It\u2019s occurred to me that absolutely no good can come from my comment, \u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could do that\u201d.\u00a0 The reason is that if SOMEONE can do it, then SOMEONE ELSE can do it!<\/h3>\nThis little bit of wisdom came to me at the Flagler County airport in Florida.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nIt\u2019s all Earl\u2019s fault.\u00a0Earl Cherry, one of the most flamboyant characters I\u2019d come to know in the airshow business, had come barging into my life once more.\u00a0 We\u2019d performed at a few airshows together.\u00a0 Earl was the pilot of a very popular wing-walking act.\u00a0 When we met, the wing walker was his wife, Paula.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/paula-2.-797x1024.jpg\")
October 6, 1984 – Paula Cherry checks her restraints before takeoff. (Times photos by Joe Cavaretta)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSome time after I\u2019d left the airshow business, Earl had called and wanted to know if I had any Stearman time.\u00a0 The reason was that he\u2019d made a deal with a guy who was marketing turbine powered motorcycles and as part of that promotion, Earl was supposed to take two Stearman\u2019s across Texas to some airshows.\u00a0 I flew wing and off we went.\u00a0 GPS was just coming in and I had an early, rudimentary moving map version.\u00a0 I think it was near El Paso, when I called Earl on the radio and warned him, \u201cI think one of us is in Mexico\u201d.<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Stearmans-in-Texas-1024x663.jpg\")
Our Stearmans at an airshow in Texas. Earl’s in the foreground and mine in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOn that trip, Earl stopped in at an old friend\u2019s, who had a really cool hangar.\u00a0 Old Earl is pretty well connected\u2026 it was astronaut Frank Borman.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nLater, Earl would ask me to help him with a C-130 that he was picking up at a boneyard with just one little issue\u2026 he didn\u2019t have any C-130 time.\u00a0 Neither did I.\u00a0 He got it.<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/0829-Earls-C130.jpg--1024x812.jpg\")
Earl’s first landing in his C-130!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut In between those two adventures, Ol\u2019 Earl had swung a gig to Skywrite for a cigarette company in his 450 Stearman, \u201cGeneral Smoke\u201d over the Daytona 500.\u00a0 The only problem was that there was a new law in effect:\u00a0Any mention of a tobacco product must be accompanied by the surgeon general\u2019s warning.\u00a0 That was where I came in.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was to tow a huge \u201cLogo\u201d banner behind an Ag Cat Biplane.\u00a0 That banner would bear the surgeon general\u2019s warning and thus, Earl would be legal.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nEarl had put together a crew, bought and painted the ag cat and had what was arguably the world\u2019s largest logo banner advertising the cigarette company.\u00a0The problem was that none of his people had any banner towing experience.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I did.\u00a0 I\u2019d been working for a guy in Fernandina Beach.\u00a0 I flew a Waco 10 biplane and as a side to our business, we towed banners with a Super Cub.\u00a0 Once at Flagler, where we would launch from, I uttered the famous words, when asked by one of Earl\u2019s guys if it was true that one could mistakenly miss catching the \u201cBridal\u201d of the banner with the dangling hook and instead snag it on the landing gear of the tow plane.<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Ag-Cat-at-Flagler-1024x780.jpg\")
This may be the actual final approach I made before screwing up bigtime!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n\u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could do that\u201d, I said, with the assurance of a guy who had experience with such things.\u00a0 Did I mention that I had absolutely no time in an Ag Cat?\u00a0 Oh, well, an airplane is an airplane.\u00a0 I would do one touch and go to check myself out in the Ag Cat, then swoop down to pick up the banner.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWhat a sweetheart!\u00a0 I fell in love instantly with the big old biplane.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t have to have that damned banner behind me!\u00a0 With about a total of six minutes of Ag Cat time, I came around for the pickup.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my previous words were ringing in my ears when I swooped in for the pickup.\u00a0They soon would.\u00a0 I flew right through the bridal and snagged it with not one, but BOTH of the landing gear!\u00a0 Now my words came back to haunt me as the bridal snugged up around the gear.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Earl-and-Emily.jpg\")
Earl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/h3>\nIt\u2019s all Earl\u2019s fault.\u00a0Earl Cherry, one of the most flamboyant characters I\u2019d come to know in the airshow business, had come barging into my life once more.\u00a0 We\u2019d performed at a few airshows together.\u00a0 Earl was the pilot of a very popular wing-walking act.\u00a0 When we met, the wing walker was his wife, Paula.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nOctober 6, 1984 – Paula Cherry checks her restraints before takeoff. (Times photos by Joe Cavaretta)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSome time after I\u2019d left the airshow business, Earl had called and wanted to know if I had any Stearman time.\u00a0 The reason was that he\u2019d made a deal with a guy who was marketing turbine powered motorcycles and as part of that promotion, Earl was supposed to take two Stearman\u2019s across Texas to some airshows.\u00a0 I flew wing and off we went.\u00a0 GPS was just coming in and I had an early, rudimentary moving map version.\u00a0 I think it was near El Paso, when I called Earl on the radio and warned him, \u201cI think one of us is in Mexico\u201d.<\/h3>\nOur Stearmans at an airshow in Texas. Earl’s in the foreground and mine in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOn that trip, Earl stopped in at an old friend\u2019s, who had a really cool hangar.\u00a0 Old Earl is pretty well connected\u2026 it was astronaut Frank Borman.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nLater, Earl would ask me to help him with a C-130 that he was picking up at a boneyard with just one little issue\u2026 he didn\u2019t have any C-130 time.\u00a0 Neither did I.\u00a0 He got it.<\/h3>\nEarl’s first landing in his C-130!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut In between those two adventures, Ol\u2019 Earl had swung a gig to Skywrite for a cigarette company in his 450 Stearman, \u201cGeneral Smoke\u201d over the Daytona 500.\u00a0 The only problem was that there was a new law in effect:\u00a0Any mention of a tobacco product must be accompanied by the surgeon general\u2019s warning.\u00a0 That was where I came in.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was to tow a huge \u201cLogo\u201d banner behind an Ag Cat Biplane.\u00a0 That banner would bear the surgeon general\u2019s warning and thus, Earl would be legal.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nEarl had put together a crew, bought and painted the ag cat and had what was arguably the world\u2019s largest logo banner advertising the cigarette company.\u00a0The problem was that none of his people had any banner towing experience.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I did.\u00a0 I\u2019d been working for a guy in Fernandina Beach.\u00a0 I flew a Waco 10 biplane and as a side to our business, we towed banners with a Super Cub.\u00a0 Once at Flagler, where we would launch from, I uttered the famous words, when asked by one of Earl\u2019s guys if it was true that one could mistakenly miss catching the \u201cBridal\u201d of the banner with the dangling hook and instead snag it on the landing gear of the tow plane.<\/h3>\nThis may be the actual final approach I made before screwing up bigtime!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n\u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could do that\u201d, I said, with the assurance of a guy who had experience with such things.\u00a0 Did I mention that I had absolutely no time in an Ag Cat?\u00a0 Oh, well, an airplane is an airplane.\u00a0 I would do one touch and go to check myself out in the Ag Cat, then swoop down to pick up the banner.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWhat a sweetheart!\u00a0 I fell in love instantly with the big old biplane.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t have to have that damned banner behind me!\u00a0 With about a total of six minutes of Ag Cat time, I came around for the pickup.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my previous words were ringing in my ears when I swooped in for the pickup.\u00a0They soon would.\u00a0 I flew right through the bridal and snagged it with not one, but BOTH of the landing gear!\u00a0 Now my words came back to haunt me as the bridal snugged up around the gear.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/h3>\nOctober 6, 1984 – Paula Cherry checks her restraints before takeoff. (Times photos by Joe Cavaretta)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSome time after I\u2019d left the airshow business, Earl had called and wanted to know if I had any Stearman time.\u00a0 The reason was that he\u2019d made a deal with a guy who was marketing turbine powered motorcycles and as part of that promotion, Earl was supposed to take two Stearman\u2019s across Texas to some airshows.\u00a0 I flew wing and off we went.\u00a0 GPS was just coming in and I had an early, rudimentary moving map version.\u00a0 I think it was near El Paso, when I called Earl on the radio and warned him, \u201cI think one of us is in Mexico\u201d.<\/h3>\nOur Stearmans at an airshow in Texas. Earl’s in the foreground and mine in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOn that trip, Earl stopped in at an old friend\u2019s, who had a really cool hangar.\u00a0 Old Earl is pretty well connected\u2026 it was astronaut Frank Borman.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nLater, Earl would ask me to help him with a C-130 that he was picking up at a boneyard with just one little issue\u2026 he didn\u2019t have any C-130 time.\u00a0 Neither did I.\u00a0 He got it.<\/h3>\nEarl’s first landing in his C-130!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut In between those two adventures, Ol\u2019 Earl had swung a gig to Skywrite for a cigarette company in his 450 Stearman, \u201cGeneral Smoke\u201d over the Daytona 500.\u00a0 The only problem was that there was a new law in effect:\u00a0Any mention of a tobacco product must be accompanied by the surgeon general\u2019s warning.\u00a0 That was where I came in.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was to tow a huge \u201cLogo\u201d banner behind an Ag Cat Biplane.\u00a0 That banner would bear the surgeon general\u2019s warning and thus, Earl would be legal.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nEarl had put together a crew, bought and painted the ag cat and had what was arguably the world\u2019s largest logo banner advertising the cigarette company.\u00a0The problem was that none of his people had any banner towing experience.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I did.\u00a0 I\u2019d been working for a guy in Fernandina Beach.\u00a0 I flew a Waco 10 biplane and as a side to our business, we towed banners with a Super Cub.\u00a0 Once at Flagler, where we would launch from, I uttered the famous words, when asked by one of Earl\u2019s guys if it was true that one could mistakenly miss catching the \u201cBridal\u201d of the banner with the dangling hook and instead snag it on the landing gear of the tow plane.<\/h3>\nThis may be the actual final approach I made before screwing up bigtime!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n\u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could do that\u201d, I said, with the assurance of a guy who had experience with such things.\u00a0 Did I mention that I had absolutely no time in an Ag Cat?\u00a0 Oh, well, an airplane is an airplane.\u00a0 I would do one touch and go to check myself out in the Ag Cat, then swoop down to pick up the banner.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWhat a sweetheart!\u00a0 I fell in love instantly with the big old biplane.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t have to have that damned banner behind me!\u00a0 With about a total of six minutes of Ag Cat time, I came around for the pickup.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my previous words were ringing in my ears when I swooped in for the pickup.\u00a0They soon would.\u00a0 I flew right through the bridal and snagged it with not one, but BOTH of the landing gear!\u00a0 Now my words came back to haunt me as the bridal snugged up around the gear.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Some time after I\u2019d left the airshow business, Earl had called and wanted to know if I had any Stearman time.\u00a0 The reason was that he\u2019d made a deal with a guy who was marketing turbine powered motorcycles and as part of that promotion, Earl was supposed to take two Stearman\u2019s across Texas to some airshows.\u00a0 I flew wing and off we went.\u00a0 GPS was just coming in and I had an early, rudimentary moving map version.\u00a0 I think it was near El Paso, when I called Earl on the radio and warned him, \u201cI think one of us is in Mexico\u201d.<\/h3>\nOur Stearmans at an airshow in Texas. Earl’s in the foreground and mine in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOn that trip, Earl stopped in at an old friend\u2019s, who had a really cool hangar.\u00a0 Old Earl is pretty well connected\u2026 it was astronaut Frank Borman.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nLater, Earl would ask me to help him with a C-130 that he was picking up at a boneyard with just one little issue\u2026 he didn\u2019t have any C-130 time.\u00a0 Neither did I.\u00a0 He got it.<\/h3>\nEarl’s first landing in his C-130!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut In between those two adventures, Ol\u2019 Earl had swung a gig to Skywrite for a cigarette company in his 450 Stearman, \u201cGeneral Smoke\u201d over the Daytona 500.\u00a0 The only problem was that there was a new law in effect:\u00a0Any mention of a tobacco product must be accompanied by the surgeon general\u2019s warning.\u00a0 That was where I came in.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was to tow a huge \u201cLogo\u201d banner behind an Ag Cat Biplane.\u00a0 That banner would bear the surgeon general\u2019s warning and thus, Earl would be legal.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nEarl had put together a crew, bought and painted the ag cat and had what was arguably the world\u2019s largest logo banner advertising the cigarette company.\u00a0The problem was that none of his people had any banner towing experience.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I did.\u00a0 I\u2019d been working for a guy in Fernandina Beach.\u00a0 I flew a Waco 10 biplane and as a side to our business, we towed banners with a Super Cub.\u00a0 Once at Flagler, where we would launch from, I uttered the famous words, when asked by one of Earl\u2019s guys if it was true that one could mistakenly miss catching the \u201cBridal\u201d of the banner with the dangling hook and instead snag it on the landing gear of the tow plane.<\/h3>\nThis may be the actual final approach I made before screwing up bigtime!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n\u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could do that\u201d, I said, with the assurance of a guy who had experience with such things.\u00a0 Did I mention that I had absolutely no time in an Ag Cat?\u00a0 Oh, well, an airplane is an airplane.\u00a0 I would do one touch and go to check myself out in the Ag Cat, then swoop down to pick up the banner.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWhat a sweetheart!\u00a0 I fell in love instantly with the big old biplane.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t have to have that damned banner behind me!\u00a0 With about a total of six minutes of Ag Cat time, I came around for the pickup.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my previous words were ringing in my ears when I swooped in for the pickup.\u00a0They soon would.\u00a0 I flew right through the bridal and snagged it with not one, but BOTH of the landing gear!\u00a0 Now my words came back to haunt me as the bridal snugged up around the gear.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
On that trip, Earl stopped in at an old friend\u2019s, who had a really cool hangar.\u00a0 Old Earl is pretty well connected\u2026 it was astronaut Frank Borman.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nLater, Earl would ask me to help him with a C-130 that he was picking up at a boneyard with just one little issue\u2026 he didn\u2019t have any C-130 time.\u00a0 Neither did I.\u00a0 He got it.<\/h3>\nEarl’s first landing in his C-130!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut In between those two adventures, Ol\u2019 Earl had swung a gig to Skywrite for a cigarette company in his 450 Stearman, \u201cGeneral Smoke\u201d over the Daytona 500.\u00a0 The only problem was that there was a new law in effect:\u00a0Any mention of a tobacco product must be accompanied by the surgeon general\u2019s warning.\u00a0 That was where I came in.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was to tow a huge \u201cLogo\u201d banner behind an Ag Cat Biplane.\u00a0 That banner would bear the surgeon general\u2019s warning and thus, Earl would be legal.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nEarl had put together a crew, bought and painted the ag cat and had what was arguably the world\u2019s largest logo banner advertising the cigarette company.\u00a0The problem was that none of his people had any banner towing experience.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I did.\u00a0 I\u2019d been working for a guy in Fernandina Beach.\u00a0 I flew a Waco 10 biplane and as a side to our business, we towed banners with a Super Cub.\u00a0 Once at Flagler, where we would launch from, I uttered the famous words, when asked by one of Earl\u2019s guys if it was true that one could mistakenly miss catching the \u201cBridal\u201d of the banner with the dangling hook and instead snag it on the landing gear of the tow plane.<\/h3>\nThis may be the actual final approach I made before screwing up bigtime!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n\u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could do that\u201d, I said, with the assurance of a guy who had experience with such things.\u00a0 Did I mention that I had absolutely no time in an Ag Cat?\u00a0 Oh, well, an airplane is an airplane.\u00a0 I would do one touch and go to check myself out in the Ag Cat, then swoop down to pick up the banner.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWhat a sweetheart!\u00a0 I fell in love instantly with the big old biplane.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t have to have that damned banner behind me!\u00a0 With about a total of six minutes of Ag Cat time, I came around for the pickup.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my previous words were ringing in my ears when I swooped in for the pickup.\u00a0They soon would.\u00a0 I flew right through the bridal and snagged it with not one, but BOTH of the landing gear!\u00a0 Now my words came back to haunt me as the bridal snugged up around the gear.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Later, Earl would ask me to help him with a C-130 that he was picking up at a boneyard with just one little issue\u2026 he didn\u2019t have any C-130 time.\u00a0 Neither did I.\u00a0 He got it.<\/h3>\nEarl’s first landing in his C-130!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut In between those two adventures, Ol\u2019 Earl had swung a gig to Skywrite for a cigarette company in his 450 Stearman, \u201cGeneral Smoke\u201d over the Daytona 500.\u00a0 The only problem was that there was a new law in effect:\u00a0Any mention of a tobacco product must be accompanied by the surgeon general\u2019s warning.\u00a0 That was where I came in.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was to tow a huge \u201cLogo\u201d banner behind an Ag Cat Biplane.\u00a0 That banner would bear the surgeon general\u2019s warning and thus, Earl would be legal.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nEarl had put together a crew, bought and painted the ag cat and had what was arguably the world\u2019s largest logo banner advertising the cigarette company.\u00a0The problem was that none of his people had any banner towing experience.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I did.\u00a0 I\u2019d been working for a guy in Fernandina Beach.\u00a0 I flew a Waco 10 biplane and as a side to our business, we towed banners with a Super Cub.\u00a0 Once at Flagler, where we would launch from, I uttered the famous words, when asked by one of Earl\u2019s guys if it was true that one could mistakenly miss catching the \u201cBridal\u201d of the banner with the dangling hook and instead snag it on the landing gear of the tow plane.<\/h3>\nThis may be the actual final approach I made before screwing up bigtime!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n\u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could do that\u201d, I said, with the assurance of a guy who had experience with such things.\u00a0 Did I mention that I had absolutely no time in an Ag Cat?\u00a0 Oh, well, an airplane is an airplane.\u00a0 I would do one touch and go to check myself out in the Ag Cat, then swoop down to pick up the banner.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWhat a sweetheart!\u00a0 I fell in love instantly with the big old biplane.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t have to have that damned banner behind me!\u00a0 With about a total of six minutes of Ag Cat time, I came around for the pickup.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my previous words were ringing in my ears when I swooped in for the pickup.\u00a0They soon would.\u00a0 I flew right through the bridal and snagged it with not one, but BOTH of the landing gear!\u00a0 Now my words came back to haunt me as the bridal snugged up around the gear.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
But In between those two adventures, Ol\u2019 Earl had swung a gig to Skywrite for a cigarette company in his 450 Stearman, \u201cGeneral Smoke\u201d over the Daytona 500.\u00a0 The only problem was that there was a new law in effect:\u00a0Any mention of a tobacco product must be accompanied by the surgeon general\u2019s warning.\u00a0 That was where I came in.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was to tow a huge \u201cLogo\u201d banner behind an Ag Cat Biplane.\u00a0 That banner would bear the surgeon general\u2019s warning and thus, Earl would be legal.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nEarl had put together a crew, bought and painted the ag cat and had what was arguably the world\u2019s largest logo banner advertising the cigarette company.\u00a0The problem was that none of his people had any banner towing experience.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I did.\u00a0 I\u2019d been working for a guy in Fernandina Beach.\u00a0 I flew a Waco 10 biplane and as a side to our business, we towed banners with a Super Cub.\u00a0 Once at Flagler, where we would launch from, I uttered the famous words, when asked by one of Earl\u2019s guys if it was true that one could mistakenly miss catching the \u201cBridal\u201d of the banner with the dangling hook and instead snag it on the landing gear of the tow plane.<\/h3>\nThis may be the actual final approach I made before screwing up bigtime!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n\u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could do that\u201d, I said, with the assurance of a guy who had experience with such things.\u00a0 Did I mention that I had absolutely no time in an Ag Cat?\u00a0 Oh, well, an airplane is an airplane.\u00a0 I would do one touch and go to check myself out in the Ag Cat, then swoop down to pick up the banner.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWhat a sweetheart!\u00a0 I fell in love instantly with the big old biplane.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t have to have that damned banner behind me!\u00a0 With about a total of six minutes of Ag Cat time, I came around for the pickup.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my previous words were ringing in my ears when I swooped in for the pickup.\u00a0They soon would.\u00a0 I flew right through the bridal and snagged it with not one, but BOTH of the landing gear!\u00a0 Now my words came back to haunt me as the bridal snugged up around the gear.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I was to tow a huge \u201cLogo\u201d banner behind an Ag Cat Biplane.\u00a0 That banner would bear the surgeon general\u2019s warning and thus, Earl would be legal.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nEarl had put together a crew, bought and painted the ag cat and had what was arguably the world\u2019s largest logo banner advertising the cigarette company.\u00a0The problem was that none of his people had any banner towing experience.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I did.\u00a0 I\u2019d been working for a guy in Fernandina Beach.\u00a0 I flew a Waco 10 biplane and as a side to our business, we towed banners with a Super Cub.\u00a0 Once at Flagler, where we would launch from, I uttered the famous words, when asked by one of Earl\u2019s guys if it was true that one could mistakenly miss catching the \u201cBridal\u201d of the banner with the dangling hook and instead snag it on the landing gear of the tow plane.<\/h3>\nThis may be the actual final approach I made before screwing up bigtime!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n\u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could do that\u201d, I said, with the assurance of a guy who had experience with such things.\u00a0 Did I mention that I had absolutely no time in an Ag Cat?\u00a0 Oh, well, an airplane is an airplane.\u00a0 I would do one touch and go to check myself out in the Ag Cat, then swoop down to pick up the banner.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWhat a sweetheart!\u00a0 I fell in love instantly with the big old biplane.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t have to have that damned banner behind me!\u00a0 With about a total of six minutes of Ag Cat time, I came around for the pickup.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my previous words were ringing in my ears when I swooped in for the pickup.\u00a0They soon would.\u00a0 I flew right through the bridal and snagged it with not one, but BOTH of the landing gear!\u00a0 Now my words came back to haunt me as the bridal snugged up around the gear.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Earl had put together a crew, bought and painted the ag cat and had what was arguably the world\u2019s largest logo banner advertising the cigarette company.\u00a0The problem was that none of his people had any banner towing experience.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I did.\u00a0 I\u2019d been working for a guy in Fernandina Beach.\u00a0 I flew a Waco 10 biplane and as a side to our business, we towed banners with a Super Cub.\u00a0 Once at Flagler, where we would launch from, I uttered the famous words, when asked by one of Earl\u2019s guys if it was true that one could mistakenly miss catching the \u201cBridal\u201d of the banner with the dangling hook and instead snag it on the landing gear of the tow plane.<\/h3>\nThis may be the actual final approach I made before screwing up bigtime!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n\u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could do that\u201d, I said, with the assurance of a guy who had experience with such things.\u00a0 Did I mention that I had absolutely no time in an Ag Cat?\u00a0 Oh, well, an airplane is an airplane.\u00a0 I would do one touch and go to check myself out in the Ag Cat, then swoop down to pick up the banner.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWhat a sweetheart!\u00a0 I fell in love instantly with the big old biplane.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t have to have that damned banner behind me!\u00a0 With about a total of six minutes of Ag Cat time, I came around for the pickup.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my previous words were ringing in my ears when I swooped in for the pickup.\u00a0They soon would.\u00a0 I flew right through the bridal and snagged it with not one, but BOTH of the landing gear!\u00a0 Now my words came back to haunt me as the bridal snugged up around the gear.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\n\u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could do that\u201d, I said, with the assurance of a guy who had experience with such things.\u00a0 Did I mention that I had absolutely no time in an Ag Cat?\u00a0 Oh, well, an airplane is an airplane.\u00a0 I would do one touch and go to check myself out in the Ag Cat, then swoop down to pick up the banner.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWhat a sweetheart!\u00a0 I fell in love instantly with the big old biplane.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t have to have that damned banner behind me!\u00a0 With about a total of six minutes of Ag Cat time, I came around for the pickup.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my previous words were ringing in my ears when I swooped in for the pickup.\u00a0They soon would.\u00a0 I flew right through the bridal and snagged it with not one, but BOTH of the landing gear!\u00a0 Now my words came back to haunt me as the bridal snugged up around the gear.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could do that\u201d, I said, with the assurance of a guy who had experience with such things.\u00a0 Did I mention that I had absolutely no time in an Ag Cat?\u00a0 Oh, well, an airplane is an airplane.\u00a0 I would do one touch and go to check myself out in the Ag Cat, then swoop down to pick up the banner.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWhat a sweetheart!\u00a0 I fell in love instantly with the big old biplane.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t have to have that damned banner behind me!\u00a0 With about a total of six minutes of Ag Cat time, I came around for the pickup.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my previous words were ringing in my ears when I swooped in for the pickup.\u00a0They soon would.\u00a0 I flew right through the bridal and snagged it with not one, but BOTH of the landing gear!\u00a0 Now my words came back to haunt me as the bridal snugged up around the gear.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
What a sweetheart!\u00a0 I fell in love instantly with the big old biplane.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t have to have that damned banner behind me!\u00a0 With about a total of six minutes of Ag Cat time, I came around for the pickup.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my previous words were ringing in my ears when I swooped in for the pickup.\u00a0They soon would.\u00a0 I flew right through the bridal and snagged it with not one, but BOTH of the landing gear!\u00a0 Now my words came back to haunt me as the bridal snugged up around the gear.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I was faced with a choice:\u00a0Either continue to Daytona Beach and fly around the racecourse with a banner which could not be released or land now, attempting to beat the banner to the ground with a really steep, short field landing to a full stop.\u00a0 The bridal could then be taken off the gear, the banner repaired if necessary after being beat up from dragging on the ground and I could be back in the air.\u00a0The latter was the better plan.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nNow, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Now, lest you think that tons of flying skill enabled me to pull this off, let me confess that if it weren\u2019t for dependence on fundamentals, the result would have been a lot worse!<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nWith about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
With about six minutes of time in the Ag Cat and the \u201cworld\u2019s largest logo banner\u201d being towed behind me, I attempted to do a super-short field landing while coming in really steep so that the plane would touch down before or at the same time the king post of the banner did.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nPower off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Power off, nose down, super steep approach, and feet just itching to hop on the brakes as soon as the wheel landing was accomplished.\u00a0 That was my aim.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nI used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I used the grass.\u00a0 It would make for a bit of a longer landing because the braking wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I was hoping that it would also result in less damage to the banner and save ol\u2019 Earl a lot of money and aggravation.\u00a0 I really couldn\u2019t see behind me, but the guys on the ground had a handheld and let me know that I was below the banner.\u00a0 It worked.<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAs soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
As soon as the kingpost of the banner contacted the ground, I was already on the brakes and rapidly decelerating.\u00a0 As I recall, the only damage was a slight bend to the aluminum kingpost.\u00a0 We fixed that in two shakes of a gnat\u2019s nose, disentangled the bridal from the main gear and I was ready to go again.\u00a0 Next time I came in a bit higher and depended a bit more on the boys with the hand held to let me know how high the grappling hook was!\u00a0That worked and I was off to the Daytona 500 to fulfill Earl\u2019s legal obligation.<\/h3>\nEarl today with his lovely wife, Emily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSo the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
So the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“the next time you hear me say, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anyone could do something so stupid\u201d, prepare for me to do something really stupid!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4898,"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":[35,36,38,67,100,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882"}],"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=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}