chuck2shaw
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- Sep 15, 2006
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When my kids were growing up, our family flew all over the country for nearly every vacation. My son did a lot of the flying, and I started a logbook for him when he could barely see over the instrument panel. When they went off to college, and other things changed, the family flying pretty well stopped; I continued instructing.
This week, quite unexpectedly, my son asked if he could go to the fly-in at Winchester, VA, with me, and when I told him perhaps we could also go down to Front Royal and fly my Cub, that settled it. This is the annual EAA Chapter 186 two day fly-in, classic and show car cruise-in, and pancake breakfast, and my wife and I were signed up as volunteers for both days. My son and I left the house at 6:30am, with my wife deciding not to go that early.
We got to Winchester, signed in as helpers, and immediately saw that they were short several people at opening time, especially ramp parking people. I put on a ramp vest, grabbed a couple batons and a headset walky-talky, and hurried out to park our first customer, a nice Luscombe. My son volunteered to take over the job of driving the tractor pulling the wagon to take people down to where the pancake breakfast is held, and got checked out in large John Deere tractor driving. We soon had plenty of help, and as the weather cleared we had a great turnout. The green TravelAir was my favorite. My son drove tractor for two hours, and then photographed airplanes while I parked aircraft for a couple more hours.
At noon we drove the 20 miles down to Front Royal, got the Cub ready, and Craig held the brakes while I propped it. We followed the North Fork for a few miles, and then popped over the ridges to fly the twisting South Fork of the Shenandoah River. We leveled out in the valley, and I turned the flying over to my son. I forgot he had never flown with a control stick, but he immediately got it, and after a little refresher on use of rudder with aileron, he did remarkably well. He was amazed at how light the controls are compared to the Cessna 172 and 182 he had flown before. He flew us back to Winchester, where I made a really bad touch and go in front of two Cubs that were giving Young Eagle flights. Ill hear about that, Im sure. After we put the Cub away, he was all grins and excited about flying again, and about how great the Cub is. I had him pose for an old-time aviator photo, but he just couldnt put on that straight face you see in the old pictures.
Yes, it is all worth it.
Chuck Shaw
This week, quite unexpectedly, my son asked if he could go to the fly-in at Winchester, VA, with me, and when I told him perhaps we could also go down to Front Royal and fly my Cub, that settled it. This is the annual EAA Chapter 186 two day fly-in, classic and show car cruise-in, and pancake breakfast, and my wife and I were signed up as volunteers for both days. My son and I left the house at 6:30am, with my wife deciding not to go that early.
We got to Winchester, signed in as helpers, and immediately saw that they were short several people at opening time, especially ramp parking people. I put on a ramp vest, grabbed a couple batons and a headset walky-talky, and hurried out to park our first customer, a nice Luscombe. My son volunteered to take over the job of driving the tractor pulling the wagon to take people down to where the pancake breakfast is held, and got checked out in large John Deere tractor driving. We soon had plenty of help, and as the weather cleared we had a great turnout. The green TravelAir was my favorite. My son drove tractor for two hours, and then photographed airplanes while I parked aircraft for a couple more hours.
At noon we drove the 20 miles down to Front Royal, got the Cub ready, and Craig held the brakes while I propped it. We followed the North Fork for a few miles, and then popped over the ridges to fly the twisting South Fork of the Shenandoah River. We leveled out in the valley, and I turned the flying over to my son. I forgot he had never flown with a control stick, but he immediately got it, and after a little refresher on use of rudder with aileron, he did remarkably well. He was amazed at how light the controls are compared to the Cessna 172 and 182 he had flown before. He flew us back to Winchester, where I made a really bad touch and go in front of two Cubs that were giving Young Eagle flights. Ill hear about that, Im sure. After we put the Cub away, he was all grins and excited about flying again, and about how great the Cub is. I had him pose for an old-time aviator photo, but he just couldnt put on that straight face you see in the old pictures.
Yes, it is all worth it.
Chuck Shaw
