lot of pilot

In my youth I was a member of the civil air patrol “CAP”. Our unit was called the Wasatch Minuteman Squadron of the Utah Wing. We had been ask to provide some security and help to tie down plane that were flying in to the Ogden airport, involved in a powder-puff cross country air race. To be there and watch the plane land and take off, to be around the pilots and be part of the fly in; was one of the most wonderful times of my life. I have always been inspired by this poem that was written in one of the training manuals.

High flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of EarthAnd danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirthOf sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred thingsYou have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swungHigh in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,I've chased the shouting wind along, and flungMy eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .
Up, up the long, delirious burning blueI've topped the wind-swept heights with easy graceWhere never lark, or ever eagle flew —And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trodThe high untrespassed sanctity of space,Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie Magee, Jr

There was one pilot that to this day, I don’t see how she did what she did and got away with it. She was fling a Cessna 310 Ranger turbo prop. She came in from the north at 1000 ft above the deck of the main runway. Mid way of the runway she took a dive right at the ground and at the last second nose up and put the plane down on the run way. She did not use more than a hundred feet of runway. She taxied up to the thermal, jump out and ran to the time keeper stand. If the awe of the landing was not enough the fact I knew who she was, was more. It was Doris Day the actress.

I dedicate this to Nathan Carriker a writer pilot and new friend. Come fly with him http://www.writingtakesflight.com/

Thank you and god bless, happy landing!

FOOT NOTE: I don’t know that Miss Day was the pilot or the co pilot of the plane. I do know that she got out of the plane. After doing some research to find the date and time of this I found that the fly in was a celebrity fly in and it may have been some of the flying lesions she took for the movie Julia. Her fear of flying may be a result of that landing. I Don’t know.