{"id":5245,"date":"2019-07-11T04:09:36","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T11:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=5245"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:50","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:50","slug":"the-most-memorable-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/the-most-memorable-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"#236 The Most Memorable Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Written in June, 2019<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve often said that Steve Oliver is the smartest aviator I know.\u00a0Perhaps that\u2019s why when Steve mentioned the most memorable flight he\u2019d ever had, I listened.\u00a0 I\u2019d never thought about it before, but the flight that had meant so much to Steve was the flight he\u2019d made when Jessie Woods<\/h3>\n

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After the historic ride, Jessie, Steve and Suzanne with the New Standard Biplane<\/strong><\/p>\n

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was making her last wing ride.\u00a0 That flight was featured on the Tailwheelersjournal.com.\u00a0 Steve\u2019s wife, Suzanne, was performing as \u201cballast\u201d to even the load on that long-winged biplane.\u00a0 Her perch was way out on the left wing while Jessie rode the right wing closer to the fuselage.<\/h3>\n

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Jessie wing riding in the 20\u2019s<\/h3>\n

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Steve\u2019s wife, Suzanne, was performing as \u201cballast\u201d to even the load on that long-winged biplane.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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I rode in the front cockpit with both still and motion picture cameras.\u00a0Later, Bert Garrison would help me flesh the story out for the video we did.\u00a0 The story is on the Tailwheelers Journal.com<\/a>. and is one of my favorites.\u00a0But ol\u2019 Steve had gotten me to thinking.\u00a0I realized that I\u2019d had such a flight myself.<\/h3>\n

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Back when I ran Sunriver Soaring, my daughter Janet had not gotten the flying bug yet (she\u2019s now a post solo student)<\/h3>\n

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My Daughter, Janet, in the cockpit of my old C140.\u00a0 She\u2019s now soloed in a C 172 and has a tailwheel endorsement from the PA12<\/strong><\/p>\n

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but my son, Hooper, loved to fly and already showed a lot of talent.\u00a0I\u2019d arranged for him to take flying lessons in a glider from Dale Masters, who was a great glider pilot and who had written a wonderful book called \u201cSoaring: Beyond the Basics\u201d.\u00a0Dale and Hooper flew the Rosenberg\u2019s lovely 2-33 and very soon Hooper was ready to solo.\u00a0 The importance of Hooper\u2019s first solo didn\u2019t hit me until I taxied out in the Piper Pawnee to tow him aloft.<\/h3>\n

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The importance of Hooper\u2019s first solo didn\u2019t hit me until I taxied out in the Piper Pawnee to tow him aloft.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Holy crap, that was my boy all by himself in that glider at one end of that 200 feet of tow rope.\u00a0 And I was at the other end!\u00a0 I have never flown so smoothly.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even chat with Hooper as we went up to altitude.\u00a0 I just didn\u2019t want to create any distractions for him.\u00a0 At release, we normally brought the tow plane around and formed up on the right side of the glider.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t do that this time.\u00a0 Instead, I simply keyed the mike and said, \u201cHave a good flight\u201d.\u00a0 His reply was relaxed and instant: \u201cYou\u2019re damned right!\u201d my boy replied.<\/h3>\n
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Hooper and Dale in the 2-32, Hooper has proven to be a gifted pilot. Dale has been a great instructor for him.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Later, I landed and parked the Pawnee.\u00a0 Then Dale and I visited at the runway and watched as Hooper flew his first solo.\u00a0 Dale and Hooper had done a great job and the flight went smoothly and well.\u00a0 My part of it was understandably minor and my efforts to be smooth were totally unimportant.\u00a0 But the flight remains as one of my most unforgettable.<\/h3>\n
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Hooper and Dale after Hooper’s solo in the Rosenberg’s 2-33<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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A proud Papa cuts his boys shirt tail after Hooper\u2019s solo in the 2-33<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    Written in June, 2019     I\u2019ve often said that Steve Oliver is the smartest aviator I know.\u00a0Perhaps that\u2019s why when Steve mentioned the most memorable flight he\u2019d ever had, I listened.\u00a0 I\u2019d never thought about it before, but the flight that had meant so much to Steve was the flight he\u2019d made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5245"}],"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=5245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}