Bryan Wood
Well Known Member
I just got back from the airport where I went to wash the RV for the weekend. There is just something about flying a dirty "Flag" that seems wrong, especially on the 4th of July weekend. At the wash rack there is a rock near the water spicket about 3 feet tall and equally wide. On this rock I placed my towels and a bottle of drinking water and proceeded to wash my airplane. After finishing this chore I took time to read a bronze plaque that is inlaid into the top of this rock and I thought I would share it with everybody. My home field is Reid Hillview in San Jose and this plaque was in honor of Ameilia Reid who was the daughter in law of the airports founder and the person who donated the land to the county originally.
Ameilia was a local icon and there are very few pilots in our area who didn't know her, or of her. She owned and ran her own flight school and taught up until the time of her death a few years ago. She flew airshows in a Cessna 150 aerobat and did a routine that she called the butterfly which was truly amazing to watch. She performed an extremely low and slow routine that was very precise and graceful to behold. She also flew a Pitts Special, but I never personally saw her perform in this plane. It was her mastery of slow flight and inverted manuevers just over the runway at what looked like speeds to slow to stay airborne that were so intriguing.
One day I witnessed her taking off with a student at the controls of a Luscumbe when the engine sucked a valve and gave up near the fence at the departure end of he field. They were not very high and she was able to make a turn back to the field and rolled out and stopped near the runup area. A pickup came out and hooked up to the back of the plane and towed it to the hanger as they got into another plane and took off again.
We had a family friend that bellied a Comanche 250 that she owned into the Pinnacles which is a rocky, un-level horrable place to have a forced landing. To the amazement of everybody she flew that airplane out of there.
Anyway, getting back to the plaque. Ameilia taught over 4000 people to fly, through completion and getting their license. (She was Sean Tuckers instructer, including aerobatics) Flying only GA aircraft she had over 55,000 flight hours
and was current and still flying and teaching at the time of her death. Simply amazing to me. When she was still alive I didn't realize the magnitude of her aviation career. I wonder how many pilots out there had this kind of experience without ever flying in the military or for the airlines.
Have a happy 4th everybody,
Ameilia was a local icon and there are very few pilots in our area who didn't know her, or of her. She owned and ran her own flight school and taught up until the time of her death a few years ago. She flew airshows in a Cessna 150 aerobat and did a routine that she called the butterfly which was truly amazing to watch. She performed an extremely low and slow routine that was very precise and graceful to behold. She also flew a Pitts Special, but I never personally saw her perform in this plane. It was her mastery of slow flight and inverted manuevers just over the runway at what looked like speeds to slow to stay airborne that were so intriguing.
One day I witnessed her taking off with a student at the controls of a Luscumbe when the engine sucked a valve and gave up near the fence at the departure end of he field. They were not very high and she was able to make a turn back to the field and rolled out and stopped near the runup area. A pickup came out and hooked up to the back of the plane and towed it to the hanger as they got into another plane and took off again.
We had a family friend that bellied a Comanche 250 that she owned into the Pinnacles which is a rocky, un-level horrable place to have a forced landing. To the amazement of everybody she flew that airplane out of there.
Anyway, getting back to the plaque. Ameilia taught over 4000 people to fly, through completion and getting their license. (She was Sean Tuckers instructer, including aerobatics) Flying only GA aircraft she had over 55,000 flight hours
and was current and still flying and teaching at the time of her death. Simply amazing to me. When she was still alive I didn't realize the magnitude of her aviation career. I wonder how many pilots out there had this kind of experience without ever flying in the military or for the airlines. Have a happy 4th everybody,
