AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2020 - 24

SAFETY SPOTLIGHT

Head and heart

BY RICHARD MCSPADDEN
Executive Director
AOPA Air Safety Institute

Parting with a family icon

AOPA Air Safety
Institute Executive
Director RICHARD
MCSPADDEN'S

family tradition of
flying started when
his mother bought
his father a flight
lesson for Father's
Day more than 40
years ago.

24 | AOPA PILOT March 2020

I SOLD THE FAMILY NAVION. It's just a physical asset,
which you buy, use, and then sell when the utility wanes.
It's not hard; it's not emotional.
After earning a pilot certificate in his early 40s,
Dad longed for a capable airplane with a pedigree.
He learned about Navions and bought N5318K, a 1950
Navion B model. He kept it for 38 years until I took control of it last winter. It was truly the only airplane he ever
loved. Occasionally he would swap flirtatious glances
with a seductive taildragger, but he never lost eyes for
18K-the airplane that really taught him to fly.
5318K taught me to fly as well. After soloing in a
Cessna 152, I flew 18K for dozens of hours while preparing for U.S. Air Force pilot training and the Cessna
T-37 jet. The "Tweet" had remarkably similar physical dimensions to a Navion, including its height above
ground, length, and wingspan. Flying the Navion gave
me an instinctive feel for timing on roundout, flare, and
the ground effect zone, which helped manage accurate,
smooth touchdowns in the T-37. After flying a complex,
high-performance, retractable-gear piston aircraft with
a separate hydraulic system, I found the T-37 simpler in
a few important ways. A single lever (throttle) to manage each engine's performance took less mental effort
and fewer knob activations. The "Tweet's" landing gear
system was simpler to operate, and relatively higher
landing gear speeds in the T-37 opened more options
with energy management in the pattern. Thanks to 18K,
I had a great head start in U.S. Air Force pilot training.
Throughout my Air Force career, 18K was the airplane I
flew most frequently to reattach to my GA roots.
I used 18K to give my son and daughter their firstever airplane flights. My son received his first 10 hours
of primary flight instruction in 18K, and after earning
his certificate, returned to it for his complex, high-performance endorsement. I used the family workhorse to
give my daughter instruction in navigation, instruments,
and time under the hood during her primary training.
My brother, Cliff, flew 18K to earn his commercial
certificate, which launched him along a path eventually leading to UPS. He instructed his son in 18K to his
complex and high performance endorsement, gave his
daughter some instruction in it, and used it as the primary trainer for his son-in-law. My sisters, neither of
whom are pilots, insisted that each of their children and
grandchildren get flights in 18K with my dad, so they

could be exposed to aviation. Every person in our large,
extended family has had at least one, and in most cases
multiple flights, in 18K.
We used the Navion extensively outside of our family
to enjoy and promote general aviation. My brother and
I gave dozens of hours of instruction, introduction, and
familiarization flights in 18K. My dad, although not a CFI,
is widely appreciated in the Navion community for his
experience and thus used 18K to give numerous "checkups" to friends. He's given more than 300 Young Eagle
flights in his beloved Navion. N5318K set the Navion
world record for speed in the 260-horsepower class, a
feat Dad proudly proclaimed on the nose cowl for years.
We've flown 18K in warbird formations, honored lost
friends in missing man formations, and once I watched
on the Frederick Municipal Airport ramp as a colleague
flew 18K with an AOPA co-worker to release her dad's
ashes in tribute to his love of flying.
But, like life in general, our aviation lives evolve, and
needs and interests change. Different airplanes beckon
with new adventures and experiences. My dad, flying
fewer solo flights, has teamed with a friend to rescue
a lost Navion affectionately nicknamed "Rat Rod" and
race it at Navion nationals this year in hopes to set the
Navion 285-horsepower speed record. My brother has
finally satisfied his longtime lust for a UPF-7 Waco, so he
can part-time as a modern-day barnstormer giving opencockpit biplane rides. I'm enthralled by adventure flying
in the backcountry and have my eye on a Cessna 180.
We spent our last weekend with N5318K in the hangar doting over it, as we'd done for almost four decades.
My brother fiddled underneath the dash he'd designed
and installed several years before, I cleaned the underbelly and polished the wings, and my dad leafed through
the logbooks reminiscing about all the upgrades that
earned him the nickname "one-knot" and that proud
speed record. My mother stopped by, climbed up on the
wing, and stared into the cockpit for a long time, seeming lost in memories. 18K was their avenue to adventure
and friends for most of their adult lives.
Dad taught us to "take care of your airplane and it
will take care of you." We did, and it did, for some 5,000plus incident-free hours over 38 years.
It's just the sale of an asset; it's not emotional. AOPA
EMAIL richard.mcspadden@aopa.org

AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2020

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