By Jerry Rosie (USUA #A86096)

Welcome again enthusiastic aviators! Or is that aviation enthusiasts?

Here it is June already and we find ourselves in the middle of Summer and the flying season. We waited long enough for it to get here and, from the number of events listed for the next couple of months, it looks like most of you are taking advantage of it. We are waiting with rapt anticipation for the reports of the many activities to hit the newsletters so we can pass the fun along to our faithful readership. As it is, current newsletters show a great number of activities are in the planning stages. [Insert link to events listing] Of the newsletters we've received, there are two pieces of good news that I'd like to share with you.

The first comes from USUA Club One. Their newsletter announces that one of their club members, Tom Richards, has just purchased Warrenton Airpark (Virginia). The newsletter further outlines Tom's mid- and long-term plans for improvement of the facility. This includes lengthening the paved surface of the runway. It looks like Club One will have a nice home for the foreseeable future, and not have to fear airport closings as many of our locations have recently.

The second bit of good news also comes to us from Club One. One of its talented members, Jim Heidish, recently presented USUA's Chairman of the Board, Lew Clement (also a member of Club One), with an original painting commemorating one of Lew's more memorable moments while on active duty with the US Air Force. The following explanation accompanied the painting. "The painting illustrates a moment in history, the skies over Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, in the winter of 1957. Then Captain (now Colonel, Retired) Lew Clement, piloting from the right seat for more visibility, is banking his C-47 photo plane to the left after a low angle photo run. The subject of the photo mission is a B-36, the last of the big piston powered bombers, that was modified to carry the airframe of a B-58 (less engines). The B-58 supersonic bomber was still in pre-production at Convair and needed to be tested at Wright Air Development Center."

In accepting the painting, Lew commented, "Aviation art is difficult to do well. The depictions in this painting have been done as well as I have ever seen." Well done to both members of Club One!

The final note for this month's "Around The Patch" is a personal one and is presented, not to highlight how incredibly stupid I can be, but to serve as a caution for the rest of you folks who Fly for Fun. A couple of weekends ago, Bermudian Valley Airpark held its annual Chili Cook Off and I arrived early to help out where and when needed. Not much was going on at the time so I decided to crank up 'Plum Krazee' and shoot a couple of touch and goes to pass the time. The wind was just on that edge where you are not sure you should really be flying a light little airplane in it, but, it was good practice and I made a couple of acceptable landings. Acceptable, but it was work, and not fun, so I hangared Plum Krazee and decided to spend the rest of the day eating and not flying. Along about 1830, however, the wind dropped to nothing, and a good number of folks attending the Chilifest were flying, after having eaten their fill. It looked like so much fun was being had, that I changed my original plan and decided to take to the sky.

Now everyone knows that with all those folks watching, I just had to show off a little. The first point of showing off was that I would demonstrate what a great little engine I had, by having it start on one or two blades. In furtherance of this desire, I 'over primed' it and flooded the engine.

To clear the engine, standard practice is to shut off the master switch, open the throttle and crank the engine backwards four or five blades. This went well. I turned the switch to the 'on' position and gave the prop a spin. She started immediately -- and to my horror -- also started moving immediately! I dove for the throttle as horror stories of runaway airplanes flashed through what I was using for a mind. Of course, I was about 1/10 of a second late and the next thing I remember is sitting on my butt, looking over my left shoulder at Plum Krazee's nose buried in the turf and about 12 inches of shredded wood where the propeller used to be.

After cleaning up the blood dripping down my right arm, I did my own initial accident investigation and - you guessed it - my starting procedure had been excellent EXCEPT that, in my hurry to get airborne and show off, I had neglected to return the throttle to idle. I had started the engine with the throttle full open.

In retrospect this $1000 plus "training exercise" (we are still adding up the costs), could have been worse. Had I not used my aging body as a wheel chock, with a wide open throttle, very smooth air, and no pilot weight to contend with, that little airplane would have taken off and flown for at least two hours. As it was, no one was hurt, the damage to the airplane can be fixed in a couple of weeks, and my pilotless aircraft did not violate the TFR over Camp David - the general direction in which it was headed when it started moving.

After the show was over, one of my hangar neighbors came up to me and, putting his arm over my shoulder said, "You know, Jerry, God must have something else in mind for you to do yet. As dumb as you are, He must want you to stick around for a reason." And that about sums it up.

Maybe what I'm supposed to do is add my voice to those you have heard many times in the past asking that you "get your head into aviation before you put your head into an airplane". No matter how much you might want to impress the crowd or how impatient you might be to get into the air, there is nothing more important than following the safe and proven practices required to fly your airplane. It never hurts to check anything too many times!

Now please - Fly Safely out there!