#2. To: Turtle, Christine, Jethro Tull, Itistoolate, Diana, All (#0)
Suddenly, I feel so old. What a collection. So many of these groups sang what became prophecies - and you knew that's what they were, when you listened to them.
Now, they are appropriately being revived from what were though to be the ashes and dust of time, long gone.
That's great, as the current generation has been conditioned to deny reality & not believe in what was once a great America. No passion left - or permitted.
#38. To: Itistoolate, christine, Jethro Tull, Diana, All (#6)
"The Letter"
Talk about inducing nostalgia!
When I was a senior in high school, I fell in love with a gal (out of Texas) living in a village about 200 miles away & flew my Aeronca Champ over & through some weather that should have earned an award for stupidity - with that song banging around in my head.
What an adventure that ultimately led to. I'd give anything to be able to talk to her long enough to apologize for the outcome. I was one of those who couldn't make the distinction between thoughts & feelings. There was logic & pleasure; (God, 'feelings' hurt, what can these gals be rattling on about?)
I was 42, before the fog lifted. Kinda like driving down the road, doing 70, seeing the oil pressure light come on, realizing that you forgot to secure the oil filter. (Too late, now!)
When I was a senior in high school, I fell in love with a gal (out of Texas) living in a village about 200 miles away & flew my Aeronca Champ over & through some weather that should have earned an award for stupidity - with that song banging around in my head.
I just read your post and I have to say this:
An Aeronca Champ?
A VFR-only plane with "no electrical system" that must be hand-propped to start? (hopefully it had both magnetos operational!)
You were one kewl high school senior to actually leave the ground and fly through bad weather (a nein nein with VFR only aircraft) and I would have assumed that the chick would have been impressed.
A VFR-only plane with "no electrical system" that must be hand-propped to start? (hopefully it had both magnetos operational!)
It was a 90 HP version (7EC) and did have an electrical system, with a VHF coffee-grinder radio. The turn & bank indicator didn't work, though. That airplane definitely taught me that God loved me, more than I did. I built my flying time for my commercial license in that thing. It made for a lot of great adventure stories to tell my grandson ( only a year & a half, at this time.) Gramps was a lucky guy.
It was a 90 HP version (7EC) and did have an electrical system, with a VHF coffee-grinder radio. The turn & bank indicator didn't work, though. That airplane definitely taught me that God loved me, more than I did. I built my flying time for my commercial license in that thing. It made for a lot of great adventure stories to tell my grandson ( only a year & a half, at this time.) Gramps was a lucky guy.
I'd have to fly real low to feel safe, you know, just above tree top and light pole level.
And when I think about the turn & bank indicator not working I remember reading how in limited visibility conditions it's possible to lose one's sense of equilibrium and that pilots must rely on instruments to keep planes level.
You must have been very adventurous to solo in that plane in those days.
You must have been very adventurous to solo in that plane in those days.
It was high adventure, for sure. That was a fantastic trainer aircraft for airmanship, over flying-the-numbers. I flew the bush, up there, for 15 years - without an accident or violation. Bunches of close-calls, I admit. Some inadvertant; some 'stupid.' Each was one hell of a lesson.
I went from zero time to Commercial pilot & Flight Instructor in 9 months. The local Private Pilots with 50-90 flight hours, over ten years, nearly had a heart attack. I did my Instrument Rating, Instrument Instructor Rating & Multi- Engine rating over the next year. That sent all the vets running out to use up their VA benefits.
Alaska was about ten years behind the rest of the world. We still had the four- leg Low Frequency Ranges until around 1972. In Army Flight School (1970), I drove the ground & flight instructors nuts, trying to sort out what was different about flying in the "Lower-48." Sometimes they were entertained (and 'educated'); sometimes they thought I was nuts.
I wanted a Taylor Aerocar ever since I saw one ( N102D) on The Bob Cummings Show around 1960.
And then I saw a Thurston Teal in the original The Wicker Man (G-AXZN) and I thought, "How kewl!"
That Aerocar is still airworthy but, unfortunately that Teal was vandalized and totaled when the owner landed on some estate and decided to leave it overnight and return to effect repairs later.
I can't imagine someone deliberately destroying a plane.