Joe Leaming's Controversy

Joe Leaming, an prior friend who had owned Porsches, lived in Tucson and while there, I show him my Porsche and experienced his gray 356C Cabriolet. Joe knew more about Porsches than anyone, and he related that Porsche just released the recently released 6-cylinder 911. That was intriguing as the 356 was lacking power and had significant vibrations. He related the oversteer problem, but that wasn’t of concern since I didn’t push cars to their limits. I enjoyed seeing him and was interested in the 911. Overall, the Tucson visit was constructive with little to no family controversy and the now clear weather made driving to Mineral Wells non-eventful.

I began flight school in the Brown hat class. Orientation and classroom studies were interesting, however students were eager to fly. Two weeks later, an hour bus ride took us to the training area. The hanger was enormous and the ramp stored helicopters lined up as far as the eye could see. The head instructor assigned students to fly, Hiller H-23s, Bell TH-13s or TH-55s- I was assigned the latter. I was excited as they were the newest, and the H-23s had a unfortunate safety reputation. Our flight instructors explained the general syllabus for …show more content…
I was fortunate, being 2nd in my class. That experience was almost as frightening as my “solo” fixed wing experience. When the instructor exited the helicopter at 4.5 hours and walked away, I feared death. He casually related; “Okay, you’re ready; One trip around the pattern and land.” What happened to the 6-12 hours? Every second of the hover I expected to be out of control so I took off without hesitation. I completed the pattern and landed, and I’m grateful there wasn’t remote instrumentation evaluating the flight- or my vitals. Others were not as lucky; several people were “washed out” or “set back”, there were a couple minor crashes and one significant one- nonetheless nobody