AircraftOwner Online

            One of the things I like most about aviation is the opportunities for adventure that if offers. Certainly there is the flying itself, but I also take a great deal of interest in other aspects of our art form.  

            For example, this past weekend I was flew to Tarkio, Missouri to hang out at the Wing Nuts flying breakfast. Tarkio is the home of congressman Sam Graves. Sam is not only a great pilot, but he serves on the Aviation Subcommittee of the U.S. Congress. He is a great proponent of aviation and works tirelessly on the behalf of General Aviation.  

            I had the chance to sit down and talk with Sam about a number of GA issues including through-the-fence and 100LL Avgas.  Access through-the-fence at local airports is a “no-brainer” which will hopefully get resolved sooner rather than later. The issue of 100LL aviation fuel is more complicated.  I am not going to begin to address that issue in this blog but I am making it a point to educate myself on that issue in greater detail starting today. We should be paying attention to this because there is a lot going on with various special interests starting to take positions that may or may not be in everyone’s best interest.  But that’s something for a subsequent blog.  

            I guess it’s the intellectual stimulation that aviation offers that I have been pondering recently. Inquiry and curiosity add to the fun of flying.  I am talking about not only the political issues, but the history and physics that come in to play.  

            For example, tomorrow my friend Rich Hornbeck and I are getting on a flight to Juneau, Alaska. From there we will take a 5 hour ferry trip to Skagway. Then we will rent a car and drive two hours to Carcross in the Yukon. There is a gravel strip in Carcross that I want to visit. Why? Because it is there that Ford Tri-motor, NC-1077 was based. And it was there that it last flew before it was abandoned for many years.  1077 was rescued years later by Gene Frank of Caldwell, Idaho. I purchased and restored the aircraft. Today it is the oldest flying metal aircraft in the world (see: www.FordTri-motor.com for the notes on the aircraft). 

              Anyway, a Canadian friend is going to help me get access to the hangar office where company records of the aircraft may be stored. My understanding is the office has been locked and abandoned perhaps for decades. While I may show up and find an FBO operating out of it, at the moment I feel a bit like Geraldo Rivera opening a sunken safe. It’s adventure in the quest of knowledge; in this case of the history of an historic aircraft I happen to own.  

            It’s the immersion and involvement in aviation that I enjoy so much. I am certain that you can find the same sort of excitement in other pursuits but for myself, I can’t imagine anything I would rather be doing.  Perhaps you feel this way too.