Sharing Flight

I was recently going through some photos on my laptop and came across this one of Sylvester next to my 1961 Piper Colt. Sylvester comes out to Brewton Airport on occasion to fly Radio Control (RC) airplanes. Mike comes with Sylvester because Sylvester says he has gotten really good at buying the RC airplanes but hasn't mastered flying them yet.

On the day of the photo I was washing the Colt to get it ready to show it to a prospective buyer. You can see the water dripping from the lower side of the wings in the photo. The prospective buyer actually became the new owner of the Colt that day.

Well, like any pilot, I was looking for an excuse to fly. I couldn't have water dripping from the wings so I had to take it up and dry it off. Mike was already gone from the airport and Sylvester was just finished packing all of his RC airplanes in his car. I asked him if he wanted to go up and fly around the patch so I could dry the airplane off and he immediately accepted.

One thing I miss about the Colt is its great useful load. Sylvester and I are not small guys and this little airplane jumped right off the ground and climbed out at 1100 feet/minute without a problem. I am lucky to get 700 feet/minute in my Cessna 150 with just myself in the airplane.

We climbed to about 1000 feet and flew around the pattern for one landing. Sylvester was laughing and having a good time. I didn't realize until later that it was a bit of a nervous laugh.
After the first landing I added power and took it up again. This time we left the airport traffic pattern and Sylvester took some aerial photos of the area near the airport.

After we landed the second time I learned that Sylvester had never been up in a small airplane. I asked if he enjoyed it and he said he would be happy to do it again anytime. I am not sure who enjoyed it more, me or Sylvester. It is always fun to share flight with those who haven't had the opportunity to go up and see the world from overhead.