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Giving Rides in a Biplane
In the post Airplane Madness the subject of ride giving was all over the map as to what one should or should not do. The last post from Night Twister pretty much sums it up at least for me (Quote: Lot of overreaction to something simple. Yes for some people and no for others.
This has been my experience for over 27 yrs of biplane flying and almost 2700 hrs of flying a biplane and ride giving. A year or so after my airplane flew for the first time I got a hard cover book from a stationary store and started having passengers write their thoughts and sign there name, and date. This was about 1990, and I had given a number of rides before this. Also during trips to Oshkosh, Flabob Starduster Corp open house in southern Calif Copper State in Arizona as well as most all of the Starduster fly- ins at Sedona Arizona Santa Rosa Calf and Oroville Calif and Arlington gave many rides with out having this book.
The book was kind of like a high school annual and is about 100 two sided pages, with about four signatures per page. Starting with my family, Wife Donna who willingly went with me to Oshkosh five of the nine times, my daughters Debbie and Tricia, my two sons David and Dan. My son in law grand daughter and three grand sons. My sister and her two sons and daughter in law and several of her children.
Also I retired from the fire dept and when there gave numerous rides firefighters chief officers and dept employees. Chris Thiessen a fire dept employee eight months pregnant at the time, and also at night! I have over the last several yrs added about a dozen pages, as the book is full as we speak. Also many of these rides were at night, I probably have almost 100 hrs in my airplane at night, and have made two night landings in the last several weeks! My youngest was my granddaughter Heather at six yrs old, and my eldest passenger was a friends mother on her 91st birthday! And BTW she got in the airplane easier than most people half her age!
Besides my family those I worked with at the fire dept and rides at different fly-ins I have also given numerous hrs of dual or at least aircraft familiarization to builders new owners and prospective owners. Plus I have given rides in my son Dan's Starduster and also in the Skybolt, now sold, and would have given rides to prospective buyers even tire kickers had they asked. I had a lot of calls on the Skybolt and numerous E-Mails but only one guy actually came and looked at it and he bought it!
Of all those that have experienced a ride or in some cases rides the most notable ones were my first flight instructor and the one that signed me off to take the check ride, Jane Lamar a WWII Wasp, Women's Army Service Pilot!
An eight year girl Anna Peebles from Fond Du Lac Wisconsin that saw a picture of my airplane in Sport Aviation under What our builders are doing regarding first flights and wrote me a letter, I gave her and her family a ride at Oshkosh.
Alex Zuyev a Mig-29 pilot that defected with one of these airplanes to Turkey he later wrote the book titled Fulcrum and actually flew my airplane at Bremerton Washington 7-12-92 after the NW EAA fly-in at Arlington WA.
Jim Kilbourn a Starduster too builder at Brighton Michigan from his 45G airpark residence I have a picture of my airplane sitting in his back yard! And later at Felts Field in Spokane gave his son Mike Kilbourn a US Air Force pilot stationed at Fairchild AFB a ride. Mel Lyne from BC Canada, and Harry Macintosh from Wimbledon England, Harry owns a Fairchild 24 R and a Starduster SA-100 in the UK.
Norma Granville, daughter of Zanford Granville the man that was the primary designer of the famous Gee Bee racers of the 30s.
Lena Heck the girl that posed with my airplane in a bikini for fathers day 1994! I have had only one person get sick in all of the rides I have given.
Some of my flight instruction has been interesting, many were airline pilots and recently Craig and Ian, Craig flew with me in my airplane before he flew his Starduster Too for the first time, and Ian the prolific poster of Airplane Madness, was a grateful passenger. I do not consider myself a super pilot or instructor, my goal is to help others enjoy their airplanes and not get hurt physically or financially. All so far have have enjoyed these flights and I have not hurt anyone of them. Is there a risk, of course, but then there is risk in most everything we do. Dave
In the post Airplane Madness the subject of ride giving was all over the map as to what one should or should not do. The last post from Night Twister pretty much sums it up at least for me (Quote: Lot of overreaction to something simple. Yes for some people and no for others.
This has been my experience for over 27 yrs of biplane flying and almost 2700 hrs of flying a biplane and ride giving. A year or so after my airplane flew for the first time I got a hard cover book from a stationary store and started having passengers write their thoughts and sign there name, and date. This was about 1990, and I had given a number of rides before this. Also during trips to Oshkosh, Flabob Starduster Corp open house in southern Calif Copper State in Arizona as well as most all of the Starduster fly- ins at Sedona Arizona Santa Rosa Calf and Oroville Calif and Arlington gave many rides with out having this book.
The book was kind of like a high school annual and is about 100 two sided pages, with about four signatures per page. Starting with my family, Wife Donna who willingly went with me to Oshkosh five of the nine times, my daughters Debbie and Tricia, my two sons David and Dan. My son in law grand daughter and three grand sons. My sister and her two sons and daughter in law and several of her children.
Also I retired from the fire dept and when there gave numerous rides firefighters chief officers and dept employees. Chris Thiessen a fire dept employee eight months pregnant at the time, and also at night! I have over the last several yrs added about a dozen pages, as the book is full as we speak. Also many of these rides were at night, I probably have almost 100 hrs in my airplane at night, and have made two night landings in the last several weeks! My youngest was my granddaughter Heather at six yrs old, and my eldest passenger was a friends mother on her 91st birthday! And BTW she got in the airplane easier than most people half her age!
Besides my family those I worked with at the fire dept and rides at different fly-ins I have also given numerous hrs of dual or at least aircraft familiarization to builders new owners and prospective owners. Plus I have given rides in my son Dan's Starduster and also in the Skybolt, now sold, and would have given rides to prospective buyers even tire kickers had they asked. I had a lot of calls on the Skybolt and numerous E-Mails but only one guy actually came and looked at it and he bought it!
Of all those that have experienced a ride or in some cases rides the most notable ones were my first flight instructor and the one that signed me off to take the check ride, Jane Lamar a WWII Wasp, Women's Army Service Pilot!
An eight year girl Anna Peebles from Fond Du Lac Wisconsin that saw a picture of my airplane in Sport Aviation under What our builders are doing regarding first flights and wrote me a letter, I gave her and her family a ride at Oshkosh.
Alex Zuyev a Mig-29 pilot that defected with one of these airplanes to Turkey he later wrote the book titled Fulcrum and actually flew my airplane at Bremerton Washington 7-12-92 after the NW EAA fly-in at Arlington WA.
Jim Kilbourn a Starduster too builder at Brighton Michigan from his 45G airpark residence I have a picture of my airplane sitting in his back yard! And later at Felts Field in Spokane gave his son Mike Kilbourn a US Air Force pilot stationed at Fairchild AFB a ride. Mel Lyne from BC Canada, and Harry Macintosh from Wimbledon England, Harry owns a Fairchild 24 R and a Starduster SA-100 in the UK.
Norma Granville, daughter of Zanford Granville the man that was the primary designer of the famous Gee Bee racers of the 30s.
Lena Heck the girl that posed with my airplane in a bikini for fathers day 1994! I have had only one person get sick in all of the rides I have given.
Some of my flight instruction has been interesting, many were airline pilots and recently Craig and Ian, Craig flew with me in my airplane before he flew his Starduster Too for the first time, and Ian the prolific poster of Airplane Madness, was a grateful passenger. I do not consider myself a super pilot or instructor, my goal is to help others enjoy their airplanes and not get hurt physically or financially. All so far have have enjoyed these flights and I have not hurt anyone of them. Is there a risk, of course, but then there is risk in most everything we do. Dave
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