Pilot Brad’s Flying Blog

While listening to one of Aero-News Network’s podcasts the other day, I heard some sad news.   I learned that the owner and manager of Florida Aeromotive, Owen Gassaway Jr, had passed away on December 27 of last year.   Why this is of any significance to me requires a bit of a history lesson.

When I was a kid, I lived with my mom in the Boston area, but I spend summers with my dad in South Florida.  My dad always wanted me to have a summer job so he would usually help by arranging something for me in advance of my arrival, and this particular summer was no exception.   It was the mid-80s, I was about 15 years old and my I was currently taking flying lessons in Massachusettes.  Knowing how much I loved aviation, my dad used a connection of his to get me a summer job at the Lantana airport near West Palm Beach FL, working for Mr. Gassaway’s company, Florida Aeromotive.

I remember the first day of work well.  On the way to to his office, my dad dropped me off at the terminal building, where I met Mr. Gassaway for the first time.  In his straight-shooter way he instructed me to get into his beat-up old pickup truck and gave me a brief tour of the airport before showing me to where I would be working.  I was a bit nervous, and I didn’t know what to expect, but I didn’t care.  I was just excited to be working at the airport.

Continue reading ‘Farewell Mr. Gassaway’

A few days ago I got a call from a college buddy who said he would be in town for a business meeting.  It had been a while since we had seen each other so we made plans to have dinner.  When I arrived at the restaurant he introduced me to a business associate of his who would be joining us for dinner.  The more the merrier right?  Besides there’s no need to make this guy sit in his hotel room alone.

We all sat down at our table and my buddy and I started catching up on each others lives; kids, work, family, you know the routine.   We ordered a nice bottle of wine, and we got ourselves set for what we knew would be a long night of conversation.  In fact, we got ourselves so busy chatting that the our server almost had to force us to look at the menus, and we barely stopped to catch a breath when our appetizers arrived.  Since my old friend and I were busy catching up on old times, his associate didn’t have much to offer to the discussion, and I think my friend felt a little guilty that we were monopolizing the conversation.  It was at this point that he made a mistake, a big mistake, one which he would regret.

Continue reading ‘Oh, you’re not a pilot… too bad!’

When I started this blog a few short weeks ago I told you that I would tell or recount some of my aviation experiences.  With that in mind, here is the first installment of what I hope will be many stories.  Some of these stories will have a lesson or a moral behind them, and this is definitely the case with this first one.  I originally posted this story as part of a discussion on the Vans Air Force forums and I thought it would be good to recount it here as well.  Enjoy!

Several years ago I purchased a nicely restored 1973 Citabria, which after about two weeks of ownership I flew down to Paso Robles on California’s beautiful central coast for an aerobatic competition.  After spending 3 long days in the hot summer sun, I was really looking forward to heading back to the comfort of my own home and family.  Anxious to get home at a reasonable time in the day, I awoke early Sunday morning to a crystal clear skies and absolutely zero wind, packed the airplane and topped off the tanks for the short 1-1/2 to 2 hr flight home. I chose not to call for a weather briefing because it was June in West-central California, where the clear weather is the norm several months on end. I had flown in it (the summer weather) many many times and I knew what to expect, or so I thought.

Continue reading ‘I don’t need no stink’n wx briefing!’