Interesting encounters

[el con]

I don't know if you guy's (gal's) do this :
I was driving back from Detroit area through a small town and saw an airport sign. About 2 mi. off the main drag was a nice grass airfield so I stopped to take a look. In the office an older gentleman came to the door and asked if he could help me. I said I liked checking out airports to get ideas for the one I own in the U.P.
Well-- we talked and talked, he's 75 years old, A/P, I/P, CFI , etc. still flies. So I ask what do you fly? Well he learned in a Meyer's OTW, that plane is now in the EAA museum, told me he was ****ed off somebody cracked it up flying it over there. He worked at Meyers Aircraft when he was a kid. He takes me out to the hanger ,walk in , 182 no engine (he's working on it for a friend), J-3, real nice , storing it for a friend, THEN a big beautiful 1941 Waco, thats his , still flies it. Invite's me for a ride next summer. Then out in the back half is a Piper Super Cruiser he's rebuilding and putting on floats. Then the subject get's on floatplanes, flying and fishing in Canada.More stories .
He used to own a Widgeon S/N 25, first one built for the U.S. military, flew it within 300mi of the magnetic N.pole.Weather turned them back.
Really interesting story after story.
3 hrs of this and I need to start for home.
One of the funniest things was I told him I had only been flying for 3 years, and that I'm 58. He said "that's great you young guy's are getting into flying, we need the youth to keep aviation alive" I could only smile at that, what an interesting perspective.
As I was leaving the hanger he said "yeah, I hope I can finish this Super Cruiser before I croak"
A interersting evening with a very interesting aviator.
"I think I'll stop by again I said", he said "Hey ,next time bring your plane"
Anybody else have interesting encounters like this?

 

[ScottM]

Anybody else have interesting encounters like this?

I have a couple. I stopped at Fond du Lac when the CONUS challenge was going on and met a couple of old time ariport rats there. They aske what I was doing and told them about the challenge and we chatted quite a bit. They had aviation backgrounds and I cannot recall all the details but I remember having a good time.

I wish the Conus challenge would come back in some form, it was a great excuse to go out and find places I normally would not have flown to. I know you were just driving for this one, but I am just sayin'.

 

[OtisAir]

How cool! It's nice to meet folks like that and get "it" from their perspective. If ya'll are ever in the Delaware area, fly in to Massey Museum (MD1). Same sort of experience. small on field museum with great people around building and restoring stuff. DC3 out front and lots of fun things to look at.

 

[CJones]

Back when I was working ground-crew for the cropdusters, I had an interesting encounter at a po-dunk Iowa airport.

I had just finished filling the plane and it was taxiing out to the runway when an old crotchety man piled out of the truck he had been sitting in watching me work. He meandered across the ramp - it was only big enough to hold 4-5 planes, but it took him a while to make the trek. As he was walking across the ramp, I assumed he was yet another NIMBY person here to complain about the noisy planes and/or the use of pesticides in general. I mentally prepared for the worst.

He walked up to me and began asking questions about the plane itself - type, horsepower, speed, engine, etc. I tried to be cautious about how much info I revealed to the general public because it was easy to be misrepresented in local media if that was their goal. As he kept asking more questions, though, I could tell he was a bit more 'educated' an aviation stuff that the average joe-blow.

At the time, I was majoring in History in school. Somehow that came up in the conversation and he mentioned that there had been an article written about him in the local paper. Being polite, I inquired about his claim to fame. As it turns out, he flew P-47's in WWII. Holy cow!!!! It's relatively easy to hear stories about guys that flew P-51's, but for some reason, I had never personally heard any stories about P-47 pilots. I was generally interested and kept prodding for as much info as he would divulge.

As the conversation continued, he finally revealed that, despite being involved in several fire-fights, he had only knowingly shot down one plane, and that was an accident. He said as he lined his sights on a German plane and released a burst of ammo, less than 1 second after he sent the lead flying, another U.S. plane zipped through his line of fire. It just happened that the 'friendly' flew right through the burst of he had just released. The U.S. plane went into a nose-dive. He continued the story by saying that he followed the wounded plane down for a while until he saw a 'chute. IIRC, he said that the other pilot was eventually found safe and sound. At this point, I had a horrible feeling in my stomach because I felt so sorry for the man that was so proud to say that he had flown P-47's in WWII.

He kept repeating how it was a total accident and he assumed they had both been lining up on the same German plane, but didn't see each other at the time. I could tell that it still bothered him to this day. That helped put a true 'personal' face to the fighter pilots of WWII for me - a lowly college student working in the sun during the summer just standing around shooting the bull with a true-blue WWII fighter pilot.

Later that summer when we were working out of the same airport, I ran to town to get lunch for the pilots. When I got back, my co-worker said that some old guy had dropped something off for me and it was in the seat of the pickup. I went and looked and the former WWII pilot had dropped of a copy of his newspaper article for me to use as research for my History major.

As I write this I have to wonder if he's still knocking around the airport today...

 

[AdamZ]

Well I rarely drive back from Detroit to anywhere so nuthin exactly like that BUT I was flying back from Seattle in the back of a metal tube via Dallas ugh and The 70 + yo guy next to me whips a copy of AOPA Pilot magazine. He had a 185 on floats that he sold I told him I was sorry to hear that then he told me he sold it to his son. We spent the flight talking flying and the family camping trips he took in the 185 on floats.

I also like to talk to folks who I see with the AOPA sticker on their back window.

 

[CT Arrow]

Funny how birds of a feather flock together! No specfic stories but if there's an airport close by when traveling, I'll try to stop in. There's always some colorful character who's itching to tell a "keeper" story.

 

[JoeSelch]

Funny how birds of a feather flock together! No specfic stories but if there's an airport close by when traveling, I'll try to stop in. There's always some colorful character who's itching to tell a "keeper" story.

Yup. It's funny, but (since becoming a pilot) airports seem like clubhouses. I seem to feel welcome to stop in anytime, flying or not. (Of course, I may just be being presumptuous.) And, when I do, there's often a gem to be uncovered.

 

[wby0nder]

Great story about the p47 pilot Chris!

Once when I landed my glider at Harlin Iowa a couple old guys taxied in and hangered their 172 while I was trying to figure out how to get home. They offered me a ride to the interstate truck stop about 10 miles away where I'd have a more comfortable wait. From the back seat I commented that I thought it was pretty cool that guys in their 80s were still flying. They then told me about another local guy who was in his early to mid 90s (IIRC, no younger) and not only still flying but STILL BIDDING DOT PHOTO CONTRACTS! Wow, I thought, I could still be a working pilot 50 years from now!

 

[Steve]

Many years ago I was on Long Island on business and staying in Riverhead. I had an afternoon free so I took a tour of the Mattituck Engines overhaul facility. I'm chatting with the guy giving me the tour and he mentions if I like old planes I should go over to this big barn northwest of Riverhead and ask to look inside. So, with a couple of hours to kill I drive over and find this place, which has a windsock next to the barn, but it doesn't look like an airport. The place is a farm for raising vegetable seedlings that are sold to garden stores and co-ops. While I'm standing in the parking lot next to the barn a young man in a pickup pulls up and asks what do I need. I mention the comments at Mattituck about the barn and the fellow says "Oh, yeah, my dad has a few planes in there. Go ahead and take a look. Just be sure to turn out the light when you leave." So, I step inside and this is not a barn, but a large wooden hangar and among the planes stored inside are a Rearwin Cloudster, a Curtiss Robin, and a Brunner Winkle Bird, all in flying condition. These aren't planes you see everyday just sitting around at the airport. I never got a chance to speak to the owner in person, but I was amazed he son would let me, a complete stranger, have free access to these gems of aviation history. I did keep my hands in my pockets. I sent him a long thank you note once I got back home.

That is one experience I'll never forget.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Nothing I'd consider *quite* as cool as some of the stories I've seen here, but I must concur with Scott that I got most of my similar experiences while doing the ConUS challenge. It was a great excuse to go to random airports and talk with whoever had a hangar door open.

One of my neater conversations of this nature was last summer in McMinnville, OR. My friend Sheri and I had flown in to go to the Evergreen Air & Space Museum. One of the museum volunteers, sitting in front of the B-17, was telling some particularly interesting stories, and it turned out that he was a retired Lt. Col. and had been a B-17 captain in WWII. We spent something like 3 or 4 hours talking with him, and he showed us around inside the plane. It was really neat, and I didn't mind at all that we completely missed the "Space" side of the museum and the SR-71 it contains.