Had the distinct pleasure of watching Gordon Price up close over the weekend at CYND and doing some formation with him and a Pitts Model 12 and AN2. Gord is ~80 and flew F104's as did the Colonel's dad. Must be something about an F104 but that's two elder aerobatic pilots who have mightily impressed me .. actually three because Manfred Radius does a hell of a routine in his glider.
Definitely role models for us 'middle aged' pilots.
Aerobatics as you get older
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Colonel
- Posts: 2517
- Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2020 10:02 pm
- Location: Over The Runway
Gord Price is a funny guy. I remember a few years ago, a bunch of us were sitting with
our aircraft in the big hangar at Geneseo on Saturday, watching it rain outside instead
of flying an airshow. Weird to think of that, I haven't seen rain in months. Driving my
wife's car a while back - I don't own a car or truck any more - I tried to run the windshield
wipers to clean the brown desert dust off windshield, and I didn't know how to turn them
on. Funny how life changes.
Back to Geneseo, watching it rain with Gord Price. I get my tools out to pull a wheel pant
on a Pitts, and Gord reaches into the tail of his Yak and pulls out a violin. Maybe he flies
acro with it in there, all the time. I dunno.
Anyways, Gord starts to play a nice tune on his violin. I think it was "Ode To The Unflown
Sequence" by Bach. Or maybe Chopin.
Aviation has the neatest people. You can't make this sh1t up.
Rain at Geneseo. Reminds me. It started to pour another year, so around noon, Rob Holland
and I head into town, and we eat a pizza and pop. He quizzes me about all the people taking
a dump on me.
Anyways, Rob and I go back to the airport, and everyone is gone. But the sun comes out,
and the waivered airspace is still on. It dries up pretty quickly, and Rob and I taxi out in our
airplanes and spend the afternoon during surface acro. Unlimited slots. It was a pretty
good way to spend a rainy day, eating pizza with Rob and then flying surface acro all afternoon.
If that's all I ever did in aviation, that wouldn't be all that bad.
To be honest, I'm not really missing that "rain" thing very much. In fact, it's pretty nice to be
able to ride your motorcycle to the airport to fly your biplane nearly every day of the year.
My kid - he took the picture of me above - is a lot smarter than me. Moved here when he was
22 with the ink still wet on his undergrad engineering degree. He's pretty good at that formation
thing - he was flying formation aerobatics before he got his PPL, even if the instructor that taught
him isn't "eligible" to hold a flight instructor rating in Canada any more.
Weird. When I started flying formation with these, it just made Arlo, Rotten Ronnie and the rest
of the Tower C crew hate me even more. I wonder why?
our aircraft in the big hangar at Geneseo on Saturday, watching it rain outside instead
of flying an airshow. Weird to think of that, I haven't seen rain in months. Driving my
wife's car a while back - I don't own a car or truck any more - I tried to run the windshield
wipers to clean the brown desert dust off windshield, and I didn't know how to turn them
on. Funny how life changes.
Back to Geneseo, watching it rain with Gord Price. I get my tools out to pull a wheel pant
on a Pitts, and Gord reaches into the tail of his Yak and pulls out a violin. Maybe he flies
acro with it in there, all the time. I dunno.
Anyways, Gord starts to play a nice tune on his violin. I think it was "Ode To The Unflown
Sequence" by Bach. Or maybe Chopin.
Aviation has the neatest people. You can't make this sh1t up.
Rain at Geneseo. Reminds me. It started to pour another year, so around noon, Rob Holland
and I head into town, and we eat a pizza and pop. He quizzes me about all the people taking
a dump on me.
Anyways, Rob and I go back to the airport, and everyone is gone. But the sun comes out,
and the waivered airspace is still on. It dries up pretty quickly, and Rob and I taxi out in our
airplanes and spend the afternoon during surface acro. Unlimited slots. It was a pretty
good way to spend a rainy day, eating pizza with Rob and then flying surface acro all afternoon.
If that's all I ever did in aviation, that wouldn't be all that bad.
To be honest, I'm not really missing that "rain" thing very much. In fact, it's pretty nice to be
able to ride your motorcycle to the airport to fly your biplane nearly every day of the year.
My kid - he took the picture of me above - is a lot smarter than me. Moved here when he was
22 with the ink still wet on his undergrad engineering degree. He's pretty good at that formation
thing - he was flying formation aerobatics before he got his PPL, even if the instructor that taught
him isn't "eligible" to hold a flight instructor rating in Canada any more.
Weird. When I started flying formation with these, it just made Arlo, Rotten Ronnie and the rest
of the Tower C crew hate me even more. I wonder why?
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