The greatest passenger, ever!
Eight years ago, after serious discussions over many months, Kathy and I decided it was time to order the tail kit for our RV-8. We knew it would be a large investment in time and money, but Kathy was very supportive of the venture and one evening I filled out Van's application, signed the check and put the envelope on the kitchen counter, ready to go out with the next day's mail.
The next morning I was tinkering in my shop when Kathy came in from the house with the envelope in her hand and a friend in tow. The girls were going out shopping and Kathy asked me if she should put the letter to Van's in the mail on their way out? I asked her if there were any second thoughts on her part and she replied by sealing the envelope with a kiss, leaving her red lip print on the back of the envelope. Turning to her girlfriend, she said "guess what... we're going to build and airplane! What do you think about that?" Her girlfriend got a strange look on her face and then told us that she was probably the wrong person to ask. She then proceeded to tell us in every detail how her father and brother were both killed in an Aerocoupe several years earlier. They went up for an early morning flight out of a small grass strip not to far from our home. They landed, topped off the tanks and launched again. The second takeoff with full fuel, hot and humid air, and up slope into tall trees was a recipe for disaster and Kathy's friend began to cry as she described how the plane hit the top of the trees and burned on impact.
Kathy and I were stunned by all of this and I forgot all about the envelope that Kathy was still holding in her hand. Before the girls got back from shopping, I left on a 3-day trip. ( I was a slave for a major airline back then.) When I returned from the trip I didn't see the envelope on the kitchen counter and I asked Kathy where she put it. "I mailed it", she said!
When I asked her how she could go forward with building an airplane after listening to her girlfriends account of her father and brother's deaths, she asked me two questions: "Those people died because they did several stupid things, didn't they?"
"Yes", I replied.
"Are we going to do anything stupid with our airplane?"
"Nope", I replied.
"I know we won't", she said,"so I mailed the envelope!"
Kathy and I have been all over the United States in "Miss Izzy" Right now we are in Scottsdale, Arizona. Arrived here yesterday with six other RV's full of good friends. Going to visit Sedona today and will see Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon and Lakes Powell and Mead before the week is done and we head home to North Carolina. Kathy has no desire to learn to fly, never even took the stick to get the "feel" of it, but she is the greatest passenger and partner a pilot could ask for. We have about 450 hours on the RV and we're just getting started!
__________________
Ron Schreck
IAC National Judge
RV-8, "Miss Izzy", 2250 Hours - Sold
VAF 2021 Donor
|
Linear Mode
