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Showing posts from April 14, 2013

You'll always be one of the boys.

Things I remember about working around an airport and teaching flying with a bunch of man-boys: 1. For one of my first glider lessons, my instructor, Don, described how a man should handle the stick in a plane.  "Hold it like a man would hold a woman - firmly but gently."  But he said to me, "Hold the stick like you would a man, firmly but gently."  I looked at him.  He was quiet, then laughed, and then cracked up. 2.  One very foggy day near Oakland Airport I saw a very cool biplane, a  WW II Stearman, coming in low.  I was in my '67 VW bug running an errand.  Gosh, I thought, I know that plane.  Sure enough, it was a good friend of several of the flyboys. Milo was his name.  He had a banner towing business, flying around sporting events while advertising all things...from beer to wedding proposals.  If it needed towing, he could create a dollar amount to charge for it. He didn't have much to do with me.  But I treated him with awe, just listening