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TWENTY-YEAR FLIGHT
Twenty or more years ago… I became
acquainted with Mel Fritz. Finding that he was a pilot who had
not flown for many years, I invited him to go flying. He
usually said he didn’t have time. Every time I asked, I
received the same answer – too busy, not enough time, don’t feel
like it. This all started somewhere in the 1980’s.
Now, I don’t know if he was afraid of my
flying or the planes that I fly. Whatever the reason, he didn’t
want to fly with me. Of course, if you hear him tell the story
it is the other way around. After twenty-years of bickering
back and forth about going flying… it finally happened. The
photo in the upper right hand area of this page is proof that he
finally sat down in the same plane with me and flew. A friend
of ours, Bruno Hanke, took the picture as evidence. For
whatever reason, Mel never went flying with me until September
2005.
It is always fun to take a good friend
flying; this one was special because it took twenty years to get
him in the plane… thus the Twenty-Year Flight. Mel, let’s do it
again… soon… in about twenty years.
ON A SOAP
BOX
Our cartoonist, Rob Pudim, sent an
interpretation of Throttle Forward. It appears to be me on a
soap box with a limited audience. Perhaps, this is true… and
perhaps sometimes I am ‘preaching’ to the choir. I never know
until I get those nasty e-mails and I feel that I told someone
that their mother wears army boots. Of course, I don’t mind
getting e-mail. We will print those that voice a ‘clean’
opinion of the subject. To all the others, they end up in the
trash. We print e-mails that are derogative as well as
complementary. We only trash those that have no value at all.
As long as there is dialogue, there is hope
for improvement. One thing for sure, EVERYONE HAS AN OPINION.
In this country, it is still safe to express and print it.
STATE
PILOT ORGANIZATION
Pilots who support state pilot
organizations are helping continue the stability and growth of
general aviation. Almost every state has a pilot organization.
On our links page, you will find some of them. If your state is
not there, please advise us. Fly-Low supports and promotes
fly-ins of all state organizations. It helps to get an e-mail
giving us the date, time and location of the event. You can
send the information to
publisher@fly-low.com.
If you don’t belong to a state
organization, please consider that as an option for 2006. Your
continued support will give pilots a stronger voice. If you
missed the AIDZ story on page two, please go back and read it.
There is more to be concerned about. |
