Old Time Stuff | FerrariChat

Old Time Stuff

Discussion in 'Aviation Chat' started by Bob Parks, Jul 8, 2007.

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  1. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
    Consultant

    Nov 29, 2003
    8,017
    Shoreline,Washington
    Full Name:
    Robert Parks
    I don't know if this is the correct thing to do but I would like to tell some tales of things past that may be of interest to some and may bore some who aren't interested in dinosaurs and pterodactyls.
    I no longer fit into the contemporary flying scene but I'm still interested in all things aviation. And so it has been since 1930 when I was 4 years old. Lindbergh was still the wonder of the world and I joined the club with every ounce of my being. We lived in Washington, D.C. then and I was blessed with a mother who was enthralled with aviation. She wrote letters that were sent via airmail so that she could drive to the old Washington Hoover Airport to mail them. Then we would watch airplanes.
    Ford tri-motors, Curtiss Condors, Stinson Tri-motors, and a variety of obscure types. We went there often and we actually saw Amelia Earhardt flying a Pitcairn Auto-gyro one day.
    We lived on a farm nw of Washington and every day we saw a string of airplanes flying out to Cleveland or Pittsburg and one day I saw a strikingly modern twin engined thing go over, a Boeing 247. Then subsequent trips to the airport we saw it at the terminal. Then soon after a huge silver plane assumed center stage, the Douglas DC-2. I was about six or seven then and soon found ways to get to small airports around the area and hung out to see wonderful planes. Travel Airs, Waco 9's, Waco 10's, Commandaire's, Birds, Fleets, and Stinsons.
    Helping to wash them and persistent begging earned me a ride now and then. It was great even though I couldn't see over the cockpit coaming all the time and boiling water and oil often flew back from the OX-5's some times. Little did I realize what wheezing decrepit machines I was riding around in but I still remeber the thrill of it 74 years later.
    Switches
     
  2. aseweepay

    aseweepay Formula Junior

    Feb 1, 2004
    400
    Mid-West
    Cool...I often tell people that I fly the new stuff so I can buy the
    old stuff. I think I was born 50 years too late.....
     
  3. Skyraider

    Skyraider Formula Junior

    Nov 4, 2005
    620
    What makes me feel like I was born 50 years too late is all the complications.

    A myriad of Regulations that you can't decipher, written in such an obscurated fashion,
    you need a lawyer to understand them.

    Air defense zones that don't defend anything... just add more confusion and worry to flying.

    In the old days you just hand propped her and you were off!
    No flight plan, no insurance.
    If you came down a bit hard, you just got out the baling wire, and tied it back together.

    Didn't have to spend an outrageous amount on a replacement part, with
    a series of colored paperwork attached to it. NO STC's, AD's, or COD's!
    If you wanted to change a designed part, you went out and cut down a tree,
    whittled away and were done!

    Now, you can't change the color, without volumes of paperwork.


    Too much micro-management today!

    but then, it's a different world too...
     
  4. rob lay

    rob lay Administrator
    Staff Member Admin Miami 2018 Owner Social Subscribed

    Dec 1, 2000
    63,960
    Southlake, TX
    Full Name:
    Rob Lay
    Very interesting SWITCHES! Keep it up. Thanks.
     
  5. Skyraider

    Skyraider Formula Junior

    Nov 4, 2005
    620

    Yeah! That's .........what I meant to say........

    Tee hee!
     
  6. Spasso

    Spasso F1 World Champ

    Feb 16, 2003
    14,656
    The fabulous PNW
    Full Name:
    Han Solo
    ............................and so began SWITCHES career as poster child for "Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Aviatus":p:p:p
     
  7. planeflyr

    planeflyr Karting

    May 27, 2006
    174
    I see the makings of a book in the future.

    Great stuff, keep writing!

    Planeflyr
     
  8. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
    Consultant

    Nov 29, 2003
    8,017
    Shoreline,Washington
    Full Name:
    Robert Parks
    I don't know that many are interested but I'll chug along.
     
  9. Skyraider

    Skyraider Formula Junior

    Nov 4, 2005
    620
    Switches,
    Don't forget that there are alot of "lurkers" that do not post...
    And they ALL told me they were interested... well with one exception...
    and that one, hardly ever says anything.... ;-)

    You really have no idea how very interesting, all the tales are.... do you!

    Eye of the beholder and all that.....

    Charlie
     
  10. Der Meister

    Der Meister Formula Junior

    Aug 16, 2005
    657
    Glendora/Prescott
    Full Name:
    Alan
    i really enjoy them. keep it up if you can please.
     

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