Old friends
Delighted to discover these pictures of NC674H and the screenshots of Rod Magnor's 'Magic One'.
My wife and I flew 74H from Sonoma CA to Philadelphia PA in 1992 and then from Phily to San Diego in 1994. Operated the aircraft from SEE and CRQ until 2006 when we sold the company and aircraft to folks who moved them to MYF. Rod, a former A-7 driver, came down one summer and ran our business for a few weeks while we took a vacation.
The trips across the country were interesting. The trip east was an adventure because the aircraft didn't have radios, transponder or intercom and portable GPS didn't exist yet. Followed the Iron Compass (railroads) and rivers, and highways just like they did back in 1929, except our highways were a lot bigger and easier to follow. Only landed at one one airport that wasn't the one we thought it was (blush).
Trip west was interesting because the outside (and inside) air temperature was 18 degrees Fahrenheit when we took off and didn't get above 36 for most of the trip, even in Texas. In one stretch of Arizona the trucks were passing us on Interstate 8! But it was a balmy 83 in Yuma,so we packed away quilted flight suits and down jackets before flying over the mountain to San Diego where we froze our asses off in the moist/chill low '60s marine-layer air with nothing but T-shirts and pants on.
When we landed at Gillespie Field, our new home, first guy to walk up said, "Nice Travel Air, where ya from?"
"Just arrived from Philadelphia, and you're the first person across the whole country who didn't call this old bird a Stearman."
"Yeah," he said, "I know Travel Airs. My Dad wrote about them. He's Richard, I'm Rob Bach."
After almost 50 years of real flying, all my flying these days is in FSX thanks to eye and heart (and money) issues. But with ORBX/FTX terrain and REX Essentials I actually have found myself just flying around sightseeing in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest or New Zealand.
