all he’s the master!
After the flight a lot of his friends were there to congratulate him for this milestone.
After Ray’s first solo in 1947 he said he went on to earn his private license there in Hillman, Michigan. He said in those days, there was usually an examiner on most airports to give you the flight test. He said it was usually the person on that field who had the most hours. The medical he said was issued by any local doctor and if you could walk into the office under your own power and you were able to see the wall, you passed.
He went to an A&E school in Galesburg, Illinois and got his A&E license. He said that the school operator would buy an airplane and the students would completely restore it and then the operator would sell it for a profit. After this Ray went back to Michigan to build time so that he could earn his commercial license. He joined the CAP so that he could fly the plane they had. It was an L4 and cost $3.50 per hr (wet) to rent. He flew the required 200 hours and took his test in a Luscombe. He got his instructor certificate in the Luscombe also. Then he went to Down River airport in Detroit where he took instrument training in a Piper Clipper. Then it was off to Purdue University to complete a two year aviation technical degree.
While at Purdue Lake Central hired him to fly co pilot in a DC3. He said ground school for that job was a book that they gave you and told you to go home and read it. Lake Central then aquired some Nord 262 which was a 22 seat commuter type that he captained on. Lake merged with Allegheny airlines and he was flying co pilot on DC9s. Allegheny and Mohawk merged and they became U S Air he flew the BAC 111 for them and then back to the DC9 as Captain, then on to co pilot on the 727, and then back to the DC9 as Captain again, and then on to the 727 as captain. He had to retire at the ripe old age of 60 yrs in 1987. Two days later he went back to flying as flight engineer on 727s for one and a half years. Ray said that at this point he graduated to the J3 Cub with 28,000+ hrs logged.
His said his most memorable airline flight was when he was hi jacked to Cuba.
Ray owned an airplane before he ever owned a car!
Ray told me when he was in grade school most of his friends wanted to be cowboys and firemen and he always dreamed of being an airline pilot. He doesn’t know how many of his friends made cowboy or fireman but, he made airline pilot!
Ray with copy of original logbook entry for his first solo, April 7, 1947
Ray on short final for 33
Wind 310@7,“piece of cake” as Ray performs a beautiful wheel landing on rway 33 at Dunn Airpark (X21) Titusville, Fl
Ray Thomas age 80 celebrates the 60th anniversary of his first solo in the very same airplane he used in 1947. The first solo occurred in Michigan on April 7, 1947. Ray celebrated this anniversary by flying the Piper Cub on April 7, 2007 at Dunn Airpark, Titusville, Florida.
Ray told me he first soloed in Hillman, Michigan. The J3 Cub he owns was owned and used by his uncle who kept the plane on his 30 acre farm in Michigan. Ray and his uncle made a runway on that farm using a horse drawn grader. They carved out a 900 foot long runway and crowned it just enough so that the water drained off of it rather quickly and was almost always useable. His uncle flew in and out of there year round, on wheels in the summer and skis in the winter. The Cub was kept in an open Quonset hut type of structure until 1970 when Ray reacquired it.
When Ray climbed into the Cub to fly I asked him how it felt and he replied and he replied, “exactly the same as 60 years ago except for the damn radio”. If you’ve ever flown a Cub you know just getting in and out of it is somewhat of a feat. Ray gets in and out of it at 80 years old very easily!
He checked the winds at Dunn and found that it was 310 at 6kts and said, “piece of cake!” We hand propped the engine which is the only way you can start a Cub and he taxied out to runway 33, went through all of the checks, and took the runway. In less than 300’ he was airborne climbing away from the ground. He made a short pattern and a low pass over the runway for old times sake then made another pattern and approach to the runway where he executed a beautiful wheel landing. The cub rolled out tail high for a 100 feet or so and settled on all three wheels. A beautiful landing, after all he’s the master!
After the flight a lot of his friends were there to congratulate him for this milestone.
After Ray’s first solo in 1947 he said he went on to earn his private license there in Hillman, Michigan. He said in those days, there was usually an examiner on most airports to give you the flight test. He said it was usually the person on that field who had the most hours. The medical he said was issued by any local doctor and if you could walk into the office under your own power and you were able to see the wall, you passed.
He went to an A&E school in Galesburg, Illinois and got his A&E license. He said that the school operator would buy an airplane and the students would completely restore it and then the operator would sell it for a profit. After this Ray went back to Michigan to build time so that he could earn his commercial license. He joined the CAP so that he could fly the plane they had. It was an L4 and cost $3.50 per hr (wet) to rent. He flew the required 200 hours and took his test in a Luscombe. He got his instructor certificate in the Luscombe also. Then he went to Down River airport in Detroit where he took instrument training in a Piper Clipper. Then it was off to Purdue University to complete a two year aviation technical degree.
While at Purdue Lake Central hired him to fly co pilot in a DC3. He said ground school for that job was a book that they gave you and told you to go home and read it. Lake Central then aquired some Nord 262 which was a 22 seat commuter type that he captained on. Lake merged with Allegheny airlines and he was flying co pilot on DC9s. Allegheny and Mohawk merged and they became U S Air he flew the BAC 111 for them and then back to the DC9 as Captain, then on to co pilot on the 727, and then back to the DC9 as Captain again, and then on to the 727 as captain. He had to retire at the ripe old age of 60 yrs in 1987. Two days later he went back to flying as flight engineer on 727s for one and a half years. Ray said that at this point he graduated to the J3 Cub with 28,000+ hrs logged.
His said his most memorable airline flight was when he was hi jacked to Cuba.
Ray owned an airplane before he ever owned a car!
Ray told me when he was in grade school most of his friends wanted to be cowboys and firemen and he always dreamed of being an airline pilot. He doesn’t know how many of his friends made cowboy or fireman but, he made airline pilot!
Ray with copy of original logbook entry for his first solo, April 7, 1947
Ray on short final for 33
Wind 310@7,“piece of cake” as Ray performs a beautiful wheel landing on rway 33 at Dunn Airpark (X21) Titusville, Fl
Saturday, March 10, 2007
1st wk March 07 with Fancy
It's Bike Week in Daytona! 500,000 motorcycles roar in and out of Daytona Beach during this week. My child bride and I contribute to the crazyness by riding our Harley up there. We rode up to the new Harley complex in Ormond Beach just above Daytona on Monday. I couldn't believe the amount of Harleys parked on the 125 acre complex. It was a sea of these beasts all resting on their side stands!
Tuesday I told wifey that I thought I had a date with Fancy this morning and did she want to go along. She didn't. The morning was in the low 60s, the sun was bright, the air clear, and no wind to speak of. Perfect! There she was when I slid the door open just sitting there like our old dog Duke. He woild sit by the door when he knew he was going hunting. I slid the doors open and I think she stepped outside herself because I don't remember exerting any effort to get her on the taxiway. Duke would be down at the corner before my brother and I could get out of the house. There was enough gas and oil and everything seemed to still be hanging on her so I wormed my way into the front seat and gave her a couple of little sips (prime) of gas, flipped the switches to up, and pushed the button that lights her fire. I love it when the engine springs to life!
Fancy wanted to get in her element fast because the takeoff roll was only a few seconds long. We got high together, high enough that we didn't have to talk to any controllers enroute to look down on the Bike Week movements at Daytona and Ormond beach. If you're below 4,000' around Daytona you are under the control of ATC there and you don't get to rome around like we wanted to do. It's not as much fun being that high as it would be at say 1,000 or 1,500 feet and it made the bike spectacle look like less that what it was. The bikers looked like piss ants on the floor from that altitude. It was too early for the parking lot to be full so I could take an aerial shot of the parking lot at the shop in Ormond so I didn't bother with taking a picture. I applied some pressure to the stick to wheel us around (U turn) and aim South for the home field again. 5,500 feet now with the mixture leaned a little we were above the haze and cruising. The speedway and Daytona International looked cool from this altitude as they moved under us. Once we got past the class C airspace we started down more than making up for the time it took us to climb to altitude. Fancy spotted her home field and transitioned from the blazing descent speed of 120 to the lazy 80 we fly the pattern at. The complicated landing check list complete (mixture rich) she was showing off flying downwind, base, and final while I watched to make sure no one ran into us. Glide down over the pine trees and she rares back a little and she's rolling still relaxed and looking cool. I think she smiles when people are watching!
You know, there is probably a law against having this much fun! Don't tell on me.
Tuesday I told wifey that I thought I had a date with Fancy this morning and did she want to go along. She didn't. The morning was in the low 60s, the sun was bright, the air clear, and no wind to speak of. Perfect! There she was when I slid the door open just sitting there like our old dog Duke. He woild sit by the door when he knew he was going hunting. I slid the doors open and I think she stepped outside herself because I don't remember exerting any effort to get her on the taxiway. Duke would be down at the corner before my brother and I could get out of the house. There was enough gas and oil and everything seemed to still be hanging on her so I wormed my way into the front seat and gave her a couple of little sips (prime) of gas, flipped the switches to up, and pushed the button that lights her fire. I love it when the engine springs to life!
Fancy wanted to get in her element fast because the takeoff roll was only a few seconds long. We got high together, high enough that we didn't have to talk to any controllers enroute to look down on the Bike Week movements at Daytona and Ormond beach. If you're below 4,000' around Daytona you are under the control of ATC there and you don't get to rome around like we wanted to do. It's not as much fun being that high as it would be at say 1,000 or 1,500 feet and it made the bike spectacle look like less that what it was. The bikers looked like piss ants on the floor from that altitude. It was too early for the parking lot to be full so I could take an aerial shot of the parking lot at the shop in Ormond so I didn't bother with taking a picture. I applied some pressure to the stick to wheel us around (U turn) and aim South for the home field again. 5,500 feet now with the mixture leaned a little we were above the haze and cruising. The speedway and Daytona International looked cool from this altitude as they moved under us. Once we got past the class C airspace we started down more than making up for the time it took us to climb to altitude. Fancy spotted her home field and transitioned from the blazing descent speed of 120 to the lazy 80 we fly the pattern at. The complicated landing check list complete (mixture rich) she was showing off flying downwind, base, and final while I watched to make sure no one ran into us. Glide down over the pine trees and she rares back a little and she's rolling still relaxed and looking cool. I think she smiles when people are watching!
You know, there is probably a law against having this much fun! Don't tell on me.
Friday, March 2, 2007
How Fancy got her name
This months Flyin
Foxtrot has been quite busy these past weeks mostly just hopping rides with my friends. We flew out to the beach a few times just looking for Rays and Right Whales. We saw one Ray and no whales. I flew her solo a couple of times just cause there was no one around Dunn when I decided to go. One time Bill Furnholm and I were cruising north along the west bank of the Indian River and we saw Ben and the Baby Ace cruising just ahead of us. We contacted him on the radio and we switched to an air to air frequency to communicate. He agreed to maintain his heading and altitude and we flew up along side for a while. It was a neat scene from the Citabria to see Ben in the open cockpit plane with his leather helmet and old style goggles and his white scarf flipping around.
On Feb. 17th at the Valkaria airport there was a fly – in. It was a beautiful Saturday morning with temps hovering around 40 deg and a little wind blowing out of the northwest. So, my child bride Loretta, agreed to provide the companionship in the back seat of the Citabria for the journey south along the Indian River to the fly – in. The cool temperature and the wind out of the northwest made our takeoff run on 33 pretty short. I estimate the run was around 300 feet. We opted for an altitude high enough to go direct and not have to talk to anyone. (Practicing for when they implement user fees) After leaving the pattern we flew east to get above the class “D” at Space Coast Regional and when we reached 2000’ we aimed south towards X59 and continued to climb to 2,700’ so we could breeze by Patrick AFB and Melbourne International. Once past the “D” airspace of MLB we made our radio calls and rapidly descended to pattern altitude and entered downwind for 32. We heard Jerry call in from his Tripacer and then Steve called from Lily Luscombe right behind us. The landing was nice but as we were rolling out my right foot got caught during a little steering correction to the right and we made an embarrassing swerve to the right. Not serious but it didn’t look good I’m sure. We landed short and rec’d several directions to parking. They all differed. Someone said on the radio “bring it over here.” I’d have been happy to do that but I didn’t know where “here” was and I wasn’t sure he was talking to me anyway because he didn’t use my tail number or aircraft description. I saw a guy sitting over at the intersection of rways 32/27 in a pickup truck and I thought maybe that was who was talking, then someone said you can back taxi on 32. ??? I didn’t understand that either, as I had landed short enough to turn off on rway 27 and it looked as though they were parking planes on the south side of that runway anyway. Like a dummy I parked way over on the south side of that runway and saw them escorting Jerry’s Tripacer and Lily Luscombe up the shoulder of 32 to a taxiway to the prime parking areas. Loretta and I hiked in from where we were.
We ran into some old friends almost as soon as we walked in. Gene McCoy, who we haven’t seen for a couple of years walked up to us with a big grin on his face. He said that he had our picture Christmas card on his refrigerator. The picture is of Loretta and me beside the Citabria. Gene said “it doesn’t get any better than that for a man, a good airplane and a good woman.” Made the good woman and me feel good! The airplane probably felt good too!
Gotta think of a nice name for the plane, after all we all know who Steve is talking about when he mentions Lily. Let’s see, my tail number ends in foxtrot and that’s a nice dance step. If I give her any female name other than Loretta she’ll think it is an old girlfriend. Maybe Dunn Belle, nope, sounds too much like dumbbell doesn’t it? Ahh, I know “fancy” as in fancy footwork. Foxtrot and fancy footwork kind of go together and after all she is a tail dragger and that can take fancy footwork eh? From now on N7602F is Fancy!
Sorry about getting off the subject of the Valkaria trip. We made the rounds after eating the pancakes they cooked up for the breakfast. We saw some very nice and some very interesting aircraft. The most interesting was a beautiful tri wing replica built by a man from Rockledge. Another was a Delta Dyke. There were a few RVs, a Hatz, a gyrocopter, Stearman, and a Pietenpol built by Jim Daron of the EAA chapter there. There were some very interesting RC Models flying over on the West side of the field too.
At about one pm we saw Steve and Ben getting ready to fly Lily back to Dunn so Loretta said she was ready to head home too. I looked around for Jerry to see if he was ready to go but I couldn’t find him. Never thought to call him on his cell. Loretta settled herself in the back seat and started crocheting and I climbed into the front and hit the switches on Fancy and she started purring right off. We got a golf cart escort out to runway 32 and checked Fancy’s vital signs then asked her to show her stuff aimed down runway 32. We did the little dance and broke the surly bonds. Again we climbed high enough to make a bee line for Dunn without talking to anyone. We did listen though! The trip back was even more pleasant than the trip down was and we watched MLB, Patrick, Merritt Island, and Space Coast airports slip by on both sides. The water in the river was clear and you could see the bottom all the way up to Titusville. There were a lot of boats using the channel up and down the river. Out on the ocean we could see the casino ships just about dead in the water while the games of chance were being played. The VAB, the Skid Strip, and the Shuttle Landing facility were very visible. Out there on the launch pad was the shuttle readying for launch next month. A glorious flight and a glorious day it was.
Once past TICO we started down hill for Dunn Airpark and we were making up for the slow climb out from Valkaria. Airspeed was in the yellow as we were descending for the pattern. Just as we were about to turn downwind the jump plane announced that the jumpers were in the air. We decided to wait till the parachutists and the jump plane was on the ground to get in the pattern. They make Fancy nervous! Once they were on the ground we entered down wind for 22. AWOS was calling it 260 at 11. Fancy loves the grass runways best. We landed and taxied in and put her in her room where she stays. A glorious day and a glorious flight!
Larry
Foxtrot has been quite busy these past weeks mostly just hopping rides with my friends. We flew out to the beach a few times just looking for Rays and Right Whales. We saw one Ray and no whales. I flew her solo a couple of times just cause there was no one around Dunn when I decided to go. One time Bill Furnholm and I were cruising north along the west bank of the Indian River and we saw Ben and the Baby Ace cruising just ahead of us. We contacted him on the radio and we switched to an air to air frequency to communicate. He agreed to maintain his heading and altitude and we flew up along side for a while. It was a neat scene from the Citabria to see Ben in the open cockpit plane with his leather helmet and old style goggles and his white scarf flipping around.
On Feb. 17th at the Valkaria airport there was a fly – in. It was a beautiful Saturday morning with temps hovering around 40 deg and a little wind blowing out of the northwest. So, my child bride Loretta, agreed to provide the companionship in the back seat of the Citabria for the journey south along the Indian River to the fly – in. The cool temperature and the wind out of the northwest made our takeoff run on 33 pretty short. I estimate the run was around 300 feet. We opted for an altitude high enough to go direct and not have to talk to anyone. (Practicing for when they implement user fees) After leaving the pattern we flew east to get above the class “D” at Space Coast Regional and when we reached 2000’ we aimed south towards X59 and continued to climb to 2,700’ so we could breeze by Patrick AFB and Melbourne International. Once past the “D” airspace of MLB we made our radio calls and rapidly descended to pattern altitude and entered downwind for 32. We heard Jerry call in from his Tripacer and then Steve called from Lily Luscombe right behind us. The landing was nice but as we were rolling out my right foot got caught during a little steering correction to the right and we made an embarrassing swerve to the right. Not serious but it didn’t look good I’m sure. We landed short and rec’d several directions to parking. They all differed. Someone said on the radio “bring it over here.” I’d have been happy to do that but I didn’t know where “here” was and I wasn’t sure he was talking to me anyway because he didn’t use my tail number or aircraft description. I saw a guy sitting over at the intersection of rways 32/27 in a pickup truck and I thought maybe that was who was talking, then someone said you can back taxi on 32. ??? I didn’t understand that either, as I had landed short enough to turn off on rway 27 and it looked as though they were parking planes on the south side of that runway anyway. Like a dummy I parked way over on the south side of that runway and saw them escorting Jerry’s Tripacer and Lily Luscombe up the shoulder of 32 to a taxiway to the prime parking areas. Loretta and I hiked in from where we were.
We ran into some old friends almost as soon as we walked in. Gene McCoy, who we haven’t seen for a couple of years walked up to us with a big grin on his face. He said that he had our picture Christmas card on his refrigerator. The picture is of Loretta and me beside the Citabria. Gene said “it doesn’t get any better than that for a man, a good airplane and a good woman.” Made the good woman and me feel good! The airplane probably felt good too!
Gotta think of a nice name for the plane, after all we all know who Steve is talking about when he mentions Lily. Let’s see, my tail number ends in foxtrot and that’s a nice dance step. If I give her any female name other than Loretta she’ll think it is an old girlfriend. Maybe Dunn Belle, nope, sounds too much like dumbbell doesn’t it? Ahh, I know “fancy” as in fancy footwork. Foxtrot and fancy footwork kind of go together and after all she is a tail dragger and that can take fancy footwork eh? From now on N7602F is Fancy!
Sorry about getting off the subject of the Valkaria trip. We made the rounds after eating the pancakes they cooked up for the breakfast. We saw some very nice and some very interesting aircraft. The most interesting was a beautiful tri wing replica built by a man from Rockledge. Another was a Delta Dyke. There were a few RVs, a Hatz, a gyrocopter, Stearman, and a Pietenpol built by Jim Daron of the EAA chapter there. There were some very interesting RC Models flying over on the West side of the field too.
At about one pm we saw Steve and Ben getting ready to fly Lily back to Dunn so Loretta said she was ready to head home too. I looked around for Jerry to see if he was ready to go but I couldn’t find him. Never thought to call him on his cell. Loretta settled herself in the back seat and started crocheting and I climbed into the front and hit the switches on Fancy and she started purring right off. We got a golf cart escort out to runway 32 and checked Fancy’s vital signs then asked her to show her stuff aimed down runway 32. We did the little dance and broke the surly bonds. Again we climbed high enough to make a bee line for Dunn without talking to anyone. We did listen though! The trip back was even more pleasant than the trip down was and we watched MLB, Patrick, Merritt Island, and Space Coast airports slip by on both sides. The water in the river was clear and you could see the bottom all the way up to Titusville. There were a lot of boats using the channel up and down the river. Out on the ocean we could see the casino ships just about dead in the water while the games of chance were being played. The VAB, the Skid Strip, and the Shuttle Landing facility were very visible. Out there on the launch pad was the shuttle readying for launch next month. A glorious flight and a glorious day it was.
Once past TICO we started down hill for Dunn Airpark and we were making up for the slow climb out from Valkaria. Airspeed was in the yellow as we were descending for the pattern. Just as we were about to turn downwind the jump plane announced that the jumpers were in the air. We decided to wait till the parachutists and the jump plane was on the ground to get in the pattern. They make Fancy nervous! Once they were on the ground we entered down wind for 22. AWOS was calling it 260 at 11. Fancy loves the grass runways best. We landed and taxied in and put her in her room where she stays. A glorious day and a glorious flight!
Larry
Flying Fancy
My name is Larry. Born in 1939, you do the math. Born and raised in Lewiston, Maine, ayuh. Now my wife and I live in Florida. We live near an airport where "Fancy" lives. Fancy is our little airplane, a two place, tandem seating, tail draggin, fabric covered, machine called a Citabria. We are very active and do lots of things like ride our Harley around and go out dancing once or twice every week. My favorite thing to do though is to strap into Fancy and say giddyup (push the power up) at the takeoff end of a runway and break the surley bonds for a while.
Since I barely understand what blogging is I'll leave the profile at that and write little stories about Fancy and me every once in a while.
Hope somebody reads em.
Since I barely understand what blogging is I'll leave the profile at that and write little stories about Fancy and me every once in a while.
Hope somebody reads em.
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My friend Ben, with me on our way to Sun n Fun Lakeland, FL
