A couple of weeks ago and right after the latest newsletter came out, I received a couple of messages. One was from former student of Tailwheel Town, Richard Greensted. Richard owns a lovely 140 and he sent a great pic of him and his son, Kai with their 140.
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Kai (left) and Richard Greensted
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Within hours, I received another message from Geoff Bowman. Geoff and I go way back, and I soloed him in a Piper L4. He has since become a navy FA18 pilot and served as the executive officer of an FA18 squadron aboard a carrier. Jeff's dad, Adm. Mike Bowman, wrote the forward to "Brian's Flying Book" and it's a cherished piece of literature for me. One of our very first videos was about Mike Bowman's Chipmunk and it was the first time that Videographer Bert Garrison worked with me. It was also the first time that Jerry Groendyke provided inspired pilot service for the Tailwheeler's Journal. I look back on that experience very fondly! Geoff enclosed a picture of his kids, Brady and Becca, in their grandfather's Chipmunk. The site of that
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Geoff's kids in their grandfather's Chipmunk.
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picture warmed the cockles of my little black heart! So maybe, in spite of what some of us think, our love and knowledge of tailwheel airplanes IS getting passed along and maybe there is a new generation of pilots coming along who have absorbed the way real pilots fly. We can only hope so!
Alan Gatward showed up for a couple of flights to just do a bit of a refresher. Alan flew really well, and we had a ball in the PA12. Also, I found out that Alan is a really great I.T. guy and he helped me get my GoPro paired with my phone. Yahoo!
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Alan Gatward, shown in the mirror of the PA12.
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Work continues on a new article which may or may not come out in another two weeks. It's gonna be pretty exciting, and I'll keep all my subscribers posted about wheather or not it'll be posted. But
first will be the second article on challenging maneuvers. It's up on the Tailwheelersjournal.com right now. It's called "the Tailwheel Drag".
If the new article gets posted, I think you're going to like it! Angela was the first of my two fliers to try the new maneuver and she pulled it off with great skill. I'
m delighted!
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Matt Rhoades in the PA12.
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Matt Rhoades has started his Tailwheel Endorsment course and has proven to be a very talented flier. Perhaps some thanks is due to the fact that he flew with Erik Cook previously and Erik is, in my opinion, a terrific tailwheel teacher.