Note: we’ll get around to publishing this recent trip to WA as soon as the pain goes away. Until then, here are more episodes of the trip back yonder.

There she sat; all 2,600 beautiful and brawny pounds of her (roughly the same weight as the twin-engined Cessna 337 Skymaster). She was no slim, trim, and lithe Hollywood beauty. Nosirree; not this gal. She was a big girl. But there was no doubt in my mind that she could upstage the best of the best at any time. Not bad for a 63 year old beauty queen, I’d say. The big Pratt and Whitney R-985 450 HP radial engine on her nose was quiet at the moment but you could tell that she wanted to burst loose from her slumber. She was built to fly not sleep. All she needed was a tickle from her starter then you could watch her roar. She was a thoroughbred waiting to be turned loose at the gate.

I had seen many pictures of the big Howards. But, until you see one of these brutes in person, you just don’t get the picture of what an awesome aircraft it is. And, pictures are what I took a lot of. The lighting was perfect for shooting this shiny red baby doll so I loaded up a bunch of the digital space on my one-gigabyte chip in the camera. This airplane was pristine and was, no doubt, superior to “factory new” since she had a few modern updates tucked under her red hide.

After being introduced to our new friend, Paul, we waited for awhile for him to button up the belle after having done some minor servicing. During our chatting he commented that he was going to be flying the big bird and asked if we wanted to go along. Sheese. Is Putin a commie? Man! I almost needed to do some laundry about that time. Of course, we accepted.

Then the big moment arrived. I looked at Steve because I was ahead of him in our lineup. I asked him if it was OK to proceed knowing that the first body aboard would fit the right front (co-pilot’s) seat. He said “Sure”. What I didn’t know was that he wasn’t feeling all that well (after being practiced on recently by some local surgeons) so he elected to wait it out below and be a captive of the surly bonds of earth.

Though the front part of the cabin is a bit tight to climb into for any sized soul, once seated, my fanny fit the seat fairly well and I had plenty of shoulder room (that would not be the case later on while flying a Piper J-3 Cub at the Old Kingsbury Aerodrome in Texas). After we strapped in and after a quick check list scan, Paul spurred the big Pratt to life. She snorted a couple of times then rumbled to life. Power exuded from every fiber of her being while other things exuded from my fiber, pores, and ports. It wasn’t long until we had her pointed into the wind on the active runway. When Paul poured the coal to her she wanted to fly. The big fan on the front pulled us along until we lifted off. We were solidly airborne in a 1944 Howard DGA-15P.

Once established at about 1,500’ AGL, Paul gave me the controls. That was mighty nice of him. Memphis was now mine to rule over from the sky if only for awhile. Flying is good stuff.

Only once prior had I flown a 450 HP ship. That was a Max Hulste MH 1521 Broussard (Bushman) out of Fresno’s Chandler Field back in the late 1980’s. It has the same R-985 as the Howard and also the De Haviland DHC-2 Beaver. There's just something about a big bad radial engine that gets into a man's soul and takes up camp.

We flew completely around Memphis all the while looking down on the “Mighty Mississippi” with its river barges and other river traffic. We stayed below the Class B airspace while circumnavigating the city and taking aerial shots of the place.

Only too soon the flight of fancy was over. We were then peering over the rosy nose of the big Howard and watching the numbers getting bigger as we approached the runway for landing. Paul eased off the power and flared. The DGA settled into a “three point” attitude and quit flying for the day.

PLEASE LET ME INTERRUPT THIS NARRATION FOR A NEWSWORTHY NOTE: This is Connie and I must let you know that our dear co-pilot Minnick received an awesome compliment from Paul. He stated that Randy had kept the plane within 10 feet of the prescribed altitude the entire time. Paul was very impressed with the “R Guy’s” piloting skill and I was so proud I almost popped my buttons! Paul just happens to be the Safety and Standards Officer for Fed-Ex. Yeah, Captain Sweetie!

“Captain Sweetie”? Hooo boy. That’ll take the wind out of one’s sails. The good news is that Connie was willing to be the Captain’s side kick. However, she misquoted it and has now become Captain Sweetie’s side cook. That’ll work for me.

Anyway…hang around for the next episode. There’s a lot of good stuff to come.