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1 President: Vice President: Treasurer: Sam Suttle Joel Graber Jason Cantrell Newsletter Editor: Gerald McKibben / Secretary Below: Don t mess with me! No M am! She s wielding a gun. Actually that s a riveting gun Cathy Knepper is holding. Husband and Chapter member Tom (with her help I assume) built a beautiful RV-7A and Cathy wrote an article about an epic Western journey they recently completed. The intent was to include the article in this issue of the Fun Flyer, but to do that it would have to be broken down into several segments and continued from one issue to the next. So the decision was made to publish the entire article, along with lots of spectacular photos taken on the trip, as a separate document. You can find it by choosing the Newsletters tab on the home page of the Chapter website. It s at the same place as this newsletter. Also, Larry Wallace writes about a reluctant pilot s wife. Be sure to look at the picture on page 5. 1

2 Plans for the March fly-in at Warren Arter s place are on hold at the present time. Some want to attend the Open House air show at the Meridian Naval Air Station on the 26, so the March fly-in will be changed to accommodate that. Be watching for updates vie and the Chapter web site. We re fortunate to have articles from two of our members in this issue. Randy Gray tells of a trip out West last summer, beginning on page 3, and Larry Wallace of Tuscaloosa does a good job telling how he was able to realize his desire to fly. His piece begins on page seven. From the President: Greetings from Louisville. This is my first attempt to communicate to the club by the way of our newsletter. I want to let you know how much I appreciate each one of our members and the opportunity you have given me to be your president. We have a great organization and I hope you will feel free to let me know any time you have a question, comment, or concern. We have a great opportunity in may to meet the president of EAA and I hope you will invite as many pilots or people interested in becoming pilots and your family to the meeting. More will be forthcoming as to the arrangements and if you are interested in helping please give me or Carey Hardin a call. We are planning to meet at Warren Arter's strip in March (temporarily on hold; see above). If the strip is too wet we plan to meet at Macon and have doughnuts and coffee and move to Warren's to June. Please check out the web pages below about the Grassroots fly-in with EAA President Rod Hightower on may 21st. Again let me know how I can help to improve our club. DR. SAM SUTTLE suttlesa@aim.com 2

3 Petals for Patriots Ceremony Tupelo, April 9 wars. All are from North Mississippi. Photo at upper right shows the rose petal drop from a Tupelo Police Department helicopter. A good crowd attended the ceremonies. Three Cessna 195 s (One piloted by Chapter member Aubry Pearman) and a T-6 flew a Missing Man Formation to honor those who have lost their lives in battle. Lower right: Gold Star families have lost a family member in recent 3

4 Above: Scenes from fly-in at Warren Arter s place on March 19 4

5 Wings for the Poor Man Larry Wallace The Reluctant Wife of the Ultralight Pilot Here s the dilemma.you have always wanted to learn to fly, but you never had the time or been financially able to take the training. Now that you are retired, you have the time but don t think you have the money UNTIL, you find out about ultralights! Certification to fly an ultralight can be obtained for less than $1000. Let s see.i can sell one of my two boats for $1000 or my old four-wheeler that I never ride anyway or what about that motorcycle that sits idle in the garage?? Although $1000 isn t cheap, it is achievable! No problem here. OK, I reason with myself, Now that you know the training is affordable, all you have to do is convince the wife that the two of you could have wonderful exciting adventures together in the air. Here is where your problem starts! Because women are from Venus and men are from Mars, wonderful and exciting adventures conjures up completely different images for each. Wonderful and exciting adventures, in my wife s mind is a cruise up the inside passage of Alaska in a ship with all the luxuries of royalty and at least two formal tux and gown evenings. This may come as a surprise to many women, but these type of adventures cause NO adrenaline rushes for a man. In fact, I have been able to completely zone-out at these occasions (be sound asleep while standing with my eyes open)! On the other hand, things like motorcycle riding through the Appalachians or flying an ultralight aircraft give rise to countless hours of stories about sights and sounds of nature, machines, rugged, macho, bravado..real LIFE! Now, in fact, to most women, those same activities give rise to, Oh my Dear Lord, you are going to DIE! It is true that these sports are probably more dangerous than 5

6 formal evenings, cruise ships, or shopping, (although I have seen some SCARY sights at the Super Sales of clothing stores!) research shows that the incidence of serious injury/death are no more than any reasonable sport. TRY TO TELL THAT TO YOUR WIFE! When I first broached the subject with my lovely spouse (and she is lovely and I do love her), the conversation went like this: ME: Honey, I found this place in Tennessee that will give me ultralight flying lessons for almost nothing HER: Oh my Lord, you are going to kill yourself! ME: No Baby, you don t understand, ultralights are really very safe! HER: John Denver was KILLED in one of those deathtraps! ME: Well, darling, John s accident was pilot error I heard he was playing his guitar instead of flying, and I would never do that heck, I can t even play a guitar! HER: This isn t funny! Your life insurance will be cancelled as soon as they find out! Do you get the sense that she is generally opposed to the idea? I could see right away that this would not be an easy sell to her. I was amazed at how many pilot s wives responded in EXACTLY the same words when their husbands brought the subject up. I needed some scientific research to counter her arguments about safety, so I went to the experts (thank goodness for internet!). A study conducted in the 90 s compared the accident and death rates of general aviation (GA) and ultralights and revealed that the ultralight rates were nearly half that of GA! My wife LOVES to fly in airliners and she isn t opposed to flying in GA aircraft (go figure!) so, emboldened with this research and already 4 hours into my flight training.men can be SO dumb I had a second heart to heart talk with her. ME: Honey, I wanted you to see this information so you will know how safe ultralight flying is! HER: You are just going to do this whether I agree or not, aren t you?!! ME: No baby, if you really want me to give up this lifelong desire of my heart, I will for you! HER: OK, I want you to give it up! ME: OK, when you say give it up, do you mean to quit taking lessons or quit shopping for a plane? (Clarification is always good at crucial times like these!) Although her head did not do one of those 360 degree turns on her shoulders, her voice did shift into this spooky, unworldly tone HER: QUIT FLY- ING!!! I could see she was clearly NOT in her right mind and did not realize what she was saying, so I chose to interpret her response as QUIT FLYING, THIS YEAR and as there was clearly 2 more months left in the year, I could finish my training. Conversation around the house was pretty minimal for the next couple of weeks. When my friends asked how training was going in her presence, 6

7 I did the cross the throat gesture for them to drop the subject. My REAL friends enjoyed goading her about her next husband, how rich she will be with the insurance settlement, all of those things that keep the topic at a boiling point. Needless to say, I kept her away from THOSE friends! When asked if she had flown with me, yet, her answer was, I will NEVER fly in that thing! She had ME convinced! When it came time for me to solo, the strangest thing happened.my reluctant wife, in the sweetest, concerned, and loving tone said, I want to go with you to watch you solo. Wait a minute! What was she trying to pull? Was this some sort of reverse psychology to put guilt or pressure on me not to go? Did she have suspicions that I had a girl on the side and the whole flying thing was a ruse? Was she planning to sabotage the plane to keep me from flying? What was going on?! Actually, she had come to some kind of semi-peace and genuinely wanted to know more about this passion that her husband was so enamored. It was a cold, cold December morning when we left home headed for Jasper, Tennessee. We made the trip pulling my newly purchased, used Tukan Trike, a short, folding wing, hangglider ultralight craft. Excitement was in the air as I arrived and began to unload the plane. That excitement turned to absolute amazement when the trailer dropped off the hitch as I was pushing the Tukan back. I had put the pin in the hitch incorrectly and the trailer had somehow miraculously stayed on the car for 300 miles until that moment! On top of that, the trailer axle had broken somewhere along the trip and was dangling in two parts underneath! I decided at that point if the Lord did not want me to fly, He wouldn t have let the trike make it to the airport. I think my instructor, Mike Theeke, saw the miracle, too. It prompted him to remind me that pilot error is the biggest cause of aviation accidents! (Gee, thanks Mike!) The time for my solo flight had finally come. Mike and Mary (Oh, that s my wife) recorded the event as I taxied to the end of the runway, warmed the engine to the proper temperature, steadied my wing, and went through all the instructional comments that I had learned in the previous 10 hours of training. At the video camera, the commentary between Mike and Mary was both instructional and cautionary. Of course, I didn t hear it until I came back. As I pushed the throttle forward, the little plane sped briskly down the runway, leapt into the air, and carried me into the cold blue sky. I was flying now all I had to do was make a few rounds and land. In the meantime, Mike had somehow convinced 7

8 Mary to go up in his trainer. I guess she figured she couldn t live without me so she would join the kamikaze foolishness, too. She admitted later that she kept her eyes closed the whole time! I landed.they landed we all had flown in the mythical dangerous ultralight and survived! Slowly over the next few months, my lovely wife began to see the enjoyment I had in flying. After I acquired my Sport Pilot certification, each of my children, several of my church members and friends flew with me and reported to her what a great time they had! Then it happened.i had mentioned that I was planning to fly the next morning and she said, I think I will go with you. Talk about putting pressure on a pilot I knew that I had only one chance at making this good! The morning was a cool, calm, perfect, morning to fly. As I buckled her securely in the backseat, I spoke calmly and confidently (all pilots have this ability until the propeller stops turning) about safety and what to expect during the flight. As I taxied to the end of our grass field, I could sense that she was a wee bit nervous that was because her grip on my shoulders felt like a grappling hook on a log truck! I explained that I need my arms to function in order to fly the plane she loosened a little. My woman from Venus was about to take her first flight with her man from Mars. As the Tukan left the ground, something just didn t feel right and I reluctantly set it back down, explaining that I wanted to make one more thorough check. I thought to myself, I just blew it!...she will never want to try again! I asked her to stay on the trike while I re-checked everything. After feeling assured that there was no problem (except my own inexperience), we taxied to the field again. This time as the Tukan left the ground, I eased it gently up and over the landscape. WE were flying! She was still a little uneasy with the higher elevations but she began to develop a joy in flight. My reluctant pilot s wife was now a trike flyer. Just the other day, she had a hard day at work (no, she s not retired, yet). When she came in the door, she said, Is it too late to go fly? I quickly answered, It s never too late to go fly with you, my Dearest! As we flew in that last hour of sunlight, the calm, cool air just seem to make us feel at home in the sky. When we made the last turn toward the airfield, the sun was in one of those beautiful sunsets that can only be appreciated from 2000 feet. What a great evening to fly and what a great view to share with my First Love! 8

9 EAA Chapter Hickory Drive Starkville, MS