Last night was another sleepless affair for your correspondent. Was up at 0330 galling myself over this and that. I know the odds, and the way through. If I’d stayed abed I’d only have tossed and turned and made it harder on the Hobbit. Get up, “change the channel” and come back when you feel it, said I.
Taildraggers have been much in my mind of late. The idea of putting the girls through college in eight years and then moving outback to fly sports in and out of austere strips and river banks has a compelling emotional appeal.
“Super Cubs,” people will say, but for my own part I’ve taken rather a shine to the Aviat Husky. Maybe it’s the fore and aft configuration, or maybe it’s the control stick and bulkhead mounted throttle (as opposed to a yoke and dashboard throttle, the filthy innovations).
I know it cannot be the $200k+ price tag.
Maybe it’s a pilot thing? But I don’t spend much time mooning over the exteriors of dream airplanes. I like looking at the office. And this one is clean, uncluttered, functional. I like it.
Anyway.
I know next to nothing about general aviation aircraft. But this is the 21st Century, so everything is out there. There’s a backcountry forum and website that talks about the virtues and vices of flying high wing aircraft low to the ground. You’ll learn about such things as “moose stalls” that apparently can strike at the unwary pilot flying precise circles in calm air.
On thing led to another and I stumbled on to the weblog of Shaun Lunt, a 33-year old anesthesiologist from Loma Linda with a passion for Super Cubs and Alaskan backcountry landings. And a brilliant eye as a photographer.
I recommend you go to his blog and see what he saw. The things he wanted to see. The care he took sharing them with the rest of us.
Then think about this: The man augered in near Jack Smith’s Bay in Alaska, trailing an instructor and friend. Thirty-three years old forever, and a damned shame.
It’s something worth keeping in mind. In time, a pilot will come to believe himself in charge. He’ll think that he controls the fluid through which he moves by controlling the machine that parts it. He’ll come to believe that he’s earned a right to be there, rather than a conditional permission.
We are reminded: It isn’t so.
Lex,
AK was the purest flying in which I’d ever been involved. Too many angels at times — too little air. Big Mac (Kinley) was up north, a majestic site poking throuugh cloud layers — simply overpowering landscapes — braided milky rivers — glaciers, leading up to ice fields — more fresh water in solid state than I’d ever seen, up top.
We flew out of Matanuska Air Services in Wasilla. We flew into Valdez a lot, before it was a major seaport. Most of the former town was still submerged from the great Quake — roads just disappeared into the quiet blue waters. There were houses, there, too.
Over the ice, my pilot, George, could name every hulk that we flew over, and its pilot — he didn’t/couldn’t forget. My uncle, an AK state senator, a bush doctor, and musher loved the life up there. A year after I spent my time there, that bird was used in an AutoLite spark plug ad — that bird went down. Happens a lot up there, it does.
V/r
Lex, Would have loved to have had you in the neighborhood this evening as my bud flew in from Maine with his Husky and tied down next to my little T-craft. Beautiful airplane that Aviat Husky. ’02 Model that purchased for $110k. He woulda taken you up in a heartbeat. Never give up the dream. Ever.
Husky is worth every penny. Aviat is now offering FLIR with theirs, a first for prop planes. In Alaska with lots of fog, it could be a life saver.
Thanks for the link to Mr. Lunt’s site, Lex; his pictures are amazing. I was just reading an article today in the current Smithsonian A&S mag which featured the guy that Shaun was following when he died, and one of Shaun’s pictures is used in the article. Small world in aviation.
Husky’s are incredibly cool, but have you looked at the American Champion Scout, which is an update of the old Citabria/Decathalon platform? It has many of the virtues of which you speak, and is in current production. I did my initial tailwheel & aerobatic training in a Citabria, so I’m kind of partial to those birds.
Just being curious, Sir, but is that $200,000 the cost of the plane or the annual cost for POL? For those of us in less fortunate financial situations, I’m thinking along the lines of another Trek or maybe a Honda so as to afford the luxury of getting thence and back to work.
Besides, a Cessna 210/310 is much nicer to fly (which I have done over 150 hours in my mis-spent youth)
I was reading through the tributes on the AP link; this one jumped out at me:
“This is a quote from an e-mail [Stacie Fenderson] received from Shaun May 27, 2008 “Now that you are done with all the schooling…do you find it has been easier or harder to spend time with God? I go through phases, and sometimes it seems really tough to want to do what will foster that closeness with God that I want, but sometimes ignore. I know that God is the only thing that is really important, and focusing on Him puts into perspective all the other little things I stress about so easily. It feels good when I do hand over my concerns to Him. The times that I actually say, “OK God, this time is Yours, do what You want with it” and read the Bible and pray, it ends up always being a good thing. I wonder why it is often a hard decision to actually do it. But God is working on all of us!””
Oh, trust me SeniorD, with two girls to put through college and a San Diego mortgage/real estate tax combo, buying even the fuel for one of these aircraft (not to mention the machine itself) is a mere fantasy without hitting the lotto.
Which I don’t play.
Not to mention that Lex would have to spend at least another 50K putting triggers on the stick and hard points on the wings…. and then a targeting system…. it just goes on and on…
As I went thru Shaun Lunt’s blog, I kept thinking – sure, it’s easy to take gorgeous pictures when you can get into that kind of country, where no one else is, and take them from inside your own plane.
But then you see it – he had a gift for capturing the unseen in what he was seeing. It’s there – the hand of God in all of it. You can just see it, touching everything. What an amazing young man and what a terrible loss for the world.
“…buying even the fuel for one of these aircraft (not to mention the machine itself) is a mere fantasy…”
Well, you could always join the USCG Auxiliary, like I just did
http://www.auxodept.org/airoperations.htm
Lex, it was very interesting reading. Yes, the Lunt Blog is neat, but there is something even more important. It is this discussion right here and right now. As I look at your post, I’m reminded of the saying, “A foolish person does not even learn from their own mistakes and their consequences. A smart person learns from their own mistakes. A wise person learns from other people’s mistakes.” When you stop and look at this saying, the foolish person’s issue is one of pure arrogance. You can just here them say, “Don’t tell me what to do!” In many ways, the wise man is like a child, but not childish. This person’s primary focus is always on learning for the rest of their lives.
Thank you,
Grumpy
“…dashboard throttle,”
What you thinking about driving Skipper? A Model T?
Old habits/semantics…
We’d get spanked real good back in General phase of A&P if the words “dashboard” or “pontoon” ever passed our lips in reference to an aircraft. lol.
Turbo-Beaver ….
Cheers
Hey Lex, I live in SoCal too and am actually depending on the Lotto to fund my retirement the way it was supposed to be. Go ahead — bet a buck. It may have the worst odds in the world but it’s the only way I know where you can put down $1.00 and have a chance to win $7,000,000! In my case that’s “go to Montana and disappear” money; for you, it could be “college, Husky, fuel” money.
I read about a guy the other day who got struck by lightning and then won the Lotto the next day. Now that’s long odds!
What about this:
http://www.glasairaviation.com/kitcontentsportsman.html
The naked kit price is only a quarter of your figure. However, with assembly, motor and avionics it is for sure much more expensive. Yet sometimes you see used glassairs for sale.
It’s a lovely notion, H-H – but then I’d be flying in something my own hands had built. And I know them too well to trust them with such a task
No, it’s the lottery for me.
I gotta jump in here, belatedly though it may be.
Taildraggers are the purest of airplanes. Some say they are the only REAL airplanes. If you are the type who likes driving a manual transmissioned vehicle, then you are of the tailwheel breed.
For myself, the Temco SuperSwift is where it’s at. Foldable feet, 200 hp, control sticks, and side by side seating. The classic art deco lines are iconic: you’d think you just taxiied a TomKitty to the ramp at most airports, from all the attention.
Then again, I logged roughly half of my total flight hours in a Citabria. Now there’s a plane with everything you liked about the Husky. . .and it’s certified aerobatic to boot!
Humble,
Yeah, I got my taildragger signoff in a Citabria; even did some aerobatic training before school (and then 9/11) got in the way. Nice aircraft, though I expect the Husky’s got much more muscle under the hood. Fabric skin covering a metal frame, minimal cockpit gear, float-type gas gauges (1 per wing tank for those not familiar); the only thing to make it more nostalgic would be if I had flown out of College Park Airport (the oldest airport in the U.S., and where the Wright Bros. taught the first military aviators).
Bruce-
Heh heh. . .I did fly out of College Park Airport! Which, post- 9-11 is quite a trip.