Friday, January 30, 2009

ENTRY # EIGHTY SEVEN...

( This was too long for my regular blog. DAD.)

My friend Becky, who lives in Southern California has been asking me for a long time to tell how I ever decided to learn to fly a plane. There is not very much to tell, but I will see what I can remember about it.
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You can see by the picture below that Jim & Mary had already come to live with us. We lived near a small Airport that was on an island in the Tennessee river, the name of the airport was and still is The Island Airport.
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This airport is within the city limits of Knoxville, There is the municipal airport here which is about 15 miles south of us.
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Well here is the way it all started, in the afternoons when I would get home from work we four would go to the Island and sit there and watch the small planes take off and land. That was a thrill for all of us. I soon got to know the owner of the airport and two of his instructors. One of them Phillip F. offered to take me up for a ride, I accepted and then I was hooked.
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dadbyplane Before I knew what was happening I was taking flying lessons, and soon had my license. Before I was allowed to take anyone up with me I had to have so many flying hours by myself, and plan and make a cross country flight. I got all of this done and then I thought that I was important. A inspector came to the airport and gave me my final test.
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After all of this happened we did spend more time at the airport. I had to rent a plane from a dealer there to continue my flying to get my required time in so I could take someone up with me. It was not very long until I wanted to own my one plane, so we bought an Ercoupe, it was of course just a two seater. In those days there were not very many instruments in the plane. We did have a compass but no radio. We had to depend a lot on our eyes and and our feelings.

The picture below shows my wife LaVerne beside my airplane.

MomwPlane


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My instructor, Phillip and I went to the factory and flew the plane back to Knoxville. The factory was near Washington D. C. As we were returning we could see the White House and other land marks near the capitol.
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I did have a few close calls on some of my cross country trips, some of them I don't even like to think about, especially the one when I got above an overcast sky and could not find a hole to get back down, I was just about ready to give up when a hole appeared in the overcast, I was smiling that day.
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Another little trip that I remember was when I went to Memphis to get Jim, and he and I flew back to Knoxville. We enjoyed the little trip. I remember that we stopped at the Nashville airport for something to eat, nothing was open so we used the vending machines. Can you imagine the Nashville airport being closed in this day. Things have changed in the last 50 years.
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I am glad that I stopped flying when I did, if I had kept on you might not be reading my blog today. And thinking of my family was another good reason for me stopping.
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I know that I have missed a lot of my experiences in this, but it is about all I can remember, AFTER ALL WHAT DO YOU EXPECT A 96 YEAR OLD MAN TO REMEMBER. This will show you what a silly young man that I was.
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Jim found parts of an old brochure about the Ercoupe airplane. If you click on the pictures they should enlarge enough for you to read about the airplane.


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Panel 2
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Panel 3
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Panel 4
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Thanks Becky for asking about this, if she had not ask me to do this I don't guess that I would have done it. Come see me on my blog, I am there every day except Sunday.

Bye Bye DAD.
865-850-5763.

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This link will take you back to my blog.

http://tomatogardeningwithdad.blogspot.com/
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© 2009 Dad's Tomato Garden Journal...All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

ENTRY # EIGHTY SIX

Here is something that was too long for my blog, but it was so good I am showing it to you here. DAD.
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This is rather profound. I didn't write it and don't know who did, but it really makes you think.

READ THIS VERY SLOWLY.... IT'S PRETTY PROFOUND.

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Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or too rigid to depart from their routine. I got to thinking one day about all those women on the
Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back.
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From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible. How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word'refrigeration' mean nothing to you?
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How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat insilence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on television?
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I cannot count the times I called my sister and said,'How about going to lunch in a half hour? She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain.' And my personal favorite: 'It's Monday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.
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Because Americans crams so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!
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We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet...
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We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.
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Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.
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' When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend,she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.. My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love icecream. It's just that I might as well apply it directlyto my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process The other day, I stopped the car and bought atriple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home,I would have died happy.
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Now....go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to......not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting? Make sure you read this to the end; you will under standwhy I sent this to you.
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Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed abutter fly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into thefading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask ' How are you?' Do you hear the reply? When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told yourchild, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi? When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift.....Thrown away.....
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Life is not a race Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.
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This above was sent to Dad by Heavelybama, Thank you so much. DAD.

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BYE BYE DAD
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white6416r@aol.com.
865-850-5763

.© 2009 Dad's Tomato Garden Journal...All Rights Reserved.