AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2014 - 72

72 |

I barely managed to stay current during
college, but after entering the U.S. Air Force
my flight economic model reversed. I added
ratings and flight time and actually got paid
to do it. With my logbook padded by lots
of multiengine jet hours, I landed a major
airline job in the 1990s and started pushing the career autopilot button. Thirty-five
years had passed since that first Cherokee
ride, along with more than 17,000 hours
spent mostly at cruise, transoceanic crossings, warzone entries followed thankfully by
warzone exits, and instrument approaches
in near-zero visibility. Happily, my number
of takeoffs was still equal to my number of
landings. But as I accomplished my career
goals, I realized I had lost touch with the
simple, joyful aspects of flying that first
attracted me as a teen. I also realized that I
wanted to pass on that love of flying and see
if it might catch on with any of my five kids.
At EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh last
year, with my brother-in-law Mike, my only
goal was to buy a T-shirt. After two days
of renewing old acquaintances and bumming around the flight line, Mike spotted

a 1963 Piper Colt with a shiny red finish
and a "For Sale" sign. While the rest of the
crowd was entranced with the airshow,
I chatted with the Colt owner, an airline
mechanic named Greg.
The Colt had been born a year after me,
and it served as a trainer for 20 years before
finally ending up in the hands of an A&P.
It would take 25 more years for that individual to strip the airplane to the tubular
frame, meticulously stretch the new fabric,
zero-time the Lycoming O-235, update the
upholstery and headliner, add toe brakes,
comply with the airworthiness directives,
and complete a supplemental type certificate tailwheel conversion. Greg and his
partner, Gary, became co-owners during
the rebuild.
"Must have taken a lot of hours to make
all those improvements," I said to Greg.
The mechanic looked at me and, with
great patience, replied, "You have no idea."
The engine log book showed just 2.3
hours since overhaul.
Then, like my six-year-old daughter Nikki's impulse to buy a candy bar in

the checkout line, I got the bug. I quickly
snapped a cellphone picture of the airplane
and sent it to my wife, Beth, with a short
note. "It costs about as much as the used
Suburban we bought last year. What do you
think?" Beth, a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals
fan, answered quickly. "As long as we call
it Redbird."
Immediately, I felt like I was 15 again-
excited but clueless. I took Greg's business
card and promised to call, then spent my
remaining time at Oshkosh learning as
much as I could. The wealth of general aviation knowledge made me realize how little
I really knew about current GA operations
and aircraft ownership. I hadn't read a VFR
sectional chart in 20 years, and I soon discovered that they could be loaded on an
iPad. My weather briefings at work are prepared neatly by dispatchers for preflight
review, and in the GA world I learned that I
no longer had to know the local FSS phone
number to get a briefing. My head began
swirling with questions about fabric maintenance, annual inspections, advantages of
alternators over generators, GPS receivers,

Life is Short,
Fly your Grass off.sm
There are over 9,921 grass strips in the U.S. The Husky can easily land in all 9,921. How many can you get into?
"HuskyPilot" isn't a rating; it's an achievement in lifestyle. It's for people who appreciate ﬂight. Because a
Husky isn't a means to an end, it's an end onto itself. It makes "getting there" more exciting, insightful and
fun than "being there". Forget about ﬂight levels. Think about treetops,
shorelines, river banks, valleys and those amber waves of grain.

Try HuskyFlight. Your Ride to Freedom
Log on to http://husky.aviataircraft.com. Check out the videos, get inspired
©2014 Aviat Aircraft, Inc.
and call to schedule your own Husky Experience!

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Post Ofﬁce Box 1240 Afton, WY 83110

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2014