EdFred
Taxi to Parking
I had been battling a wicked headache for about the previous five hours on Saturday. In that time I had been busy greeting pilots, talking with locals, and giving plane rides to people. One who tagged along on a fuel run that made so I could give others rides. Some so they could get some pictures of their camp, and of the town, and of a few local land marks. Some because the kids had never been in an airplane before. I was calling it a day for flying and had shut the engine down on the plane. The day was coming to an end and I was getting ready to head over to the Trails End Grill, grab some food, and knock back a few Crown and Cokes with some fellow pilots to finish off my long day. I walked from my plane, parked on the opposite side of the parking from 'tent city' where all the overnighters were when I was stopped by my dad asked how I was doing and then introduced me to someone.
Tom was a fairly unassuming individual, and we shook hands and said hello. He had heard the conversation between my dad and me about how I was beat and ready to call it a day, but had said he wanted to go for a plane ride. He had a camp in town right and pointed it out to me, right at the entrance to Prickett-Grooms. I was ready to tell him we could go up on Sunday or Monday but after a quick conversation I decided I could get in the plane one last time for the day. The Crown and Cokes would just have to wait.
The sun was low on the horizon and the wind had died down completely. I was just up, and knew the air was smooth - which is exactly what Tom needed on this ride. We got in the plane, and I opted to take off with the sun behind me. I had Tom latch the door, got leaned for maximum power and rolled us down the turf runway. I could see Tom was extremely nervous as he dipped his head forward, and shielded his eyes from the windscreen. I talked us through the take off, "Okay, airspeed alive, rotation speed..." and after we broke free from the ground and the rumbling of the turf on our tires stopped, I announced we were clear of all obstacles and he picked his head up and put his hands back down on his lap.
I made a nice slow turn to the left after climbing up a thousand feet, and got set up to land. Tom's only goal was to get up in the air and get back down again. He said how awesome this was, and how he really, really needed to do this even though all his friends thought he was absolutely crazy for doing so. I offered him the controls for a little bit, but he declined. A Cessna 182 was departing as I was setting up for a base leg so I elected to remain in the air for one more circle around the field. I decided I would change my landing just a little bit and thought it best to come in just a shade shallower than I normally do, and hold in a bit more power to make it as smooth as possible for him.
We entered a shallow turn to final and I set up to land by putting in my final notch of flaps. The Cherokee pitched slightly forward like it always does at that point, and my passenger again dipped his head forward and shielded his eyes. I became the automated annunciation system for the approach and announced our position to Tom as we proceeded down the approach path to touchdown. "Clear of trees, clear of utility pole, over the runway..." and pulled out the last 100 rpm of power. I held the nose off and bled off the last bit of airspeed as I used the float to make this as smooth as I could for him. Dad later said I put the plane down so smooth he didn't even hear the Cherokee's patented 'clunk, clunk' from the oleo struts resonating inside the wing when observing the landing from alongside the runway. Tom raised his head up after he heard the rumble of the grass under the wheels and pumped his fist saying "Yes! Yes!" as we finished our rollout to where I park my plane. I shut down the plane, and opened the latch on the door for Tom who just sat there for a minute and wiped his eyes and let out a deep breath and thanked me.
Pretty damn good for a guy whose last ride in small aircraft was with his best friend and was this one.
Tom was a fairly unassuming individual, and we shook hands and said hello. He had heard the conversation between my dad and me about how I was beat and ready to call it a day, but had said he wanted to go for a plane ride. He had a camp in town right and pointed it out to me, right at the entrance to Prickett-Grooms. I was ready to tell him we could go up on Sunday or Monday but after a quick conversation I decided I could get in the plane one last time for the day. The Crown and Cokes would just have to wait.
The sun was low on the horizon and the wind had died down completely. I was just up, and knew the air was smooth - which is exactly what Tom needed on this ride. We got in the plane, and I opted to take off with the sun behind me. I had Tom latch the door, got leaned for maximum power and rolled us down the turf runway. I could see Tom was extremely nervous as he dipped his head forward, and shielded his eyes from the windscreen. I talked us through the take off, "Okay, airspeed alive, rotation speed..." and after we broke free from the ground and the rumbling of the turf on our tires stopped, I announced we were clear of all obstacles and he picked his head up and put his hands back down on his lap.
I made a nice slow turn to the left after climbing up a thousand feet, and got set up to land. Tom's only goal was to get up in the air and get back down again. He said how awesome this was, and how he really, really needed to do this even though all his friends thought he was absolutely crazy for doing so. I offered him the controls for a little bit, but he declined. A Cessna 182 was departing as I was setting up for a base leg so I elected to remain in the air for one more circle around the field. I decided I would change my landing just a little bit and thought it best to come in just a shade shallower than I normally do, and hold in a bit more power to make it as smooth as possible for him.
We entered a shallow turn to final and I set up to land by putting in my final notch of flaps. The Cherokee pitched slightly forward like it always does at that point, and my passenger again dipped his head forward and shielded his eyes. I became the automated annunciation system for the approach and announced our position to Tom as we proceeded down the approach path to touchdown. "Clear of trees, clear of utility pole, over the runway..." and pulled out the last 100 rpm of power. I held the nose off and bled off the last bit of airspeed as I used the float to make this as smooth as I could for him. Dad later said I put the plane down so smooth he didn't even hear the Cherokee's patented 'clunk, clunk' from the oleo struts resonating inside the wing when observing the landing from alongside the runway. Tom raised his head up after he heard the rumble of the grass under the wheels and pumped his fist saying "Yes! Yes!" as we finished our rollout to where I park my plane. I shut down the plane, and opened the latch on the door for Tom who just sat there for a minute and wiped his eyes and let out a deep breath and thanked me.
Pretty damn good for a guy whose last ride in small aircraft was with his best friend and was this one.
