Okay, sorry to write marathons, all of a sudden this has become extremely interesting and very unexpected. I am sure it will carm down in a day or two.
Les, thank you for your e-mail early this morning, I was really taken back by you contacting me, I will get back to you on a personal note. Everyone else who wrote thank you so much for expressing the passion you all have, life may well take another road once again.
I never imagined this response would happen, ever. I have lived in five countries, England until 1985, then Germany unto Dec. 1999, then Italy and America in 2000 as a hyper jump situation related to business, Canada from 2001 to June 2006, the USA since June 2006, hope now to stay-put because this place is great.
As to the weather let me put you in the picture. Living in England you are wet permanently and your ears whistled from the wind, whiskey, the Scotch type is all that keeps them warm. In Scotland you will drown for sure waiting for a bus. Germany it was much the same except in Stuttgart where I was it dropped to 20 C below most of the Winter, but you cannot beat the beer, but head South and drive through the Mont-Blanc tunnel into Italy you entered in the rain and come out in scorching heat (in the Summer) and run Into crazy Italians and endless good food.
Canada was interesting as I spent 2.5 years in the Okanagon desert (Penticton) and you got four seasons. Twenty five below with five foot of snow, a bright fresh Spring with life reviving through melt water, Red hot summers 115 F and a beautiful Autumn along with Bears, rattle snakes, black widow spiders and Forest fires. I decided enough was enough when a bear walked passed out home carrying a garbage can under its arm and one eyeballed my wife and I while taking a walk. Not funny, she was pregnant, my wife not the bear. Loved the place. Then 2.5 years in Vancouver BC and from day one I planned my escape. Hated it. Talk about rain, that place takes the biscuit, it has to be the stand in for the Amazon jungle. Rain drops are two centimeters across and it never stopped. You would have to buil;d a Stunt model out of metal to get any use out of it.
Now, I live West out on the Pacific peninsula (Port Orchard) near Seattle, West across the sound, good cold Winters with rain and some wind, nice Spring whether you could fly all day every day, great summers nice and still, the last was a scorcher and the Autumn is mind blowing out at the Pacific mountains and there is enough wind to sail for ever all year around these islands in the Puget sound. So some who wrote a reply have got it right. This place is quietly unique and I have never heard anyone speak Spanish!
Les, how come you have no plane to fly !!
and Ty Marcucci, what is N30 I am woundering ?
Now a little something for Dalas Hanna - Arther Eves. A tribute I always wanted to express but had no where to write it.
In all sports there are characters and occasionally one or two are very special. Arther Eves was such a person. I knew him extremely well and when he was homeless because of Squatters in his home he lived with my family for almost a year and my children experienced the opportunity to understand life is not always easy for everyone.
Arther suffered a horrific accident in Germany and lost both legs. He was parked on the side of an Autobahn adjusting something in the trunk when a car hit him driven by a drunk driver. He was near to death on two occasions and underwent extensive surgery for two years which probably weakened his heart. Plus he was for a long time on Morphine. He recovered and picked up the pieces of his life in a way most would have given up on. To attempt stunt was more than a challenge but after some time he overcame so many huddles and on his third set of legs he finally got his balance and was a Stunt flyer. And fly he did, week in, week out.
You either loved Arther or hated him, he was brash, abrupt at times but inside he was as cheerful and as genuine a person anyone could be. He was even called in to help invalid victims at convalescent hospitals to overcome there disabilities and thus demonstrated one day how to go down a flight of stairs outside a bank in a wheel chair. That was something to believe.
I ran a dental laboratory within a dentists office in the heart of London at the back of Knitsbridge. A well to do area. Dr, Martin Green came to me and said there is a strange man asking for you at reception. His name is Arthur, great send him in. The reply was "really", I then said with a smile, Ill come out. Arthur had bust a knee and could not drive home. A simple fix, a nut and bolt, a bit of metal and a braze was all that was needed. We took off to get some bits at a store across town and the only place to park was on a hill. The hand brake on my car was bust, so I said jump out and I jammed his right foot under the back wheel and said don't move. When I got back the car was still there with Arthur laughing and explaining to passers by this is a new hand brake under development. I said next time you go public change your socks.
Back at the lab we got him welded up in no time while he hopped about like Long John Silver on one leg and Dr, Martin Green found a new friend. He left in his car which was half red and half gray, too cars he had cut up and welded together at the middle after he explained to the police it was legal.
That was Arthur and I am sure so many will remember him for flying a half A stunter in the hanger at Barkstone Heath on the second night of the Nationals. He wrapped it around what looked like a very expensive light 30 ft up and it was hanging there the next day looking like a piece of exotic female underway. There was never a dull moment with Arthur. After I left England he once drove out to see me but was stopped at the border. The Germans refused to let his car in Germany and turned him around. On the return journey his home made carburetor caught fire in Holland and the car apparently made a spectacular bonfire in the middle of Amsterdam I believe.
You cannot condemn him for who he was or what he achieved and so many missed him when he left us. He was Vivid in every sense of the word and admired by so many and the world is the sorrier place for loosing such characters.
I had endless laughs with Arthur and miss a great friend and Stunt lost a real trier.
Thanks for the replies,
Marco
Marco
Topic: Atlantis - "Who is this guy" (Read 10542 times)
