My father was a pilot.
Excuse me, a Naval Aviator.
Flew the P-3 Orion, whose primary mission was hunting submarines. I wrote about it here. His last flight was October 29th, 1981, just before he relinquished command of VP-23 in Brunswick Maine. He retired years later as a Captain, and as far as I can recall, he never flew again. You could tell he missed it, though. When he did talk about it, he'd grin and get twinkle in his eye. Me? I've never flown anything except a computer through umpteen generations of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Dad passed away last October.
As we wait for his slot at Arlington, I was afforded the opportunity to do one more thing for him last weekend.
My neighbor and friend Eric is a retired Naval Aviator (F-18s) and Test Pilot. Callsign "Magic". He's now a corporate test pilot, and maintains his private pilot's license. When dad passed last year, I asked Magic if he'd be willing to schedule a flight to get dad back up in the air one more time. He enthusiastically agreed. The stars and weather finally aligned last weekend to make this a reality.
I gathered Dad, his log book, his Naval Aviator Card, and an old P-3 mission checklist Just in case we encountered any Soviet Russian Submarines in the Chesapeake. Put them, along with Dad, into his flight bag and hit the road.
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| N1114 |
Went up to Martin State Airport (KMTN) and pulled the Van RV-6 (N1114) out of the hanger. Steam-gauges. Very old school. Nice. Pre-flighted the airplane. Checked the fuel, oil, control surfaces, etc. To call it a beautiful day for flying would be an understatement. Calm winds, CAVU conditions. The sky was looking down at us as if to say "what are you doing down there?"
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| Dad in the jump seat |
Contacted ground. We're VFR to the southeast.
Completed our run-up checks and taxied to the hold short. Runway 33, Cleared for takeoff. Lined up on the centerline and applied power. Next thing I know, we're off.
Picked up flight following and pointed the nose to Delaware Coastal (KGED). Out from under the Bravo, we're free to do what we'd like. Ay this point, I have the controls. Trundling along at 150 KIAS. Maintain 3500, following the heading bug on the Garmin to GED. The RV-6 is VERY responsive to control inputs. Took a minute, but I got the hang of it. Got to GED and Magic did a few touch and gos at to get more practice in a tail-dragger.
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Back in the air. Time for some fun. Aileron roll up first. I did OK, but was too nose down at the end. Felt great. I could almost hear dad, "Whoo doggie!" from behind me. The loop went well, too. Next we did a few high G (3.5-4) turns. ATC actually called us and asked if we were OK. We're fine. Just doing some "airwork".
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| Jeopardy and Magic |
Pointed the nose toward the Bay Bridge. Heading 270, because no flight like this should go by without some symbolism. By now, I'm getting the hang of this and can actually take my eyes out of the cockpit. The world is so different. We can see for miles, and have what feels like all the freedom in the world. Right turn over the Bay towards MTN. "How high you want us?" I ask Magic. "Let's stay at 3500. I like to keep plenty of altitude over the water. Just in case." Sensible enough.
Enter right traffic, and Magic takes the controls as we enter the downwind. Cleared to land runway 15. You're number two behind a Cessna 172 on short final. Cleared to land, runway 15. We have the traffic, 1114. Back on the ground, but yearning to be back up there. Taxi to the hanger and clean all the bugs off the airframe. Put everything back the way we found it, paid for the gas, and headed back home.
My head's still in the clouds with dad.
Got back home and told the girls about the flight.
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| Final entry |
I hope he enjoyed it. I did.
Some fathers and sons bond over music. Some bond over sports. Some bond over the love of flight. "Hey, dad. Wanna have a fly?"
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| Jeopardy and his Dad |
And no, we didn't see any Russian submarines.
Here's our flight track:
And yes. That's me with the beard.
