the other Ocean City

I'm retired. I'm 58 yrs. old. An old fart? I guess. I stay up late and I get up late. I like 9 hrs. plus sleep. Lazy? I am. I work and play in spurts. This morning I get a call at 7:15 AM! I usually don't turn the phone on till after 10 AM. It is my friend "The Professor". He's been riding on a sailboat for the last few days coming down the coast from Connecticut. He's jumping ship in Ocean City, NJ. Could I fly over and pick him up and could he live in my hangar for a few days? He wants to "think and write". I say yes, but I go back to sleep. Later I ask wife if she would like to go to the beach in New Jersey. Yes she would. So this trip will require the little Cherokee. It has been in the back of the hangar getting dust and dirt and bird droppings on it. I roll the M-10 Cadet out and set it aside. I rock the Cher OH kee off it's flat spots and roll it about 2 feet. Move a motorcycle. Roll it 2 more feet. Move a motor scooter. Roll it 3 or 4 feet. Move chairs, chocks, a shop vac, tools etc. I have 30 minutes to pre flight and wash the airplane. I spend 20 minutes repairing the water hose. Now I have 10 minutes. My buddy Clark flies in. We visit while I wash. Wife is ready and we go. Across Delaware Bay. A lovely flight. Meet up with Prof. Walk to beach. Wade in Atlantic. Water cold. Eat excellent lunch. Fly down the coast. We look for the sailboat Prof had jumped off of. It is on it's way to Cape May. A needle in a haystack. The Prof. spots it. I circle it. I strafe it. I beat it up at 20 feet. We are five miles off shore. I say a prayer to the Lycoming Gods. Down on the sailboat they are waving like crazy. We hop over to Cape May. Use a port-a-potty. Fly across the bay to home. Buzz the strip for deer. Swing around Eric's house. Land with a little extra speed over the trees because my airspeed indicator has quit. My wife and the Prof and I and six dogs sit around the pool and watch the sunset. We drink crude cocktails. I fire up a Tiki torch. Wife goes to the barn to check on the horses and say goodnight. Prof goes to hangar to sleep in the mancave. He's had a long day. I write here to talk to you. G.A.I.

2 fly-ins 2 days

Now it's Saturday, the day after Lock Haven. I get a slow start. It's broken clouds all around and seems to be threatening T-Storms. At two thirty PM I see an E-mail about the Crisfield Fly-in Crab Feast. Damn, I had forgotten all about it. Well, its not over till 4 PM. I sling off the lay around lazy clothes. I grab a clean T shirt and not- clean jeans. I pick up the little flight bag (the one with the masking tape roll) which is right where I left it from Lock Haven. I roll the Cadet out and sump it quickly. I ask my wife if she wants to go Crisfield. She is fooling with her horse going in circles with a rope called a "Lunge Line". I hop in and we're off. It's hot and bumpy and I wish I was in a sailplane because this kind of heat is like an elevator. It's 35 nm. due south to Crisfield. From here to there there is nothing but the Nanicoke River and lowlands. I arrive with time to spare and join in the feast and eat roasted corn and steamed crabs. I have no idea how to eat the crabs. They were very good though. I took most of them home and my son ate them. He knows how. I saw a beautiful old Aztec. A gorgeous Mooney. A Cirrus. Some light sports. A nosewheel RV 5 or 6 0r 7. Is there a 7? I don't think it was an eight. The day was winding down. A 150. A 172. I waited till they all left. Then I took off. I opened the canopy and flew home at 80mph. I want the flight to last longer. Two Fly-ins in two days. The summer is just beginning.

I know I've seen that plane before

Friday morning I woke up too early. No way I could go back to sleep. I can't wait to go to Cub Haven. Coffee. I put ice in a little cooler for some drinks to go. I didn't check the weather. Fog is lifted and T-Storms could always happen. Roll out the Cadet and off we go. It's really hot in that greenhouse of a cabin under that canopy. My air vents are inop and I swear again to myself to work on that repair. The sun is beating on my head, and I don't feel like opening the canopy because I want to do some navigating around Class B, C, and Restricted airspace. I grab a sectional I'm not using. It is Cincinnati. I grab my masking tape. I tape the sectional completely across the top of my canopy. It was really a relief. Now my cockpit was a shady cool place. You ever use masking tape in the cockpit? It's a great tool for your flight bag. You can tape up a sunshade anywhere. You can tape over a noisy air leak. you can roll up a piece of tape for a double sided panel sticker and stick your pencil. or glasses, or mints, or approach chart, or anything to it. You can tape your headset wires up out of your way. I had a choice going by Harrisburg. Climb up over 6K and get over Class C and have a headwind, or slog around down low and go under and around Class C. I'm in no hurry and I want to stay cool and not have to talk to anyone. I took the headwind. So I made 68kts. Piper Memorial was a beehive. I edged up behind a cub and landed on the grass. Got directed into the boonies, but at least I was with the old planes and not banished to the FBO. There was maybe 100 planes there, or more, and I went up and looked at every one. A rain shower cooled us all off and I ducked under the wing of a 195. I registered. I ordered fuel. I ate Pennsylvania food. I checked out the fly market. I got a free "Trade a Plane". I got a free T-shirt. This is just about the nicest fly-in you could go to. I headed out to my plane to visit my cooler and my chair, and on the way I saw this beautiful white and yellow Alon A-2. It was exactly the kind I had flown as a kid. Even the paint scheme and N number looked familiar. I noticed an empty parking space next to it. I quickly found the guy with the wands. "Hey Mr. Parker, you think I could move my little Ercoupe thing way down there, up next to this Ercoupe thing right here?" "Don't see why not" Soon these Ercoupes which were not Ercoupes were side by side. The Alon's owner "Ed" was a great guy and we talked about each other's planes. His Alon is an original and a real pretty showplane. The original 42 yr. old interior. I could really compare the differences in our planes especially the turtle-back and tail. I came to realize why his airplane seemed so familiar to me. He told me the history of his plane as was told to him when he bought it ten years before. The plane had been wrecked when it was brand new. Then the guy Ed bought it from had had it for 30 years. Then Ed looked at me like I was crazy because I had just said, "I think I wrecked this plane when I was a seventeen year old kid back in '66". Aviation is a small world and a lot of planes don't go very far from home. My mind was reeling. Something had gone full circle in my life because of seeing that little Alon. I went back to fly-in center and saw my friends Roger Thiel and Mike Streeter. Then a guy beat up the field for a while in an L-39 Czech Jet which was lovely. The Alon left in a flight of four. They went to another Fly-in. Then a storm came breezing and thundering at us from the north. For the longest day of the year it was getting dark. I took off on the grass runway and headed south as soon as I could get over the town and over the mountain. I had a tailwind and a sunset and a swirl of memories as I headed home. G.A. Informal

low and slow in the neighborhood

I knew I was going to Sentimental Journey. I looked at the weather and my schedule and decided to go on Friday. So when Thursday came I rolled out the M-10 Cadet and gave it a detailed pre-flight as she hadn't flown since Essex Sky Park Wings & Wheels. I hopped 11 miles to Cambridge for fuel. It was a nice sultry quiet day and I was the only plane there. It was the last day of Spring. While Jerry fueled me up, I had a lovely chicken salad at the restaurant, while I looked out the window at my little plane. Then home. Canopy open, 80 kts. The Choptank River. Settle down in over the trees to land west at my place. Wife has grill going. Pool looks inviting. Before I put the airplane away, I stick Lock Haven in the GPS, just for the hell of it. 165 nm. bearing 346 deg. Today is a great day. Tomorrow is lookin' good as well.

I would never be the same again

There are so many things I want to say, need to say. I could tell stories about some really bad things I've done, but I'm not going to. I'm older and wiser and I only do good things now. I've lost quite a few friends because they got killed in airplanes. I'm not going to tell those stories. Most of those friends were professional pilots. They kind of knew what they were doing could kill them if there was an unlucky accident. As I recall their names my eyes tear up and I get a lump in my throat and smile and cry at the same time. One was one of my best friends killed in his own light plane at his home field. One was an Airmail buddy killed on the job. One was a DC-3 buddy flying passengers. One was a friend's girlfriend and true love, killed while instructing. One was "Mad Dog" from my Be-99 days killed in an air-race at Reno. There is one who was innocent and I will tell part of his story. He was sixteen years old. His name was Randy. He worked line service where I was instructing in western Maryland. He was an energetic and nice and smart young man. He'd had a few flights hitching a ride here and there. A lesson or two for a birthday gift. But finally when he was going on 17, he started "real lessons". With the help and support of his family at home, and the help and support of his "family" at work. I had the honor and privilege of giving him his first solo on September 30th 1973. Soon after that he was killed in an aircraft accident in the mountains of West Virginia. He had ridden along on the mail one night , on one of the runs, and he had never come back. My buddy and mentor "JT" was the pilot of the fatal flight. I myself had "ridden along" with JT on that same run only nights before. My life, and the way I thought about aviation would never be the same again. I can't bear to tell you about the days following that crash. I won't tell you about Randy's father who came to the field every day, and I took him flying every day to "be with Randy". I won't tell you about the day after the crash when I had to see my boss in a fistfight with his second in command, our chief pilot. They were crying and fighting and trying to keep one another from going up to join the search because they didn't want anyone else hurt. JT and Randy were like family. I didn't cry. The Cherokees on the ramp that I worked in, they didn't look the same. The mountains around the field that I loved looked gray. I didn't care about my plans for the weekend back in DC. I didn't care about anything. For some reason the boss sent me to Gaithersburg to one of those AOPA clinics. I wasn't due for renewal. I hadn't screwed anything up. He said I had to wear a coat and tie. I had to represent his company. He gave me a Cherokee to go there in. Dont worry about your students. Here's an embossed name tag to wear. You get a hotel room. Even the big boss "Nick" called me and told me not to crimp on my meals and bill it to the hotel. They told me not to go to DC though. Don't visit Lanham, don't see girlfriend. Just enjoy the clinic and relax. I was the lowest new-hire pilot on the property. I couldn't figure why they would send me. I went, it was great. Had the plane, nice hotel. It might have been something like getting me away from JT and Randy. Or getting me back on the horse. Or all of us ratcheting up safety. But I know one thing. Nick and Dale were a class act. GAI

June 1st a Sunday

You've had these days. I just didn't feel like getting up and doing anything. It was kind of muggy, and again, storms threatening. My dog Jake and I watched the Nascar race, the Dover Sprint 400. On lap 19 about half the field is in a big wreck. I don't think anybody got hurt. 381 laps to go. Never mow grass when it's wet. Well, we got light showers and it had cooled off. My allergies don't get me when it's wet. So I mowed. In the middle of mowing, in the middle of the airstrip, I stopped and shut down. This is what I saw: A fairly big doe was just frozen, staring at me. I was between her and the herd which was against the tree line. The sunset was spectacular, an orange ball sitting on the horizon sinking fast. Windows in the distant east were pure gold. To the south a very large rainbow. And I thought last night was pretty! G.A.I.

May 31st a Saturday

I went to the "Wings and Wheels" at Bay Bridge on Saturday. Bay Bridge Airport (W29) is across the Chesapeake Bay from Annapolis on the Delmarva Peninsula. Nobody up flying except me. At W29 I landed behind a light sport called a Sky Arrow (very nice). I got a nice display front page parking spot that even had tie downs. I tied down. I had a little "slide over the prop" sign describing the airplane. It was left over from Horn Point, and I slid it on the prop. The weather forecast was for storms, bad storms, before this event could be over. Also, a Tornado watch. Convective Sigmet. I knew hardly anyone there and I wandered around. I saw a gigantic Lionel train setup that had about a 40 ft. straightaway. I saw a guy launch an RC model airplane that looked to be about quarter scale. Saw an RC helicopter. Saw model Rockets. Saw about two hundred Street Rods and Classics. Had a hot dog. Went to the Gourmet Gas Station(no kidding) . Lots of Chevelles, some nice Corvette roadsters, old Ford Pickups, every car was great. There was obscuration to the west and lightning out there over the bay. I headed home. As soon as I got to 1000 ft. I opened the canopy for the rest of the way home. I didn't cool off until we were at 3000. I finished my gourmet coffee. Easton Airport was below. I had to be 2500 ft. above them because they now have a tower and I don't wish to talk. I circled my place. Circled Eric's. Wayne's, Wes's. The wind was starting to pick up. I landed and wasted no time getting the airplane back in the hangar. For about an hour I piddled around with some brush clearing and it got real dark at 2:30 in the afternoon. Then all hell broke loose. Debris was flying. branches and limbs were flying, lawn furniture was flying. We were lucky we didn't get hail. Our neighbors did. We went out in the late afternoon dark rain to a party at the Marina. At the party I texted my son Matt who was at a different table, but only 10 ft. away. {R U Texting?} {Maybe .} The weather was clearing rapidly. I went out to feed the ducks. By sunset this unpredictable last day of May was the prettiest I'd ever seen. G.A. Inf.