My Passion for Flying Updated

Yours truly, Tell It Like It Is Blogger with Cherokee 387Charlie

Chico, California, circa 1979

Dear Aviation Enthusiast:

Here is a letter, composed earlier today to a fellow pilot who inspired me to share with him and you the following electronic missive. And I quote:

"Mark, I love your passion for what you are doing, your timely and informative articles and all the positive comments that attest to your success. So, with your permission, I am taking precious time out to write about some enlightening SIMILAR- experiences.

Flying has been such an integral part of the my last 30 years that I am constantly blogging about outstanding historic aviation personalities such as Jimmy Doolittle, Chuck Yeager, Robert 'Rosie' Rosenthal, John Gillespie Mcgee, Jr., Jackie Cochran, Harold I. June, Johnny Moore and too many others to enumerate. So, please read on.

Likewise, I discovered flying while living in the most beautiful areas of California, Chico/Paradise. What turned me on was the positive energy and excitement about aviation from my wife,  herself a pilot, and her family who were involved in aviation insurance in the Portland, Oregon market.

Before long I earned my wings from Sugarpine Aviators, up in the Sierras at Quincy Airport in Plumas County. My instructors were Johnny Moore, a crop duster and ATP rated (author of I Must Fly and Breaking into Agricultural Aviation) and Tom Rahn-- who both still run the school some 30 years later. They introduced me to the love of flying that includes a respect for mountain flying since Quincy and its airport are situated in a natural bowl, surrounded by mountains at about 3,000 MSL ; the airport is beautiful in winter creating a natural snow bowl and is  a 40 minute flight to Lake Tahoe. See by blog on this subject: http://tinyurl.com/296jtqd. My website is www.richardjschwartz.com

That's me shortly after accepting delivery of Cherokee 1029H

Oroville Municipal Airport, Oroville, California, May, 1981

I purchased a slightly used Archer II (this is 1981 and the plane cost me less than $30,000, equipped) from my neighbors in Paradise, CA (who ran Horizon Aviation in Auburn) and went on to fly my Archer II, fully equipped with dual Navs and Coms and DME.. She was hangared first at Oroville Airport in the Sacramento Valley (where I took further instruction with Orville and his assistant David) and then at Mahlon Sweet Airport in Eugene, Oregon where I was fortunate to do lots of instrument flying and DF steers in the morning fog with 6,000 hour airline pilot Al Stockstead, and lots of under- the- hood training up and down Washington/Oregon coast.

My best memories are of: getting up at 4 AM in Paradise, driving down to the Valley and doing lots of touch'n go's and night flying in the Sacramento Valley-- which is awesome flying in the calm under the stars before morning sunrise.

A few month later I did a long cross country from Eugene, Ore. to Charles Lindbergh Airport in San Diego landing 29'erHotel just as the fog cleared. The flight over the Tehachapi Mountain from Bakersfield south in early morning is magnificent; Route 5 below is a ribbon of slow moving traffic winding its way across the mountains towards Los Angeles.

I particularly enjoyed doing lots of touch and go's at Kneeland Airport, with its 2250 foot long runway. It's an unattended mountain airport at 2700 feet above sea level, 10 miles southeast of Eureka, California, along the coastal range. http://tinyurl.com/38n3ypj. Eureka is fogged in so much of the time, local pilots must land at Kneeland.

Finally, nothing can match flying, with clearance, in Glacier National Park, (located in Montana and Canada) in the winter with lots of mountain photographs of the awesome experience. Look for a forthcoming blog with a special slideshow from my experience in Kalispel, Montana.

One of the saddest days of my life was selling back 29H to the original owners 300 hours and two years later. It was like losing a long lasting friend.

Flying has been such a positive experience for me that I have maintained my AOPA (Airline Owners and Pilot's Association) affiliation all these 30 years; I have flown from Glacier Park International Airport (GPI) and from Danbury Airport (DXR) here in Southern Connecticut and blog constantly about aviation. 

I would love to fly up in New Hampshire--especially from the small airports near Bennington, NH in Hillsborough County. I look forward each summer to spend vacations in the Francestown area with awesome views of the Monadnocks.

Have an inspired day, all!

Keep your safe flying articles flowing."