More Airplane Adventures

“Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.”
—Denis Waitley

Dick Stearns, the guy I crewed for in Star boats, had his own plane, and occasionally, during the wintertime, we would fly up to Wisconsin to watch the ice boat races. Watching ice boat races from the ground is difficult because the boats are very fast and far away most of the time that it’s hard to tell what’s happening. It’s a whole different experience when you watch them from the air because you can see exactly what’s going on.

One day, Dick and I flew up to Pewaukee to watch the races. We landed on the frozen lake after the last race and talked with some of the sailors for a while. Then a strong wind came up and made the takeoff extremely challenging.

 Turning a single-engine plane is done by braking one wheel. Unfortunately, the sun had melted the ice enough that it was as slick as glass. When Dick braked to turn, the wheel kept skidding on the ice, and we continued to get closer and closer to shore. It looked like we were going to be in real trouble as we were running out of both daylight and sea room.

Finally, Dick said, “Hang on!” gave it full throttle, and we literally flew around the corner, missing docks by no more than ten feet. Another exciting day.

Midwest Hospitality

Renting an airplane? Borrowing a stranger’s car?

I’ll never forget one summer when our French manager, Jacques Martinoni, was visiting us. The contractors weren’t cutting joints in France at that time and he wanted to see an actual operation. Since there was a job going on in southern Iowa, we rented a plane and flew to Iowa. Jacques was nervous about landing on the pavement, but there was a small airport about 10 miles away and we landed there. In my usual fashion, I solved the problem of ground transportation by borrowing the manager’s car.

Jacques couldn’t believe it. In France, renting airplanes was practically unknown, and he’d never heard of someone going up to a complete stranger and asking to borrow his car for a few hours—and being handed the keys. It was a great example of Midwest hospitality for Jacques.

Aspen

When we moved to Aspen in 1967, I knew my piloting days were over because mountain flying requires special skills and more practice than I had the time or the money for, so I gave up something that had given me a lot of satisfaction over the years. However, it was still exciting just flying back and forth to Denver, as in those days Rocky Mountain Airways was flying Cessna 310s with a single pilot. Because I knew how to fly, I was always given the co-pilot’s seat and occasionally the pilot would let me take over the controls for part of the flight.