About that time, another beeping noise could be heard over the buzzing in my headset. “What’s that?” I asked. “I’m not sure,” was the reply. Now we were about a mile and a half from the runway. Thankfully Philip did his GUMP check. Gas, undercarriage. Then we both noticed where that other beeping noise was coming from.
The airplane was rough at best – high time engine, old radios, needed paint. The mechanic asked if the owner had the log books. He produced them, and as the mechanic looked through them, he asked “Who does your annuals?” The reply was “Oh, I do them myself and have (mechanic name) sign them off for me.” Was the airplane legal? The logs book said so, but in reality, it was neither legal or safe.
When I was close enough, I tuned the Crossville ASOS. Winds were from 320 degrees at 18, gusts to 25. Another example that the only forecast you can believe is the one you see in the windshield.
That new Cherokee 140 that came out of the factory with a sticker price of $12,000 is now going for 5 times that, even though it’s 55 years old. It’s not hard to spend as much upgrading a panel as you spent for the whole airplane.
There are some predictions I wish hadn’t come true. This is one of them. I didn’t know the guy personally, but I vicariously knew his airplane. It was an A36 Bonanza, and the way I got to know it was that any day I happened to look at what was going on at Downtown Island Airport in Knoxville, it seemed this particular plane had taken off, headed for Middlesboro, Kentucky. Time wise it made no sense, but if he wanted to fly for the fun of it, it was an excellent excuse. Most mornings.
A few years ago however, fate and family moved me to the hills of East Tennessee. The place is beautiful, but I’m still having to get used to having hills in my windshield when I take off, a hill blocking a view of the runway when I land, and not being able to see where I’m going from 50 miles away. But the most surprising aspect of it has been something I never expected, and that I had initially actually looked forward to.
My logbook is probably somewhat unique among private pilots in that 90% of my time is in an airplane that isn’t seen at many airports: the Bellanca Viking. I had no real intention of that happening, but it did. Yes, we were naïve. The guy was a good salesman, and we didn’t fully know all the things that should be done before buying an airplane, but it did turn out to be a reasonably good buy in the long run.
One of the hardest things to do in life is to acknowledge our limitations. We all have them, and most of the time they are benign, but not always. A doctor with less than stellar skills can kill someone. A sub-par lawyer can cause someone to spend years in jail. There are people in every walk of life who make mistakes, some more than others. Pilots are no exception.
About an hour into that leg, I noticed something disconcerting. It was getting dark, and it was only 7:30. All my questions about why this was happening didn’t stop it from happening, and by 8:00 PM, it was totally dark. It had never dawned on me that I lived on the western side of the central time zone, and that on the eastern side of that time zone, things were quite a bit different.
Airplane inflation has gone up more than wage inflation, but if my grandson wanted to learn to fly when he’s old enough, I suspect the money wouldn’t be an issue. The thing that has changed in his case—more than the money—is the logistics.
You can say what you want to about renting versus owning. I fully understand the fact that if you’re not going to use a plane regularly, you can’t justify owning one, even in a partnership. I’ve known for years that I could have been flying more for less money if I just rented. But now that I’m faced with renting, the reality of scheduling and not having a fast, capable airplane to fly is staring me in the face.