Almost As Great As Bill's Gig

[TKennedy]

I got 45" of stick time in this today. Wow!! Unfortunately I'd need to sell about 50 guitars to buy one.

[billhammond]

Jul 5, 2010 16:27:28 GMT -5 TKennedy said:

I got 45" of stick time in this today. Wow!! Unfortunately I'd need to sell about 50 guitars to buy one.

45 inches of stick time?!?!? Sounds painful!

;D


Seriously, congrats -- gotta love a Stearman.

[brucemacneill]

And you didn't do a ground loop on landing so you're better than some already.

[Deleted]

But Honey! Boats can't fly.

[omaha]

Seriously awesome.

[millring]

I was lucky enough to have caught another candid shot...

[Marshall]

That does look like about 45" of stick he's sitting on.

[Marshall]

Red Baron Guitars

[Village Idiot]

So does stick time mean you actually flew that thing?

[TKennedy]

Jul 5, 2010 21:59:19 GMT -5 Village Idiot said:

So does stick time mean you actually flew that thing?

Yes, but I didn't take off or land. The owner was in the back seat and did that. With the narrow gear and high angle of attack the way it sits it can do strange things on the ground. I got my license in 1967 but am not current. I did fly it the rest of the time and we did stalls, lazy eights, steep turns, etc. It was very solid feeling, quite forgiving, and an enormous amount of fun to fly. This was a Stearman PT-17 and was the first flight experience for thousands of fledging aviators in WWII.

[Village Idiot]

I didn't know that you had a license, that's cool. But I wouldn't go up with you. I wouldn't be able to handle the stalls, lazy eights and steep turns.

[TKennedy]

Jul 6, 2010 7:16:34 GMT -5 Village Idiot said:

I didn't know that you had a license, that's cool. But I wouldn't go up with you. I wouldn't be able to handle the stalls, lazy eights and steep turns.

Looking back I don't think I was ever safe to go up with but of course I didn't know it at the time. My wife wouldn't fly with me.

[omaha]

Funny how wives have a way of knowing these things.

[epaul]

There was one of them stunt plane guys at the fair. For fifty bucks he would take you up for a spin. Ole thought that price was too steep, especially as seeing how the guy wasn’t very busy. So he badgered the guy to give him a Lena a ride for half price. He badgered and badgered. And badgered some more. Finally the guy got so ticked off he said, “All right, all right, I can’t take it any more. Here’s the deal, if you will just shut your yapping mouth, I will give you and that wife of yours a free ride. But, if you say one word, just one word, you have to pay me the fifty bucks.

“Really?” said Ole.

“Really!” said the stunt plane guy. “Free! But if you say one word, just one word, it’s fifty bucks. Deal?”

“Deal!” said Ole.

So the stunt plane guy took Ole and Lena up for a ride. And he gave them one heck of a ride because he was ticked off and he wanted to scare the cornflakes out of Ole and make him yelp and holler like a Sunday preacher down at the river. And get the fifty bucks out of the badgering tightwad. So he did loop after loop, twist after twist, and loop and twist after twist and loop.

But not a peep came out of Ole. Finally, the frustrated stunt plane guy gave up and landed the plane. He turned around to tell Ole to get the hell out …when he saw there was no Lena in his plane. Just an Ole.

“Where’s Lena!” he gasped!

“Oh, she got rattled loose in one those loops.” Ole said. “She hung on pretty good, for a while, until you did that double loopy twist thing. That shook her loose.”

“Oh my cornfield! Why didn’t you say something!”

“Well, I would have,” said Ole, “but fifty bucks is fifty bucks.”


.

[Fingerplucked]

Jul 5, 2010 16:27:28 GMT -5 TKennedy said:

I got 45" of stick time in this today. Wow!! Unfortunately I'd need to sell about 50 guitars to buy one.

You'd think for that price they'd at least throw in a steering wheel.