Flying
This article is going to be on my learning to fly and some of my experiences.
This all started when our son Wayne announced that he had signed up for flying lessons. We were excited for him (I think). His started off with quite an experience. When he had less than three hours, the instructor decided to show him how to do a simulated forced landing. Somehow he let the plane get away with him and the simulated turned into the real thing and they crashed. Fortunately, they were not hurt. They got a ride to town, and Wayne went on to work. He did go ahead with his flying though, but with another instructor. That one was no longer there.
Wayne went on to get his license in 1972. We all enjoyed flying with him and purchased our first plane, joint owners with the boys. Later we built a runway and hanger. It was so nice to be able to fly from the house instead of driving to the airport.
I really did like to fly and would have loved to know how myself, but the very thought of it scared me to death. The thing that made me get serious about it was one day Wayne and I were flying and he ask “What would you do if I had a heart attack?” Now that was a sobering thought. I decided I would take lessons just long enough to learn to land it. This was in 1975, and Mike had started his by now. Leland was fine with my learning, and he did take some lessons himself and learned to fly, but it was hard for him to be able to fly as often as he should since he was gone so much. I started mine then soon after Mike had. I know he and Wayne had some experiences that would be real interesting, but since I’m sure I never heard about all of them, I better just stick to mine.
I started my lessons in Bonham with Weldon, my instructor. He assured me from the beginning that he could teach me to fly. ( He had his work cut out for him.) It was good if you could practice at least once a week. We usually could, and in the meantime since Wayne had his license, we would go up a lot and he would help me too. By the time I had in a few hours, I decided I may just go ahead and finish instead of quitting when I learned to land it. Mike had already done his solo and was doing great. Then came time for mine. Weldon felt sure I was ready. I wished that I felt that confident. Of course, this event was arranged at a time when Leland would be home, and I do remember that Sharon and David were there. I believe the boys were at work. The solo consisted of flying the pattern around the airport doing three touch and goes. All went well, and I lived through that, so I felt much better.
Weldon and I started doing some dual cross country flights, in preparation for my solo cross countries. I dreaded those. He set up my first one, and it did look easy enough. I was to fly from Bonham to Sulpher Springs then on to Paris and back to Bonham. I did fine on the first two legs but got lost on my way back to Bonham from Paris. He had told me if I was ever lost and saw a water tower to drop and read it. Well, I finally saw a water tower and circled it and saw that I was at Anna. This was just a few miles from home, and I did know how to get back to Bonham.
Weldon and I flew some more duals before he sent me out again. This time It didn’t look too bad either just straight up to Atoka, Oklahoma over to Hugo and back to Bonham. I liked to have never found Atoka but finally saw a water tower and took a look, and it was Atoka so I flew on to Hugo…no problem…from Hugo was a different story. I still don’t know what happened, but Bonham just wasn’t where it was suppose to be. I flew and flew - I was really off course. It was hot and bumpy, and I was tired. Finally I saw the Savoy lake. I knew exactly where Bonham was in relation to the lake. I thought it was about time I called Billy to let him know where I was. I told him I had been lost but saw the Savoy lake and would be right on in. He questioned me about a few references to make sure I was seeing the right lake. I can’t imagine why I snapped at that nice man, but I did. I told him I knew exactly where I was. You could hardly blame him for wanting to make sure - there was this woman out there flying his plane who had a tendency to get lost. I flew on in, and when I got out of the plane I vowed I would never ever get in a plane by myself again. I was so tired and besides, I had to go in and apologize to Billy. When I went in, there was another man in there that I had never met. He was a professor at the college and a pilot himself. After I made things right with Billy, I told them that I just wouldn’t get my license. I got lost too much. They were both real nice, and this other gentleman told me that everyone got lost at one time or another. When I was feeling better, he called me "Wrong Way Esther." This caught on in a hurry, and I was kidded a lot about that. All good natured.
Weld on and I flew some more to prepare me for my last solo cross country. Again, the poor man thought I was ready. This one was longer,100 miles between airports. I was to fly to Duncan, Oklahoma, on to McAlester, Oklahoma and then back to Bonham. I got to Duncan just fine - it was between there and McAlester that things became normal. I was lost. Finally, I saw the much sought after water tower. Dipped down and it said “Colgate.” I knew I was still in Oklahoma. Close to the tower was a small runway. It was no longer used, but I used it. I landed, got out my sectional and plotted my course on to McAlester. I flew in there, and I knew for certain that I would not get lost again because I was familiar with the highway that went from McAlester to Sherman. I took off and flew IFR (I Follow Roads), followed that highway all the way into Sherman, turned left and right to the Bonham airport. This was the last solo cross country. It was a toss up who was more relieved, Weldon or me.
Weldon told me once that I flew fine, just that navigation was my weakest point. I had already figured tha t out! In between the solos, we flew a lot. I couldn’t believe there was so much to learn.
Even though flying was fun, it was stressful at times, and I guess one day he decided we would just do something different. We were flying along, and he said “Want to do a loop?” I told him “Yes.” Next thing I knew he reached up and pulled his cap down tight on his head, put the nose of the plane down, and was flying at the speed of light, I thought. Next he was pulling the nose straight up and up, and then we were flying upside down. Next thing I knew, we broke over and were flying straight and level again. He looked over at me and said “Never do that unless you have enough altitude.” Yeah right, like I would ever do that.
Well, of course we had to practice stalls. That was one thing I knew everyone should know how to recover from. So we practiced stalls. Those were not very scary, but I didn’t really enjoy doing them. We did so many I finally decided he just liked to do them. It occurred to me at some point that it must be a man thing because almost each time I ever flew with the boys they would ask “Want to do a stall?”
Another thing Weldon said I must learn was how to recover from a spin. I wasn’t anxious to do this, but I did know people could get in to that situation so here we go. This made the loop almost look like child’s play. He put the nose down, and we spun around and around so many times. He certainly had enough altitude to recover, but it was just plain horrifying. He kept doing those over and over. I think he just enjoyed them.
He also told me that I needed to learn to fly in the wind. I told him that was not necessary because I just wouldn’t fly when it was windy, and he said that I would get caught in it sometime and needed to know what to do. He was the boss, so we flew in the wind.
We practiced all these things, and it finally came time for my check ride. Mike had already had his and passed it just fine. I did this when Leland was home. He stayed at Bonham while I flew up to Grayson County airport at Sherman for my test. Believe it or not I didn’t get lost. I actually passed that test and even flew back to Bonham on course.
We have flown a lot local and made some trips. One I shall never forget was mine and Leland’s trip to Big Spring, TX to visit his sister and her family. We left Bonham on a cold calm November morning, and the trip was so nice. Smooth as could be right on into the Big Spring< /st1:City> airport. We spent the night, and the next morning as we were about to leave, there was a brisk breeze - nothing out of the ordinary. As we flew on into the morning, it started getting bumpy and very windy. ,The wind was out of the west which gave us a real tailwind. This was ok except I knew we were going to have a terrible cross wind when we got to Bonham if things didn’t change. They didn’t. As we approached the airport, I had a reallly difficult time setting up the pattern. Finally I got it at about the correct altitude for downwind and turned to fly that, then base and at last we were on final. It was very hard to keep it lined up with the runway. As we touched down, we did bounce some, but at least we were down safely. First of all we said thank you to God and then to Weldon for insisting on my flying in the wind.
We met a lot of people in Bonham who flew. There was another woman there who already had her license too and we found out about this group of ladies called the WILDFLOWERS, (Commonly called WILDFLYERS - some man came up with this, I’m sure.) This was an organization for women pilots. We flew to Paris (TX, that is.) Joined that and had a lot of fun. One of the things we did was fly to different airports and paint the numbers on the end of runways. Well, sometime painting can be fun.
There was one lady in our group who had a rich father-in-law and he must have really liked her because he gave her an airplane for her birthday. It wasn’t just any plane, it carried six people. Someone made arrangements for some of us to fly to DFW and go through the control tower. She lived in Oklahoma and picked us up at different airports on the way down. I was the last one and met them in Sherman. We flew on into DFW; it was my first time to ever fly in there in a small plane. Well, small compared to the airliners coming in. She handled it beautifully, and when we landed we were escorted up to the control tower. This was really an experience for all of us. Those people do an outstanding job. From there we flew on over to Mecham field and had lunch before coming back home. We made other trips together, and it was a neat organization to belong to.
We all did a lot of flying - friends would come down and Wayne or Mike would take them up. It really took me quite awhile before I learned to take off and land from our strip. It is 2000 ft. long and has trees at each end. I just wouldn’t try it. Much more comfortable at an airport that had longer runways. There were times though that I would take someone up from there. Once I flew my daughter-in-law to East TX to visit her dad on his birthday. Must say I felt good that Wayne trusted me with his wife.
We sold the plane about four years ago and I do miss it at times. Wayne has expressed that he would like to get another one someday and perhaps he will. The hanger and runway aren’t going anywhere.
I love reading Luke 2:8-14. It tells us of the shepherds tending their flock that night when the Angel of the Lord appeared and the glory of the Lord shown all around and announced that the Savior had been born. What a sight this must have been!
God bless each of you and yours.
Esther |
