Comments on: Checking in on an old friend http://blog.aopa.org/blog/?p=297 Online perspective from the editors of "AOPA Pilot". Wed, 22 May 2013 00:22:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Jon Mather http://blog.aopa.org/blog/?p=297&cpage=1#comment-74894 Jon Mather Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:51:17 +0000 http://blog.aopa.org/blog/?p=297#comment-74894 Pretty awesome stuff, I love it hah

]]> By: Dodge http://blog.aopa.org/blog/?p=297&cpage=1#comment-855 Dodge Fri, 30 May 2008 15:29:51 +0000 http://blog.aopa.org/blog/?p=297#comment-855 My favorite airplane may be somewhat a surprise to many, but it was a light-pastel-green Cessna 150 that my wife and I had from 1977 through 1983. We both had our certificates, and we always flew together – if I went flying, she came along, and if she went flying, I came along. We flew almost exclusively just for the sheer joy and fun of flying, but we did fly from Jackson, MS to Memphis, TN about four or five times a year to visit my wife’s brother, and we only had one emergency situation in that aircraft the entire time (gunk got into the fuel line and the engine quit, but we made a dead stick landing at the nearest airport – luckily, it happened to be just about right under us – with no damage to the plane, and no damage to us, unless you count the bruises I got because of my wife gripping my right thigh with her left hand – she left a single vivid purple-black bruise for each finger and thumb, and I still don’t understand why her hand didn’t cramp and why I didn’t feel her holding on to me. It was my turn to take the left seat, but she would have handled the situation at least as well as I did had she been PIC for that flight). But, the maintenance crew where we were forced to land got the gunk out of the fuel line, and we were flying again three days after the incident. That C150 was the only model with that color that I have ever seen, and, in fact, it’s still in service – we sold it, intending to “trade up,” but we never got the chance, as my wife was killed before we could find a new plane (her death was non-aviation related). We both dearly loved that plane, and even though a C150 isn’t known for speed, it’s a very fun, very responsive little aircraft, and the only complaint I ever had was that the top of my head always touched the ceiling – I’m a bit over 6’6″ tall. We loved that plane, and I will never forget all the fun we had flying it. We could have easily afforded a much larger and faster aircraft when we acquired our little C150, but we thought it was the most fun to fly of all the others we “test flew”, and the only reason we were going to trade up to a bigger aircraft was because a C150 has just two seats, and we were about to have an addition to the family (my wife was pregnant when she was killed). Nevertheless, every time I go up by myself, she’s there in the right seat with me – I can see her even if no one else can…

As an aside, my wife had a “little-girl voice”, and, about once a week, someone who was not a local pilot would radio us demanding that our young child not be allowed to handle the radio communications!

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