What I Did Today
- Thread starter Snake45
- Start date
Nice recovery!!!
Wow! Cool pics! 
Well done my friend. Glad you're still alive and kicking. Carry on.
welder
Buckeye
Excellent report and pics too!
I'm Glad your still with us. Thanks for the pics, it's nice to associate a face to someone I've given so many "Likes" to. 
Glad you are still with us. Great pics and a happy person smile. Thanks for posting and kudos to Wyandot Jim and Bob Wright for helping you get through it!
OP
Snake45
Patriot, Mentor, Friend ~ RIP
For Kansas, "Icarus (Borne on Wings of Steel)" would have been even more appropriate.
OP
Snake45
Patriot, Mentor, Friend ~ RIP
OP
Snake45
Patriot, Mentor, Friend ~ RIP
Oh my goodness! I haven't been in one of them since I was a mere 17 (long time ago) and in the British Isles. A great fun way to spend some quiet time.
cowboycopus
Single-Sixer
Looks like you are living the dream.
Glad to see that you are back to having a good time. Been through that, but haven’t had a chance to do any airplane flights lately. used to have glider flights off of Torrey Pines in south California before I moved back here. It’s wonderful to be up in the air soaring like a bird without any noise around you.
RECOVERY WITH A VENGEANCE.... Great to see you in person!!!
".........And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God"
John G. Magee
J.
".........And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God"
John G. Magee
J.
Keep living till you don't. Day ain't over yet.
ronto
Hunter
It's great to see you're doing what you love to do...ROCK ON!
contender
Ruger Guru
Glad you're still around,, and enjoying life!!!!!!
I haven't flown a glider since 1979. Gosh,, what a LONG time ago!
I haven't flown a glider since 1979. Gosh,, what a LONG time ago!
xtratoy
Hunter
Were you the pilot or the passenger? In either case, you've done well.
OP
Snake45
Patriot, Mentor, Friend ~ RIP
Oh, passenger, of course. I did get a mini-lesson and got to fly it a little, which was cool. The pilot was a former USAF U-2 pilot, which was even cooler. Just talking to him was nearly worth the price of the adventure all by itself!
Snake,
So glad you are getting out and about. Keep it up.
Yea I'll bet the IP had some great stories. We were friends with a back seat SR-71 guy that also had great stories. A shame he died from Covid after all he had been thru over the years.
When I decided to start taking flying lesions in 1964 the small airport I went to was a glider club. So you could either take lessons in a glider or a Piper J3 Cub both were $6.50 hr. in the Cub and a flight in the glider. The Delta Captain didn't charge for his time.
My first flight was in the glider and the tow plane was a L-19 Birddog. The Wifie was in the L-19 for her first time to be in any kind of plane. After the Glider flight I decided to take lessons in the Cub and the rest is history.
Thank you Mr. Herb Coons for your time and patience with a dumb ham fisted kid.
So glad you are getting out and about. Keep it up.
Yea I'll bet the IP had some great stories. We were friends with a back seat SR-71 guy that also had great stories. A shame he died from Covid after all he had been thru over the years.
When I decided to start taking flying lesions in 1964 the small airport I went to was a glider club. So you could either take lessons in a glider or a Piper J3 Cub both were $6.50 hr. in the Cub and a flight in the glider. The Delta Captain didn't charge for his time.
My first flight was in the glider and the tow plane was a L-19 Birddog. The Wifie was in the L-19 for her first time to be in any kind of plane. After the Glider flight I decided to take lessons in the Cub and the rest is history.
Thank you Mr. Herb Coons for your time and patience with a dumb ham fisted kid.
OP
Snake45
Patriot, Mentor, Friend ~ RIP
Jim, thanks for your kind words and story. Much appreciated. You're an inspiration to me.
My little flight reinforced something I'd learned/observed/deduced years ago: There are "Airplane People" and "Flying People" and there is much less overlap between the two groups than most would probably expect. I am definitely an Airplane Person and not so much a Flying Person. My Dad was a professional commercial and military pilot (over 20K hours) so I grew up knowing many, many such people in both worlds. There's no doubt they all could fly like crazy but even as a kid I knew more about the actual airplanes than almost all of them. I suspect I am somewhere "on the spectrum" as they say these days.
I'm not afraid of flying nor do I get airsick or anything like that; I just don't get any particular thrill out of it. Except for takeoffs and landings, I don't find it much different from riding down the highway in a car. I hear pilots get all excited about getting in their airplanes and flying somewhere in the next state just "for lunch" and that whole idea has just about zero appeal to me. (But then I don't play golf or attend sportsball games, either.) When I hear pilots talk about "boring holes in the sky" I always want to ask, "In that sentence, is 'boring' a verb or an adjective?"
But to this day, I'll happily spend hour upon hour researching some particular aircraft and then many more hours building a model of it. My Dad never got THAT. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.
Anyway, the whole reason I took the glider flight was to have an aviation experience that neither my Dad nor my son ever had. Back at university I joined the campus skydiving club and took many hours of lessons just to make ONE jump just to say I did. My Dad never made a parachute jump (and neither has my son, and neither has my glider pilot yesterday, who is a former USAF U-2 pilot), so now I can say to my kid (a C-17 and 737 pilot), "Well, now I've done TWO aviation things that neither you or Papa ever did."
Thanks again for your inspiration, Jim. I'm proud to call you my friend.
My little flight reinforced something I'd learned/observed/deduced years ago: There are "Airplane People" and "Flying People" and there is much less overlap between the two groups than most would probably expect. I am definitely an Airplane Person and not so much a Flying Person. My Dad was a professional commercial and military pilot (over 20K hours) so I grew up knowing many, many such people in both worlds. There's no doubt they all could fly like crazy but even as a kid I knew more about the actual airplanes than almost all of them. I suspect I am somewhere "on the spectrum" as they say these days.
I'm not afraid of flying nor do I get airsick or anything like that; I just don't get any particular thrill out of it. Except for takeoffs and landings, I don't find it much different from riding down the highway in a car. I hear pilots get all excited about getting in their airplanes and flying somewhere in the next state just "for lunch" and that whole idea has just about zero appeal to me. (But then I don't play golf or attend sportsball games, either.) When I hear pilots talk about "boring holes in the sky" I always want to ask, "In that sentence, is 'boring' a verb or an adjective?"
But to this day, I'll happily spend hour upon hour researching some particular aircraft and then many more hours building a model of it. My Dad never got THAT. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.
Anyway, the whole reason I took the glider flight was to have an aviation experience that neither my Dad nor my son ever had. Back at university I joined the campus skydiving club and took many hours of lessons just to make ONE jump just to say I did. My Dad never made a parachute jump (and neither has my son, and neither has my glider pilot yesterday, who is a former USAF U-2 pilot), so now I can say to my kid (a C-17 and 737 pilot), "Well, now I've done TWO aviation things that neither you or Papa ever did."
Thanks again for your inspiration, Jim. I'm proud to call you my friend.
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Now that is a cool story and good on you.......looking well too,,,, God does take care of some of you old fogies, now stay healthy........
ProfessorWes
Hawkeye
Awesome!
OP
Snake45
Patriot, Mentor, Friend ~ RIP
Now THAT is impressive and Very Most Way Hella Cool!
Kinda makes my little ride look like 20 minutes sittin' on the john. Thanks for posting that! I really appreciated it!
Congratulations on your recovery.
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2012
- Messages
- 10,870
Awesome! Glad your still around. I lost a friend of mine to a heart attack last week. Certainly makes you appreciate the little things.
