As many of you know who have read these pages filled with wit, wisdom, and nonsense, and not in any particular order, Jack Maybolt is a multifaceted genius in his own mind.
He can drive a tractor, pull a calf, catch a fish, cook an omelette, pour syrup without spilling a drop, eat enough food and drink enough water to keep a man alive for over 60 years, all the while conforming to which ever woman was controlling his life at the time. First his mother and her mother, then a series of babysitters, teachers, girlfriends and then wives. He learned his tact for women from his father who like himself only went along with the nonsense of the demands made on him for the sweet surprise promised for a later time. When his father lost interest in the fairer sex, he was dead within 6 months. I do not know if there is a connection but I am not willing to risk it at my age. Anything can happen.
I have made my way back into aviation over the past four months after amassing over 1500 hrs of flying small airplanes without a fatality, I sold my third airplane in April of 2004 and thought I would never again lift off the ground with me at the controls. I was wrong. My nephew, Tonto Maybolt, whose mother is a full blood Choctaw squaw, has dyslexia and is not burning up the grades at school and his mother, Running Bear, came over and sought my advice for young Tonto, all I could recommend is flying. So I started looking for a good used airplane to buy so we could teach Tonto how to fly and perhaps get him a job with that skill.
Flying a plane is not as hard as it might seem. If you make the plane go fast enough it will fly. The planes I have had in the past all flew at 60 mph and stopped at 59 mph. The trick to keeping them flying seems to be keeping your airspeed up until you want to land. Then slow the plane and bring it down and have it stop flying or "stall" it a few inches over a runway. It is a learned skill best practiced over and over so as not to get it wrong.
The other pitfalls of flying your own plane include not getting in over your head. Things to avoid for the new timer low time pilot include bad weather. A small plane will not fly with parts broken off. Many pilots have met their doom by flying into thunderstorms. Likewise planes can become overloaded by ice very quickly and will not fly in that condition. Cold air plus clouds is a no go for the pilot of a small plane. I flew into a blizzard one night over Wyoming and was only saved by a gizmo called a "wing leveler" and my very strong guardian angel who guided me safely past Elk Mountain's 11,400 foot peak. I learned how to control the aircraft by instruments alone after that night of terror so as to lessen the load on my angel.
Buying more airplane than you can fly is another great pitfall. In the 40's Beechcraft produced a really fast airplane which became known as the "V-Tail Doctor Killer". It was not a bad airplane, on the contrary it was a great plane, but it was so fast, many inexperienced pilots, and a great number of them were physicians who flew infrequently, would get behind in things like landings, weather, and options for remedies once a misstep was made flashed by too fast for a recovery. A lot of good doctors who were poor pilots wound up in the twisted wreckage of a V-Tail Bonanza, but for some very strong divine interventions I might have met my end in a straight tail Cherokee and become the 30th plane lost up on Elk Mountain.
Small airplane prices have plummeted in the past 6 years. Blame the economy, blame $5 a gallon aviation fuel, or blame the democrats, prices of small planes are off by about 30% over the highs before 2008. It is a bad time for sellers, but a great time for buyers. It is a buyer's market. I found a local plane, a 1968 Cherokee 180 with low total time and low overhaul time on the engine for less than I paid for the same plane in 1989, my first plane, when you adjust the price for inflation. I had a knowledgeable aircraft mechanic look it over and purchased it for Tonto and me. I got current and after flying about 10 hrs, all the memories of flight came back and I was comfortable in my skills and up in the air again. I have over 25 hrs flying now in this new plane and the other one I bought which goes much faster than the Cherokee 180.
I will not say what the other plane is but it travels at 180mph at cruise, where as the Cherokee 180 putts along at 124 mph. I can fly from my home airport to Pensacola, Fl in 2.5 hrs in the faster plane.
The faster plane was designed in 1954 by Al Mooney for Mr. Piper and the first ones rolled off the assembly line in 1958. They are sleek and fly like fighter planes. They have many airworthy directives which must be complied with yearly but they are worth the trouble because as one owner put it "they are the closest thing to flying a P-51 mustang the general aviation pilot can achieve".
Oh I almost forgot, I am seeking public office right here in Cedar Grove. A spot on the airport commission has opened up. I am running.
I hope you will support me.
Jackson Delano Maybolt, President Urban Poverty Law Center
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