Tuesday I had a little fun mission that could only be done in an airplane. I worked all morning, had lunch, and then went to the airport after 1 pm to preflight and fuel. I took off about 2pm from my local airport 52F to Pittsburg, Kansas. 291 nm as the plane flies, but more importantly 373 miles 5.5 hours as the car drives. I landed about 3:30 PM. Drove into town to pick up the deer mounts my mom and I harvested from the local taxidermist. I B.S.'d with the owner about 45 minutes about fishing etc. Drove back to the airport with the mounts. Took back off about 5:10 PM and landed back home about 6:40 PM. Had dinner with family. Good half day mission that couldn't have been done with car or commercial. What are your "only in an airplane" stories? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I used to go skiing in northern Michigan for a weekend. I'd fly from Toledo on Saturday morning, land at the strip at the bottom of Boyne Mountain, and be on the slopes when they opened at 10:00.. Ski all day Saturday and Sunday and hop in the plane at about 4:00 on Sunday night and be back home in two and a half hours. Had a relaxing evening at home that replaced a harrowing 6 hour drive each way. If I drove I would have had to have left the night before and spent another night in a hotel or lost half a day on the slopes, just getting there. Most folks left around noon on Sunday to get home at a reasonable time so the slopes on Sunday afternoon were much less crowded, and the traffic on the southbound I-75 was usually a mess do to some horrible deadly highway accident caused by folks rushing to get back to Detroit from their cabins in northern MI. I used to refer to my airplane as my "time machine" because it lets you do things you simply couldn't do without it.
Lots of stories.... Gone from breakfast in West Texas to having fresh seafood for dinner in Newfoundland. The next day I'm driving in the autobahn in Germany to discover what VMax is in my rental car. The next day I'm walking through a shopping district in Turkey talking on the phone with my wife about what kind of rugs I should get. The following day I'm off for the Gulf to get ready for the return haul. One of the real climactic changes was trips from the warm humid gulf into Afghanistan. One day shopping in the upscale shops and souks in Doha then having to dig out a parka and flak vest. A few years ago I had a good long stretch flying from the middle east to Texas then the next day jumping on a commercial plane for Hawaii for my wedding. My wife was a little upset as it wasnt sure if I would be back in time. Ended up just making it but it was a bit surreal going from desert sand to sandy beaches in such a short time.
Years ago: Went to a fly-in about 100 miles away in my 1946 Aeronca Champ (65hp). Into a 30+mph headwind, Cars passing me on the highway and a friend in a 200hp Mooney burned less gas than I did on the same leg. Only is an airplane (or maybe a boat) would you put up with that type of inefficiency. Dave Photo from 1992 Image Unavailable, Please Login
Pretty sure the white part is a reservoir that's designed to make the system more efficient. Not sure if there are any moustache-stimulating properties, but it can't hurt to come out looking more like Robin Olds
You flew to pick up a bunch of dead animal heads? Your better half is a saint. I can't imagine that she is going to let you put up those old dust collectors in the house, or even the garage.
Been there, done that On vacation in florida years ago I picked up a cured/stuffed alligator head as decoration for what was then my bachelor pad in Texas. Then I got married and though my wife hated it I kept it up on the shelf as decoration. One day for work we flew down to Louisiana and had a few hours to kill and I ran across a place that had a bunch of gator heads for sale and I bought a larger one to swap out just to see if the wife would notice. After all.... Even if she were to notice that the gator head was larger how would she suspect I had acquired a larger gator head. Sure enough she noticed something was different but kePt quiet about it. The truth came out a few months later when some friends were over and the wife was *****ing about the damn gator head and I told about how I picked up the larger gator head and surreptitiously swapped it out.
