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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So what's been going on with Owen and Myrna and their new Eagle? Did Myrna ever
solo? Did Rich come back and fly with those two some more? Have they worn out their
brakes yet from doing so many takeoffs and landings?
Well, a lot has been going on with us and our new plane. Yes, I did solo the
Eagle and Owen did get a chance to do some aerobatic flying with Rich. We have replaced
brake pads and we are soon needing a set of new tires worn from the many landings
during practice. We have a comfy chair in our hangar, compliments of Dan and Kris
Pichelman, and my parents have found a couch, carpet, several folding chairs and
a table or two making it feel like our home away from home.
We are getting good at fixing minor things on the plane and have washed and waxed
it from head to toe, spinner to rudder I suppose I should say. I have discovered
a way to reach the rudder pedals by using a pillow, a pair of “rudder shoes” (platform
tennis shoes), the seat cushion, a piece of carpet, a car cushion and my parachute
- people think I'm nuts when I tell them I have to use all of that stuff just to
fly the plane but, hey, it works.
We have put over 50 hours on the plane now and have done two oil changes. We have
also flown two contests, Land O’ Lakes and Kenosha. I have been flying Basic and
Owen has been flying Sportsman and doing quite well in a competitive category! I'll
talk about the contests in other articles. If you want to hear details of my experience
soloing then read on!
During Memorial Day weekend Rich came back to do some flying with Owen and I and
also to fly with some other people in Jim Taylor's Decathlon. Owen did some spin
training. Rich told him there are nine upright and nine inverted spins in the Eagle.
I continued to work on my takeoff and landing techniques wondering if I would ever
figure out landing well enough to solo. I felt like a student pilot all over again
but this time, again, the pressure was on. Rich couldn't stay and do takeoffs and
landings with me forever. As much as we like Rich and he likes us, sometime he would
have to go home and this time we didn't have plans to bring him back again.
Finally, on May 25th, I soloed at Flying Cloud. All sorts of people showed up to
watch the event. The instructors at ASI were watching and later offered their “advice”
on how they would have flown the airplane, my younger brother Joel was there, Rich
Ahrens a fellow pilot from FCM was there, friends of mine from my Planes of Fame
museum days, Mac and Connie MacCullum who had heard we bought an Eagle were there,
Owen was there offering support and the nervously pacing Rich Stowell was, of course,
on hand. I did three takeoffs and landings for my solo.
The first two were pretty good, I was even impressed with myself. Then tower switched
me over to 27L from 27R. The runway change wasn't really the problem, feeling so
good about my first two landings was though. I set up for my last landing well enough,
I remember on downwind telling myself not to get too cocky even, but I didn't listen
very well because I dropped the plane in from what felt like a million feet above
the runway. Smack! I hit the ground in a hurry and bounced in the air. I added some
power and set myself up to land again and did okay that time.
Then the guy in tower asked me what happened. Oh geez, they saw the landing too and
think I'm some incompetent pilot, maybe they are laughing at me in the tower and
won't even clear me to takeoff the next time. I told him something about first solo
in the airplane and just being happy I landed. He told me I did better then he could
ever do, I felt a little better but despite saving the landing, I was sure I broke
something on the airplane. Everyone seemed happy...what was wrong? Couldn't they
see that awful landing? They did see the landing, it really wasn't that awful, just
a little hard (testing out the spring landing gear is what Rich called it) but, they
assured me, they have all done the same kind of thing. What was important was that
I had the training to know what to do, instead of panicking which I might have done
early on in my Eagle training, I was able to continue to fly the plane. We put the
plane away for the night, I was tired but happy. I had finally soloed the Eagle.
Rich headed for home the next day. I had soloed, Owen was set to go with his spin
training and ready to go over it all with me. When we were stuck in Kansas in the
cold and snow I doubted we would ever get this far. But hey, we've only just gotten
started.
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