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<\/a><\/a>The next morning we were up with the roosters for our morning mission.\u00a0 Due to Medford\u2019s obsession with keeping terrorists out of the airport, I was unable to get to my airplane until right at the time everyone blasted for Prospect.\u00a0 I felt like I was doing a \u201cPony Express Mount\u201d on my little airplane as I chased a loical T-Craft down the taxiway and blasted into the air for Prospect.\u00a0 On the way I formed up on that T-craft.\u00a0 I had to stay on the up-sun side.\u00a0 I tried to get over on the other side of the T-craft once, but I was staring into the morning sun, so I flipped back underneath him \u00a0to the other side where I was forced to stare at the co-pilot instead.\u00a0 Ah, she looks better, anyway.\u00a0 We all landed higgledy-piggledy at the little Prospect airport and those who landed first could line up and judge those who followed.\u00a0 I was just about the last to land.\u00a0 Thank goodness they forgot to bring their scorecards!\u00a0 I know you\u2019ll think this silly, but I think the little Cessna was happy to be tied down in a row with lots of other taildraggers instead of alone in his hangar.<\/p>\n A nice brisk walk into town was followed by a filling breakfast served by two surly teenaged waitresses annoyed at having to be up so early and serving such a large group. \u00a0We didn’t care. \u00a0We were having a great time.<\/p>\n Back at the airport, I ran into “RV Mike” Macon, whose plane normally lives at Sisters. \u00a0It was fun to see his smiling face.<\/p>\n The flight back included a quick little joinup with my pal, George DeMartini\u2019s T-craft. \u00a0George is a superb aviator and it’s always fun to fly with him.<\/p>\n Sunday morning featured the now-expected battle with the gate code and resulting inability to make my planned departure time.\u00a0 It was made up for by a great lineman at Medford Air Service.<\/p>\n This would be the more serious part of the trip.<\/p>\n The 140 putted into the air and we headed over the route I\u2019d flown so many times so many years ago.\u00a0 South over Ashland, past Pilot Rock, past the Hornbrook City dump where Margaret Edgington landed her balloon on her first solo, then over Craggy and down into Montague.<\/p>\n The little 140 had never been there before.\u00a0 When I\u2019d first landed at Montague I was flying my first airplane, a Taylorcraft BC12D. \u00a0It was the place I first found work as a flight instructor.\u00a0 \u00a0I introduced the Cessna to this great little airport and it seemed to feel at home there as its wheels chirped onto the runway that I\u2019d spent so much time on so many years ago.<\/p>\n I was there to attend two funerals.\u00a0 Two aviators had shared an end when the Glasair they were in impacted the ground a couple of weeks before.\u00a0 There weren\u2019t many fly-ins to the service and it was easy to find a place to park.\u00a0 I wandered down to the east-west grass runway where the service for Lloyd Rugg would be held.\u00a0 I hardly knew Lloyd, but I knew of him.\u00a0 He\u2019d towed for the glider operation at Montague and I believe he had gotten his preliminary instruction at this same airport right before I started there as a young CFI.\u00a0 Terry Weathers had been his instructor. \u00a0Lloyd had been a tire shop owner and operator for a living, but flying was his passion.\u00a0 He\u2019d obviously excelled at it.\u00a0 He\u2019d also excelled at winning the respect and friendship of a whole lot of people.\u00a0 The grass strip was packed with people who\u2019d come to say farewell.<\/p>\n Terry and Jean Weathers met me.\u00a0 My first employers, it was great to see both of them and to catch up a bit before the service started.\u00a0 I had a chance to meet old friends.\u00a0 Bill and Charlie were both there, as well as that lovely woman, Peggy, who’s put up with Bill for so long. \u00a0I’d flown with Charlie a lot and I think I\u2019d soloed him in Jean’s Citabria long ago.<\/p>\n Then Bill and Charlie had bought my old Taylorcraft when I went on to do airshow comedy and got my Cub.\u00a0 Bill still has the T-craft.\u00a0\u00a0 It was fun seeing them all.\u00a0 Catherine was there.\u00a0 A former student and good stick who has become a good friend, she seems to pop up when least expected and it\u2019s always a pleasure to see this gifted flyer and good person.\u00a0 I can\u2019t begin to name everyone I saw or describe how they figured in the past, but Blair stood out.\u00a0 He had aged, as have we all, but the sparkle was still in his eye, the humor and warmth was still there in this fun guy who used to teach aerobatics at the little Northern California airport.<\/p>\n The first person to speak was Lloyd\u2019s widow, Lisa.\u00a0 I\u2019d never met her, but I was absolutely impressed with her ability to convey the thoughts she shared with us and I was doubly impressed with the strength it took to do it so soon after losing Lloyd.\u00a0 I\u2019d have to say that it was a great service.\u00a0 There was a local group of musicians, who played well and lovingly.\u00a0 Lisa was in the group and played her violin with the rest.\u00a0 When everyone there joined in to sing \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d, it was like a scene out of a John Ford Western with the \u00a0hills of Northern California, the impeccable Pawnee towplane that Lloyd flew for Montague Soaring \u00a0and his RV 6 \u00a0as a backdrop for the service.\u00a0 If Bill Warren had been alive, he\u2019d have organized a missing man formation.\u00a0 It was about all that the service needed to make it perfect.<\/p>\n Terry and Jean and I went over to the Community Hall in Montague for Larry Graves\u2019 service.\u00a0 I\u2019d known Larry better and I guess that it was my debt to Larry and his wife, Sharon, which had brought me to Montague this day.\u00a0 Years ago when I was first flying for Terry at Montague, I\u2019d gotten in some trouble.\u00a0 I\u2019d waterskied that little Taylorcraft on Frog Lake near the airport. A picture of the stunt was in the local paper.<\/p>\n A guy who had the FBO at the nearby Siskiyou County airport had made a fuss about it.\u00a0 He\u2019d called the Feds on me and even wrote a letter to the editor of the paper.\u00a0 I will never forget the joy I got from reading a rebuttal to that letter from Larry\u2019s wife, Sharon.\u00a0 In it she defended me and, as I remember, excoriated those who didn’t appreciate the exuberance of waterskiing an airplane, an act which injured no one.\u00a0 I always remembered the Graves’ support.\u00a0 I was there to express my never-forgotten gratitude for it.<\/p>\n Darrin Mercier, in conducting Larry\u2019s service, got my attention when he said we were there \u201cto celebrate the life of one of the good ones<\/b>.\u201d\u00a0 I was immediately transported to Gayle Crowder\u2019s elegant little story in the Tailwheeler\u2019s Journal called \u201cOnly the Good Ones<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 Yikes!\u00a0 Had he read it?\u00a0 He was right.\u00a0 We were there to celebrate two guys who would have qualified to have appeared in Gayle\u2019s imaginary pilot\u2019s heaven.\u00a0 For they were, indeed, Good Ones.<\/p>\n Terry, Jean and I lingered for a while after the service.\u00a0 I wanted to see Sharon and let her know how much I appreciated Larry and how I\u2019d never forgotten her own actions, but there was quite a crush around her and I think the outpouring of support for her, as positive as it was, must have been extremely stressful.\u00a0 I chose to skip it and send her a note later.<\/p>\n One of my friends later said that he much preferred wakes to funerals.\u00a0 I think these two services were more like wakes. Sure, there are tears at services like these, but look what else there is:\u00a0 We see old friends and acquaintances who we might not otherwise see.\u00a0 We hear stories, some of which take us back to old times and some of which give us insights into someone which we never had before.\u00a0 We get to see the departed friend through other eyes and gain a perspective that we otherwise wouldn’t get.\u00a0 See, these things make certain things possible that would not be possible otherwise! For a long time I’ve objected to the expressed thought that someone died doing what they loved.\u00a0 I guess that, to me, it was too much of \u00a0a clich\u00e9. It \u00a0seemed to be meant to soften the blow of losing people we didn\u2019t want to lose.\u00a0 It was a small consolation.\u00a0 But now I don\u2019t mind it so much.\u00a0 I\u2019d never say it myself, but I understand it.\u00a0 I guess it\u2019s because I\u2019m saying to myself, \u201cwell, SURE, he died doing what he loved to do\u2026 that\u2019s what you\u2019re SUPPOSED to die doing.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s okay; it\u2019s a perfectly fine and normal sentiment\u2026.. just not one you\u2019ll hear from me.\u00a0 Hell, old Bill died doing what he loved to do\u2026 he was drinking a beer!\u00a0 I guess I should point out that he\u2019d just finished a day of flying when he took that last slurp before keeling over.<\/p>\n The Weathers\u2019 dropped me at the Cessna.\u00a0 I fueled it up, then wandered into the FBO building that had provided so many great memories and lessons.\u00a0 Unfamiliar people were now sitting around the familiar table.\u00a0 We chatted for a bit.\u00a0 I took one last look, then the Cessna and I launched off for the long trip home in the heat of the day.\u00a0 It wasn’t as rough as it could have been.\u00a0 We cruised along at 10,000 feet.<\/p>\n We enjoyed the coolness of altitude.\u00a0 We also enjoyed a slightly different view than we usually get when crossing the Cascades.\u00a0 Our route took us across Crater Lake and of course I had to swoop past my favorite mountain, Mount Thielsen.<\/p>\n It occurred to me that this whole weekend had been about airplanes.\u00a0 Airplanes had linked me with all of these friends for all of these years.\u00a0 Although they loved airplanes, an airplane had taken two of them to their end.\u00a0 Airplanes were what the breakfast bums had in common.\u00a0 They\u2019d taken them to their shared meal and were, for the most part, what they yakked about as they munched their bacon.\u00a0 An airplane had taken me all this distance while showing me all this country.\u00a0 An airplane had enabled me to develop a specific skill, to write about, film and teach the art of flying.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know where I\u2019d be without airplanes.<\/p>\n In just under two hours, our tires touched the new, smooth runway at Sisters.\u00a0 The little Cessna and I putted up to our hangar\/house.\u00a0 We\u2019d had an interesting weekend.\u00a0 We\u2019d covered 472 miles and flown for 5.2 hours.\u00a0 Not really that many miles or that much flight time to have done as much as we had, to have seen so many good people, to have met some new ones and to have said \u201cgoodbye\u201d to a pair of good ones. I got to have special and important time with my little airplane.\u00a0 I love my students and I love teaching, but perhaps because I so rarely get to share a flight alone with that nice little plane, when I do it\u2019s really special.\u00a0 I\u2019d actually gotten to have a few hours alone with my little plane.\u00a0 Not teaching, not shooting a video, just the two of us off together on a trip, something we rarely get to do.<\/p>\n It was a good weekend.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>