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Pete's RV-8 Web Site
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Date: 5-1-2007
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Number of Hours: 0.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: A bit of flying biography - Page 1
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A BIT OF FLYING BIOGRAPHY
Page 1
I have been an aviator for many years flying various general aviation airplanes but my interest in flying was kindled as a youngster growing up in the 1950s. First, by a ride my father arranged in a Piper Tri-Pacer at a little airport near Parkersburg, West Virginia.
A couple years later, living near Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio, my father took me to what is now the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. And still later, my best friend’s father gave me a ride in an Aeronca Chief from a little grass strip in Phillipsburg, Ohio. I can still remember the smell of the avgas and the fresh mown grass on the field.
Growing up in the 1950s near Wright Patterson AFB and Dayton, the Birthplace of Aviation, was a treat. In those days, Wright Patterson was a hotbed of test and development and home to a B-52 unit of the Strategic Air Command. It was the Cold War, and you could look into the sky about anytime and see an airplane. Aircraft of all types operated in and out of the airbase including the bombers and their tankers, fighters, trainers and transports. It was a period of transition so you could see the propeller driven birds and the early jets. It was also a time when breaking the sound barrier over populated areas was not yet forbidden. For a kid, there was nothing like the sound of a century series fighter streaking overhead and then the window rattling boom.
By the early 1960s I was living near Dayton International Airport, another great place for a kid crazy about airplanes. There was an aircraft viewing area just outside the fence at the approach end of runway 24. I spent hours watching the airliners arrive and depart and mixing with the general aviation aircraft operating from the local FBO. It was the end of the piston era, so on any given day I could see TWA Super Constellations, DC-3s operated by Great Lakes Airlines, and United DC-6s.
Cont'd
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First Ride '55
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Second Ride '61
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Super Connie '63
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