Old Time Stuff #2

As the effects of the depression began to loosen its grip in the mid 30's, life got a little better. We moved into the villiage of Bethesda and lived in a house that had a real bathroom and other amenities. I taught myself to build flying models and hiked to any airport within reach. On my 9th birthday I was surprised with the gift of all time, an airplane ride. We went to the Rockville airport where I was aloft in an Aeronca C-2 for maybe 15 minutes. To buy that ride, my parents stretched a meager budget to come up with the 15 dollars that it coast. The years went on and i persisted in my visits to all the small feilds that dotted the landscape around Washington. Hyattsville, Hybla Valley, College Park and many more that I can't remember the names. 1939 was exciting because of all the modern military airplanes at Bolling Field and Anacosta Naval airfield. They had demonstrations and I went to every one that I could and saw the newest bombersand fighters. I thought that the Martin B-10 was the biggest thing ever until I saw the new B-17. The most striking of all was the P-38 and P-39 fighters that totally outclassed the P-26's that I was used to seeing. The Grumman F3F was still in use though at the navy field. At the time my brother was attending pre-med at the Univ. of Maryland and when he was working on his cadaver he would drop me off at College Park airport where I was able to get quite a few rides in the old stuff that was still there but strange airplanes began to appear. Little bitty metal jobs called Silvaires built by Luscombe and a really wierd thing with the tailwheel in front . It was called a Ercoupe and didn't have any rudder pedals. Not interested in those little tin cans.
It was about this time that we moved to Sarasota, Florida.

More to come,
Switches

 

I just wanted to clarify that the flight in the Aeronca C-2 was my first flight, 6-19-1935. All other rides came after that. Strong memories of a hard wooden seat, a 3 inch wide rotten and dirty leather seat belt that I couldn't cinch up tight enough, and the whistling wires. The pilots were doing their own maintainence and were considered just a notch above the motorcycle riders. It was a wonderful sight to see 7 or 8 biplanes casually sitting on the dirt apron while one or two were airborne nearby.
Switches