The history of our interest in aviation begins with Dad. In his twenties,
Dad soloed his first airplane, a Lucsombe 8-A, in 1960 in 9.33 hours as
evidenced by the logbook entry above. At the old gravel-strip airport in Livermore, California.
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Dad with the Luscombe 8-A. The plane belonged to "The Flying Particles" flying club at the Livermore Lab. The cost was $3.50/hour wet, and instructor fees in those days were $5.00/hr. But, a physicist's salary at that time was about $500/month.
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Dad with Piper Tri-Pacer.
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Model-aircraft building was also very much Dad's forte. To the left is
a Stuka built from a Cleveland kit from the 1940's and a Zero built from
scratch. To the right are two views of his second Stuka, this one built
completely from scratch. This aircraft took 8 years to complete! It is
1/8th scale.
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My first attempts at model aircraft building led to VERY different results
(built at approximately the age of 4.) I recall the tail piece caught
my eye. It was just begging to be a plane!
This little beauty was taken up to the Flagstaff house for a celebratory
dinner after getting my private license, for the sole purpose of being
the symbolic centerpiece. Why settle for views of the mountains and all
of Boulder when you could instead look at things like this!!?! (By the
way, if you have to ask, one's the wing, and one's the prop.) By the way,
making round shapes with balsa, i.e. wheels, was just about impossible!
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I soloed in January of 1999 and got my license that same year.
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"A mile high!" Literally and figuratively true.
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To much dismay, however, I learned the plane in which I soloed was no
longer in service as of March of '02. With a little perseverance and several
phone calls, a few little pieces of this old friend were legally rescued
before being scrapped. Yes, these ARE the tail numbers of the plane you
see pictured at the left.
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And on 12/28/2002 - I got my instrument rating!
Thank-you Shara and David. You guys are the best!
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Celebrating at the Flagstaff House with sister, Lesley.
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Connie in a simulator-- I've come a long way!
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