So one day Uncle Ted asked me to accompany him to the airplane so he could do something or another. I agreed as I really wanted to see his new toy. This toy got under his wife's skin as Aunt Lorraine thought that it was too dangerous a hobby.
So we get there and he's putting stuff into the plane and then softly said, "get inside and duck down." I thought that is was unusual but I did it anyway. I'm in the captains seat hunched down as Ted guns the motor and off we go down the grass runway. I was able to sit up straight once we were airborne. So now we're flying and I ask him why I had to hide? He said that he didn't have a passenger rating. Now I'm thinking that I'm going to jail at the ripe old age of 10. Surely the FBI must know about this and I'm equally sure that they will be waiting with rubber hoses and bright lights at our destination.
He's showing me that the plane has twin fuel tanks as we are flying, one in each wing. So he's switching the fuel tanks back and forth to show me when the motor starts to stall do to a lack of fuel. It did restart but not before he's scared shitless so we land in the Gary regional airport and buy more fuel. We didn't need it but he scared himself into needing to land. They did not ask for his rating either so we're off once again.
We take off and we're headed to Michigan where he has a summer home. He asks me if I've ever flown before and I answer no I haven't. So he has me put my feet on the pedals and we make some slow fishtails. That was fun. Next he has me put my hands on the steering column. I do and he's now showing me what that can do. I'm starting to like this!
All of a sudden he lets go of everything and yells, "fly it ya little bastard!" I'm petrified and trying to hold the plane level. Uncle Ted is a good 300 lb.s more than me so his side of the plane is dipping by about 2 feet. He tells me to steer a little but and hit the rudder and we'll level out. So I'm trying my best but I just can't since he's so heavy. I start to hit the rudder and to get more leverage, I start pulling back on the yoke. Now I've got the plane spiraling steeply upward to the left and Uncle Ted is in a panic because we're bleeding off air speed and "gravity is a bitch just like my wife" he screams. I'm barely listening as we start to roll over and he grabs the controls out of my hands, corrects the flight path and we're level now. My heart is spinning faster than the propellers and I'm drenched with sweat.
We arrive at the Dowigiac, Michigan airport. I'm still as pale as a ghost and shaking and who is there to meet us? A very angry Aunt Lorraine. I would much rather have the FBI with the rubber hoses because she was staring a hole through me. I had to secure the plane to the ground cables in the assigned revetment while Uncle Ted is trying to justify why he broke the law by flying me. She should know what the hell else that he did! We survived and drove Aunt Lorraine's brand new Cadillac back home-in the strictest silence. I think that Aunt Lorraine did not break her soul draining stare or uncross her arms once at Uncle Ted the whole 2 hours that it took to get home either. We turned into their driveway and they shut off the motor and I broke out with a full speed run that would have a track star looking on and shaking his head in approval. I have to tell the neighborhood guys what I did!
As a footnote, I joined the Air Force/Air National Guard years later and if the Military Training Instructors had asked me I I've ever flown before, I said no. Who the hell knows what they would have done?
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