I bought my plane on Karen's birthday in 1997. I was 54 and right in the middle of "Manopause". This isn't the one where you get the night sweats, no its much worse. This is the one when a man realizes that nothing works anymore, you are well past the best you could ever be, and the general time of life when a man either gets a girl friend, and eventually a divorce or they start molesting kids. Neither had any draw for me. I started thinking about what I would regret the most when I was sitting in my rocker at the old welders home, drooling down my chin and flashing the nurses.
There were only two regrets that I could think of, since I had done just about every thing else that I wanted. One was to learn to fly, the other entailed an act best kept secret involving Sofia Loren. Flying seemed the most likely to succeed.
So I began to look around and found just what I needed, A Kolb Firestar II. I assure you it was a coincidence of the utmost surprise to find that I had bought it on Karen's birthday, but all in all I considered it a fair trade, since she neither had to bail me out of jail or share me with a mistress.
I haven't flown since early October of last year, and the weather has been so shitty that flying was out of the question. Today, her birthday, however was cool but with no wind. First time in almost two months. As you can imagine I have been rattling around this place like a rock in a tin can, with lots of time and nothing much I am interested in doing.
I was out in the shop repairing the shroud on a carpet cleaner, when I decided to burn some of the boxes that I have been accumulating. I opened the hangar doors and was surprised to see that it was still nice. So I pulled the plane out thinking that I would just fire it up and get it warmed up a bit. One thing lead to another and the first thing you know I was getting dressed to fly.
I did a bunch of touch and goes until I was sure that the engine was going to keep running and I got a bit better, so I went over to the ranch and eventually landed in front of their house. Listen closely to Elsie when she comes to the plane.
https://vimeo.com/258896917 There is no password required for this one.
