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Contrails: Looking for Bubba
By Steve Weaver
He was, way country. I was a West Virginia country boy too, back there in the late ‘60s when I met Bubba, but this guy was light years ahead me. He exuded the aura of his mountaineer heritage, and you could hear his roots in his speech and see ancient times in his countenance.
In age, he was a few years beyond my own late 20s when I met him. He had been raised by his grandparents on a mountainside farm, where the folds of the Appalachians first rise up out of the foothills of Central West Virginia and begin their march to the Piedmonts.
He had enlisted in the service after high school, more to have a job than as a career choice. In those opportunity-starved years, the old West Virginia saw of ‘coal mines, moonshine or movin’ on down the line’ applied to almost every boy unable to go on to college after high school. And so Bubba moved on, into the blue uniform of the U.S. Air Force, and after basic training was stationed at a Strategic Missile site in North Dakota.
College Time Flights and Buzzes
By Charlie Briggs
To the glee of me and the distress of my fraternity members at Sigma Nu, Kansas state chapter, plus the use of my father’s Luscombe, this really happened. Dad leased “long stem grass” pastures in the Manhattan, Kans. Area, and was there on business, and to see me. Seizing on the opportunity to “get in a little air time,” he agreed to let me take a sightseeing flight of the area.
The year was 1949! I had a fresh new private pilots license and the experience of less than 100 hours of solo time. It is reported that 100 hours is the most dangerous time of a pilot’s career.
Looking back, I believe it. There is little that scares you and much to entice you to “slip the surly bonds” of common sense and do darned fool things. This was one of those things.
Learning to Fly in the 1940s
By Charlie Briggs
Charles BriggsAviation buffs read a lot of flying stories from pros who write articles on a regular basis. While often entertaining and informative, hearing from professional pilots sometimes lacks the real world experiences of the hundreds of thousands of aircraft owners and flyers who were never professional pilots, but simply lived with an airplane as a permanent family member. Such is the case with Charlie Briggs, a pilot for more than 65 years, having a career that included ranching, agricultural services and consulting, computer technologies and business concept development. In Flight USA invites readers to join Charlie as he reminisces about flying and life. You will experience a side of aviation that is informative, entertaining and personal. Enjoy.
My father was always interested in flying. He started flying Culver Cadets just as WWII occurred. Of course this stopped all private aviation. At the end of the “curfew,” after the defeat of Japan, Dad resumed his flying, mostly for business purposes. Being in the cattle “order” buying business, having your own plane was a real creative help, especially before the super superhighways and extensive commercial airline network matured.