dweyant
Pre-takeoff checklist
About a year ago I was going through some of my grandfathers stuff (he passed away about 7 years ago) with my grandmother.
We found a wallet that had a bunch of old membership cards. Elks, Rotary, army ID, etc. It also had his pilots certificate.
My Grandfather had desperately wanted to fly in World War II. Unfortunately(?) for him he was on the young side and when he did get drafted he wound up as a side gunner in a B-17. He was your typical WWII veteran that almost never talked about his service, but a couple times when he was in the right mood he would start to tell a story, and I'd just shut up and listen.
After the war he started a family, and when my mother was young he finally was able to get his pilots license, and he bought a J-3 Cub. He only had the plane for a few years, having two young daughters, working full time as a furniture upholsterer and owning a restaurant didn't leave a lot of time to fly.
But until the day he died he talked about that airplane. After his wife, kids and grandkids I think he loved that plane and the times he spent flying it more than anything else.
He passed away about seven years ago, and while he had expressed an interest in wanting me to get my pilots license I never had.
I finally got to a point in my life a few years that I could afford to get my pilots license and own a plane. We (my wife and I) bought a Cardinal with some friends and proceeded to fly it all over the country.
My wife and I enjoyed the Cardinal so much we moved to an Aviation community, and built an RV-9A. I did first flight on it in April, and have just over 110 hours on it since then.
After finding my grandfathers pilot certificate I started to think, how cool would it be to fly in a J-3, or better yet own one.
I mentioned it to my Grandmother and she had one picture of his J-3. An old grainy black and white with him and my mother (at about five) standing in front of the plane). I was able to read the Tail number (except for the next to last digit) off of the picture.
I made the comment to her, wouldn't it be cool to find his airplane.
Well, fast forward about a year. After a lot of digging through log, FAA databases and the internet I finally found the correct tail number, (Of the ten it could have been, it was the tenth I researched).
After I had the tail number I was able to track the plane down. It was involved in a ground loop accident about 18 months ago. The damage wasn't huge, but the insurance company totaled the plane.
I was able to hunt down the gentleman that purchased the salvage, and after speaking with him, and telling him my story he agreed to sell the plane to me.
I still need to arrange getting the plane to me (it is about 1000 miles away), but I'm incredibly excited. I never dreamed that I would ever get to see his airplane (or that it still existed) much less have the change to restore it, fly and own the very airplane that was such a huge part of his life.
-Dan
We found a wallet that had a bunch of old membership cards. Elks, Rotary, army ID, etc. It also had his pilots certificate.
My Grandfather had desperately wanted to fly in World War II. Unfortunately(?) for him he was on the young side and when he did get drafted he wound up as a side gunner in a B-17. He was your typical WWII veteran that almost never talked about his service, but a couple times when he was in the right mood he would start to tell a story, and I'd just shut up and listen.
After the war he started a family, and when my mother was young he finally was able to get his pilots license, and he bought a J-3 Cub. He only had the plane for a few years, having two young daughters, working full time as a furniture upholsterer and owning a restaurant didn't leave a lot of time to fly.
But until the day he died he talked about that airplane. After his wife, kids and grandkids I think he loved that plane and the times he spent flying it more than anything else.
He passed away about seven years ago, and while he had expressed an interest in wanting me to get my pilots license I never had.
I finally got to a point in my life a few years that I could afford to get my pilots license and own a plane. We (my wife and I) bought a Cardinal with some friends and proceeded to fly it all over the country.
My wife and I enjoyed the Cardinal so much we moved to an Aviation community, and built an RV-9A. I did first flight on it in April, and have just over 110 hours on it since then.
After finding my grandfathers pilot certificate I started to think, how cool would it be to fly in a J-3, or better yet own one.
I mentioned it to my Grandmother and she had one picture of his J-3. An old grainy black and white with him and my mother (at about five) standing in front of the plane). I was able to read the Tail number (except for the next to last digit) off of the picture.
I made the comment to her, wouldn't it be cool to find his airplane.
Well, fast forward about a year. After a lot of digging through log, FAA databases and the internet I finally found the correct tail number, (Of the ten it could have been, it was the tenth I researched).
After I had the tail number I was able to track the plane down. It was involved in a ground loop accident about 18 months ago. The damage wasn't huge, but the insurance company totaled the plane.
I was able to hunt down the gentleman that purchased the salvage, and after speaking with him, and telling him my story he agreed to sell the plane to me.
I still need to arrange getting the plane to me (it is about 1000 miles away), but I'm incredibly excited. I never dreamed that I would ever get to see his airplane (or that it still existed) much less have the change to restore it, fly and own the very airplane that was such a huge part of his life.
-Dan
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