Hi Guys,
I got my first airplane rides early in life, I cannot remember which was first but a T-6, T-28 and Apache and Bonanza were all jumbled up in there. My first memory of flying an airplane was my parent's friends Bonanza. it actually moved when I moved the whell, so I noticed this and started rolling it from left to right banks to me mother's great consternation. My recollection was that Bill was happy, I was happy and Mom was yelling, "Bill, make him stop!" The visual is blue sky with puffy clouds, three tone blue Bonanza with matching interior. My parents say I was 2, almost 3 yrs at the time.
Bill bought me my first model airplane, it was a Wen mac Day Fighter P-63 with the JUMP! ejection seat pilot and chute. I still have it bu it was mofied later to a Reno Racer!
Dad ans Mom bought me a PT-19 when I was 5, but I had been flying a Ringmaster Jr. for a while.
Later a PDQ Flying Clown, and a Magician as well a bunch of Veco and another Magician my Dad built.
I flew Speed and Scale and Stunt scared me because I didn't like to crash. I participated in the Navy Nats from '68 to '72 but attended the "66 and '67 Nats too.
Around '68 dad started getting interested in full size airplanes again since his career was moving along steadily. He attended the Tallmantz Museum Auction as a bidder but came back with nothing even though I had a whole list of airplane's for him to buy! He wanted the Curtiss Gulfhawk but the lots had multiple airplanes and it came with a Wright Flyer or something which made the prices much higher. I later found out that a P-40 went for 5,000 dollars at that auction and he said, "That was a lot of money!"
I'm an airline brat. My dad was a TWA Captain and so our family had an airplane for trips (though we never seemed to use it for that as much as the camper).
Mom and Dad had an interest in an FBO and we had 4 Citabria's within the fleet. 3 were 7ECA model's with 115 hp Lycoming O-235 and had gravity fuel and oil systems. Later, we got a brand new 7KCAB 150 hp Lyc O-320 with a Christen inverted fuel and oil system. (I remember we bought it from Screaming eagle at Santa paula and that airport had great stuff like Orange County did too. Mira Slovak traded a new Citabria for the old Airacobra from Orange County and I hung out at his hangar wishing we had that!) The fuel header tank let it run for a period of time inverted. The airplanes were licensed Aerobatic category and I used to make Dad sick as I flew them in acro for hours. He never let on. The ECA's would quit whenever the g load was zero. The KCAB would run all the way around. They all were approved for the same aerobatic maneuvers, except the ECA's were approved for "Inverted Glide"!
Never had one do the spiral, no spin trick. Sounds weird, I've flown a lot of them and they all did the same type spin, even the later Decathalon's. Possibly both wings were unstalled and it was always spiraling?
I got my ratings through HS and college. We had a D-17S Staggerwing until '79 as well as an Aeronca Chief. i soloed them on my 16th birthday. Dad bought a '80 R182 new and leased it back to a school after the old flight school was disbanded. I got my Comm and Intrument in it , and flew it quite a bit.
A buddy introduced me to a guy that needed a corporate pilot in his new Bonanza and I accepted his 10,000 year!
Aftyer that there was fery jobs, freight jobs, regional airline jobs. As well I flewa B-25 and some other WWII airplanes in air shows around california. Then got hired at TWA in 1988. I was fortunate to fly with my Dad on the L-1011, and flew the 727, 757, 767, DC-9, and MD-80 too. Now I'm an American MD-80 Captain as they bought TWA in 2000.
I flew pretty regularly in Stunt from 1982 to 1993, where my best showing was 18th at the 1992 Nats and I designed and published the model in Stunt News , the Golden Falcon. I liked Classic and built and flew a few models including the Macchia King Cobra, Olympic,Skylark and AMA-68 design of my Dad's in VSC from the start until 1994.
Getting into real ships again I flew for Evergreen AirVenture museum flying their WWII stuff out of Marana, AZ and ferrying acro airplanes for performers. I flew for an airshow performer in St. louis and gave rides in biplanes like the N3N and Staggerwing, as well as giving instruction in them and doing spin and unusual attitude recovery for corporate flight deartments in a Aerobatic Bonanza 33.
I bought a Pitts Special in 1997 and sold it to buy a newer model in 1999. I raced them both at the Reno Air Races and competed in aerobatic competition. It was fun, but kids and stuff made it prudent to sell. I'm airplane-less now, but have an idea to buy an S-2A as a business for rides and instruction. great write-off and the hangar makes it brick and mortar so ads to the legitimacy. We'll see what the future holds for private aviation! $5.00 gal gas is only the start of it. Manufacturuer AD's, privatization of ATC for profit is going to make it very expensive. Remeber the Boston tea Party? No one else does, evidently!!!
In 2004 I started flying models again and flew Stunt with the Golden Falcon and my later pipe ship the Copperhead V-10 (Lou Wolgast knows what that name comes from.)
My youngest son Michael showed an interest and he has gone from C/L sport to stunt, Scale and now likes R/C.
I am an R/C guy right now, but building a lot of things so I'll be back in the circle eventually!
Chris...
Topic: Just Curious? (Read 6138 times)