Re: Flying airplane

Pardon the digression here, but it's somewhat related.

In the early 1960s, my dad and another PanAm pilot happened upon a Stits Playboy
in Hawaii while poking around local airports, It was for sale and they
went in as partners and bought it. This was a small experimental
1 place open cockpit, low wing aircraft with a 65 horse Continental. No flaps
or radio but the darn thing would cruise at 95.

Anyway, they arranged with PanAm to freight it back to SFO and my
dad was there to witness it being unloaded. They promptly dropped it
off of the fork lift. Damage was confined to a bent exhaust stack, but you
can imagine the horror of seeing your new acquisition go through something
like this.

They both flew it a couple of times and then traded it for a Mercedes sedan
which we kept for maybe a year after dad bought Bill out of his half of the airplane.