They were truly great days for flying. I earned my wings in an Aeronca 7AC which was a tandum 2 seater were the instructer sat in the back seat. The only gauges in the cockpit were an airspeed indicator, altimeter, compass, tach and an engine temp. indicator. There was not even a fuel gauge. Instead there was a rod sticking up in front of the windshield attached to a bob in the fuel tank right in front of the pilot. I even got to fly in a bipe for a short ride around the airport with the pilot/owner friend of my famous flight instructor who was also a NYC disk jockey and the first airborn traffic reporter, all from his airplane that I flew while he reported traffic, smoked and drank coffee.

Since then I flew a multitude of different single engine planes and once had the controls of a Gulfstream One for about 30 minutes when I was being flown to PAX River flight test center to find out how to get a fleet of Navy airplanes back in the air. I was the only guy on the airplane besides the pilot who was a long time friend of mine who learned to fly with the same flight instructor at the same time. He chose to advance as a commercial pilot while I went to college to become an aircraft design engineer. We wound up working for the same company.

Truly unforgetable days,
O & W