MindProbes Live Trivia : MindProbes

We were right under the landing path, and those planes came down so low over the house that I used to jump under parked cars because I was so scared they were gonna crash down on us.

One day I voiced my fear to my mother, and she rationally pointed out that next time I see a plane fly over to look at the door and see how small it appears. Then she explained that the door has to be big enough for my father to walk through, and since he is six foot two inches it really is pretty high up there and if its gonna crash, it wouldn't hit us. Small consolation, but it worked.

That's when I decided I was gonna fly one of them myself one day. Growing up kinda put that dream on the wayside for a bit, knowing how expensive it is, but I never stopped really thinking about it.

When I was 17, in 1980, I got into a car accident (I was a passenger) and was awarded $1,500 settlement money under the driver's insurance, so my mother suggested I use some of it to go to pilot ground school. I totally agreed with her and enrolled in Academics of Flight in Sunnyside, Queens. I was almost ready to graduate high school and start work in Manhattan, but I completed the course, passed the written exam, and had an introductory flight. I was hooked. I took some lessons on and off over the years, also took the ground school again a few years later, and then started to make some good money and got more serious about getting back into flying.

I finally soloed in 1986. So here's some tales:

Let’s start with Winter 1986. This is that plane that thankfully had the transponder so I didn’t crash into that mountain (it’s a Piper Cherokee). Turned into a good buddy : ) although my faithful Tomahawk (which trusted me on my first solo) will always hold a special place in my heart.

This was Caldwell Airport in New Jersey. Took me a mile walk, 30 minute bus, 45 minute subway, another hour bus and a half hour walk to get there, but it was worth it :)

Fast forward to 1988. I'm now in Florida Institute of Technology School of Aeronautics. Got my private certificate and working on the commercial. We were allowed to take passengers up after the private, so I brought along a friend to snap some shots. These were Cherokee’s also.

That bottom pic is about 500 feet AGL on final approach.

Ok, now in the Commercial training course, we had to do a number of cross-country flights (that only means 25 miles away, but most of them were required for 2 hours, so it got boring just going to Vero Beach and back fifty times : ). Although I must say, Okeechobee to Stuart and back was an easy flight with a hangover.

I mean seriously, no planning required, head south, see that big lake? Good , the airport's right at the tip, ok good, tune in the VOR, call the tower, do the required touch and go then head for the beach, before ya know it you’re at Stuart (probably skip the touch and go) and head back to Melbourne, 20 mins later, on the ground, plane tied up, paperwork finished, got home, get a nap (oh did I tell you my tyrannical instructors usually scheduled these things at 7 am????   What? They never heard of the Geneva Convention?), then I felt bad I didn’t really learn anything from wasting that much money, lol.    Oh well, I got over it. Still got to log the hours, which really was the point.

Also, always got a good laugh when my students told me their 2 hour cross country was Okechobee-Stuart and back, sometimes they would get creative and go to Stuart first, but they weren’t fooling me!

But I’ll tell ya one thing, unless they really wanted to, I would never schedule them for the crack of dawn for solo flights. That’s why they loved me : )    Well, the exception is the required 8 ½ hour one. That one you gotta leave early.   But its only one, and it’s a pretty exciting trip, so nobody ever slept the night before anyway : )

Anyway, on a few of those required cross country flights we were allowed to bring a fellow flight student that was in the same course. This is my friend Todd.   Snoopy was my first choice though : )

These were fun when they were at least 3 hours long, cuz they gave us the plane for a few extra hours, so we could make a stop and get some lunch or something. It‘s always fun exploring a new airport anyway, plus we have to check weather for the trip back for any correction in headings.    Plus it was really fun to see all the "seasoned" pilots at the FBO's (fixed base operators) drop a jaw at female pilot walkin in : )

I loved to start talking to them.   Oh wow, that reminds me of that mafia bar I sometimes stopped in on the way home from the train station on 101st ave in Queens. Although totally diff industries, they had the same respect for ………….. hmm dunno how to say it in Celtic, but in Welsh I think they call it balls (minus the vowel of course) : ) Probably a tad tamer in Yiddish, and a slight softer in Swedish, but French would be forthright, so you know what I mean : )

Now we come to the really fun stuff………… the aerobatic bi-plane, Pitts Special. Bill Plunk, aka, Captain Goggles, was a WWII flying ace and took me flying sometimes.   I even flew with him in an air show once. He was the one that taught me spins for my instructor course.

You may wonder why one would intentionally put an airplane in an attitude that could cause it to crash, but hey, ya do what ya gotta do. And for the record, the Cessna 152 that we did the spin training in pretty much comes out of a spin by itself (like any good aerobatic aircraft), but its good practice at the sequence of recovery. PARE..... Power to idle, Ailerons neutral, Rudder opposite spin direction, and here’s the tricky part………. Elevator to neutral, which means pointing the nose DOWN, against every avian instinct to remain in the air. But that is the only way to get airflow back over the wings and recover lift.

Anyway, sometimes Bill would take me up and we would "dogfight" with clouds. That was great and reminded me why I love to fly. The feeling of freedom combined with interacting with nature was spirit lifting and powerful. Of course, the clouds always seemed to win with me, but I knew Bill would get us outta the jam I got us into! He just told me to have fun, which I surely did!

Hope ya enjoy the pics and story, see ya online.

Reenie

Game Times

Your Say

Stuff

More Stuff