94-yr old CFI

Steve Robertson writes:

I had my PPL checkride with "Miss Evelyn" in 1983. I thought she was about
100 years old back then. Unlike most folks, I didn't especially care for her
(yes, I passed). But my hat's off to anybody that's still doing what they
want to do after nearly a century.

Evelyn is not, and never has been, someone who ignores errors. I suspect
that she would be a very bad politician, in that she has her high
standards and isn't willing to apply lower standards to anyone she
evaluates...and isn't hesitant about providing the evaluation in
no uncertain terms.

It's not always a pleasant experience for the recipient, although
I suggest that it is educational.

Although I never talked to her about it, I suspect that she got her
attitude from her first flight instructor, Elmer Wood. Elmer was
a gen-you-ine barnstormer who taught students (inlcuding Evelyn) in
the WWII Civilian Pilot Training program...and he was one of those
pilots who when they flew, the aircraft would *never* think of doing
anything that Elmer didn't want it to do.

One attribute that Evelyn didn't acquire from Elmer was a disdain for
the finer points of the CARs (now FARs); the title character in _The
Great Waldo Pepper_ reminds me of Elmer. I was terrified of him the
first time we met -- his signature is on the fourth line of my first
logbook -- but over the years we flew together several times and I
learned just how good a pilot, instructor, and friend he could be.

Although to the best of my knowledge they never met, I would think
that Evelyn and the late Grace Hopper (aka "Amazing Grace") would find
their personalities to be quite similar. (There might be some interesting
arguments too...)

I don't know if the NPR program mentioned it, but back in the (mid?)
1970s Evelyn was a participant on the TV quiz show "To Tell the Truth".
She was the one required to answer panelists' questions truthfuly,
but at this distance I cannot recall if the panel correctly identified
her.

Joe Morris