Johhny Electriglide wrote:
Did you ever get a license, Wayne?
I thought seriously about building a gyrocopter or a BD-4, but ended up buying the Mooney M-20E "Super 21" "poor man's P-51".
I flew numerous STOL airplanes over the years, but the first was the modded C-172 like you flew. I could land in 10 feet with a little headwind, and even slow flew it backwards in the wind.
The feel, though, some aircraft were special. I loved the C-182, the Piper PA18-150 Super Cub, PA28-235 and Aztec, the Bellanca Viking 300, the Mooney Exec, Beech Bonanza, the UH-1H.......they flew "like Cadillacs". I wanted to fly more warbirds, like the P-40, real P-51, and Spitfire. Plus jets. I've got 56 types I flew, but there were so many more.
Now I am stuck with LSAs, and none of them, so far, can operate at a field at 9,000' MSL.
No, I was too young to solo and by the time I reached the age I could I was more into fast cars and girls .... and fast girls who liked fast cars were the best.
We built a landing strip for a guy on the top of a mountain ridge. Just knocked the ridge to one side until it was wide enough. He landed an old drop tail in a field that ran to the top, but did not have enough room for a good take off. He would tie the plane off to the trees at the edge of the field and after he was reved up his wife would cut the rope with an ax. She was not thrilled with that approach so he had us build the landing strip.
The really neat part was the remains of a fire we found about 3 feet down in the top of the ridge. There was still charcoal and wood intact. I assumed they had some kind of cooking pit since that area was a hunting ground only and no tribe lived there full time. The guy would not let me call the state to see about getting it looked at because he feared it would impact his landing strip so I never knew just how old that fire was, but that never stopped me from wondering about it.
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