Editor’s Introductory Comments: Most regular SurvivalBlog readers recognize the initials H.L. She has been one of the blog’s most loyal and prolific volunteers, sending news and information links since around 2010. I am confident that she spritely lives to a three-digit age. But when she does pass away, I hope that her gravestone will be inscribed: “Always a Maverick.” – JWR
At age 83 now. I have some very unusual memories of my early life. I did not lead the conventional life of an American woman born in 1942. Conventional is fine. However, there was something in my soul that called to me to be different. I had always said that I would never fly. But, oh boy, I changed my mind. One evening, I went out drinking with some of the men from the Engineering Department where I was working. One of them said that there was an airplane for sale at a small local airport and suggested that the three of us should go look at it, and perhaps buy it.
We did so the next day, but I said in my wisdom: “Well, we should all take flying lessons.” Steve had logged a few hours in a plane. But Ed and I had none. Long story short, we did not buy the plane, and they did not take lessons. However, I did, and I got hooked on flying. Wow, did I get hooked. I treasure my Pilot Flight Record and Log Book. The first entry was October 18, 1970. It was at a small one-runway airport. I finally did solo, and I became so interested in flying and aviation in America, that I subscribed to a couple pf private pilot and airplane magazines. I learned about Control Towers, Air Traffic Control Centers, and a lot about weather. Weather is the biggest problem for small planes, and bad weather gets inexperienced pilots killed. Ot this day, the weather science that I had to study in ground school still helps me understand weather reports and news about severe weather events.
While reading one of thise magazines, I came across an article about a major change in Air Traffic Control. Under a proposed new rule, every major airport and even some smaller airports would require that all planes have transponders that would send a signal to Center and then to the Tower when one was closer. Then the Pilot would talk to the Control Tower ATC who would be like a traffic cop on the ground and tell them what runway, the wind speed and direction and about planes on the ground and taxiing around. This would be something America did not have and in general I do not like Government Control. This would almost require every small plane to spend money to have a transponder installed to supplement their radio. When they were within 5 miles of the airport they would have to communicate with the Tower to get permission to land — Which runway, etc. etc. In hindsight, now with many Americans now flying here and there, it is a good idea to have a transponder.
Federal government agencies often issue Proposed Rulemaking Statements. These tell the citizenry of new rules and regulations that they want to enact and you typically have a few months to send them a letter explaibning why you support the proposed rule, or do not support it. Well, I got ticked off, because this rule would restrict some little old planes that had no radios.
I had joined the Experimental Aviation Club, which was national and even had chapters in other countries. Chapter EAA 166 was in the Hartford, Connecticut area. I went to an EAA Chapter meeting, and asked if I could speak. Most of the members were men, many of whom built their own planes, but the wives often came to the meetings. I spoke to them and told them I was against the new rules that would be a burden on small plane owners, especially home-built planes. I mentioned that we had several months to collect signatures on a petition to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), stating that we did not agree with this new rule. The chapter gave me $100 to have this petition copied and sent to every EAA Chapter in America. Most of these men built their own planes, and many of them did not want to go to the expense of radio installation.
We managed to delay the government because the petitions were sent back to my Chapter and I sent them to the Federal government. Eventually, the Feds did change their landing parameters a bit, but we did delay what they had proposed. Just so you know, little planes without radios, or if the radios do not work, the tower will see them and they use the old-fashioned landing system lights to tell them if they could or could not land immediately, and if they could land, then on which runway.
For that petition, the President and his staff awarded me the EAA President’s Award. I did not realize it until I actually drove to Oshkosh, Wisconsin in the summer of that same year to their week-long Convention. Planes come from America and even from some other countries. It is the largest Fly-in event in the World. They have an Air Show. People like Chuck Yaeger — the first man to break the speed of sound. (He was from West Virginia and he has passed on.) They had aerobatic pilots. Families came and it was a week of fun and lectures.
Most of you have been to a County Fair or 4-H show and you know that some people are slobs and drop their lunch wrappers on the ground or a cigar or cigarette butts. But the grounds on the Oshkosh, Wisconsin Airport where this week-long convention is held in summer was clean as a whistle. People did not litter/ There were vintage military aircraft on display, and even rides given. I drove to the Fly-in and stayed in a room at the local college. There was an old Ford Tri-motor there, and they were giving rides, so I paid for one. It was wonderful. I went to the Fly-in three times. The second and third time that I attended Oshkosh I flew in a small plane. The EAA still holds the Fly-in every summer.
I did not know that for my efforts on behalf of small planes and getting thousands of signatures and sending the petitions to the Federal government. Which, while it did not stop them, it did delay their putting the rules into effect. Anyway, the Founder and President of the EAA gave me one of the President’s Awards. Alas, in the decades since then, and many moves, it has disappeared, though I have a picture in my mind of what it looked like.
The Founder and President of the EAA has passed on, but the EAA still exists, and there are chapters in America and even overseas. Man has always wanted to fly like the birds. To fly in your own plane, that you built, takes courage. I learned to love flying, though I have never built a plane.
I got my Private Pilot license, then my Commercial Pilot License. (The latter meant that I could charge to take someone flying.) And then I got the really tough license: an Instrument Rating. This meant that I could fly in the clouds and during times of limited visibility.
One of my early instructors told me that he had started flying in 1932. He worked for Pratt & Whitney, and taught me above and beyond what was necessary to pass flight exams and to stay safe. When he taught me he had 14,000 hours logged in small planes. He had his own somewhat rare two-seat low-wing metal plane, and sometimes when we’d go up, he would cut the engine and we would glide in circles gently down to Brainard Airport next to the Hartford and the Connecticut River. Practicing engine-out landing approaches is a real confidence-builder.
The last entry in my logbook was made in 1977. Perhaps just one more time, I will book a Cessna 172 (Brainard has low-wing Pipers that are too difficult for me to get into.) I’d like to take a nice Fall Foliage ride in late September. People should see a New England Fall from about 2,000 feet AGL, on a sunny day. A good pilot will take you. And a good pilot always has a place to land picked out when they are flying — just in case the engine quits. My old instructor–who is gone now–started flying in 1932 in an open cockpit, in San Diego. He recounted to me about how once his engine quit and he made a forced-landing at a dump. He said it was fun! What a man.
He worked for Pratt & Whitney and wanted to join the Military to fly during World War II, but Pratt said they needed him. America needed everything that Connecticut built and made: Planes, Engines, and even Silk for parachutes. Without Connecticut, I have read that America might have lost the war. Oh, and we also make a lot of firearms, and even the large sharp knives that our men carried in the jungles when they were fighting the Japanese. One of our Presidents in the late 1800s called Connecticut The Arsenal of America.
My advice to the younger people reading this is to do something a little out of your comfort zone, if you really want to. Investigate, think, check things out, and go live life. I have had more adventures than I ever thought I would, just because I colored outside of the lines. I was not a conventional American woman.
P.S,: I am determined to go to Brainard Airport this Fall, and have one of their instructors take me up in a Cessna that has a high wing. The Pipers are low-wing which is tough for a old-imer like me to get into and out of. And, of course, the low wing obstructs the view downward. I will ask the Instructor if I can sit in the left pilot’s seat and I will have my logbook with me. It has been almost 50 years since I was last in the left seat of a small plane. How time flies — no pun intended.
So get out there and do something gun that you never thought you would. Live life! As long as you are not hurting someone, and you can pay for your adventure, do it. You only go around once. Sometimes I feel like I have gone around several times, as I have had more adventures.
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