Flying

Dad took me up flying in his plane a couple weekends ago.He has a home-built Vans RV-6(all aluminum,taildragger,fixed gear,low wing,2 place side by side,160hp Lycoming engine).He let me fly it and made me do a couple 360 degree turns without losing any altitude(tougher than it seems),we also did a few steep turns(wings vertical).Then he asked me if I wanted to do some strafing as we were over a lake with houseboats,of course I said yes.He didn`t go really low but about 150-200ft above the water and the GPS was indicating 184mph.The highest speed I`ve seen on the GPS was 232mph in level flight with a small tailwind.In june `85 I flew down to Minden,Nebraska with a friend in a Piper Tri-Pacer.On the way down,Harry said it is very important to look for other aircraft,so I was trying to be vigilant,I was also Harry`s navigator.So here I was looking at the map and looking at the ground for landmarks when I see a plane a couple hundred feet ahead of us.I yell "plane" and point,well Harry put us into a dive and a couple seconds later realize that,that was the plane we were following down to Minden.Harry vowed he would get even and I didn`t have long to wait.About three days later while coming back from a flyout,he purposely let one fuel tank run out of gas.I was starting to get worried when the engine started running rough and then quit,(its a strange feeling to see the prop stopped and you`re still 4000ft up)I looked at Harry and he started laughing.He selected the other tank and re-started the engine.Flying can be alot of fun.

------------------