Dear Gang,

Guess I'd better wait til my hubby finishes his 75 HP Champ project
before I try flying at 5.5 GPM. Thanks for all the advice, though.
Although a lot of if is over my head.

The best pilot I've even known couldn't read or write. never used a
POH, used a check list, and flew planes with little or no instruments.
But he was born and brought up with it and just had a feel for it. The
first few planes I flew in J3s, J5s, PA 11s, 13s, 15s had little for
instruments and the two or three-page POH wasn't much help either.
Even my '57 182 is missing about half of the contents of a newer Cessna
in the POH. So if you want to take a check ride, take it in an older
airplane and when the examiner asks you something. You can say I don't
know. He or she will say it's in the POH, and you can hand it to him
or her, and shock the heck out of him or her.


With these old airplanes I don't trust much of anything except that the
engine outta keep running and the wings should've fall off as long I
stay straight and level.

Had about two feet of rain here in Texas in the past three weeks, so
pushing the Beast from the East onto the runway here at Bangs
International and taking off probably isn't a good idea at all. Seen
far too many airplanes versus mud with the the mud winning. Had some
friends with a 172 in Maine and the instructor convinced them it would
be just fine in the mud, just have to use some more power. Well after
he got gone rototilling the runway with the plane...... That's the
trouble with a grass runway. If someone would like to donate 2,000
feet of asphalt have them E mail me ASAP.

If it doesn't stop raining soon quess I'll have to go finish covering
that Champ myself. Tom's (my husband) gone down to the new Taylorcraft
factory in LaGrange Texas and covering their airplanes so our little
Champ sits here about 75% done. Everybody check out their website at
Taylorcraft.com and if you know somebody looking to buy a plane they
should start flying out door any time now. Really wanted to fly down
Friday, dazzle them with a high-speed fly-by, but I guess the weather
is going to cooperate. Sure wish I could afford those floats a fellow
is selling in Maine, but there aren't enough lakes out here to warrant
floats.

Our first plane that we restored to near perfection, we put on floats.
That was such a blast. We had it on a little tiny pond in Maine less
than 0.5 mile across. Only one good approach...out through the
cattails. The rest of the pond was camps and trees, so we'd taxi down
towards the cattails, turn back around and then start a high speed
taxi/power turn, gain speed in a circular pattern and take off out over
the cattails. That was such a rush. Guess I should've said Tom, I
wasn't doing much of anything except praying. We had other friends
with float planes and invited them to land on White's Pond, but they
said no way. Yep Tom sure is a good pilot.

Guess I'll tell you about the second best pilot I've ever known. His
name is Major Jay T. Aubin. My stepson. There's all kinds of stuff
about him on the inernet. He had been flying Chinook helicopters for
the Maines. He was one of the first pilots we lost in Iraq. There
were 4 Americans and 8 British aboard. God bless them all. He was one
of my dear stepsons, and I miss so much. He had been in Japan for
eight years flying choppers. Twice the Maines went there to try to get
him to fly the President in Marine One. He said he had signed up for a
few other committments but then he could do it. When the war broke out
he was in Yuma AZ. We saw him the summer before and he said he was
going to school in Yuma. I said "Jay you've been flying those things
for years and you're still going to school?" He just laughed and
grinned and said yeah guess I'll get it figured out one of these days."
He didn't tell us he was going to be an instructor for Chinooks for the
"top gun type school" for Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactical Squadron
One. Wasn't til we went to Yuma for his memorial service that we found
out he was a top gun instructor. When I catch up with him one of these
days in the clouds, that "boy" has got a lot of explaining to do!!!

We always used to fight about rotors versus real wings. We had both
started flying at the same time. Well actually he used to sit on Tom's
lap and help him fly Cubs. He knew more by the time he was 5 about
airplanes than I'll probably ever know. Jay joined the Maines and Tom
and I were married at about the same time. So we would talk about
airplanes and he could explain any book knowledge that I just wasn't
getting. Good thing those planes will fly even if I don't understand
all the engineering and science behind it. But Jay had a way of
explaining things so even I could understand them. I was hoping he'd
come to Texas when he retired in a few years and help us build Champs
and Cubs, and I'd get my A&P license. I'm not one for books, would
much rather do it than read about it. After I do it, then the reading
seems to make more sense. But for now I guess I'll forget about the
A&P and just concentrate on having a plane or two and maybe getting up
the ambition to try to tame a tail dragger.

QUESTION OF THE DAY.
Maybe somebody knows the answer to this one? When you've got full
flaps on I've heard you're not supposed to slip an airplane. The only
reason I've heard is that for some reason enough air won't get over the
tail with the flaps on and you won't be able to control it. when I've
been good and high (and slow) I've put the flaps on, and tried slipping
to a (mild degree) and it everything seems to respond right. Didn't
get real radical with the slip and don't want anybody trying anything
crazy, but I just wanted to know if anything real radical was going
occur in case I had to slip sometime with the flaps on like in an
emergency and end up losing control close to the gound.

Usually the 40 degrees of flaps is bad enough so that if you cut way
down on the power you can drop the nose so bad it feels like all the
stuff in the backseat is going to come hit you in the head causing
you're standing on your nose so bad. Tom loves slipping an airplane,
the early planes didn't have flaps, so now I've become a little
accoustomed to losing 1000 to 1500 FPM and looking down the wing out
the side window at the runway. I'm sure he's give some flight
instructors heart failure. Guess everybody's got their own approaches
to flying and to things in life. Well ya' all take care and enjoy
those nice tarred runways, I'm envious of them right now.

Flying on one engine, Carol, The Homesick Angel. God bless and pray
for our troops.