Dear Coupe Friends,
Several of you have expressed an interest in hearing about my experiences
and a few even asked me to post the message to the list. I hope that by
including a warning in the subject line, the folks who are not interested
can just delete.
PREFACE
My desire to someday own a coupe is stronger than ever. That's why I
joined list list and started talking to all of you fine folks. That's
also why I have photos of coupes plastered all over the place at work and
at home. I also have on display, in my kitchen, the beautiful postcard
coupe owner & retired commercial printer, George Frebert, sent me , along
with the generous gift of 2 Ercoupe cowl emblems from Warren.
Even though I may get somewhat attached to the Cessna 172 because that's
what I'll be learning on, and some would say, I don't know any better,<g>
my heart belongs to the coupe.
BRIEF HISTORY OF HOW I GOT TO THIS POINT
Many years ago, when I still lived in southern California, I had a
boyfriend who was a fan of WWII aircraft. He was always talking about
various planes, building models, collecting magazines & books on the
subject, etc. I accompanied him to some air museums and air shows. I
found myself developing an interest in old planes. I didn't keep the
boyfriend all that long but I will always be grateful to him for
introducing me to the wonderful world of aviation. Over the years, my
interest in WWII aircraft and the people that flew them has grown. I have
done quite a bit of reading on the subject.
In the ensuing years, I escaped the Los Angeles "basin" and moved to
beautiful northwestern California. This is a sparsely populated area so
there isn't much in the way of air shows or displays, but I never lost
interest.
When I returned to school, one of the courses I took was American
History: Post Civil War to present. We were assigned to write a term
paper on any historical subject that we were interested in, as long as it
fell within the proscribed time period. We were instructed that we should
explore our topic, not just rephrase our research sources. I chose to
explore the question of if or how the outcome of WWII would have been
affected if the Germans had beem further along with their development of
jet aircraft than they were.
My history teacher was so amazed that I would pick such a topic. I took
that class a number of years back, now, and still, every time I see that
history teacher, he brings up my paper. It was just a term paper, not a
thesis or a dissertation, but my choice of topic seemed to have an
unexpectedly strong effect on the teacher???
Early in the 90's, a local group of avid antique aircraft fans somehow
convinced the Collings Foundation to bring their flying museum to our
area. When I learned that a B-17 and a B-24 were coming to Eureka, I was
beside myself with glee. I had never seen these 2 great birds before,
even on display. And I would get to see them FLY, LAND, TAKE OFF, AND BE
ABLE TO HEAR THOSE HUGE ENGINES!!!! The day they were to arrive, we were
at the airport early. I sure wasn't disappointed. Before they landed,
they did a wonderful slow fly by. What a sight. I don't know which I
like better, the way they look or the way they sound. The planes were on
display at the airport for a coupe of days so I got to crawl around in
them. We were at the airport for the take off. What a thrill to hear
those big radials start, one at a time. What a magnificent sound. When
they took off, I so wanted to go with them. I watched them fly off up the
coast to the north. Wow. Those planes have a profound effect on me that
I still don't understand. It's a combination of overwhelming joy,
excitement, energy, longing, melancholy, with a hint of a long forgotten
memory.
The B-17 and B-24 have been coming back to one of our airports since they
first started coming here. Of course, I never miss the opportunity to go
see them and take photos. If only Gary and I can come up with $300 a
piece, we can ride in one. Sigh.
The Coast Guard has a cooperative agreement with my school whereby they
help HSU with various research projects by occassionally taking faculty
and grad students up in a helicopter. I was fortunate enough to go on one
of these flights. Not only had I not been in a helicopter before, I had
also not seen our verdant and lovely north coast from the air before. I
had such a fabulous day. Actually we were on an air photo mission but all
I had to do was write down the photo lat-longs and altitudes for the
photographer. Mostly I got to play tourist and enjoy the ride. We went
north along the coast from Eureka to Crescent City. We landed at Crescent
City for lunch and to get fuel. Then we went inland over the Trinity Alps
and up and down some of our rivers.
The pilot, who also happens to be the base commander, asked me how I felt
about the ride. The first word that came to my mind was "enchanted".
Yeah, I know that sounds cheesy, but that's just the way I felt. It
occured to me, while I was riding along in the beautiful red-orange
Dolphin helicopter, that I absolutely love being in the air. So I asked
myself, "If you love being in the air, why are you so rarely there? Maybe
it's about time to do something about it!" Even then, I wasn't thinking
in terms of learning to fly myself, but in terms of how to get rides. It
was only when I started researching coupes and stumbled upon you folks,
that the idea of learning to fly started germinating.
I know it must seem strange, that in all the years of my interest in
aircraft, it had never occurred to me that I could take flying lessons.
It seemed so out of the realm of possibility, with a likelihood akin to me
becoming an astronaut.
All that has changed, thanks to you fine folks. So now, finally, I'll
tell you about first flying lesson.
BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER "THE LESSON"
My lesson was Saturday at 1PM. Thursday night I started to get nervous
about it and that feeling built all day Friday. I didn't eat much of
anything all day Friday or Friday night. I was truly looking
forward to my lesson but at the same time I was getting scared. The self
doubts and questions started in my head. "Have you lost your mind? What
do you want to do this for? It's too frightening. You'll never be able
to get enough money to do this. You don't have the capacity to learn how
to do this." Oh shut up! Sometimes my mind is not my friend.
I was hoping for a good weather report. I was afraid that if I had to
pospone, I might change my mind. It is our rainy, windy time of year, so
clear days are rare. The Friday night 11PM local news gave a promising
weather report for Saturday.
I didn't sleep too well Friday night. I kept waking up and looking at the
clock. I got up early, took a shower and forced myself to eat some
oatmeal. I didn't feel like eating but my flight instructor and some of
you told me I should. Honestly I was worried that if I had anything in my
stomach, I might puke all over the plane and my teacher. I sure would
have been mortified but I know that it wouldn't be the first time anyone
ever did that!
I tried to do some chores around the house and some reading but I couldn't
think of anything else but my upcoming lesson. The airport is only 10
minutes from my house but we left an hour early. I couldn't stand to be
in the house any more. We drove over the bridge to the side of Humboldt
Bay opposite the airport. We parked by the water. I was able to calm
down somewhat by looking at the water, the birds, the sky, and by enjoying
the beautiful weather. We still arrived at the airport 1/2 hour early.
We walked over to the Redwoods Flying Club office, the establisment that
my instructor works out of. No one was around so we sat down on the bench
outside of the office and took advantage of the sunshine and the light
breeze. Soon a man drove up and asked us if he could help us. He is the
flying club's AP. What a nice guy. He was so friendly and helpful. I
liked him right away. Because I am so interested in learning all I can
about the mechanical aspects of small planes, I look forward to being able
to spend some time talking to this guy or even watch him work.
By this time it was almost 1PM and my instructor showed up. I introduced
him to Gary. He said Gary could come along and sit in the back seat if he
wanted to. I thought that was great. I sure didn't expect that. Gary
had planned to want for me in the car.
The 3 of us walked over to where the Cessna was and my teacher commenced
to show me all the things to check on the outside of the airplane
preflight. He has such a logical, clear, and thorough way of explaining
and demonstrating. Everthing he said and did made perfect sense, although
I sure don't remember it all.
Then it was time to actually get into the airplane. I started to head for
the right side of the plane and he said, Oh no. You sit in the left seat.
I've been a college student for some time now and the during the first
session of a new course, the teacher only talks about what we're going to
do during the semester but we don't actually do anything until the second
session. I guess I thought it would be the same with my intro flying
lesson. So we got into the plane. My instructor told me to relax. He
was going to give me an areodynamic lecture to reinforce what we had been
learning in ground school and also to give me a chance to mellow out a
bit. Gary was in the back seat and he got to get a little taste of ground
school gratis.
I'a going to use my istructor's first name from now on. It is less
cumbersome than using his title. His name is Andres.
After the lecture, Andres went over all the instruments with me. We have
been leaning about them in class, so I am happy to say that the instrument
panel wasn't totally unfamiliar.
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