By LORAN MALONEY
When I was growing up, No. 1 on my Bucket List was becoming a pilot.
My first memory of being hooked on becoming a pilot was when I was just 8 years old in 1955. My dad went on a business trip, departing from Lambert Airport in St. Louis. Back then, you could walk to the departure gate to see your loved ones off on their journey.
Through the windows, I could see his plane, a Trans World Airlines Lockheed Constellation, also known as a “Connie.” It was the biggest airplane I’d ever seen — and the first one I’d seen up close.
We watched as Dad climbed the stairway and entered the plane. Mom then drove us to a public viewing area at the west end of the main runway. We got out of the car and waited for Dad’s flight to depart.
I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest as the roaring Connie flew directly overhead at perhaps 200 feet. I thought I just saw a miracle.
And then I said to myself, “I gotta do that someday.”
“Someday” came in 1997 when I earned my private pilot certificate. I have been flying for over 20 years now.
Although I will never command four roaring engines or an aircraft the size of the Connie, I can tell you that when I am taxiing my Cherokee Warrior towards the active runway, I feel like a million bucks.
I know what is coming. I love what is coming and I want more of what is coming.
Want to feel like a millionaire without actually being one? Become a pilot.
This is the debut of a new feature called “One Pilot’s View.” Pilots are encouraged to submit their own views about flying and being a pilot. Send them to [email protected].
Nice Pic of the TWA Connie; started out my career as F/E on that wonderful machine. I agree with 704195’s comments to gbigs and HiFlite’s as well. I got to experience that on the Connie’s. At age 17, in 1952, I bought an unlicensed 1936 J-2 40hp Cub (no brakes!), for $150.00; that started me on my 62 yr love affair with the sky.
Peter, Paul, & Mary – ” in the early morning rain, … out on runway number 9, big 707 set to go. … hear the mighty engines roar …”
I did a very short career in PanAm’s B-707’s. But in the Navy I flew WV-2’s, which became the USAF designated EC-121. And which all of us commonly know as the “CONNIE”. With a heavy load, you climbed away from the runway at less than 500 FPM. But we flew them through ice, snow, and one of our groups purposely flew them into hurricanes.
And I really liked the challenge of landing the D-18. In the Navy we referred to it as “the Beech” — an SNB.
I have a special love for the Connie. In 1963, I took my first flight in a Constellation. We flew from Idlewild (now JFK) to Shannon, Ireland for refueling, and on to Gatwick, London, England–quite a trip for a 12 year old! I was terrified before the takeoff, and in love within 10 seconds afterwards. I earned my pilot’s license shortly after I turned 18, and flew regularly for a number of years, first in club rentals, and later in my own airplanes which I co-owned with my new husband. We sold our second plane, an AA1 Yankee while I was pregnant with our first child. Unfortunately, she was born with spina bifida, and family was the priority from then on. I miss those days…I’m medically unable to fly now.
I really liked this story. Only the names and dates need be changed and it would be mine.
Great stories one and all; I flew on those TWA Connies as a Flt. Engineer during my first year as a new pilot for TWA in 1965 for about 500 hours. It was an absolute blast running those Wright 3350s!
My dad flew in WW1. He was trained at Randolph Field and they shipped him to NY, telling him his commission as Lieutenant would meet him there, but it didn’t and he arrived in France without it. He was assigned, as a private to go out with a couple mechanics and fix up airplanes that didn’t make it back to the Field near Metz and fly them back to the field. He told me of flying a Neuport with the Gnome-Rhone engine and said that it required full rudder and stick to keep it level and it still flew sideways on takeoff.
I started in 1951, swapping pumping gas and wiping windshields at the grass field near our farm for rides. Back then, plane rent for a Champ was $5 and the instructor was $3. My first instructor had taught P-51s and on our first flight as we finished the lesson, he did a split S to go back to the field.
I”m still current but will need to find another instructor for a check ride soon, My regular guy just passed away a few months ago. Just completed one of those Master Pilot Awards.
Thanks for sharing. Thought is was a typo at first. WW1? Never really thought about mechanics going out in the field like that to recover aircraft that didn’t make it all the way back home.
From my book WORLD FLIGHT, THE EARHART TRAIL.
“Airplanes had always been remote objects, flying overhead on their way to Midway Airport, and coming into sharper focus only when I was taken there to meet relatives. A shiver would run through me as i watched the giants of the night taxi toward the terminal, red and green lights glowing. At that time the planes seemed like voyagers from an unknown realm, so foreign was the world aloft.
Watching planes depart was worse. I waited until appropriate goodbyes had been said, then hurried to the observation deck and ran outside Starters whined, propellers turned slowly, and then black exhaust curled out as the round engines coughed and finally caught with a steady roar. The plane trundled slowly to the runway, waited what seemed in interminable interval, and then, engines snarling, charged forward and climbed toward a distant blue. No matter how far I, learned over the observation deck railing, trying to keep that plane in sight, silver wings became a silver speck and disappeared. Someday, I had vowed, I would be the one departing but had never imagined learning to fly.”
(Yes, i did obtain my silver wings when I flew a Lockheed 10 Electra around the world on the Earhart Trail in 1967.)
Ann, your words are an inspiration to all pilots and, even better, all future pilots. Thank you for sharing.
Great to hear a comment from you,I sure hope you get in the air still from time to time.
No,we never met but I fell in love with the Beech 18 when working at Pontiac MI. To take an Electra around the world must have been exceptional. I got to go right seat in the Beeches whenever we changed engines and they were magnificent,but no Lockheed.
hello, greg yes, i garnered some D-18 time when preparing for the world flight with pilots on freight flights out of metro
i felt the locheed was easier to fly, and i could see ahead out of the windshield straight to where i was taxiing
always made wheel landings very excellent control during touchdown and rollout no swerving of any kind even crosswind landings were no problem
in short, i loved that lockheed that lee had restored we NOT ONE problem with the plane during the whole flight
every switch, control, etc. worked as it was supposed
a real tribute to lee’s great abilities i was never worried during the flight we all felt the plane was ready and so we were a wonderful flight in all aspects
i was happy to share the experience with many audiences throughout the country i took them with me as we flew the earhart trail
thanks for your comment
take care, get some D-18 time again
ann
Hi Ann .. we corresponded some years back when I was searching for a copy of World Flight .. (I did finally find one). I see accounts from time to time that mention you’re still flying and every time you do I’m right there with you along with who knows how many others who enjoyed your descriptions of the trip.
Keep on keeping on!
Sadly, out of print and no Kindle/eBook edition. 🙁
Something is lost without the possibility of being lost. GPS, both on the ground and in the air, lets you know exactly where you are, without ever “being” there, not to mention experiencing the process of becoming found.
Most oldsters will know exactly what I mean, while youngsters be like huh?
Check Amazon. They have copies from about $25 up. (Sorry, I took the one at $21.)
hello deborah and others who commented about world flight
i am in the process of writing
WORLD FLIGHT, THE EARHART TRAIL 50TH
ANNIVERSARY EDITION 1967-2017
have the first half done it will be the 1971 edition of the flight with photos in color (but the last part about the mystery, etc. will be removed)
the last part will be the 50 years after the flight wow -i even met jimmy doolittle quite by accident and was able to thank him in person for how he and shell helped the flight before and after i was tongue tied, wow
did LOTS of stuff relative to the flight all around the U.S.A. during those 50 years, and YES – they did fly by FAST still writing on that half
ann
There’s the old joke – How do you become a millionaire in aviation? Start with 2 million. 🙂
Early in my corporate flying career I flew copilot for an old guy who had survived flying B24s in WWII. As I became impatient because the pax were late, he said, “You know, we live just like millionaires. Today I called you up and invited you to go to Hilton Head for a fresh boiled shrimp lunch in my million dollar turboprop. Here we are after lunch having a smoke under palm trees with the company paying for it all. Don’t you feel like a millionaire?” My perspective was forever changed.
If you are flying a 40=50 year old Cessna, Piper or an underpowerd RV you are not a millionaire and are flying low, slow and in a very limited range. If you are flying a Cirrus SF50, Hondajet or TBM/Pilatus then you are likely a millionaire and are flying high, fast and coast to coast in style and comfort. Billionaires of course are riding higher and faster in cabin-class Gulfsteams or Embraer Phenoms and able to fly anywhere in the world but they are likely not piloting themselves.
You seem to have completely missed the gist of the story.
Yep!
You need to be a ,millionaire to afford to fly nowadays.
Not if someone is paying you to fly for them.
I was a pilot for 48 years and earned a CFI, owned numerous tail draggers and built a RANS S-10. I didn’t feel like a accomplished pilot until I started flying aerobatics in my Citabra 7KCB. That should be on the bucket list of all pilots.
. It’s hard to describe to youngsters ( <40 ) what airline flying was like back then. Walking right up to the plane was one thing. Not only that, but passengers were dressed in their Sunday best and in a time when the FAA standard passenger weight of 170 lbs was realistic. Every boarding looked like it could substitute staging for a magazine cover – very glamorous.
Public viewing areas were numerous and beloved by kids, not to mention the freebies handed out to passengers magically appeared in toy boxes long after the trip was over.
Very nice article, congrats!
Great expressive sentiment! I feel exactly the same way. I don’t need an expensive jet or complicated avionics – just being airborne is all I need. The sky is my second home and I love being there.
When I was about 6 years old or so in the mid-sixties, our family took a driving vacation to California (that was when California was such a cool place to be) to visit my uncle. He was a pilot and he said he would take us all flying. Before we left on that trip, I set out some clothes on my bed and told my mom these were my “flying clothes” and I wanted to wear them when my uncle took us flying. Well that’s exactly what happened – in a brand new Cherokee 140. That experience was life-changing and I’ve never been the same since.