Old Fools Journal: Flying

When I joined the Navy it wasn't to run away from anything it was just to get on with the adventure of life. I was 19 years old and had a good job making a mans wage. I had a late model automobile, spent a lot of time whoring around in Juarez, Mex, could travel anywhere I wanted and dated one of the prettiest girls in El Paso, Texas. I lived on my own and got along well with my parents but it was time to go adventuring and I, as a hillbilly from Arkansas, chose the Navy. In my innocence I thought there was a chance that I would be trained as a pilot.

How naive. I was told of the grand and glorious possibilities I would have in the Navy but probabilities were not mentioned. Almost immediately I was weeded out. I had no high school diploma, a crown on one tooth, wore glasses and the classic disqualification, I was too short. OK, so I'm inferior but I'll have fun anyway.

After four years of sea duty in the U. S. Navy which pretty much cemented my love for the Pacific Ocean I retired happily and without any bitterness. I actually enjoyed my time there and did OK but it appeared to me to be a dead end job. I spent my last year there preparing to go to school.

While I was in engineering school (Northrop Institute of Technology) I was conspired against by friends and introduced to flying light airplanes. Less than than two months later I soloed in the very airplane in the picture at the top of the page. It's a Cessna 140 constructed in 1946 of aluminum but with a fabric wing, N number 77268. I soloed that airplane at Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal Airport. I started lessons May 9, 1963 and soloed June 29, 1963. I passed the flight check for private pilot September 25, 1963. It was an exciting 139 days.

When I passed the private test I started on the Commercial license within days. I had already determined that I could pass the second class medical exam and I was going all out to become a commercial pilot. I had quit school and decided that I was going to make a living flying airplanes no matter what it took or in what capacity I might work. I would have sold my soul to the devil but the devil knew I was a non believer and would have no part of it.

So I had decided to go to Meridian, Mississippi for crop dusting school as soon as I had my commercial. While talking one day to Jean Rose who, with her husband Rex, owned Rose Aviation my plans came up and she told me that if I would get my instructors rating that she would hire me. What a dilemma. I really wanted to be a crop duster. I did what any good pilot would do after thinking such a weighty decision over. I flipped a coin and had another pilot call it in the air. I stayed and started on my instructors rating right away after receiving my commercial on February 24, 1964.

I passed the instructors test April 10, 1964 and Jean put me to work the next day. After that I was ruined for any gainful employment.

I flew airplanes in what ever capacity I could find over the years including flight instructor, charter, freight, telephone cable patrol, pipeline patrol and airline. Rumors of smuggling are unfounded. I flew last as pilot in command on November 27, 2007 on a pipeline patrol.I started with the airlines as Flight Engineer in one of these. A Boeing 720B which is a B707 with 15 feet chopped out of the middle. I never got over it. I really loved that airplane.

The Navy didn't think I had the Right Stuff. 1979. When I wear a watch I still wear the Seiko in the picture. If you have to travel on the airlines this is a good seat to have.

The next day I flunked my physical because of blood pressure issues. It was no different than it had been for the 5 years prior and I think the medical examiner thought I was too old to be doing such foolishness and flying airplanes. He was 75 or so, I was 67. For me I was just tired of fighting to retain my license so I said screw it and retired. I never looked back, never regretted the decision and am very satisfied with life. I guess I flew enough because I don't miss it. I have enough flying stories to tell to last the rest of my life without too many repeats.
Outside of the office at my last flying job.Inside the office.View from the office. Downtown Houma, La.

When all was said and done I mostly flew so I could go sailing.

Jean Rose, bless her heart, has gone on to wherever Amelia Earhart and those like her have gone. She was of that quality and she believed in me. In my arrogance I didn't appreciate it at the time.