Yesterday afternoon the boys were in front of the TV enjoying their new video games and my bride was about to make a New Year’s Eve call to her mother so I decided to run to the airport and warm the oil in 9CP one last time in 2003. After some enjoyable conversation with a few of the locals I was airborne and heading to Sheppard AFB. The tower was closed and I had all 25,000 feet of runway to myself (Sheppard is a joint-use field that is uncontrolled when the tower is closed).
First a few touch-and-gos on the “Tweet†runway, then I headed east to scout a few cattle tanks for this weekend’s duck hunt. Heading north took me over the Red River and at 200 feet I was about even with the tops of the few bluffs on the Oklahoma side of the river. The river patrol ended over a friend’s riverfront home where they had a good start on their New Year’s Eve bonfire. As the sun disappeared to the west I made my way back to Wichita Valley and did a half dozen patterns. It still amazes me how well our planes perform with one person and ¼ tanks! I needed the lights as I pushed 9CP back into the hangar and wrote a 1.0 into the journey log. What a great way to end a year!
We in this forum and the association are truly blessed to be able to enjoy our planes and the fellowship of their owners. With ever-changing politics and threats I often wonder if someday flights like last night’s will be rare if not impossible. It reminded me not to take any flight for granted! After the flight I noted that we had only flown about 65 of the 100 hours budgeted for the year. I don’t think I took any gas money that was offered by the occasional passenger this year. If they persisted, I simply said thanks, and told them this is what we bought the plane for, to share with others.
Happy New Year! I hope that each of our flights in 2004 is as pleasant as my last one of 2003. Treasure each one…and don’t forget to share!
Bruce
Happy New Year
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4-Shipp
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Happy New Year
Bruce Shipp
former owners of N49CP, '53 C170B
former owners of N49CP, '53 C170B
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Tom Downey
- Posts: 285
- Joined: Thu Apr 25, 2002 4:50 am
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