NavList:

Paolo,

I have very much enjoyed your stories about flying and shooting sights in a Stearman. The first and only plane I ever flew with my own hands on the controls for more than a few seconds was a Stearman. I was 11 to 12 years old. That was back in 1974-75. The owner and pilot was Ed Pease, a nice old guy who enjoyed taking anyone and everyone on free rides almost any Sunday from a primitive little airport in Connecticut (he passed away years ago, and the airport is long gone, too). I understood the basics of flight controls, and he let me "fly" for extended periods of time once we were at a safe altitude. He had been an instructor at the Tex Rankin flight school during the Second World War. Since he was in the back cockpit on our flights, I didn't have to worry about stalling, and occasionally he would push the throttle forward to keep us airborne. I did not learn celestial navigation until 1978, so I did not try any aerial navigation sights until just a couple of years ago when Gary LaPook took a few of us flying over the coast of Southern California.

-FER

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