©Ian Coristine/1000IslandsPhotoArt.comSinger Castle on Dark Island
Janice and I were invited to join a small group for a day long voyage on the "Fair Jeanne" in the Thousand Islands by its owner two summers ago. One of the highlights was climbing to the top of the crows nest.
It’s done.
No really, it’s all done. Not nearly done, mostly done or even practically done but… ALL done. Put gas in it and let’s fly this sucker done.
Done.
Some say that “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings”. The thing is, the fat lady has not only sung but she has showered, shaved and left the stadium. Ok, so the colors have yet to be added but that’s only cosmetic.
The undercover operation is over
A few days after publishing last month’s Epistle, I had an inspection from the Transport Canada (the Canadian version of the FAA) representative who spent 5 hours scrutinizing every nut and bolt on my entire airplane. When he was satisfied that it meet all factory assembly specs, he signed off on the ‘birth certificate’ (also known as the airworthiness certificate).
This one signature transformed what had started out 3 summers ago as 17 boxes of parts and pieces, 3 of which were larger than my car (2 wing frames and the fuselage) from a bucket of bolts into an official airplane. Serial # CH2-0209-2858 is now call sign C-IJQP.
C-IJQP set to join the TIAF
(Thousand Islands Air Force)
I am not suggesting that I am proud or anything, but I have been patting my back so often this past month that both my shoulders are killing me.
Skeptics (no, you were by far not the only one) will ask “Yea, but has it flown yet?” No, I have pickled it for the winter to start flying lessons in June. “AH HA! And when you do, the wings will probably fall off and you will crash and DIE!”
It took twice as long as I had expected to build but regrettably that is about on par with my ability to estimate any task I undertake. I am simply an incorrigible and naive optimist. You will note from the pics that the floats are not on yet as I must begin flying on my training wheels, graduating to a passenger carrying rating before transitioning to float training. By the time I am done I will know so much I will need a bigger head. Or maybe just two regular size heads.
The elephant in the room
Ok, the time has come. Not talking about this would be like writing about the Titanic but forgetting to mention that it sank. Some of you are worried, I know.
Four summers ago, when Janice started to tell friends that I was going learn to fly, I began to notice a certain look in people’s eyes. At first it was a vague ‘you’re kidding, right’? Then, when I mentioned that I was going to assemble an airplane from a kit, you thought I didn’t notice that you were biting your lip and looked at me as though I was going to jump out of a seven story window.
Flying is one of those things better left to the professionals, right? Never mind that much like brain surgeons or astronauts who didn’t start with years of experience either, you still feel that it’s best to leave it to those who know what they are doing. Fortunately, that logic didn’t prevail when it came time for you to learn to drive. After all, a few spins around the parking lot with dad and an hour’s worth of studying for the test and bingo, you had a license!
The truth is, flying is more complicated than driving. It’s why I will spend more than 50 hours studying before I am allowed to get behind the stick in the pilot’s seat to begin my lessons. Then, for the license type I will get (but don’t actually need) I will have nearly 50 hours of instruction in the air. Learning to fly is not like being a kid without a helmet or knee pads who skate-boards across a busy parking lot then leaps to ‘slide’ down the handrail of a concrete staircase.
Assembling the plane is another story. Once again, clearly better left to the professionals, right? Like having an ‘expert’ like Bernie Maddoff manage your portfolio… Don’t think for one moment that every bolt I tightened and cable I fastened, I wasn’t intensely concerned that it was being done correctly. This is not some other guy’s airplane, it’s mine. It is a manufactured airplane kit, not pile of aluminum tubing and a set of drawings. Besides, I do have some experience with this whole kit business. Not with planes, with homes. I built our dome home in California from a ‘kit’. It consisted of manufactured ‘hubs’ that connected all the triangles together, creating the outer structure. With it, came a set of plans and a good luck letter. This kit consisted of considerably more than that. Yet it has definitely pushed me to get out my comfort zone, and learn new skills.
“But what about the risks? What if the wing falls off or the engine stops midflight?” Listen, I am not writing about this thinking that I am going to convince you of anything different than you already believe. Besides, I am a world class rationalizer. But you know as well as I do that everything has risks. Whether it’s skydiving, motorcycling, driving your car, boating, skiing or scuba diving, none are more regulated and require more training than flying. Yet, we know people still get killed from all those pursuits. [Interestingly, more people die from driving their cars than all others combined]
Think about it. Does the motorcyclist worry that his wheel will fall off when he rides? When was the last time you walked around your car and checked that everything was tight, your steering controls were not worn out, that the lug nuts on your wheels were not about to fall off before you drove down the road coming head on with that cement truck? All those things and many more are checked before every flight. Not to be a smarty pants but it would be arguable that you will be a lot safer flying with me than I would be driving with you.
Besides, it’s worth remembering that ‘life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways -Chardonnay in one hand -chocolate in the other -body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, “WOO HOO, What a ride”!!!’ The ability to fly is something that has been available to man for only a nanosecond in the history of time. I have a friend who has referred to it as “The privileged view” and how true it is. I couldn’t live with myself if I turned the opportunity down.
I have given a lot of thought to the type of airplane I will fly and the kind of flying I will do. This particular one is perfectly suited for slow flight. In fact, it can be flown safely at less than 40 miles per hour. Landing in a 20 mile per hour headwind, I would only be going 20 miles per hour. You could practically run alongside and pull me down.
Yet, plowing into a telephone pole while driving on the ground still sounds better to most people than falling out of the sky. Consider that even at cruising speed, I would fly at a slower speed than you would at highway speeds…to say nothing of if you had a head on collision with the proverbial cement truck.
“Yes but if I have a problem in my car, I can pull over to the side of the road. What do you do?” Flying on floats, I have thousands of miles of runway in all directions to choose from in the event of a problem. I am not Wile E Coyote racing heedlessly across the endless landscape at maximum speed until suspended in midair just past the end of the cliff.
“But aren’t you a little …eh…. ‘old’ for this?”
Don’t reach for the defibrillator paddles or the rosary beads quite yet.
Pilots jokingly say that “time spent flying is not deducted from one's lifespan”. In fact, whatever age related diminished capacity I may have is more than offset in prudence and judgment. You’ve heard the story about old pilots and bold pilots. You generally get to be one or the other, but not both.
Having convinced myself (if not you) of the validity of my arguments, I sure hope I don’t crash and burn….. For some people, the sky’s the limit… but for a pilot, it’s only the beginning. Besides, there is no point in taking life too seriously; no one makes it out alive anyway.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
After Labor Day, when the river is ours again, it is as if someone pressed the pause button. Life on the river becomes very different, very private, almost secluded. Still, when it was time, we pulled the plug for another season and hit the proverbial road.
We did catch up with Amy’s family for a spell and spent several days with son Wesley in Sandpoint Idaho, where he arranged for a tour of the vitamin manufacturing plant he works at.
Wesley and the mama
As we go to press, we have arrived in Los Angeles and visited daughter Kami.
Janice
Janice continues to deal with health issues. No, not the Cancer thing, that seems to be firmly behind us, but a couple of lesser things that are not ‘serious’ but important. Earlier this month she had an endoscopy exam (little tube down the throat) for some unspecified ongoing abdominal pains. The latest diagnosis is that, well, they can’t find anything wrong so we will keep an eye on things while in Europe. After what she has been through in the past 18 months it is all just a major drag.
How’s this for logistics?
Since I retired in 2004, we have transitioned from America to Europe twice a year. I have written before about our flying here and there, visiting kids and checking in on our home in California but while it may not be obvious, there are considerable logistics involved in these transitions.
Take this one for instance. After spending several days storing the plane, pulling our boats out of the water, winterizing, covering and storing them, we then drained the house plumbing system to prevent freezing damage as we do not heat the house during the winter. Neither of these tasks are particularly straight forward and have a degree of complexity about them that takes considerable time and are performed when the weather is not at its most pleasant.
Of course, all manner of outdoor furniture needed to be brought indoors, the BBQ cleaned and covered from the elements, all paints and other liquids (including printer ink cartridges) needed to be pawned off on friends to be kept in a heated area in their homes for the winter. The fridge and pantry needed to be stripped bare as we will not return for 7 months.
D day consisted of renting a car so we could store ours nearby and still have a way to get to the airport. Then there was the first flight from Syracuse NY to Seattle Washington. After renting another car there, we made our way to daughter Amy’s home, drove 400 miles ((650 Km) to Idaho to visit son Wesley and until this trip, we had also driven to Oregon to visit daughter Cassie.
Returning the rental car, we flew from Seattle to Los Angeles where we rented yet another car to visit daughter Kami, visit friends and to get up to the central coast to see Janice’s mother and to do maintenance on our house there. Returning the car in Los Angeles we will fly to Paris where …you guessed it… we will rent another car to drive to a B&B nearby as we will be exhausted from both the flight and the whirlwind tour. Finally we will drive home to pick up our own car to be able to return the rental. Time to start scheduling the next transition.
Piece of cake!
BTW, did I mention I finished my airplane? I did? Oh well…. C-IJQP here, over and out :)
