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#1
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Ghost Ship
The silver plane sits lightly on the tarmac, gazing skyward at that cocky
angle that makes taxiing a Stearman such a chore. It is clearly ready for flight. It's been sitting there for three days, as I write this. Full of gas, fabric freshly redone, immaculately painted -- all dressed up, with no where to go. The wind makes it moan, the struts singing as if it were straining against an unnatural force, gravity. Gently rocking in the breeze, like a disconsolate orphan, crying. You see, this Stearman isn't leaving any time soon. Its owner flew into Iowa City on Easter Sunday, to meet a friend. Probably made all sorts of promises in order to sneak away from his family on such a fine holiday. The friend had recently acquired an aerobatic Christen Eagle, and both men were eager to see what it could do, on this, the first nice day of the spring. Within minutes, both lay dead in the wreckage, having augured into a corn field south of Iowa City. Witnesses say that they got into an unrecoverable tail slide too close to the ground. Rumors of engine problems and aft CGs abound, but no one really knows what happened. Many of us fly ghost ships nowadays. My plane, for example, is 31 years old, and has had many owners. Some were good for Atlas, some were not -- but many have passed on. In my mind's eye their ghostly fingers alight gently on his paint, reliving all the good times, stroking his flanks, feeling the dings in his propeller. Maybe even resting their hands on his yoke, as I carefully cart my young family cross country. The big silver plane is so different, yet somehow the same. Born during a great World War, the Stearman has had so many more owners, so many more pilots. How many hands have gripped those controls, cheating death and dancing in the clouds? How many have passed away? How many were killed during the war? There's no way to know, of course, and in some strange way, those deaths were, I don't know, *expected*. After all, those boys were training to fight a war, and possibly to die -- and many did. These recent deaths seems so much worse to me, somehow, having happened as they did in such idyllic times, leaving behind a broken family and a ghost ship to sit on an empty, wind-swept ramp, waiting for an owner who shall never return. Meanwhile, I'm left to wonder how long that beautiful Stearman, that ghost ship, will sit, waiting, grating on my soul... -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
#2
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Someone needs to put it in a hangar.
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#3
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Sounds like there might be a Stearman up for sale soon...
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#4
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Eloquent words Jay
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#5
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Nice...
Jay Beckman PP-ASEL Chandler, AZ |
#6
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Jay Honeck wrote:
Meanwhile, I'm left to wonder how long that beautiful Stearman, that ghost ship, will sit, waiting, grating on my soul... Sounds like the only thing for you to do is buy it, Jay. Call it an extension of your Stearman suite. George Patterson Whosoever bloweth not his own horn, the same shall remain unblown. |
#7
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Nicely put Jay.
-- Jack Allison PP-ASEL-IA Student-Arrow Buying Student "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return" - Leonardo Da Vinci (Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail) |
#8
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Good point.
Jay, if you can find a hangar to put it in, I'll kick something in for the rent. I'm sure others will too. "jsmith" wrote in message ... Someone needs to put it in a hangar. |
#9
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Good point.
Jay, if you can find a hangar to put it in, I'll kick something in for the rent. I'm sure others will too. "jsmith" wrote in message ... Someone needs to put it in a hangar. |
#10
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Talk about a write-off opportunity!!
Banner towing in a Stearman advertising the Inn! Sometimes life's greatest opportunities are visible only through the tears of others. Jim |
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