Taylor Not Swift
Pre-Flight
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2025
- Messages
- 33
- Display Name
- That girl in the L-2.
I find that I spend most of my time in the formal education process just waiting around. So I surf the web. Reading about the tragedy in Louisville, and wondering why Louisville is KSDF, I read about Doctor Standiford. Then, as I fact checked as to whether, 46 years ago on AA 191, the pylon mounts or bolts fractured first (the pylon bracket cracked > which over stressed the bolt > which failed), I discovered Ravenswood Airport (192?-1962) where the doomed DC-10 struck an old hangar filled with Ercoupe parts.
The abandoned airfields website had some neat pictures and stories from Des Plaines, Waukegan and Northbrook. One pic was of a Stits Playboy. I looked up more about guys who learned to fly at those fields just before and after WW2. A recurring theme was working on the field to pay for flight lessons - whether by punch card, bartering 10.5 hours of work on the line for an hour of flight instruction, or being paid $1.25 an hour and paying $10 an hour for a Cub, instructor, and fuel.
With FBOs charging about $160 an hour for a C-150, instructor, and fuel. I got a deal.
The abandoned airfields website had some neat pictures and stories from Des Plaines, Waukegan and Northbrook. One pic was of a Stits Playboy. I looked up more about guys who learned to fly at those fields just before and after WW2. A recurring theme was working on the field to pay for flight lessons - whether by punch card, bartering 10.5 hours of work on the line for an hour of flight instruction, or being paid $1.25 an hour and paying $10 an hour for a Cub, instructor, and fuel.
With FBOs charging about $160 an hour for a C-150, instructor, and fuel. I got a deal.