Flying Young Eagles: My 1st Rally I am ashamed to admit it, but Saturday was my first time to attend a Young Eagles rally. Not only did I attend, but I flew as a volunteer pilot. EAA Chapter 9, based in Columbus, OH, was host to the November 17th event at The Ohio State University…
Crossfired Over the summer a gaggle of around 30 RVs converged on a beautiful grass strip near Akron, OH. The destination – Crossfire’s, a veritable ‘field of dreams’ grass strip owned by John Fury. Once, or more times, a year John opens up his home to a bunch of RV-drivers and anyone else who wants…
B-17 Gas Station A friend sent me this story and I couldn’t resist posting it here. I tried to determine who the original author was, but to no avail. My best guess is from this website by a guy named Blair Shorney. Some of the claims in the story are pretty far-fetched, but the images…
My First Flight My first time to slip the surly bonds of earth occurred at Lawton, Oklahoma. I was 14 years old. The vehicle, a Piper Arrow IV. The pilot, Jim Huddleston. In my early teens I made the decision that I would be a pilot. The only nuance was I had never flow in…
Short Sortie: A Normal Flight in the RV-8 Since the last time I flew the -8 was four weeks ago, I was looking for any excuse to go flying yesterday. My home airport doesn’t have fuel so I have to go to other airports to top-off. So the mission today was to top-off the fuel…
My Ride in a T-34 In High School I pumped gas to pay for my flying. It turned out to be a great opportunity to be a paid airport bum; I met all sorts of people and learned a ton. One of the neat things that happened was meeting Col J. Paul Tidwell, a retired…
My Last Piston Twin Trip My last paying trip in a piston twin was emotional, but not for the reasons you might think. First I should quantify, at the time I didn’t realize this was to be my last round trip. I was flying for a great little FBO in my home town. We did…
Smoke in the Cockpit If there is one thing that strikes fear in the hearts of any pilot, it’s an inflight fire. Talk to pilots and ask what risk do they worry about the most and they will almost universally tell you, fire and structural failure (some say mid-air, but that is the cause of…
NAIA Days: My Flight School Experience Dateline: 1991 With my private license in my pocket I set out to obtain my ratings at the tender age of 20. The plan was to leave my hometown and go to a big school to get all the ratings I would need to start flying for a living…
In the spirit of the article published here today on formation flying, I thought I would share this simple video with you. It was a mid-day flight and rough down low so forgive the camera shake. The video was shot at Port Columbus (KCMH) in Columbus, Oh. Rick was flying lead in his RV-4 and…