Flying Begins

The most significant part of my life, excluding family, was flying a single engine airplane, starting back in 1970

Flying single engine airplanes for over thirty years, has been the most exciting experience of my life, excluding, of course, my turbulent, passionate family. Of course, I got somewhat excited about 2 months ago when I hit a drive paced off at 294 yards, the longest drive, by far, of my life(so far, ha). I should mention my age. I will, in about two months turn into the big 80, which is hard for me to believe since I have been much younger in the past.

My early flying experience started in Southern California, with my home base at the Orange County Airport also called the John Wayne Airport. This reminds me at one of Newport Beach’s many restaurants, an impersonator was entertaining the audience and changed his routine into an impersonation of John Wayne. Everyone looked around, and there he was. John Wayne had entered, waved to everyone and proceeded into the restaurant. Exciting!

I owned a business during the 1970s and, instead of driving the crazy freeways, I would set up meetings at various airports in the LA basin. I have flown into almost every airport in the LA basin and the Valley. I was having a lot of fun running a business.

Some of my pilot friends used to hang out at a small airport every Sunday morning. It was the Meadowlark airport, a small private airport not far from the Orange County airport. So, I agreed to meet them there one Sunday morning. I checked it out on the charts and observed that it was a very short runway with a power line at the approach end of the runway. Very interesting.

I approached the runway with caution. I had to slip it in after passing the power lines, and landed nicely, but used the entire length of the runway. After a pleasant breakfast with my friends, I found myself taking off and knew I had to gain altitude rather quickly to avoid the apartments not too far from the end of the runway. What a crazy place for an airport. Meadowlark Airport has since been closed.

Occasionally, things would happen that would take some of the fun out of flying. One of these happened one afternoon after a game of racquetball at the Newport Beach Sporting House. I was a little tired, but, decided to fly to Palm Springs to get together with some pilot friends. It would only be a 30 minute flight.

I gained altitude out of the Orange County Airport, headed toward Corona, and proceeded thru the Banning Pass approaching runway 12 at the Palm Springs Airport. I slowed a little while I lowered the gear. The lights went on that indicated the gear was lowered properly. The only problem was the light for the left gear failed to go on. I flew by the tower and was informed that my left gear was not down.

WOW!! What a shock! I spent over an hour doing maneuvers like stalls, and sharp banks trying to get the gear to drop, while telling myself not to do something stupid. If I was going to have a serious conclusion, it was going to be while I attempted the landing, not in a spin.

During this time, I was in constant contact with experts on the ground giving me advice. Some of the advice was landing with the gear up, some with the gear that was down to leave it down. Some advised me to land on the ground adjacent to the runway.

I had, right from the start, decided how and where I would land if the gear failed to drop.

I decided to proceed with the landing since it would be dark soon, and I wanted the daylight. The tower shut down the airport to all other traffic, and gave the airport to me.

My tiredness, which I had felt as I had approached the airport had left me right away. I was extremely alert, and thinking of everything I had to do as I approached the runway. I lowered the flaps, raised the gear, turned the switch off, and even unlocked and pushed the door, after remembering a movie where the pilot crashed and couldn’t get the door open.

I kept the plane off the ground as long as I could without creating a stall, and prepared for a belly landing. The plane touched down, and really landed on the step on one side and the flap on the other. The plane stopped shortly, when I proved that this is really the way you can accomplish a short field landing. Raise the gear and you don’t need that much runway.

I exited the plane to the applause of a crowd. And, the next morning I read all about my experience in a Palm Springs newspaper.

During the entire episode, I experienced no fear. I was completely absorbed with doing everything I could to land safely.

I hope you enjoyed this first blog about flying. There will be more to come.