The day I met the Spy.....

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RestlessCrow
Class G
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 10:49 pm

The day I met the Spy.....

Post by RestlessCrow »

Hey guys.... New guy here. I know two of you on here so I decided to logon and become a member. I wrote something about a week ago that applies to everyone on this board. I just like to make people think, and thank people when thanks are due.... So let me tell you about the day I met the spy......


Back on Fathers day, 2016, I met a man who would change my life forever.

I grew up around airports. My father was fascinated with flight, and when I was a child, he purchased an ultralight aircraft. His first one was an EZ-riser, which is basically a bi-wing aircraft, with no fuselage, no canard, nor tail. It was only a one seater, and since it was a very unconventional aircraft there was no one to teach him to fly it. I spent pretty much a whole summer’s worth of evenings at the airport with dad as he taxied back and forth, until he finally had the courage to roll the power on, and off he went.
Fast forward quite a few years, and dad built a kit aircraft… a high wing taildragger from Mike Loehle. The Sport parasol. I had no interest in the old EZ-riser which to me seemed like a death trap, but the parasol, with conventional stick and ruder controls, interested me. Conventional controls meant that someone could teach me in another aircraft. I’m guessing I was late twenties in age, pushing thirty. I went out and purchased Microsoft Flight simulator. I even got the pedals for it. I had gotten pretty proficient with the computer, and one day on a visit to my father, he managed to wrangle me a ride with a friend of his who was an instructor in a two seat ultralight.
I’ll never forget that day. I had flown many times before as a passenger in my travels with dad, but this time was different. At the end of the runway the man told me he wanted my hands on the stick, and my feet on the pedals so I could feel what he was doing. We lifted off, and at about a thousand feet, he just let go of the stick and said “Your plane”. I remember being so terrified, and the gentlman chuckling at me and telling me to relax because he could see my white knuckles. I finally did relax a bit and he talked me through a few turns. From playing the simulator, using the rudder came naturally to me.
On landing, dad walked up and opened the door and asked me how it was. He patted me on the back, and then wiped his hand on his shirt and said “A little nervous were you?” My t-shirt was soaked from nervous perspiration. He then asked the man how I did for my first time, to which the man looked at me in bewilderment, and said “First time? Where’d you learn to do a turn like that?” to which I sheepishly replied, “Microsoft flight simulator…..? You had a turn indicator.”
Fast forward, at least ten years. I hadn’t flown since then. Dad found himself a sweetheart little retirement deal managing a little 2000’ grass airstrip in the middle of Nowhere, Pennsylvania. It’s about a two and a half hour car ride from my house so I don’t get up there as much as I like. The owner flies a helicopter out of there, and Dad keeps his ultralight there. No one ever lands there. Dad’s ultralight has been out of commission for about a year, but he talks about getting it flying again all the time.
I was up there on a Sunday, and Dad and I were in the garage of his house across the road from the airstrip, and out of nowhere, someone buzzed the strip…. We were so shocked to have a “visitor” that we jumped in our cars and drove down across the road and parked at the end of the strip. Again the pilot buzzed the strip. This gorgeous whistling aluminum bird was MOVING. He rolled right and went out the one valley, and circled around. He then landed, and taxied up to where our cars were parked, and he opened the canopy of the airplane.
“I don’t see any guns…. I guess it’s ok to land?” he said.
I immediately cracked up laughing. Dad walked over and introduced himself as the pilot unbuckled himself and started to get out. From there dad gave the man a little tour of our little 40 acre paradise, including the hangar and the garage where dad has wings hanging from the ceiling and a framed cover from a magazine hanging on the wall of a plane he painted for the manufacturer. (Loehle) There was a lot of small talk, and then dad mentioned something about our little camp we set up at the other end of the runway. Once a year I spend 9 days camping there, and it’s something I look forward to for eleven and a half months of the year. We all piled in the cars and drove behind the dogs as they romped their way down the back lane behind the airstrip and gave the pilot a little tour of the property and showed him our little camp. The pilot asked if we minded if he went swimming in the river.
“Of COURSE NOT!” my father immediately replied.
We drove him back to his aircraft, and he taxied to the other end of the runway and parked near camp, and got out with his towel, and his camera… We were on our way to go do something down at camp before he landed anyway, so he and my dog went for a swim, and we did our stuff.
About two and a half hours had passed since he had arrived, and as he was getting ready to leave, I asked him where he was from.
“Oh, I’m from down in Jersey”… He replied.
“Really? Me too.” I said. “What part of NJ?”
“Northern New Jersey” he responded.
I told him where I lived, and that he was only about a half hour away from me.
“What airport is near you? I’ll pick you up. We’ll go for a ride.” he said to me.
We exchanged contact information, and a few hearty handshakes, and the pilot departed. Dad and I continued what we were doing and talked about the guy who had just stopped by, with dad joking about him being a spy because of his foreign accent. On the way home, as soon as I hit cell phone reception, I pulled over and sent the pilot an email telling him how nice it was to meet him, and that he had made my fathers day by landing because no one really ever stops in there, and that him landing there made all the hard work of maintaining the property worth it. He responded almost immediately.
Three days later, I’m actually out of work ON TIME, and rushing home to exchange my work truck for my personal vehicle, and rushing to get to Hackettstown airport to meet my new friend to go for a flight. Of course, I had left my 2 meter radio on, and killed the battery in my Jeep, and the jump start put me behind schedule. Somehow, I managed to make it there on time, and the pilot was parked near the end of the runway waiting for me. I walked up and shook his hand again, and next thing I know, we’re airborne. We took off and headed Southwest. The pilot informed me he had to go grocery shopping. I kind of laughed and we continued making small talk and getting to know each other. We reached our destination somewhere near Allentown PA, and to my surprise, just across the road from the end of the runway was a supermarket. He wasn’t kidding. He really was going grocery shopping. I went looking for the bathroom and he gave me a mission to find something in the store and meet him back where we separated, and he had picked up some food for us to snack on. We sat and ate for a few minutes and back to the aircraft we went with three bags of groceries.
On the way back, he had me hold the stick, and for some reason, being in a “real aircraft” and not an ultralight, I was much more confident. I had the stick, and a few minutes later, he had my feet on the pedals and had me making some turns. All that was going well, so now I had my hand on the throttle too….
Now, at this point, there’s a lot running through my head…. The exhilaration of being in control of an aircraft and…. the nervousness of being in control of an aircraft. I was doing pretty good at controlling my excitement when the pilot asked me if I saw anything I recognized.
“That looks like Round Valley Reservoir over there.” I said.
“Good. Go there.” he responded.
So I banked around and headed toward the reservoir. About this time, the pilot put some music on the headsets, and started asking me a series of personal questions… whether I had a girlfriend or not…. etc… As we passed over the reservoir, I made an offhand comment that I used to camp on the reservoir. We would put in with our Kayaks and paddle across the reservoir and camp when I used to belong to a sea kayak club.
“Show me”. He said.
Now mind you….. I’m fairly overwhelmed at this point, stick, rudder, throttle, music going, him asking personal questions and trying to carry a conversation…. it’s a lot for someone who is in control of an airplane for the second time in his life. I didn’t realize we were doing about 120 knots as I banked around and realized that I had completely overshot what I was trying to show him on the ground, so I banked the plane harder to the right, trying to keep the spot on the ground in sight. Now, at this point, this was the steepest bank we had been in on the whole flight, and I was the one doing the flying, and I had seriously stepped outside my comfort zone….
“I need a little help here” I stated, with barely hidden panic in my voice.
He paused. “Nahhh…… YOU GOT this…..” he said to me.
Oh boy…. ok. I got this…. I got this….. I thought to myself, so I leveled out a little but continued the turn, just not as aggressively. After that, we headed back to where he picked me up so he could dump me off and get home before dark, but those words…. those WORDS…. “YOU GOT THIS”…. stuck in my head.
We flew again sometime mid summer and it was an epic trip. (at least for a non pilot.) It was a totally impromptu thing. I texted him out of curiosity on a Saturday night asking if he was flying in the morning, and he responded that he was, and wanted to know if I wanted to go with him. Of course I said yes, so he told me to meet him at his airport at six thirty AM. I immediately finished dinner and went straight to bed. I actually arrived at 6:15AM. We departed about 6:45 and flew East. We reached New York, Circled the Statue of Liberty and went out over Long Island. We continued all the way to Montauk, with me flying from NYC to Montauk. We crossed the water over to Rhode Island and landed in Massachusetts somewhere for breakfast and fuel, and took off again….. North…. North we went, and by the grace of God we had some gorgeous weather as we reached Mount Washington. We circled a few times so I could get some good pictures, and we continued North. Almost at the stroke of Noon, we landed in Jackman Maine. As he opened the canopy, the familiar smell of pine and spruce greeted me and I realized how much I missed Maine. We had flown over the town on approach, and we started walking down the driveway towards the main road.
Once we hit the main road, I looked left, and I looked right…. and I said something to the effect of:
“Ok, there’s the post office, and there’s the welcome center… Just past the welcome center on the left is a good place we can get lunch!”
“Get the <beep> out of here!!!!” the pilot responded.
By sheer coincidence, the pilot chose the one and only little town in Western Maine that I was familiar with. I passed through there on a motorcycle trip coming South out of Canada, and I was tremendously happy to find that little town as I was very low on gas, and the good filling lunch came in handy too…
Fast forward about three months, the pilot flew in three times to my nine day camping trip and each time we were very happy to have him drop in, and three months after THAT, I’m giving the pilot regular updates on my flight training.
Yes, that’s right. I finally, FINALLY started taking lessons. And once in a while I’ll ever so politely harass the pilot wondering if he has time to take me up to work on some stuff I’ver learned in my lessons. I’m 43 years old, and I feel like a little four year old kid tugging on the trousers of that pilot at the airport asking,
“Mith-ter? Can you take me up in duh aiwr-pwane?
It’s good that the pilot I met last year is a patient man…..
If it hadn’t been for that moment…. that SINGLE moment where I stepped out of my comfort zone and asked for a little help, and he said,
“Nahhh…. You GOT THIS”….. I wouldn’t be doing what I am right now. “YOU GOT this” has become my mantra for 2016 and now into 2017.
I write this out of sheer gratitude to the man that gave me the kick in the butt that I needed, to do something I’ve always wanted to do. I also write this in gratitude to that man for having a little bit of faith in me that could do this, and instilling in me a confidence in myself that I can not explain. To actually take off and get up there, and return safely by your own hand, without someone else doing it for you like in a commercial flight, or even just going for a ride with someone, is a game changer. The confidence it gives you, is contagous. It spreads to other parts of your life. It spreads to your career. “Meh… I GOT THIS. No Problem.”
Ladies and Gentleman, if you are reading this, next time you land at an unknown airport, in some town you don’t know, I want you to remember what you just read as you meet the people you meet. YOU just might be the person to inspire that little kid, or the man in his early forties, to finally go after his dream and conquer his or her fears. You might be that subtle influence that changes someone’s life. Remember that as you meet new people, in ever facet of your life, not just flying.
I’m looking forward to this years camping trip. There will be new people coming, at least one of them not coming by car. Perhaps we might even have people coming down from up North to land and spend an evening with us…. One thing for sure I know, is that I have to talk my new friend into trying to change his tail number to something that doesn’t creep me out.

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captain_john
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Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 9:17 am
Location: KPYM

Re: The day I met the Spy.....

Post by captain_john »

Wade,

Great story and welcome to the board!

See you soon!

:) CJ
RV-7
Garmin G3X with VP-X & a TMX-IO-360 with G3i
It's all over but the flying! 800+ hours in only 3 years!

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sibriggs
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Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2015 9:31 pm
Location: KCON

Re: The day I met the Spy.....

Post by sibriggs »

Great story, welcome aboard, which RV are you going to build?
AP-IA - ATP,CFII,Multi,SES,Gliders

Built a Vari-Eze in the 80's, now RV9

Vlad
Class E
Posts: 203
Joined: Fri Jan 21, 2011 4:08 pm
Location: NJ

Re: The day I met the Spy.....

Post by Vlad »

I might even know the guy. He was taking pictures of some top secret stuff today. Nice writing Wade it was a pleasure flying with you.

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RV-9A N666BK flying 4,500+ hours since 2011

catmandu
Class G
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2016 8:35 am

Re: The day I met the Spy.....

Post by catmandu »

Vlad wrote:I might even know the guy. He was taking pictures of some top secret stuff today.
You should have said something, my Dad was probably working there today, he could have given you the VIP treatment!
Mike @ W29 & KMEV
RV-6A SOLD
Super-8, say no more

Vlad
Class E
Posts: 203
Joined: Fri Jan 21, 2011 4:08 pm
Location: NJ

Re: The day I met the Spy.....

Post by Vlad »

What a place Mike! I came at opening left afternoon and still didn't see it all. Will be back. The center was packed next time I will avoid weekends a lot of kindergarten activity there couldn't even make it to the tower.
RV-9A N666BK flying 4,500+ hours since 2011

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