This is the story
of how we lived our dream and brought our Eagle home!
Part 1: The
Dream
Part 2: First Flight
Part 3: Plan "B"
Part 4: First Solo
Part 5: Eagle Update
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Part 2: First Flight
In
January of 1998 Owen and I headed to Kansas to look at the 1994 Barrett Aviat Eagle
N514JB to see if we could strike a deal. It was hard to hold ourselves back from
writing out a deposit check on the spot. We wanted that plane! But, we went through
the formalities of talking, looking and checking to see that the plane was all we
remembered it to be. It was. We wrote out the deposit check and headed back to Minnesota
anxiously awaiting warmer weather so we could go back and get our plane.
March rolled around. I had a week off of teaching early in March so it seemed like
a perfect time to get our plane. From what we figured with a week off from work and
some nice Kansas weather we could round up an instructor and get checked out. Boy,
were we wrong!
We rented a car and drove to Kansas on Saturday, March 7th. When we arrived it was
raining and there were forecasts of freezing rain, but we were optimistic and figured
we could fly by Monday at least. Wrong again. The weather wasn’t our only problem
we soon found out. Jim informed us the instructor who was supposed to fly with us
had hurt his leg and didn’t feel he was up to giving us dual in the sometimes squirrelly
Eagle. We went to bed somewhat discouraged. How could we find someone to fly with
us on such short notice? Sunday morning we were greeted by icy roads and cold temperatures.We
stayed inside because it was too miserable to go outside.
While we were waiting for the weather to improve, Jim made several phone calls to
see if he could find someone to fly with us. No luck at all. Monday morning, the
day we figured we would be flying, found us iced in with below zero temperatures.
We made a call to our insurance guy, he okayed us to fly with Jim for our required
two hours of dual time in the Eagle. Since Jim is not a flight instructor but has
over 400 hours in Eagles, the insurance company figured we were better off flying
with him than someone else. But the weather gods had other things in mind.
 We spent the week sitting inside waiting
for the weather to improve but it only got worse. By Thursday morning, it hit 7 degrees
below zero. The Eagle doesn’t have a cockpit heater and we really needed something
like 40 degrees above zero to fly. The ground was covered with snow and slush, we
were miserably cold (even though we are Minnesotans!) and we were depressed because
we couldn’t fly. Our vacations days were ticking away and we had to be back in Minnesota
by Saturday night. Our only saving grace during this week was the warm hospitality
of Marilyn and Jim. We ate really well, we visited their family and talked airplanes
and farming. We stayed with Jim and Marilyn in their guest bedroom, they wouldn’t
think of us staying in a hotel, and were treated like family.
 Finally on Friday the weather broke and topped
out at 60 degrees. At last we could fly! We decided we were smartest to concentrate
on one of us getting some time so Owen went up with Jim several times. After two
hours of flying, it was apparent that it wouldn’t be the best thing to try to fly
the plane home. The plane is not hard to handle in the air or on the ground. Takeoffs
aren't that bad but landings, especially the roll out after touch down, are not the
easiest. We left Saturday morning in another rented car and headed back for Minnesota.
Continued in...Plan
"B"
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