In Episode #23: Richard Bach’s “Invitational Cross Country Adventure” is quickly turning into an exercise in survival. Glenn & Michelle appear to be out of the trip due to a failed brake cable, but Bach has an old barnstormers’ trick up his sleeve.
Rob Bach is currently one of the world’s greatest “Aviation Wordsmiths” (and a damn fine photographer as well). Here then is Part Two of Rob Bach’s tremendous fiction piece, “5339.”
The thin white ridge of tissue stood in relief against the mass of wrinkles wrapped around his knuckles like a parchment map of the Old World. Grant sat quietly in the wicker rocker on his porch and stared at it. “Now HOW did I get that?” he whispered to himself.…
Chapter six
When my announcing partner, Toby, died suddenly in 1973 a light seemed to go out. He and I had covered many air shows together, from Abbotsford to Paine Field to Reno to Springbank, Alberta to Terrace and Prince George.
Chapter five While Toby and I were doing a show at Paine Field in Washington State I was asked by “Gentleman” Joe Hughes to closely watch an addition to his act and to give him my thoughts afterwards. Joe was flying his beautiful Super Stearman with his wing rider Gordon…
In 1961, shortly after arriving out west, I nailed a job with Hacker Press at Abbotsford as Art Director and almost immediately a number of aviation related things happened. I joined the Abbotsford Flying Club just as a decision was being made to hold an airshow and I found myself helping to organize the first event in 1962.
Chapter three Back on civvy street I set about opening a hobby shop in Vancouver, unfortunately on a shoestring. But it was a good way to return to life after the nastiness in England. I made a number of long-term friends through my shop and had some great model flying…
Chapter two
My memories of wartime England consist of damp weather and cold Nissen huts, chipping the ice from the water troughs in order to shave and endless hours of training flights in bloody awful flying conditions. Then too, the food was no great shakes! If you put in a flight of four hours or more you qualified for one greasy fried egg. Such bounty!
{Please click on the title to read the entire story!}
Herewith a condensed version of my life story as it relates to “things aeronautical”.
Chapter one
At age 11, while living with my Grandparents, I would drive my grandmother to distraction by leaping up from the dinner table every time I heard an airplane flying over the house. My Father encouraged my enthusiasm by enrolling me in a model airplane club where I was to hone my skills as a model builder and actually win third place in my first flying model contest. Years later I wound up as President of the Vancouver Gas Model Club and won a number of scale contests.
{Please click on the title to read the entire story!}
When we asked our friend Russ Munson for his thoughts on Why Fly, we didn’t expect him to capture the essence of our vision quite this well. (Re-print from January, for our new readers).
First published in 1967, this timeless essay by Richard Bach perfectly captures our vision in starting Why Fly. It provides two seemingly disparate answers to our favorite question, then rises to a philosophical crescendo and transcends them both. (re-print for our new readers).
Are you planning on buying your own airplane soon? If not … why not? No matter what your particular excuse, you may just begin to think about aircraft ownership a little differently after reading this motivating piece by Glenn Norman. It’s not as hard as you think, he explains. And owning your own airplane will transform your flying experiences forever!
[Complimentary Content]
A very special, and personal, piece by Michelle Goodeve. That’s all that really needs to be said. Michelle will explain the rest.
It doesn’t take much to spark a child’s imagination. François A. “Navman” Dumas has spent 50 years gazing at airplanes, reading about airplanes, building model airplanes, and learning to fly real ones. It all started rather simply, with a toy airplane milled out of steel.
Jonathan Bach knows many pilots, yet has only eight hours of loggable time of his own. Is he a pilot? He certainly has enough time in the air to understand why his friends and family climb into the cockpit. But it’s his interactions on the ground that keep his own interest in aviation alive.
With an airline pilot father and a stewardess mother, aviation is in Why Fly co-founder Hal Bryan’s blood. He grew up playing with toy airplanes and lived on an airstrip. While he can wax philosophical with the best of us, in the end, Hal flies for a reason that defies explanation at all.
Ask most pilots about their most significant flight, and most will tell you about their first solo. Mike Singer’s most significant flight came years later … and provided him with an unexpected glimpse into why he started flying in the first place.
Glenn Norman says he learned to fly because of the letter “B.” He also says he’s not superstitious. And yet, when you consider the number of places and people whose names begin with “B” that have played a pivotal role in his aviation life, you have to admit that something weird is going on.
[Complimentary Content]
When we asked our friend Russ Munson for his thoughts on Why Fly, we didn’t expect him to capture the essence of our vision quite this well.
[Complimentary Content]
First published in 1967, this timeless essay by Richard Bach perfectly captures our vision in starting Why Fly. It provides two seemingly disparate answers to our favorite question, then rises to a philosophical crescendo and transcends them both.
