My Dad owned a couple Comanches, Bob, and they were sweet airplanes. He owned a Mooney executive with 201 windshield and cowl mods when he passed away, flew right up until a month or two before he died. He owned a 1946 Aeronca 7AC Champ (4.6 gph
)when I was a little kid. According to his logbook I got my first ride in that airplane before I was three years old. I actually remember it, and I remember my Dad strapping me into the back seat on top of a couple main-gear tires so I could sit up high enough to grab the stick, see outside, and fly. We'd fly through clouds in the warm summer months, chase geese in the autumn, and I'd get a little tingle down my spine each time the wheels left the runway (I still do, sort of). I spent lots of time hanging around airports when I was a kid and a teenager and I got to fly in and work on some pretty neat stuff. Occasionally I visit a machine shop that's adjacent to a hangar at a local FBO, and every time I catch a whiff of that "airport smell" it takes me right back.
I take my boys to Oshkosh every other year and we love it. I'd like to get back into flying in a couple years. Before I do that, I have a GT40 to finish.
