Aircraft Experienced By Dave Meier - not loggable


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navaho.jpg (8814 bytes)

Piper Navaho

Rode right seat with pilot Dudley Stith from Memphis to Nashville and pack to pick up the Tennessee Democratic party chairman.  I was simply introduced as "the copilot".  I had one other Navaho experience - in a brand new simulator (I took off fine then decided to see what happens if an engine was lost - there were no survivors).

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Piper Seneca II

I actually hand flew this new one most the way from Memphis to Wichita/Pawnee.  It had no radios or autopilot.  The mission was to drop several pilots at Pawnee to ferry some Cessna high performance aircraft.  I also flew right seat on a charter mission from Memphis to Chattanooga late one night with Weldon Clayton.

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Pitts S2S

I went for an aerobatic ride with the owner, Fred, a pilot for a major package service.   I actually performed basic aerobatic maneuvers myself.  Fred performed a slow roll on final at Memphis International.

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Lark sailplane

My wife and I both rode with instructor pilots and actually flew the aircraft.  We were towed to 2000 ASL and stayed up 20 minutes, getting as far as 10 miles from the return field.

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Maule Super Rocket

We arrived at dusk, delivering a brace of three Cessna Skyhawks to Santa Paula, CA.  There was no one present  at Southern Cross, the aircraft exporter.  We needed a way to get to Oxnard in time to make our return connection to Memphis.  Philip Fortner, representing Southaire, decided to "borrow" a plane from Southern Cross for this purpose.  The only one for which we could find keys was the Rocket.  Philip flew left seat because he was "in command".  The other pilot flew right seat because he was an instructor, only neither one had ever flown a taildragger.  So we agreed that I would "advise" them from the back seat.  The Maule turned out to be a docile taildragger, and we all lived to tell this tale.

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Raven 7

My wife arranged for a balloon flight with champagne ceremony.  The landing was in a suburban subdivision, which attracted much attention from the neighborhood.   We later found that we had an acquaintance who owned a Raven.  Weldon Clayton arranged a ride for his wife and I was put in charge of the chase crew.  I experienced the mechanics of inflating, launching, chasing and recovering the balloon.  The landing was in a farm field.

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Helicopter

I should also mention that the only time I have ever been in a helicopter was with Weldon Clayton and my wife.  Weldon had just received his rating in an Enstrom.  We took off from Dewitt Spain airport in Memphis, flew around a bit and returned to the field.

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Military

One other sortie deserves mention also: My wife and I, several other CAP Seniors and 65 cadets flew to Wright Patterson AFB in a C-130 to tour the Air Force Museum.  This was my only flight in a military aircraft, other than a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor, which I did fly as pilot in command.
Miscellaneous: Other general aviation aircraft I have flown as passenger are Brittain-Norman Trislander, Piper Tripacer/Apache/Aztec, Mooney 201, Beechcraft Bonanza and Debonair and Cessna U207.

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