This morning we had a monster country breakfast which included the obligatory grits and biscuits. People here in Tennessee eat GOOD. With our bodies reeling from breakfast overload, we were driven to the airport by Art's sister Sue and her son Chris.
I was eager to get into the air because the sky looked excellent for flying. A high overcast was keeping the temperatures low, the visibility was excellent, humidity was low, and the winds were calm. I waited patiently on the ground as Art took Chris, and then Sue, for rides in his biplane. Needless to say, they were both completely stoked! Chris has been playing with flight simulation software for years, but had never flown before. When he got out of the front cockpit and jumped off the wing, he gave a big grin and said: "Oh, I gotta get me one of those!".
Lifting off from Sumner Regional County Airport at Gallatin (northeast of Nashville TN), we headed almost due west to Paris (Tennessee that is, not France). We were well received in Paris and they really wanted us to stay around until Saturday when they were going to have a big skydiving event at the airport. Skydivers really like these biplanes because they want to jump out of them. I don't think I will ever willingly jump out of a perfectly good airplane!
After lunch in Paris we flew to Cairo. Sounds exotic doesn't it. It wasn't. Cairo is at the bottom of Illinois. The only reason we chose Cairo is because it was where the Mississippi River meets up with the Ohio River. We sat on the ground for the longest time in Paris looking at the charts, trying to figure out where we wanted to go next. Memphis? Well, we could see Elvis there, but it was a busy Class B airspace and we don't like dealing with Air Traffic Controllers if we can help it. What else is there around here? Nothing. So we just decided to take off and fly to the Mississippi River, and when we got there, we would either go right or left. Very loose planning, eh?
Leaving Paris, Art and I got separated in the air because of a mix-up in entering destination airport ID's into the GPS. So we flew along for about 20 miles trying to find each other. At one point I radioed to Art that I was directly over his head, as a joke. He kept calling back that he couldn't see me, and I kept telling him that I was immediately overhead. He finally caught on that I was pulling his leg. Soon he was doing the same to me, calling out false position reports so that I wouldn't spot him. He was behind me, I knew that much, but I couldn't see him at all. As we got close to the Mississippi River, I finally spotted Art, flying down on the deck, and I was about 350 feet higher. He was behind me about 300 yards, and off my left wing. I felt sure that he was planning on attacking me any moment, as soon as he got a little closer. The moment was perfect for a pre-emptive strike on my part because his upper right wing was blocking his view of my plane.
As soon as I saw his position, my killer instinct took over and I hauled the stick hard left and dove straight down on him, building up speed very quickly. Our closing speed must have been at least 250 mph and when I had him clearly in my sights, I fingered the radio's push-to-talk switch and called out: "Hey Art!! You're dead!" and then made that dreaded machine gun sound: "Ack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack".
Well I can tell you for sure that he was completely surprised. Totally dumbfounded. In this entire trip I have not attacked him once, and he had been lulled into complacency. Later he would admit that he was definitely planning on attacking me, but he never expected me to turn on him. It was a most beautiful kill indeed. I wish I could have had a picture of the look on his face when he finally saw me diving straight down on him. His eyes must have been bugging out of his head. We had many good laughs about that.
At the Mississippi, we turned north and flew low next to the barges, Art on one side, me on the other. I'm sure the river "pilots" loved it!
Landing at Cairo, met up with James R. Zimmer, Airport Manager, who let us borrow the courtesy car overnight. He mentioned that the local Civil Air Patrol was about to show up for a meeting and Art lit up like a kid at Christmas. Art was a CAP member when he was a kid, and got his interest in aviation there, so he wanted to stay and talk with them and show off the planes. He did a great job with them, telling them about our trip, and the planes, and about his love of flying.
Tomorrow: Branson, MO.