Hey Karl,

I love that last one. Aside from the great story telling, he was one of those guys who truly cared about people.

I think it was my second season of racing when I owned a Baby Grob and we were flying out of Dansville. Probably 1990. The weather was actually pretty good - just good enough so I could get pretty far away before getting in trouble and landing out.

I proceeded to land out I think 5 days in a row; on at least 2 of them I was the only landout. After the 5th day Charlie took me aside and asked how I was doing, was I discouraged, etc. He ended the session with "I'll buy you a beer if you get back tonight." I did, and he did.

P3

On Friday, April 10, 2020 at 6:24:45 PM UTC-4, Karl Striedieck wrote:
Too many Charlie stories to pick one - but.

One night there was window rattling crash from upstairs, and when asked about it Charlie said he fell out of bed.

Or one of the numerous glider delivery sagas when he was passing Flagstaff mid- winter and felt sorry for a freezing hitchhiker. Turned out the guy was drunk so Charlie put him in the front of the trailer.

Speaking of his gift with humans, a favorite kid-on-the-road story was the year he took a lad who had a learning disability. At some point the boy found himself in a game of Scrabble with other young kids, and was the brunt of ridicule for a word choice. When they left for the motel Charlie took the Scrabble game and said to the lad "We'll play some more Scrabble and you can spell the words anyway you want."