Your airport at work

Last Wednesday returning from a trip to San Antonio, I spotted an iconic "Piper Cub" tied down on the ramp. Ambling over to check it out the N number (United States Registration) told me that it was manufactured pre-World War II. Sure enough it was an original Piper J-3 manufactured in 1941. To me it looked as good as the day it rolled off the line in Lockhaven, Pa., but then I am kind of partial to well kept airplanes and ladies of about that vintage.

The temperature on the ramp was hovering around the century mark and the air was typically summertime bumpy. I found the pilot in the fuel office checking weather. Stretched out on the sofa behind Alan was his wife Tina looking a mite disheveled and obviously not relishing crawling back into a hot airplane and flying on to Akron, Colo. Then, too, Colorado was brewing up a set of thunderstorms poised on the border ready to pounce on Nebraska. Hot and bumpy flying conditions, looking at thunderstorms, Tina really did not want to head west; all she wanted was a nice shower, a soft quiet place to curl up read her book and digest a big serving of ribs they'd eaten at Taste of Texas.

It wasn't hard to talk Alan into putting his treasured J-3 into the hangar and spend the night at my house. We took Tina to relax in solitude and Alan and I returned to the airport to fly my Aeronca 7AC "Champ." Something about hard core pilots; we can never seem to get enough of a good thing.

Alan had never flown a Champ but took to it like a duck takes to water. After all, his Cub and my Champ were born in the same era competing for the trainer market which they dominated until the early '50s. I learned to fly in a Cub, a 1939 model, and Alan soon agreed that the Champ is slightly easier to fly and a little more comfortable than the Cub. Neither of us was willing to trade however.

The couple now calls Los Angeles home. Raised in Danbury, Ct., Alan was in the process of taking the airplane he'd owned for more than 15 years to California. Coast to coast in a J-3, navigation by reading a map, following roads and streams at a shade less than 80 miles an hour. It is a trip I would love to make just for fun. I have no illusions that Ann would consent to go on that excursion and in fact Tina was about used up and ready to quit. She looked forward to offloading in Denver, visiting her dad and finding another way on west. Alan planned to traverse the mountains solo. Probably a good idea even though his airplane had been upgraded with a 100 hp engine replacing the 65 hp Continental on its nose when it left the factory.

The epic trip coast to coast in a J-3 fits right in the life style chosen by Alan. In real life he works for Discovery Channel and is a videographer on the current "Deadliest Catch" television series. He described riding those storm tossed crab fishing boats in the frigid Bering Sea as fun and looks forward to returning to Alaska in November to film the next episode. I checked and sure enough there was Alan Pottasch listed in the credits!

We arranged an early morning ride for Alan in my boss's new 2007 version of my Champ now called a Citabria High Country Explorer. It is amazing how 60 years of improvements changed that airplane which is still manufactured on the same production type certificate issued so many years ago. But that is a story for another time.

Tina hadn't cleared the bed when Alan and I headed for the airport in the early morning cool.

She looked to be a latte' kind of lady so I left a note directing her toward the Bieroc for breakfast. Later when she showed at the airport she was more than excited to describe the customers she'd met there including Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley himself.

And she had pictures to prove it! Needless to say she loved her stay in McCook and they promised to return.

Saturday night I again happened to be at the airport about o'dark: thirty and heard an airplane taxi in and park. Business usually closes at 7 p.m. and the ramp had been deserted for hours. Investigating I found a man and his young daughter needing a ride to a motel. I gave them the keys to one of Griff's courtesy cars.

Off they went to the Chief for the little girl to enjoy a relaxing time in the pool and a night's rest. Dad and daughter were headed from Chicago to Montrose, Colo., in what I told him was the ugliest airplane I'd ever seen. Turns out the airplane was ex-Romanian Air Force advanced and fighter lead-in training aircraft. It has a modern US manufactured engine, retractable landing gear and room for two pilots and two passengers. It looked "heck for strong" in the tradition of eastern European design and is authorized for aerobatics.

The paint was about five different coats of military camouflage but the engine had a recent overhaul which made it worth the mid-fifties that the pilot said he'd paid for it. They too will be back through McCook.

Big headlines recently explaining how the population of McCook had decreased by over 500 persons since the last census. Just wondering if the new City budget will be decreasing by like amount?

That is the way I see it.