{"id":1924,"date":"2013-06-19T17:23:03","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T00:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=1924"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:58","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:58","slug":"lost-huh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/lost-huh\/","title":{"rendered":"#68 “Lost, Huh”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"roll<\/a>
In this publicity pic, Tom Jones shakes Krashbern T. Throttlebottom while “Ace, the Wonder Dog” bites the national aerobatic champion on the ankle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was August of 1989.\u00a0 I\u2019d done the Reading, Pennsylvania airshow on the weekend.\u00a0 That show was cancelled after the weather came way down.\u00a0 I remember that Bob Hoover was there.\u00a0 They sent Bob up to see what the ceiling was.\u00a0 He reported that it was about 1,200 feet.\u00a0 Good old Bob.\u00a0 Tom Jones and I were going to do our \u201cChamp and Chump\u201d routine, where Tom would start his aerobatic routine in the Pitts and I, as the bumbling airshow clown, Krashbern T. Throttlebottom, would arrive un-announced and louse up his act.\u00a0 In the process we\u2019d do a bunch of wild head-on maneuvers with Tom\u2019s Pitts narrowly missing the Cub.<\/p>\n

\"roll<\/a>
Tom Jones was one of the best pals a guy could have.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had to launch secretly from a taxiway out of sight before making my entrance.\u00a0 I remember that the ceiling and visibility were miserable.\u00a0 Bob\u2019s report had been for the benefit of the feds.\u00a0 We performers were on our own and we knew it.\u00a0 I took off and within a few minutes I couldn\u2019t find the airport!\u00a0 What a mess I\u2019d gotten myself into!\u00a0 With only \u201cairshow fuel\u201d onboard, I couldn\u2019t stay aloft for long. I had no GPS, no VOR, no nuthin\u2019 but my straining peepers and a wet windshield.\u00a0 \u00a0Vainly I searched for the airport.\u00a0 Finally I breathed a sigh of relief when I spotted Tom, snap-rolling in the gray distance and was able to start our act.\u00a0 I think that was the only flying I did at Reading that year.\u00a0 The rest of the show was cancelled and there were no more performances for the rest of the weekend as the bad weather moved in.<\/p>\n

The weather hung in for quite a while and the ceilings were still pretty low when I launched in the Cub for points west on Monday.<\/p>\n

The rolling Pennsylvania countryside looked all alike as I droned across it at low altitude, staying below the solid overcast.\u00a0 Back then, my sophisticated navigation suite consisted of an out of date sectional chart, the airplane\u2019s wet compass and a watch.<\/p>\n

The key to pilotage coupled with ded reckoning is to know where you are all the time.\u00a0 You carefully pay attention from the very point of departure and always identify your checkpoints.<\/p>\n

I was lost.\u00a0 All the countryside looked alike and the low hills just rolled and rolled.\u00a0 Hell, years later I had trouble finding my way in that country with a modern GPS!<\/p>\n

My foremost concern was fuel.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t terribly low, but considering that I had no idea where I was, it was asking a lot to figure out where the nearest airport was.\u00a0 Somehow, I stumbled on it.\u00a0 There, just off the nose, was an airport.\u00a0 I just didn\u2019t know WHAT airport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhew\u201d.\u00a0 Now I could gas up and figure out where I was.\u00a0 I swooped in for a landing and tied down.\u00a0 As I sauntered into the little terminal building, the pilot\u2019s first instinct took hold of me.\u00a0 You know about the pilot\u2019s first instinct, don\u2019t you?\u00a0 It\u2019s to be perceived as cool.\u00a0 So, naturally, I couldn\u2019t let anyone know that I was lost.\u00a0 I\u2019d have to very coolly figure out where I was without doing something obvious like asking, \u201cduh, where am I?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DSCN1792\"<\/a>
A foolproof method of figuring out where you are!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I knew the best way to accomplish this important mission of identifying my location.\u00a0 I would simply find the usual big old flight planning chart on the wall with the string attached to the airport\u2019s location.\u00a0 All you gotta do is locate that chart, follow the string to its attachment and you might as well have a big old \u201cYOU ARE HERE\u201d sign.<\/p>\n

There was an old airport codger perched on a worn sofa against the wall.\u00a0 Across from him was the chart on the wall. \u00a0I could tell that the codger was watching me as I put my hands in my pockets, looked casually up at the ceiling and shuffled over toward the chart.\u00a0 The old codger was a longtime flier and airport habitu\u00e9.\u00a0 How do I know that? Because as I approached the chart with forced casualness and looked distractedly at the point where the string started, he smiled\u00a0\u00a0 and smugly intoned, \u201cLost, huh\u201d.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

” I took off and within a few minutes I couldn\u2019t find the airport! What a mess I\u2019d gotten myself into! With only \u201cairshow fuel\u201d onboard, I couldn\u2019t stay aloft for long.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}