OK, November and I'm Just About Caught Up

 

Well, let's see. 

Mid November I stepped down from the Presidency of the local EAA Chapter (1016) and am in the process of handing over everything to the new Head Man In Charge.

Working with the chapter has been a lot of fun even with challenges that come with rebuilding a flagging organization. There are more active building projects than I can remember and signs that members are willing to take on more chapter commitments such as resurrecting the Young Eagles program and funding scholarships on a case by case basis. That's good stuff.

The new instrument package for the Glastar is on the way from Advanced Flight Systems so I'll have something new to work on over the winter. I'm switching from round, analog gauges to a glass cockpit display that will give me more information, more accurately than the 1990 technology that I inherited. Very recent developments in LED lighting tech may be available soon that will allow me to replace the old wingtip and position lights, too, with lighter, brighter ones. This new stuff is simpler and easier to work with as well as being more effective.

Then there's the biplane. For years I've lusted after one open cockpit biplane after another and one in particular that was built by the founder of our EAA Chapter. It's a Marquart Charger and has been stored away for about 5 years, not flying. My friend, Steve, bought the engine for his RV-4 project and I bought the airframe to restore and re-engine. It's in my barn now, waiting for a patient hand to work some magic. I'll keep you posted.

As found in storage and now, during initial inspection 

So the upshot for this month's report is I've been freed up to work on two projects of my own! I hope to have the Glastar back in the air by February or March ... the Charger will take a couple of years. In the meantime, I'm ready to do what I've intended to do for quite awhile and that, in itself, is really satisfying. Fingers crossed.

What happened to September?

 

OK. I'm just lazy. September came in with seasonal changes like fog, rain, etc .. and we didn't do a lot of flying. Then, weather turned fair and warm and we got out more, then we had this hurricane that fizzled out before it got to the mountains. So much for September

The big news was Triple Tree Aerodrome's fall fly-in. Triple Tree is this 7,000' long pool table in the middle (ok, upper middle) of South Carolina where airplane people go to enjoy people just like themselves. It's very popular among pilots who would rather see airplanes than fight through vendor tables full of trinkets, even though some of those trinkets like autopilots, radars, radios of all sorts and purposes and such as that can get pretty pricey.

This was my first time at Triple Tree when the weather was absolutely ideal for a fly-in and the crowd seemed to agree.

I'm close to retirement from the EAA chapter presidency and even closer to receiving components for the upgrade of my instrument panel in the Glastar. The 2000 vintage instruments work perfectly well, I just want to upgrade to a glass display and provide for an eventual easy upgrade to IFR avionics. Plus, having a project over the winter means I'll become even better acquainted with my airplane and I can do it at home in the barn. More on that when it happens . . . 

WHAT HAPPENED TO AUGUST??

 

Peering into the afternoon sun, the PILOT winds his way among the mountain ridges toward a perfect (of course) landing ... as if.

I have no idea what happened to August. It's already September and the big winter project is looming: the Glastar is going to the barn for several months while its instrument panel is upgraded. While it's there, I thought, I might as well replace the on/off fuel valve with a four-position valve (on/L/R/off) which will allow me to manage the gravity feed from my wing tanks. As it is, my tanks don't feed evenly and that makes me nervous. Apparently it's a Glastar thing. Oh, and while I'm there I might as well replace the old Whelen nav/strobe/position lights on the wingtips with new LED lights. That will save me some weight and with Whelens being pricey I might be able to sell my old ones and make that particular upgrade at minimal cost. I dream a lot.

Hmmm .. what's new?

I decided to allow my CFI certificates to lapse at the end of August. I did not renew. This is  the first time in 42 years (if I have that right) I have not been a flight instructor. This came after quite a bit of agonizing over the decision. On the one hand, I earned those certificates (Airplane, single and multi engine, instrument) ... on the other, I haven't really used them in years. In June, I signed off my last student for his instructor certificate and he passed his checkride. Not a bad way to go out. He earned it; I did very little. One last flight review in August and I was done.

Touched base with old friends in the flying community .. that was nice. Some I haven't talked with in years. They ask sometimes if I miss the jets .. no .. I don't, but I do miss the places I went and the people I met. Once in a while - a great while as it turns out - I am on an airport ramp where a turbine engine spools up and I catch a whiff of burned kerosene .. that's when the nostalgia kicks in, but only for a moment.

I'm happy, flying little airplanes and having breakfasts and lunches in the hangar with a good group of people. And the mountains ... don't forget the mountains.

July is for Firsts

When the moment comes, we have to seize the day!

My friend, Sid, made his first ultralight flight this month .. at 90, he was thrilled. This is the same guy who helped build and then flew a LongEZ across the North Atlantic and back in the late 1980s! That was before we civilians had GPS. After a career flying Cessna 210s, a VariEZ and that LongEZ (among other types), interspersed with his day job as a neurosurgeon, Sid quit California and moved to God's country with his wife, Penny, also a pilot and a "99". Many Happy Landings, Sid!

The EAA chapter meeting had a couple of fellows from the Charlotte FSDO FAA Safety Team present a program on flights into and out of non-tower controlled fields. That was the first time in a long time that we had FAA at a meeting. The last time was an Airworthiness Representative who has since retired and moved to South Carolina. In this summer heat wave, I expect he is wishing he could be here in the mountains. South Carolina and eastern NC can be pretty warm even in a normal summer.

The morning after the meeting I was inspired to fly a Dawn Patrol over the mountains and the views were spectacular .. the early morning fog in some of our valleys was just beginning to lift and the air was clear with broken layers to keep it comfy.

Sid's now former neighbor also move to South Carolina to follow his wife's career as an OB-GYN. They had been all over the world and his flying included membership in military flying clubs in the Tokyo area and in Virginia. They've settled about 40 miles from here in Greenville and Matt completed his flight review this week at Greenville Aviation, so he's on his way again after nearly a year and a half! Of course he sent the picture above to show us how much he enjoys being back in the air.

Progress is being made on a number of airplane projects and I'm putting together plans for a revamp of my instrument panel in the Glastar, hopefully this winter if the supplier can get all their components with the shortages in the supply chains these days.

So July 2022 is almost in the books and August plans are fleshing out. More flying, more friends gathering and sharing their stories. 

Off the airfield, we had to say goodbye to a dear and faithful companion. Josie was a few months shy of her 15th birthday when she just ran out of steam. There is a hole in our hearts, all our hearts - mine, Anina's and her 2 canine pals - as we carry on without her yet keep her spirit alive. If you've been there, you know what I mean.

Josie. 2007-2022

Around the Patch - June 2022

 

We caught a break in June .. some really nice flying weather early in the morning when it was cool .. Winds tended to pick up in the afternoons.

Friend Sid, refugee from California and long time pilot, has been making the transition from regular garden variety airplanes like his VariEZE, Cessna 210 and LongEZ to ultralights. A broken hip put him back a little but he's back in the seat and running taxi tests as I write this at the end of June.

We had a great EAA meeting in June at a private airfield and environmentally friendly preserve owned by a fellow who has built airplanes and races his RV-8 in various venues. It was quite a pleasure to be invited into his private space. To take a look, go to www.eaa1016.org 

The Glastar went in for its annual condition inspection and came through it with no squawks at all. I'm ready to move forward with an update to the instrument panel and am just waiting for Advanced Flight Systems to help me write the specification. Fuel prices have a lot of owners looking for the new avionics to help us fly as economically as possible.

So that's about it .. the Fairweather Flyers and EAA members just keep on keeping on.

April Is Soooo Changeable

 What a difference an hour or two can make when it's April in the mountains of Western North Carolina!

Those are snow clouds a week ago (9th) .. ever since it's been in the 70s during the days and 40s at night ... Lots of rain before, a little since and tomorrow it'll be a deluge. But today .... TODAY.. it was FLYING WEATHER!

Mark and Sid took off from Hendersonville (0A7) in Mark's RV-8 and I launched the Glastar for Rutherford County Airport (KFQD) and a rendezvous at the 57A Café on the field ... Ron is a reformed ultralight flyer who whips up the groceries and it's a popular spot. The picnic tables under roof provide an unobstructed view of the runway and sharing tables is the order of the day. You never know who you might meet there.

We had a few bumps on the way back over the mountains as the breeze from the South picked up, but it was a delightful way to celebrate one of the few really good flying days so far this month.

Earlier in the month, on the first Saturday (2nd), a week before our Dogwood Winter snow day, a gaggle of mountain airplanes descended upon Morristown TN for EAA 1494's monthly breakfast extravaganza ... a very popular event for locals as well as fly-in participants .. 

The Glastar makes the 2.5 hour car trip pretty easy .. and the breakfast is well worth the flight ... where else can you pop up for 37 minutes and spend an hour or so with ~400 of your closest friends, all in good humor and eating a classic Southern breakfast?

We're going to have a lot of good flying days ahead .. y'all come now, y'heah?

False Spring, Winter With a Vengeance, it's March

 Whaddaya expect, the Bahamas?

Our false spring, with temperatures in the 70s and sunshine, was brief ... maybe a week. Now the coffee break is over and we're back on our heads (ask a grey beard to tell you the joke), the last gusts of a winter reluctant to pass are upon us. March is the month that gave the mountaineers of Western North Carolina the Blizzard of '93, vividly remembered by the talking weatherheads on TV who weren't born yet. 

What was covered, on and off, with snow is now underwater thanks to the beavers who dam up the streams that drain our airport, sending our floodwaters via Bat's Fork to Mud Creek, the French Broad River, the Tennessee River, the Mississippi and then, finally to the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans will have to wait for this and while New Orleans waits, so do we.

And while we wait, we build airplanes. Here in Steve's workshop, we learn all about fitting wing ribs to the main spar of a pretty early Van's RV-4 kit. The early kits could be challenging. The components didn't always match up to the drawings and the instructions didn't either. Today's kits are much simplified with CNC dimensioned parts, pre-drilled and matched to fit precisely right. Steve is no novice builder, having built 2 other Van's airplanes, but he confessed he had used up the beer and wine pantry trying to figure out some of the bits and pieces of this RV. Fortunately, the kit had hardly been messed with during the 20-odd years other owners had it, though some of the parts have to be replaced due to corrosion, man or mouse made.

Mouse pee does not agree with aluminum.

All in all, March is a month when we begin to see the first glimmers of spring. We fix and fiddle and tweak in preparation for a season of flying. Then some damn fool starts a war and we have uncertainty and skyrocketing fuel prices and we start to wonder if there's a conspiracy to keep us from what we enjoy doing.

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose ... The more things change, the more they stay the same.

February 2022 - Winter Has Finally Arrived

 Here we are .. January has passed and weather has been remarkably good so far since the first day of winter. Then came February.

On the day I thought - maybe - I'd fly, this was the view:

Of course

That was the first blast and it was a good 'un. 11 inches of snow overnight and into the next day pretty much took care of a week's worth of melting before I might get to the hangar, and that would depend on some sunshine. That was last week.

This week's cold front with accompanying ice, snow and rain was much more civil. The Appalachian Mountains are our friends, sometimes, and split weather coming up from Texas so the bad cold stuff runs northeast up the west side of the range and the warmer, wet stuff runs along the south slopes, generally up I-85. We're at that blue dot, middle right in the screenshot below:

Mother Nature provides us with a snowplow of sorts when conditions are just right. As I write this, it's mid afternoon, the day after this was captured, and we have sunshine forecast for the next 5-6 days. There is hope.

Fly safely . . . .

Happy New Year - 2022!

 

Caught with his pants down, Kermit awaits new sparks

The LASAR ignition system that was originally installed on Kermit's Lycoming O-360 began hiccuping, defaulting from electronic to fixed timing (as it should in failure mode) during my last flight so I made a command decision to sacrifice some of the new instrument panel money for an up-to-date hybrid electronic ignition system. The winning combination is a Kelly impulse magneto on the left side and a SureFly electronic module on the right. That seemed to be the best for me as I don't like to put all my faith in electricity. In the event of a total electrical failure (admittedly a remote chance) I'll still have sparks coming from a technology that's well over 100 years old. What was good for tractors is good for me.

The new system works very well. SureFly mentions in passing that it may seem to skip a bit when doing the magneto/ignition check as part of the pre-takeoff checklist, but I did not find it disconcerting. In fact, when I slowed the test down a little (as they recommended) the skip was hardly noticeable.

The traditional Christmas Day flight was delightful, with calm winds and temperatures in the balmy, unseasonable 70s. New Year's Day was another story. Winds were blustery aloft, leading to moderate turbulence around the valley of the old French Broad (River). It was nice and warm, still in the 60s, but I was glad to get on the ground. All was well until I put Mark's airplane back in the hangar and learned the hard way how a wingtip can grow, putting a dent in the front fender of his Porsche. (Cringe)

Of course, Mark dug into the medicine kit and put a band-aid on it

Even with the gusty winds I did ok on my New Year's Day landing. I need some work on hangar operations, though.

The nice weather didn't last. It's a couple of days later when I'm writing this and a front came through last night that was pretty ferocious. Asheville, just up the road, reported winds in the 30-40kt range with gusts to 51kts, freezing rain, then snow. Temps that started today in the 50s are now, in mid afternoon, in the low 30s and we have snow on the ground, although that's going away with the wind, sun and residual ground temperatures.

I fear winter has arrived. There will be nice days, though, good for flying when we aren't tinkering with this or that. The air will be cold and, as Gordon Baxter once wrote, fat with lift. The Glastar will enjoy it and so will I.

Ho Hum .. Another Day, Another Pandemic

 It's somehow appropriate that I'm writing on the cusp of the shortest daylight of the year. I have this mental picture of a brainless millennial anguishing over global warming, pandemics and -OMG- the days are getting longer! If it weren't for stress there'd be no sign of life at all in these people.

Longer days mean more dayLIGHT, more time to poke around airplanes and more time to fly!

My ignition system has been replaced on the Glastar and the test flight went beautifully, though my electronic tach reads half the rpm .. Steve, an engineer friend, when he heard this, said "you've been to college", meaning no big deal; multiplication is not that hard. I suppose not, even for a theatre major, especially when the "times tables" don't extend past "two". I just pretend I'm flying behind a Kinner.

Our new pandemic iteration has the catchy sobriquet: "Omicron". Apparently it is more transmissible. I'm not going to worry until it gets to "Omega", the last letter in the Greek alphabet. In the meantime there's hot chocolate in the afternoon and Redemption Rye in the evening. What, me worry?

November, Late. 2021

Here it is, November already, and I'm just getting used to writing 2021 on things that must be dated. I'll join the chorus asking "where did the time go?".

This has been an interesting year. When our local EAA chapter found itself without a president I found a new job and it's been fun. We had our first meeting of the year in June and our number of attendees has increased every month since. The programs have been varied and interesting from local area ATC to 3D printing of airplane parts and accessories to a newly designed and flown 95% replica of a Ryan ST ... capped off with a Turkey Dinner night this month. What a great group of people!

The CallAir Cadet is gone after being a big part of my flying life for 9 years. It went to a fellow in Louisiana who is enjoying it immensely, along with his sons and grandsons. 

The Glastar is flying and flying well, although I ran into an ignition problem in the LASAR electronic ignition system earlier this month. It performed as advertised, defaulting to fixed timing from the special Slick magnetos, but the transition back and forth from electronic to magneto was disconcerting and probably not good for the engine. This prompted a decision to upgrade to a hybrid electronic/magneto system. Parts have arrived and the airplane is ready for the installation .. all that's needed is a warm-ish day and another project to move so I can get to it. 

There's not much else to report ... when it gets cold and the northwest winds howl through the venturi that is the valley of the French Broad River you don't see many light airplanes venturing out. A clear, crisp day sans wind, though, and the skies fill with airplanes and flying machines galore. Hope rises anew from days like that and the promise of spring has us fixing and polishing and sharpening our wits for the flying days ahead.

It's October. My favorite month.

Around here, that is to say the mountains of Western North Carolina, the fall of the year is generally considered to be the finest of all the seasons ... our trees' leaves begin to change colors from brilliant yellows to fiery reds, the days are cooler and the nights with bedroom windows open might cause a sleeper to draw a light blanket from storage. 

We Fairweather Flyers sip our morning coffee and wait for the ground fog to clear before enjoying flights where we behold all that nature has laid before us in the folds of these old mountains. Low and slow is the best way to see it all, something I enjoyed in the CallAir Cadet, but a little higher and faster is fine, too. 

Saturday mornings aren't too chilly for the hangar breakfast gatherings during the early days of October; Wednesday lunchtimes are just right for opening the doors and pulling our chairs out on the apron to catch a little of the sun before it heads South into November.

My friends have an opportunity to buy a unique airplane, the Marquart Charger built by the founder of our EAA chapter. The airplane is in need of some work to make it flyable and even more work to make it presentable, but it's available at a good price. I was interested until I learned to my dismay that the insurance companies have clamped down on ownership by groups of more than a very few partners, charging high premiums and imposing medical testing and training requirements over and above the FAA standards for older pilots, something I'm unwilling to do. While insurance isn't a legal requirement to operate an airplane, it is for me. 

Reflecting, I remember when Red finished the Charger and how I wished for an airplane like it. Now I wish I'd known he was going to sell it in 2016 - it may have saved me some pain. Oh well.

Our EAA Chapter has some great meetings at the WNC Air Museum and October was one of the best and most informative with member Ricky Brown explaining the virtues of the ATC facility at KAVL as best he could. They're a very good shop in a not-too-busy Class C airspace environment - from a pilot's perspective we get excellent handling from those folks.

EAA Chapter VP, Jacob, and I spent an invigorating couple of hours together dusting off his flying skills and re-familiarizing myself in his Cessna 182. Another flight or two and he'll be full up on his motor skills .. this with less than 100 hours logged and nearly 10 years since his last aviating. That's what happens when you're born into an aviation family and you've been flying (including early experience) all your life.

All in all, a great month here in the mountains ...

Fly safe ..

Alex

The End of the Affair, but not the Love

 Some time back I wrote that an airplane restoration is like a love affair: Any fool can start one but to end it requires some considerable skill, not to mention a measure of regret.

Our introduction. At first, I had no idea what this airplane was.

Then you do a little dancing, a slow dance to be sure, and you're hooked.

You spruce her up over 3 1/2 years and you take her home to Mama ...

... and Mama and her whole family come out to see her, and approve.

Then comes the day. You're getting older and find it harder to get in and out of the airplane. Your strength is beginning to wane a bit and makes hand-propping more and more difficult. It's time to find a new machine more suitable, and you do. But there is that tinge of regret at letting go of a one of a kind, one that was once a glamor girl on the cover of a magazine and a trophy winner among others of her generation.

She appeared in at least three magazines in her fresh, new-old look

One day, the CallAir Cadet is gone; Sold, but with silver linings around those clouds of uncertainty. The man who bought it for his family earned his private pilot certificate in an Interstate Cadet, the parent of the CallAir, in the 1950s; and not only his private, his commercial certificate as well. We had talked, off and on, for over two years.  You get to know someone you've never met over that long a time. He is the right person, with the right family and the appreciation for a fine machine, to take her from me.

My telephone friend I never met sent his Grandson to fly the CallAir to her new home

Tail tied down, one last flip of the prop ...

... Those last minute words ...

... and she's on her way.

Grandpa said "You know what sold me on your airplane? The tailwheel."

He liked the original tailwheel Interstate used for their airplanes.

I think there was more to it than that. He bought it sight unseen. Once the Cadet was home he wrote, "It's nice." That said a lot from a man who has lived airplanes all his life and passed his love down to his children and grandchildren,

So yes, she's gone, but not forgotten and never will be. I don't think I've been as attached to a machine as I have been to this one. Perhaps it's because this airplane was a forgotten verse in the old song of classic aviation that I decided to bring back to original and then some. There are no regrets at having done that, no regrets about the time and money spent and certainly no regrets knowing that the right family will be taking care of her.

The first time I saw and heard her in the air was the last time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIqOvO4Zx3k

Getting back in the groove

 This weekend the weather was a pilot's dream .. not too hot, not too cool, calm-ish winds and nary a cloud in the sky. The bumps weren't even bumpy and that made for a great ride in the CallAir Cadet from my home base at the Western North Carolina Air Museum in Hendersonville NC to Morristown TN, just across the mountains.

My friend Bill, in his Light-Sport CTLS, gave me a 15 mile head start and passed me abeam Snowbird VOR, despite my best efforts. The CallAir has the terminal velocity of a barn door .. once at cruise speed, there you are. (My Stratus ADSB-IN displays on an iPad - he eyeballed me but I never did see him 2,000 feet above, no doubt laughing).

Once past the "escarpement" (Bill likes to use words like that) I tried an old trick to get an extra couple of klicks worth of gofast, putting the CallAir into a shallow descent while maintaing thrust, but no dice. He was pulling off the runway at KMOR ahead of a Swift on final as I entered the pattern.

Looking just one way toward the antiques/classics there were a lot of interested people on the ramp. I'm guessing 35-40 airplanes in all, 7 of them from our EAA chapter 1016 at Asheville. The experimentals were behind me and I completely missed the opportunity to get a picture of them. Well, almost.

This F1 Rocket was perfection itself .. what a magnificent airplane. The workmanship is just incredible. 

All in all a great day. The ride home was the reverse of the outbound course and it was still fairly smooth despite being 1,000' feet lower and closer to the ridge tops. I don't think I've been low-level in this part of the woods for a very long time, if ever. After a year of very little activity it's really nice to get out and see new faces, forget new names and share in the one thing we all love - Flying!

First EAA Meeting of 2021

 My local EAA chapter scheduled the first meeting of 2021 (actually, the first meeting in a year and a half) for May 11. The weather was forecast to be fair and warm, the enthusiasm was running pretty high and food was bought for 50 with hopes we'd have to make a run for more. Volunteers, usually hard to come by, were eager to set up.

Then, 3 days before the meeting, hackers disrupted the fuel supply for most of the east coast by worming their way into the software of the Colonial Pipeline Co. People rushed to buy fuel and pretty soon it was 1974 all over again. (For those still relatively wet behind the ears, there was a fuel crisis for real back then that lasted for months). Our members had second thoughts but we pressed on with the meeting and counted 14 meal tickets in the jar when all was said and done. A week later and the crisis is averted - at least for now.

The program had to be truncated a bit owing to a distant presenter using his better judgement to stay home, but we got in most of our agenda and we can say it was a start. 

Until June 8: Build light and strong, fly safe, keep well.

A Fine Day Out

What a great day to fly! The Glastar has been champing at the bit and I’ve been wanting to stretch its legs so we hopped over to Andrews in hopes of a visit to Bipe, Inc. and it’s owner, Jerry Stadtmiller. Leo and I met Jerry last October when we flew the CallAir to Tusquittee Landing, just south and east of Andrews. 

Jerry has been restoring airplanes forever, first in south Florida then in the far west of North Carolina. If you read Lisa Turner’s columns in Sport Aviation, Jerry is Mr Lisa Turner or Lisa is Mrs Jerry Stadtmiller ... either way they are a super knowledgeable pair of airplane people and they’ve invited us over for a visit and tour through Jerry’s restoration shop. Take an advanced look at www.bipeinc.com 

With Sun-n-Fun next week, and the first flight of Jerry’s newly restored Waco UPF-7 (the airplane is good enough to eat, no sugar needed. I’ve never seen such a gorgeous airplane), I expect it will be a couple of weeks before we can launch an expedition. 

Meanwhile, the work and workmanship continues. Did you see that Eagle? Many hours per stripe and that was just the prep!

The nicest guy .. the most willing to help fellow .. just what the doctor ordered to keep the enthusiasm burning.

50th Anniversary Flying

 It'll be 50 years next month since I first slipped the surly bonds of earth without someone else in the airplane. To write that it was likely the most exciting thing in my life would be overstating a bit - those were exciting days all lumped together; marriage, children, college graduation, my OCS commission - all those have to count ahead of flying but it was flying that marked the beginning of my professional life and the realization of childhood dreams.

After 50 years aloft in various airplanes from J3s to jets I have been told by the insurance underwriter that my flying days in the CallAir Cadet are all but over, at least as far as that airplane is concerned. Oh, they'd renew, but only on the condition that I jump through hoops far beyond FAA Airman Certification Standards and then there was the price - stupid ridiculous. The Cadet is a Light-Sport compliant airplane, restored to better-than-new and a sweetheart to fly. 

I've known pilots who complained about this or that in a headstrong way and I've been able to calibrate my BS meter pretty accurately where they are concerned. I've known pilots who faced an arbitrary number, first 60 then 65, when they were told they were too old to fly for the airlines. I've also known pilots who flew safely into their 90s and the age thing never entered my mind - until it happened to me. I vaulted over 75 during the last year; apparently that makes a difference to my insurance company.

Mark Baker of AOPA and Jack Pelton of EAA have expressed concern about the insurance situation. I hope they can drill some sense into the underwriters. It's ability, experience and judgement that makes the difference, not age.

So while my ownership of the CallAir Cadet comes to a conclusion, I have no regrets for the time or the money or the care I've lavished on this airplane. It was, from the first, an orphan born of the same regard for a fine machine as mine; we were supposed to meet sooner or later and I'm glad we did.