http://www.frankenthaler.de/acro/pittsteam/Frick.htmlI learned to fly in a Piper Pa-22 Colt. We lovingly called the the "stool sample" since its' bigger brudder was lovingly referred to as the milkstool.That Colt was FUN bird to gad about in.
SW of Ft Worth, just north of beatiful downtown Godley, TX is a small strip known as ARESTI Aerodrome.
It was created by a truly unique and wonderful gent named Glen Frick. Glen is dead now. (dammit) We called him "Pappy". He was retired AF, 'Nam fighter jock and loved to restore old planes, ( he was working on a Stearman "Cloudster" when he died) Model A Fords, and whatever else he could . He also LOVED aerobatics and made the IAC World team 3 times. His baby was a Pitts Special.
Aresti ( or I should say Pappy) had 3 rules for the airport.
1. IF you intended to land, a high speed LOW pass was mandatory prior to landing.
2. landing was ONLY permitted ON THE RUNWAY. ( Hiram landed in the tank at one end of the runway one day)
3. NO aerobatics BELOW the level of the phone lines that paralleled the strip on the west side. ( Randy nearly dumped his clipped wing cub doing a snap roll after takeoff)
Nose draggers were frowned upon but not forbidden. A PROPER plane has the nosewheel on the back end where GOD intended it to be.. ( gospel according to Pappy and always said with a grin)
After I got my solo permit, I decided it was time to pay Pappy a visit with the not so lovely lil Colt. I had a lot of hours "off the books" and a pretty good amount of time in the Colt, so I got ready to obey RULE NUMBER 1.
Pappy was screwing around near the hanger on riding mower he headed to the approach end as I was climbing out for my low pass. The Colt and I proceeded to get some altitude for the BIG FLYBY and we went for it.
Pappy had a grading scale known only to himself as to how well your pass was performed. He also had NO idea that damn nosedragger was about to violate HIS airspace and even less of an idea that I would be driving. Meantime, I firewalled that Colt and nosed her down and let her have her head. We gathered all she was supposed to do I was banging the VnE when I came down the runway. It was all I could do to get her to stay low, ground effect was fightin me. Pappy was taken TOTALLY by surprise. He was about 50' feet off the centerline of the approach end of the strip with his back to me and he nearly jumped off the mower when we thundered by!!
I circled around and eased her down on his glass smooth grass strip. I LOVE landing on turf.. Pappy still had no idea who it was and I was watching him as I taxied up toward his hangar. He was a bit red faced. I parked the colt so he couldn't see who it was until I walked around the bird or he did. He met me as I was stepping out from under the wing. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!" he yelled.. I busted out laughing and he did to when he realized it was me. He then went on to say, "Willie, THAT was the BEST damned pass I've seen since I put this strip in. It's a DAMN shame you had to do it in f*#king nosedragger and if you tell a soul I said that, I call you a liar." and then he winked and chuckled. He said after I passed him that he could only see six to 8 inches of air under the tires until I did my zoom out at the end of the strip.
We had lots of good times at Arresti. Glens's lovely wife Gracie still runs it and a few guys live there and fly in and out from there.
I miss that old fart.
Willie
http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnis/web_q ... id=1386737
I can't believe how close to the ground you were!!