I love to fly airplanes. I don’t get to do it enough. When I was young, my Dad and my uncle told stories of flying in the air force. They came from a family of flyers. Their older brother was a B-17 pilot in WWII and even their older sister was a WAC (Women’s Air Corps) in WWII. They were twin brothers and both were “radio operators” on cargo planes in the Korean War. I always thought that was funny, because they couldn’t find their way around the block without getting lost.
About 25 years ago, My uncle Rea Redifer wrote and illustrated a book called “Once Upon a Canvas Sky” about fighter pilots in WWI. It was a rather well received book at the time. My Dad collaborated on the writing of the book, but my uncle Rea was a great artist, and the watercolor pictures of the old airplanes were stunning. I was fortunate to be able to purchase a couple of his final airplane watercolors before he died in the Spring of 2008.
Anyway, they got me started on airplanes.
When I went to work as an engineer at Allison gas turbine in Indianapolis in 1980. I grew to love airplanes even more. I spent a few weeks working on the company test helicopter, and even got a taste of flying it a bit.
I’ve worked around airplanes ever since, but it would be many years before I began to fly them. First money kept me away, and then life with kids, and not having time.
I mostly fly simple Cessna 172’s or occasionally 182’s.
I learned to fly at the local airport near my home KMQJ or Mount Comfort Airport outside of Indianapolis.
The local FBO is Indy Aero:
One of the fun things I’ve done in an airplane is flying around Maui when we visited Hawaii in 2006. I rented this old Cessna 172, and flew all around Maui and over to Molokai. This shot is from the airport at Kaulapapa on Molokai.
My good friend Rick is building his own airplane in Michigan. I’ve been over a couple of times to see the progress he’s made, although now that he’s working full-time, the progress seems to be very slow going.
http://www.n727rt.com/index.htm
On Sunday, August 24, 2008 Drew and I went to the Indianapolis Mount Comfort airport to see the 2008 Indy Air Show. What a treat, they had the F-22 Raptor for the opening and closing act. It was fantastic, and they really did put on a show. I only had my little Canon Powershot A540 with me, but I shot some video of the Raptor.
In the high speed runs he gets over 600 knots. You can see the plane generate numerous instant clouds during the video - enjoy: