Memories - Growing Up Around Planes

My father, now 81, was a heavy equipment mechanic for a company in Columbus, OH.  The owner of the company, Bob Dodge, always had a plane and often hauled Dad around to look at jobs.  On occassion, he would ride along to toss the bundled up payroll out the window of Bob's old 170 at a remote jobsite on Friday afternoon.  Eventually, the bug bit my Dad and he learned to fly and that bug subsequently was passed on to me.

Bob was a former B-24 Liberator pilot during WW2 and a great story teller.  When I was little I sometimes went to work with my dad.  Bob was a busy man, but always took time out to tell me about one of his adventures or some hilarious antic that he pulled while "commanding the ship."  He especially liked to tell about flight training in the B24.  When one student was flying, the rest went along for the ride.  At precisely the right moment during touchdown, on one mans signal everyone in the crew would run to the back of the plane, causing the tail to drag all the way down the runway to the embarrassment of an unsuspecting student at the controls.

The last plane that I remember Bob owning was a beautiful late 60's Comanche 260 with tip tanks.  Bob often flew her non-stop from Columbus, OH to Key Marathon, FL - a distance of 927 nm.  I've lost track of the Comanche and can't even locate a photograph of it.  Bob passed away over two years ago, but Dad recently came across this piece of paper.  It's Bob's old checklist from the Comanche.  As I reminisce back over thirty years, I can still visualize Bob going through this procedure on the few occassions that I was lucky enough to go for a ride with him.  Bob never skipped the checklist. 

One of these days I'll find the photographs that I know are somewhere around here and I will post them for other aviation and history enthusiasts to enjoy.