Fast n' Furious
Line Up and Wait
Despite the winds on the surface, yesterday was a pretty nice day to fly in the Oklahoma City area. Visibility was terrific and while the ride below 2000 AGL was a bit rough, the ride above was smooth as glass. I think at the time I flew my second sortie of the day (2PM/3PM) winds reported at Will Rogers were 200 at 18 with gusts. Like most airports in the area, my home airport C.E. Page (F29) has North/South runways so there wasn't much of a crosswind just plenty of headwind.
After I put the Mooney up for the day, I noticed that across the way our local gyrocopter pilot, Kelly Teague, was getting ready to go fly. He had the machine out of the hanger and was preflighting it. As I drove by him I waved and he waved back. At least it's warm out I thought as temps were right around 60 degrees.
Kelly was one of the first people I met after buying a hanger here and moving out to the plains. I joked with him everytime I saw him about his gyrocopter although it wouldn't have taken much of a push to learn to fly the thing. Well, that's not going to happen:
http://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?S=6106401&nav=menu410_3
I didn't see the wreck nor did I see Kelly taxi out toward the runway. I did see a really good guy looking very happy about getting ready to do something he obviously loved. Just for the fun of it.
Yesterday, was a funny day for me. Six years earlier to the day, I was standing on a pit box at the Daytona 500 watching another really good guy, Dale Earnhardt, lose his life on the last lap of the first race of the year. I knew Mr. Earnhardt a little bit and while the money, the fame and the notoriety of being Dale Earnhardt was powerful, he really enjoyed what he was doing. It bothered me though that folks quickly put the old "he died doing something he loved" sticker on it. It's probably inevitable that some well intentioned soul will paint Kelly's sudden death with that brush too. I can't say that the sentiment is wrong and maybe it's our human need to make sense of everything but personally, I'd just rather go to sleep and not wake up when it's my time.
So, where are we? It's another beautiful day in Oklahoma and winds are from the South again. I might go to the airport today and pay my respects but I also might just stay home and call my family and friends just to say hi and thank them for being important and in my life. Carpe Diem and tailwinds Kelly Teague.
After I put the Mooney up for the day, I noticed that across the way our local gyrocopter pilot, Kelly Teague, was getting ready to go fly. He had the machine out of the hanger and was preflighting it. As I drove by him I waved and he waved back. At least it's warm out I thought as temps were right around 60 degrees.
Kelly was one of the first people I met after buying a hanger here and moving out to the plains. I joked with him everytime I saw him about his gyrocopter although it wouldn't have taken much of a push to learn to fly the thing. Well, that's not going to happen:
http://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?S=6106401&nav=menu410_3
I didn't see the wreck nor did I see Kelly taxi out toward the runway. I did see a really good guy looking very happy about getting ready to do something he obviously loved. Just for the fun of it.
Yesterday, was a funny day for me. Six years earlier to the day, I was standing on a pit box at the Daytona 500 watching another really good guy, Dale Earnhardt, lose his life on the last lap of the first race of the year. I knew Mr. Earnhardt a little bit and while the money, the fame and the notoriety of being Dale Earnhardt was powerful, he really enjoyed what he was doing. It bothered me though that folks quickly put the old "he died doing something he loved" sticker on it. It's probably inevitable that some well intentioned soul will paint Kelly's sudden death with that brush too. I can't say that the sentiment is wrong and maybe it's our human need to make sense of everything but personally, I'd just rather go to sleep and not wake up when it's my time.
So, where are we? It's another beautiful day in Oklahoma and winds are from the South again. I might go to the airport today and pay my respects but I also might just stay home and call my family and friends just to say hi and thank them for being important and in my life. Carpe Diem and tailwinds Kelly Teague.
