One Great Summer

[4-Shipp]

June and I are off tomorrow for a 1434 NM trip in 9CP. Tomorrow Fort Scott, Kansas and Quincy, Illinois. Two nights with family and then to Rockford and Waukegan, Illinois. Back to Texas on Sunday via Moberly, Mo and Tulsa. It looks like great weather the entire five days. We will be hanging out at the Waukegan Airshow on Saturday if anyone is planning on going.

We will fly 16+ hours just traveling plus any additional flying during our stops. Our return trip should put close to 90 hours total since we finished an extensive annual in late May. 65+ hours of that will have been cross country with the vast majority of the remainder soloing out Alex in August. The rest has been giving rides and enjoying flying here in North Texas.

We bought 9CP eight years ago with the dream that every summer would be like this one (OK, that was my dream, not necessarily June's). To my great disappointment, we outgrew the 170 as a family plane in about 2 years years, a good year sooner than anticipated. The boys are both 6'2" and average about 190 between them. They developed other interests over the years so most of our flying time and dollars were spent sharing time with them versus the airplane. June was always hesitant to take off for a long day or a weekend and leave them behind. Now that they are both in college I appreciate her priorities even more. I miss them.

We have enjoyed our trips this summer for the places we have been and the people we have met even more than the pleasure of flying. I know this week will be no different.

We are a blessed group to be able to enjoy our passions and share them with others. Have a great week, I know we will - we're going flying!

Bruce

[GAHorn]

I've known a number of professional pilots who have lost the love of flying (a few may never have loved it but only followed it as a career after military training.) There have been numerous times I've been in discussion with airline and military types who haven't got anything but a glazed-over look in their eyes when a small civil airplane model is mentioned to them. I doubt if they could identify the types that ATC points out to them inflight.

Bruce Shipp is not one of these types. It is so refreshing to see an experienced Air Force and Air Line pilot who has developed and maintained a true love and excitement for flying REAL airplanes!

Thanks for reminding us why we do this, Bruce!
(In a few minutes I'm running down the dewey-grass at my place to hop over to another field to test-fly, for a broker, a KA-200 coming out of heavy maintenance. I love early morning flights in smooth air, when as you apply power, the propeller spins off a trail of water-vapor, and you can detect that exact-moment the wheels leave the ground because their rumbling across the terra-firma disappears....and transitions into the smooth flight allowed by God.)

[4-Shipp]

I guess I get the bonus flying time today. With he prevailing SW winds our trip to Quincy usually takes less less than 5 hours of flying. Not this afternoon - 20 knots on the nose all the way home - about 6:30 total. Lucky us

Thanks for the kind words, George. My biggest surprise when I joined the Air Force as finding out that there were people who fly airplanes for a living who really do not like to fly or don't like airplanes. For the first 23 years of my life, I did not know that these types of folks existed.

[dacker]

I too, find it amazing how many of the guys that I flew with in the Navy only looked at flying as "just a job"! Not all of them mind you, but quite a few. It was funny, the whole time that I flew in the Navy I dreamed of flying Cessnas. When I left the service I only had commercial helicopter and multi-engine fixed wing... no single engine priviledges. I earned my single engine commercial afterwards and have been truly thrilled at how much that I have learned flying my 170. As a matter of fact, I have just opened my little flight school at Brenham and am getting a kick out of teaching. Some might say that I have taken a step backwards but I feel that I will learn more towards this profession than just about any other way!
By the way, one of my new students is a 20,000 hour airline/prior airforce pilot who has just bought his first general aviation airplane and wants to learn the nuances of general aviation.
I also have a 300 hour private pilot who literally can't fly and has been passed from one instructor to the next, she tried to kill us twice in a one and half hour flight review... she may be my greatest aviation challenge ever.
David

[Robert Eilers]

In 1971, fresh out of the Army, I went to work for Sierra Academy of Aeronautics. Sierra had been making big money from young men and women using their G.I. Bill to get their pilot training and attempt a career as a professional pilot. However, the handwriting was on the wall and G.I. Bill flight training was beginning to wain. Sierra, in the interest of maintaining an student pilot revenue stream, innovatively began one of the first foriegn pilot training programs. We trained pilots from Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Nigeria, Japan, and continued to train a spattering of American kids. I will never forget one Nigerian student. He was a very educated young man, who spoke the Kings English like he was born in London. Bashir was a hard working, dedicated student, but it still took me 100 hours to solo him at Oakland International. Once he soloed, everything seemed to fall into place and he progressed normally afterward. I still remember standing between 27L and 27R watching Bashir finally bang out his solo touch and gos. During his training and due to where we were training, I emphasized with him the importance of following the Tower's instructions. On his final landing, the Tower told Bashir to "turn right as soon as able". Bashir, deligently following my instrcutions, turned immediately right, bumped across the grass meridian, up over the right runway and continued to Sierra. The Tower gave me a Green light to walk back to Sierra and collect my student.

[wingnut]

I love early morning flights in smooth air, when as you apply power, the propeller spins off a trail of water-vapor, and you can detect that exact-moment the wheels leave the ground because their rumbling across the terra-firma disappears....and transitions into the smooth flight allowed by God.)

Amen