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It all STARTS with a DREAM!

dreamer

Registered User
Somewhere over the Rainbow
Introduction to a dream… :angel:

I am learning how to fly. :D :D :D I just had my first official flying lesson (logged that is) in a 1955 SUPERCUB! :onfire: I’ve had a few hours (not logged) in some other little taildraggers and wouldn’t know what to do with a nose wheel if it goosed me in the A** :eek: Hell no!! I’m not CLEAR!!! :eek: Please don’t get that thing started NOW! :crazyeyes:

When I knew that my first time up in the front seat (not JUST the RIGHT seat) would be in a SUPERCUB :onfire: I started feverously searching for information about this fabulous bird. Before long, I had stumbled into the hallowed corridors of SUPERCUB.ORG 8) and found a veritable treasure-trove of priceless information and shared experiences :Geureka: THEN, I came across the musings of a certain CloudDancer… :Gwhoa: and before long, say about the first paragraph or so… I just KNEW I was getting into trouble. :eek: :eek: :eek:

By the time I went up for my “maiden” flight, I’d read all of the :anon Chronicles and had been flying in my mind in places far more challenging than I was ever likely to encounter on my first “introductory flight” into the land of sunshine :angel: I was so excited upon returning to earth (ink still WET on the first ENTRY into my VIRGINAL logbook) :eek: :D I sort of skidded :OT% and blurted out on CloudDancer’s thread discussing a whole ‘nuther “first time” :oops: http://www.supercub.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=12660

dreamer said:
Me 'n' my shadow got separated today... For the first time in ages, not stuck onto one part of me or another like confetti after the big parade... Not really all that hard, but just a little tricky, strapping myself into the big thing with wings and barreling down a long straight stretch of flatland faster and faster as UP comes the tail :eek: and she LEAPS into the air and all of a sudden, she is UP and THERE'S my poor shadow, running along on the ground below trying to follow me still and here I am, flying around with NO shadow touching ANY part of me anywhere :eek: . Air smooth as glass, river and lakes all sparkly below, far away clouds shaking off colors of the morning sun like water off a dog. Stick and rudder JUST like in dreams and JUST like Wolfgang wrote (well kinda), only this time I am IN the pilot's seat! Whoo-hoo!! With an ace pilot instructing me, in a beautiful 1955 PA-18 SUPERCUB!! Logged my very first "official" hour in the log book this morning :angel:

How 'bout them rites of passage, eh? One moment, all dressed in virginal white, an unwritten page, a story still yet to be told, just ACHING to be touched... One simple entry later... :onfire: Oh Baby! :crazyeyes: I WANT MORE!!

:angel: :angel: :angel:

LuLu

Before I spin completely out of control here, I’m gonna lower my nose and kick some hard rudder and tell you how I got my tail up in the air in the first place. It all starts with a DREAM!

for real,
Songbird in the Land of Sunshine
:angel:
 
Hell nO! Besides, he's a brown paper bag kinda of guy, I'm wearing something pretty with ruby red sequins ALL over it. Sheesh! :roll:


behindpropellers said:
Cloud Dancer under cover?
 
It all STARTS with a Dream… :angel:

Some lousy weather in New England, a couple of tornados tearing through Tennessee and I find myself transplanted to an emerald green place of Panthers and Gators and Coyotes OH MY! :eek: It’s sort of a cross between the land of OZ and the Flying Crown Ranch… 8) It’s a BIRD! :cluck Yep, all kinds of pretty birds… It’s a COW! :Gcloppy: Um, we call 'em "cattle" here... It’s a PLANE! :tup: A whole BUNCH of planes! 8) It’s a FLY-IN NEIGHBORHOOD! 8) There’s RED ONES and YELLOW ONES and SHINY ONES TOO! :eek: There’s one with a red tail and TWO SPINNING PROPS! :eek: :eek: LOOK! There’s a SUPERCUB TOO!! 8) What in the world is a dreamer to do?

I’m camped out in a little place along the banks of a wild and scenic river. It starts to rain one day and keeps on raining for thirty-nine days :Gfish: The levee breaks and I am suddenly living IN the river :Gfish::Gfish: A deck 10 feet off the ground is now just inches above the waterline The fishing is GREAT :Gworm: :Gfish::Gfish: and I don’t have to mow! :tup: The yard-fish keep me awake at night… :Gwhyme: Catch 6 dozen of them with a cast net in less than an hour one afternoon… get real good at filleting… free fish for everyone! :lick: Scrape the mud off of everything I own and reluctantly head for higher ground… Now I am living in HANGAR ONE! :peeper I am right under the glide approach to runway 27 :peeper WhooHooo!! :onfire: (This is very exciting).

One fateful night I have a dream… :Gcalm:

Getting parched here... I'll be back! :drinking:

It's HER again...
 
Behindpropellors and WWHunter - :howdy
Well for ONCE....I TRULY DON'T resemble that remark!! :x

"Dreamer" is NOT :anon "undercover or "in DRAG"!! :bunny

FIRST off....I WILL admit there are SOME similarities in our writing "styles" :up (and LIFEstyles as well :drinking: :pty: , apparently!!)

HOWsumEVer...have you not NOticed the girl even puts CD to shame when it comes to the use of EMOTICONS!! :yikez: I mean SHEEESH. You'd THINK she just discovered SEX :lick: ....fer crissake!!

I mean her post looks like the wall in the ORD garage where they had the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, :9mm :2gunfire: :snipersmile: except with emoticon "patches" for the bullet holes!! :yeow:

Her WRITING on the other hand IS very....very inSPIRED :tup: :up and I believe she and I MAY share MANY......er....aspirations! :pty: :stupid :nutz:

But guys!! I'm feeling GUILTY AS HELL :cry: over this "I'm from the F.A.A." thing enough as it is. I WANTED to write today but instead came down with a WHOPPING case of food poisioning so bad I can hardly leave my bed or the :toilet . This is the 1st time I've been at my keyboard in about seven hours.

If NOTHING else, you can believe this. :-? Being "CloudDancer" and doing the "Chronicles" is close to almost ALL the "image" 8) and "responsibility" I can handle, esPECially when combined with my "real life" and job. :bang :rock:

There is NO WAy I can take on another "secret identity" as well.

Lynne "Dreamer" is very real. Let's just enjoy her writings and musings too!!

CloudDancer :anon
 
Well, being as I was DREAMING :Gcalm: in the other room (having fallen asleep in a tangle of sectionals, Jeppeson’s, Wolfgang Langewiesche and a 1961 copy of the Private Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge) during the time when :anon posted last NIGHT… This proves beyond a SHADOW of a DOUBT :roll: contrary to the theories abounding :agrue: that this could be like the premise of a Hugo award winning novella :Galien: , CloudDancer and I are NOT the product of each other’s imagination! :crazyeyes:

Need… MORE… COFFEE!! :morning:

Tripping down Penny Lane...

Songbird singing on a cloudy day... :angel:
 
(having fallen asleep in a tangle of sectionals, Jeppeson’s, Wolfgang Langewiesche and a 1961 copy of the Private Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge)
May I suggest some additional reading?

"The Compleat Taildragger Pilot" by Harvey S. Plourde is an excellent source of information for both the novice pilot and for an experienced aviator transitioning from nosewheel to tailwheel airplanes. It was required reading for my tailwheel students.
 
Okay Everybody!! Once and for ALL! :preach

I KNOW who I AM! :cluck I mean...I know who I WAS!! :Gboggle: AND I know who I am NOT. :Girk:

Jeeeeez! You guys are a bunch of CONSPIRACY theorists!! :Grain:

Do you see all black helicopters flying with no running lights through the night skies TOO!! :Galien:

I SUPPOSE the ONLY way to settle this :Geureka: beFORE it turns into a THING is for "Dreamer" and I to be logged in at the same time so you YAHOOS can see for YOURSELVES that we are 2 seperate and destinked people! :p :elf:

Whaddaya' say Dreamer. Can you make the board at 9 P.M. eastern 2-nite??

It's not that I'm so concerned about being mistaken for you, but I wouldn't want any of my so called "bad habits" :drinking: :pty: :bunny to be accidentally assumed to be a part of your persona as well. :cry: You seem like SUCH a nice lady!

AnnesToy needs some backup from time to time. :2gunfire:

CloudDancer :anon
 
skagwaypilot said:
May I suggest some additional reading?

"The Compleat Taildragger Pilot" by Harvey S. Plourde is an excellent source of information for both the novice pilot and for an experienced aviator transitioning from nosewheel to tailwheel airplanes. It was required reading for my tailwheel students.

Thanks skagwaypilot, I've just ordered a copy. Now just waiting for the airmail pilot to drop it through the hole in my roof :eek:

For those who are looking for books, here's a site well WORTH checking out! The $$ you save can go directly into your flying fund :D

AbeBooks: New & Used Books, Textbooks, Rare & Out of Print Books
Offering new, used, rare and out of print books, textbooks, and ephemera. Represents a wide variety of independent booksellers located throughout the world.

www.abebooks.com


I'll be logged on at 2100 GMT-5 hours... Does that sound about right?
 
2100 is 9 P.M. (local) in MILITARY time. :usa

Nine P.M. east coast time tonight is ACTUALLY 0200Z tomorrow (02/16/2007) in Greenwich. :-?

BUT...since the battery in my NON-aviator (Mickey's BIG hand is on) watch crapped out two days ago :cry: and I haven't replaced it yet....

AND since I don't have a couple of Zebra time clocks staring me in the face like I do in the cockpit 8) .....can we keep this simple please Dreamer? :bang

nine P.M. East Coast time tonight..........I'll C U....ALL here!! :agrue:

Cloud(Back in Time)Dancer :anon
 
Hummmm.... the picture of CD in drag sorta rounds out the only thing missing from SC.Org. Of course, he/she would have to have an outfit that matches the sack and maybe brogans with a dull brown shine?

I think the Lady is real. Figured it would just be a matter of time before the ladies shot us down. LOL Neat thang about them shooting us down, is that mother nature sorta makes us males like it. :eek:

*Sorry for the term "shoot down". Don't want to cause flashbacks.

** No I never actually met his sister "Pole". Just a rumor and I am sticking to it.

TD
 
Sorry Cloudy, I'll try to be Clear.

I've never been very good with time :oops: I'm one of those people that CAN'T wear a watch... I've tried MANY different types of time pieces... big hands, little hands... even with numbers that blink and glow in the DARK :eek: Invariably, within HOURS or DAYS... they ALL stop running and are hereafter correct only once every twelve hours or so :crazyeyes: (and no silly, this has nothing to do with my FACE! Honey, I've been featured in the SOCIETY pages of a certain semi big city paper!). :wink: Nope, near as I can figure, it has something to do with an electro-magnetic field generated by the rapidly firing synapses of my convoluted brain. :idea: .. Lest you think I am making this up, let me assure you I am not... I have met others in my life that can stop time too :Galien: . I am donating whatever is left of my brain when I die to Science-FICTION! :roll:

But, never FEAR, I will APPEAR at the appointed time and place. This Christmas, I was given a little tiny yellow airplane that has a clock enclosed within a crystal canopy. I've got TIME in a little airplane now!! THIS time keeps on TICKING!! :lick: I've keep it clipped to the belt loop of my jeans where it swings in a gentle arc about my hips. Hmmm... perhaps there is another type of magnetic deviation at work here?? :bunny

9pm EST... I shall be there :angel:
 
The DREAM

Oh yeah, so where was I? Um… I musta been dreaming again… Lessee… 8)

The stubby winged experimental aircraft with the great big engine and the weary pilot on his way to work again taxies past the opening of the hangar (gosh the acoustics in here are GREAT! :eek: ). The sounds of a pre-flight run-up herald the crack of dawn and moments later, the little plane roars over my head signaling to the entire neighborhood that another day HAS begun and it is time to get UP. :morning:

The fan directs the cool morning air over my somnambulate body, the sheets have all been blown off by prop wash, the pillows re-arranged by wake turbulence. I am having a GREAT dream :angel: , I don’t WANT to wake up. I am in an airplane… taxiing down the road winding around the trees across from the hangar… I am peering over the top of the nose, allRIGHT! It’s got a tailwheel! :onfire: I am turning the corner onto the base of the runway, steering with my FEET!! I am IN the PILOT SEAT!!! Oh $%&#! :help What do I do next?? I’ve never DONE this before! Well, I MIGHT be able to get it UP, it’d be great to fly around for awhile… :angel: but what happens when I run out of fuel?? :eek: What happens if the engine quits?? :crazyeyes: How the heck do I execute one of those beautiful smooth maneuvers where the plane gently floats back to earth like a freaking LEAF?? :Gboggle: I have NO idea how to get this thing DOWN!! :eek: VERY reluctantly, I pull back the throttle, turn off the mags and shut off the master switch. <sigh>

My tail is dragging. :( I turn my face into the wind generated by the fan… my eyelids feel VERY heavy… I use MORE FLAPS and move my tail into position. Reluctantly, I am UP :Gupsidown: . Oh darn, I really wanted to fly…. Even if it’s only IN MY DREAMS! :onfire:

I gaze over toward the bookshelf. My eyes alight upon a copy of the “Private Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge”… hmmm… :idea: there’s some old copies of the FAA publications “Facts of Flight”, “Realm of Flight” and “Path of Flight”… :idea: There’s the little Golden Science “Guide to Flying” and ALL of those books about the History of Flight, the Brothers Wright and of course, all of those paper airplane books. :idea: :idea: MAYBE, just MAYBE… If I start studying NOW, the NEXT time I have that dream, I WILL be able to fly!! :onfire: It all starts with a DREAM. :angel:

To be continued...

I’ve got to go feed the noble steeds around the corner before it gets DARK around here :eek: … I’ll be BACK!

Dreaming in TECHNICOLOR!! :angel:
 
Folks, as the site admin I can tell you that the posts of these two individuals are NOT coming from the same computer.

Good thing we are on the "unlimited emoticon" plan here at supercub.org....

:)

sj
 
Hiya Steve!! - :howdy

I KNEW I could count on you ol' buddy! :up Thanks fer' squaring THAT away onced and for all!! :cluck

And when it comes to EMOTICON usage....WELL! :x I think I'd HAVE to HUMBLY submit sir that, rather than following the "Cheaper by the DOZEN" philosophy...yours truly....TRULY attempts to use the APPROPRIATE emoticon...at the appropriate point to provide additional emphasis or entertainment value for your reading dollar.

I remain Sir,

Cheerfully Devoted to Them what gave me a new HOME
Supercub.org

The one, the ONLY....

CloudDancer :anon
 
CloudDancer said:
...I WANTED to write today but instead came down with a WHOPPING case of food poisioning so bad I can hardly leave my bed or the :toilet . This is the 1st time I've been at my keyboard in about seven hours...

What happened CD? Did you get ahold of some of that bad Peter Pan :elf: Peanut Butter?
thud.gif
1097.gif
puke.gif




popcornsmilie.gif
 
:eek: what kind of body does Dreamer have ??? :roll: Hell, I worry about just getting my tail off the couch much less in the air.






Your old uncle TD
 
Ahhhhhhhh....HA!! :p

SEE!! Look at the bottom of the page. :eek:

There we BOTH are sinutenu... :bunny

simonetious..... :anon

at the same DAMN TIME!! :bunny :anon

NOW! Any FURTHER Questions?? :preach

Cloud(nah-ner-nah-ner-NAH-ner :frog: )Dancer :anon
 
<---------- always has more questions!!!!

What kind of a body is a "somnambulate body" ??????
 
TDTerry said:
<---------- always has more questions!!!!

What kind of a body is a "somnambulate body" ??????

OK (Sorry, I was practicing in the next room)

Somnambulate: hmmm... interesting link here: http://fayette.k12.in.us/~cbeard/calliope/somnambulate.html

Generally somnambulating people are considered to be sleepwalking. Little typo there, what I should have said is somnambulaR. As in my somnambular body. The dictionary definition of somnambulate is as follows: To walk or perform another act while asleep or in a sleeplike condition. In this case, I was not walking in my sleep, I was FLYING :angel: or more accurately, TAXIING. :eek: My feet tangled up in the sheets were on the rudders. I groped around, but could not find a stick to wrap my hand around, which probably explains WHY I was only taxiing. :angel:
 
dreamer said:
but could not find a stick to wrap my hand around, which probably explains WHY I was only taxiing. :angel:

:eek: :eek:

Please don't go there.....this is supposed to be a family site....

:D
bent
 
SO!! I start reading… and reading… :-? Some of these books were published before I was born… I start wondering if all this information is up-to-date, especially the Wx stuff (Does anybody still get weather reports via TELEGRAPH??). :Gwhoa:

I am a certifiable weather junky… :Ggeek: There are times when I am listening constantly to the weather radio or keeping the news on in the background just to have a “heads-ups”. You do that after seeing first hand what weather run amok can do to you. :yikez: So, I can EASILY understand why weather is important in aviation. :angel:

I call up one of my buddies in the neighborhood to ask if I am learning stuff that matters anymore… I THINK it matters still… :eek: Certainly the weather matters and no matter HOW forecast technology has changed, you still gotta LOOK at the sky. :peeper I’d like to be able to plot a course no matter WHAT happens to the GPS and be able to fly by the seat of my pants even if some freak event causes ELECTRONICS to fail. :crazyeyes: He assures me that this stuff will ALWAYS matter and explains that the biggest differences in knowledge requirements between then and now are regarding airspace. 8) He offers me a contemporary Jeppeson’s Private Pilot’s manual to study which he acquired upon retiring from the airlines in order to familiarize himself with the alphabet soup down here below the jet airways he spent most of his life flying around. I am grateful :Gpinkhappy:

So I KEEP on studying. My GOODNESS this is a heavy TOME! :eek:

By now, I have admitted to myself that I REALLY want to learn to fly and not just IN MY DREAMS. :angel: I’ve ALWAYS wanted to learn to fly. :cluck When I was a kid, the answer I gave to, “So what do YOU want to be when you grow up little girl?” was an automatic reply of, “pilot” :cluck and “writer” :bang and the well meaning souls assured me that I MIGHT be able to be a writer (though that’s really not very practical dear) IF I studied hard and got a GOOD education, but pilot?? “No, no dear, you couldn’t be a pilot… GIRLS aren’t pilots”… :help Well what if I joined the Air-force? “No, no dear, the Air-force won’t let GIRLS fly air-planes” :bad-words: Well maybe they were WRONG! But I couldn’t see any way I was going to be getting my feet off the ground, so I packed up the dream and placed it on the shelf with the other souvenirs. :Gooh:

Coming next… I’m FLYING!!! :angel:

Maybe it's never too late to grrrow... er... go UP!! :eek:
 
Among the souvenirs is a small bronze piece that once belonged to my great-grandfather… On one side, the Spirit of St. Louis flying high over the earth… Stars afore, clouds aft and a mythological depiction of the west wind blowing towards the tail. The words cast below, PER ASPERA AD ASTRA… On the other side, a star enclosed within a circle flanked by wings and these words,

COMMEMORATING FIRST NON-STOP
NEW YORK TO PARIS FLIGHT
BY
COL. CHARLES A. LINDBERGH
MAY 20-21,1927
AERONAUTICAL CHAMBER
OF COMMERCE OF AMERICA

"Through adversity to the stars"… I just looked it up. Well if THAT’S what it takes! I'm REALLY hopeful now! :angel: I should be boldly going where no man has gone before… :eek: any minute now. :eek: :eek: This little souvenir sitting on the shelf along with the remnants of Dr. Stone’s introduction to Latin and Greek class from middle school that's STILL swirling around in my head, :nutz: MUST have been a subconscious influence upon me all these years. I plunge headfirst and headlong into ALL sorts of adversity. I get into the MUSIC business! :yikez: Hell, I’ve been into SOME adversity so deep I nearly drowned in it a time or two. I’ve gotten through so far… I can DEFINITELY see the sky from here. Look out stars! Here I come! :howdy

But FIRST… Exactly how the heck am I going to pull this off?? :crazyeyes: Although I’ve had my share of paying gigs and even a royalty check or two (and some still owed), there’s still a fair amount of work that’s expected to be done for the less than lucrative exchange commodity commonly referred to as “exposure” :yikez: not to mention the investment capital required to keep oneself appropriately clad in
sparkly stage clothes, fishnet stockings and other such necessities. :OT%

I have graduated Magna cum Laude with an advanced degree in “Creative Survival” from an ivy clad university without any walls. :tup: The employment opportunities are interesting, but... There are some years I can barely keep up with my alumni membership dues… :help I've been having a pretty good year but... My broker is still advising a conservative approach to my portfolio :agrue:

Well, I figure if I can put myself through “ground school”, :Ggeek: :bang I might save myself SOME $$ in this crazy pursuit of heavens above… When I sheepishly admit to one of my favorite cranky old pilots that I am trying to learn what it takes, :Gooh: he looks at me incredulously... :Gwhoa: “Why on earth would you want to fly? That’s just CRAZY! :crazyeyes: :nutz: It’ll take every penny you’ve got, break your heart :yeow: and absolutely RUIN your life!” :bang

I am heartened. I already KNOW how to do that!
:angel:

Throwing some more wood on the fire... I'll be BACK!
 
Yes, this IS a crazy dream. :nutz: I am a bit of an outsider here, even though I’ve been living here now longer than a good number of my neighbors. I am perhaps, the only person in here that doesn’t own the property I am living on. Some good people are letting me live in guest quarters that had been built into one end of an old hangar. I moved in here after the first place I was caretaking for a friend was sold. I inherited a brand new Craftsman garden tractor, :wink: a good pressure washer and some other tools from my friend. I had taken care of his property along the river during and after the flood and had cleared enough of the overgrown areas (by hand mostly) to show potential buyers what a beautiful place it really was. I’d have bought it in a heartbeat if I could have figured out HOW! The new owners are very happy. :howdy

The hangar I’m in now was quite run-down, :yikez: but it’s got beautiful bones. :bunny There are high ceilings and tall windows full of sky... :cluck there’s a beautiful view straight down runway 27… 8) It’s an INFINITE view of the western sky. The sunsets are FABULOUS! :D I begin a restoration process and start getting the place fixed up, only somewhat hampered by a rotator cuff torn in the move. I take over all the mowing (with my brand new mower!) :Gcloppy: and start cleaning up the overgrown areas. It’s a gorgeous piece of property. I just LOVE it! :angel:

Some people can’t understand why I’d do all this work on a place that’s not my own. It’s very simple really. It’s JUST SO BEAUTIFUL here! :Gpinkhappy: I LOVE this place with the beautiful old oaks draped in Spanish moss... :love: I LOVE the wild and beautiful river I can walk to... I am amazed at the sight of endangered birds so unthreatened, I can practically reach out my arm and touch fingertip to wingtip… I watch an eagle drop down from a mile overhead and steal a huge bass from an osprey. I walk outside my door and see a very rare and seldom seen Florida panther… Standing stock still, we gaze into each other’s eyes for one infinite moment before the huge cat looks away and silently leaps into the woods. The night sky is swimming in stars and I am accompanied by a symphony of a thousand voices of nightingales and owls, ten thousand happy frogs and lovesick gators calling across a distant swamp. :love: There’s no sound of traffic other than the occasional airplane taking off or flying around the pattern fixing to return to earth.

If these wonderful people weren’t LETTING me live on their property, I might have to move back into the CITY :eek: and have to live in some run-down crowded place it takes me three jobs to PAY for. :yikez: I’ll work my ass off and be glad for every MINUTE they LET me stay here. I feel like the luckiest person on the PLANET! :angel:

I continue studying my flying books and take every opportunity to learn everything I can. I figure if I keep studying and saving my $$, then maybe someday I’ll be able to find an instructor and find out for myself what its REALLY like to learn to fly. I’ve been up a number of times in several of the small planes in the neighborhood (and one helicopter too!). During the fly-ins, there’s usually some opportunity to catch a ride. :cluck

I take care of horses for some nice folks down the road while they head out on various adventures. One day while I’m out mowing, they’re flying in alongside of the field I’m working in and offer me a ride in their sweet little SUPERCUB!! :onfire: Naturally, I jump RIGHT in! I want to fly SO bad. There’s something inside me that just ACHES for the sky. My goal is to pass the knowledge test, then, MAYBE, I’ll be able to take the next step. :whis:

I don’t know how I’m going to do it, only that I am. At least IN MY DREAMS I’ll be flying for SURE and won’t have to worry about getting LOST! :eek:

I find an old kite and hold it up into the wind. :Gooh: I let it go and hold onto the string and study how it behaves as the string slides through my fingers. I sit on the fence by the runway for hours at a time, head tilted back, eyes cast UP. I watch birds. I listen to the sounds of various planes flying the pattern and memorize the sounds of engines throttling back as they begin their graceful glide back to earth.

I watch as a small homebuilt light sport aircraft nears completion and watch as the pilot take it out of the hangar for the very first time to steer an un-familiar tail-wheel :crazyeyes: down the runway when no others are around. His head pokes over the top of an open cockpit, his brow is furrowed in concentration. I watch his level of skill on the ground quickly improve as he practices for his tail-wheel endorsement. :up

I watch hundreds of take-off rolls and an equal number of gravity defying moments, I hold my breath each time until there is nothing but blue sky behind each set of wings growing smaller in the distance. Each graceful bird disappears from view and eventually returns home. The annual touch landing contest and picnic approaches. In the days leading up to the big day, every pilot in the neighborhood with time to spend conducts a series of touch and goes. I help set up tables and wash off chairs.

Coming UP next... The Annual Fly-in, Spot Landing and Flour bombing contest!! (and how I finally get to FLY an airplane for the very first time!!) :onfire:
 
I'm FLYING!!!

A Consolidated Vultee Valiant BT-13 ROARS straight toward me and tips a wing over my head as I step outside the hangar on the morning of the fly-in. Who needs coffee? I’m awake NOW! :crazyeyes:

There’s a collection of aircraft flying in the pattern and others gathering on the field. A spot landing contest takes place at the other end of the runway. Another pilot briefing and the flour bombing begins. I listen to a conversation about using doors in place of ailerons to bank a plane around a turn. :eek: There’s a bit of organized chaos as all the fair representatives of Aeronca, Beechcraft, Cessna, Piper, and miscellaneous other manufacturers are lined up around the field. 8)

Fires are burning under the trees and the sweet smoky smell of barbecuing meat drifts through the air. :lick: The tables in the clubhouse are sway-backed with the weight of covered hot dishes, assorted cold salads and a multitude of family secret recipes. The coolers are chock full of icy cold beverages and the men have once again, expertly tapped the keg. :cheers There’ll not be much more flying today.

I wander away from the conversations and walk among the airplanes, looking through the windows at the unfamiliar array of instruments and the strange looking knobs and controls. :eek: Every time I’d previously been in one of these things, my eyes had been riveted outside rather than in. Silently, I’d be drinking in a view too big for words, getting me an eyeful to dream upon long after returning to earth. These are strange looking birds when they’re perched on the ground. I wander back to the crowd and look for an interesting place to pull up a chair. :drinking:

This is a wonderful group of people. They are warm, intelligent and funny. These are folks who have been friends and neighbors for many years. The couples have remained happily together for decades. I think there must be something in the water. There are a lot of shared memories. I love listening to the pilots talk “shop”. :agrue:

A few people have flown in to check out a house and hangar across the street that’s up for sale. A lone pilot in a Cessna 140 shows concern about the rising cumulous clouds building up under the afternoon sun, concerned about a bumpy ride home. I offer the use of my guest room if he’d like to remain over-night. He accepts, much preferring the smooth sailing of the early morning and offers a flight at dawn in return. :D

The fires burn down to ashes, the leftovers are packed up, the chairs are all stacked up and a dedicated few make sure the keg is thoroughly empty as per the sacred neighborhood covenant. :cheers I take my new friend for a ride in the golf cart down to the river to watch the fish chase the gators :Gfish: and make it back to the hangar just before the skeeters come out. :Gwhoa: The pilot has a good time climbing up the shelves in my library finding a vintage collection of science fiction titles that he’d never run across before. :Ggeek:

Come morning, a thick blanket of fog has completely hidden the runway and obscured the remaining aircraft parked on the field overnight. :peeper I can barely see the huge war-bird parked less than a hundred feet from my door. :Gboggle: I cook up some fresh eggs (having been personally acquainted with the chickens that laid ‘em) :cluck and we wait for the fog to burn off. :peeper The pilot calls flight briefing for a weather report and checks the batteries in his GPS. As visibility improves, he walks outside to conduct other preflight checks.

It’s a beautiful little airplane that he’s flying. It’s a gorgeous 1946 rag-wing Cessna-140 :Gooh: with a custom paint job that he’d spent two full years of his life recovering and restoring to airworthiness. 8) Soon, we can see the end of the runway again and the sky is clear and blue for miles and miles. 8)

We climb into the little plane and line up on the end of the runway after getting settled in and conducting a final pre-flight check. The trees at the end of the runway grow rapidly before my eyes :yikez: until suddenly we are UP and the trees start getting smaller again as we leave them behind and well underneath us. :Gooh: I feel a peculiar combination of blissful calm and excitement. I just LOVE it up here! :angel:

A voice in the headphones brings me back inside the cockpit. “OK, see those pedals down on the floor? Put your feet on those (they’re called rudders). Put your hands on this thing here… we call that a yoke”. I re-arrange myself and feel the motion of the little plane through my hands and feet. The voice in the headphones returns, “You’re flying the plane now”. :yikez:

I’m flying the plane? Really??? Oh WOW! I can’t believe it! :angel: Sure enough, the pilot is grinning at me, hands and feet completely off the controls! :eek: The voice in the headphones tells me how to make a few basic maneuvers and I follow a heading toward a nearby small public airport. I turn in a wide circle outside of the pattern before heading back to the neighborhood and begin descending to pattern altitude before turning the controls back over to the pilot in command. I have flown a little over 30 nautical miles! :angel: :angel: :angel:

Back on the ground again, I can scarcely contain myself. I turn cartwheels across the field and can’t stop grinning. I get excited all over again, every time I realize what I have just done. I spend the rest of the day looking up to the sky for a glimpse of my heart which is still soaring around up there somewhere. :angel:

The pilot heads home with a handful of my books and a promise to bring them back along with another chance to fly someday. 8)

Gravity (which I am convinced is a fluctuating force on this planet) barely keeps my feet on the ground for the rest of the day.

:angel: :angel: :angel:

*****************************

Coming next: Broken wings upon the ground, and an answer to the age old question; “100LL - An effective herbicide?”
 
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