I have been procrastinating about writing about two traumas of my life, Nelly’s death and Don Langford getting killed in a aircraft accident. In my mind the rest of the story doesn’t come together unless I tell the whole story.

Don and I became buddies flying a Navajo Chieftain for a small manufacturer of heart monitoring equipment here in Huntsville, he had been my instructor when I got my helicopter rating and I was tempted to buy his Cessna 170B that he was trading in on a Piper Twin Comanche, no I was wise enough to remember “if it flies, floats or fornicates it’s cheaper to rent it than to own it”, we even went to our next employment together when the Navajo and the company was sold. Our new employer eventually got a Piper Aztec that I really enjoyed flying, the company built and sold telephone system testing equipment, the old dial telephones were rapidly being replaced with the touch tone systems and the old mechanical central office equipment was being replaced with digitally controlled switching equipment. FCC was not yet convinced that the new fangled stuff was as reliable as the old so they demanded that each new system be tested to their specification before being certified, hence the need for our little company and the Aztec. It was fun while it lasted, after a couple of years of insisting that all digital switching systems be tested they realized that the new equipment was more reliable and our little company after attempting to find another niche it just folded, all the promises and stock options were worthless. Anyhow flying the Aztec was fun.

I went with a company that was several months behind schedule on delivering documentation on a 21 million dollar contract for a test system to collect in flight data of aircraft testing and either spool it up or send it by telemetry to a ground station where it would be captured. The man that had rejected all our previous documentation and I had a meeting I got his e-mail address and following my standard format ” what it is, that it does and how does it do it” I started with the heart of the system the signal conditioning and data collection box, I sent him all my drafts for his suggestions, he replied with good ideas that I incorporated in the texts, a few months later he approved all my submissions by just scanning them to see if I had incorporated his ideas and approved them on the spot my bosses were awed that he had finally approved anything that we had submitted, I felt good and we kept the contract for a while. The AF realized that they could buy off the shelf equipment to handle the other tasks we had proposed so they cancelled the contract but gave us a new contract for the data acquisition box that I had documented, it all worked out and I was a hero for a while, I had got some bonuses for getting the company out of a jam and was making almost as much as my boss. I was approaching age 62, when I intended to retire, then one day the boss came by and said I have to lay you off you are making too much money and you are not a supervisor, I got the message they did not want to pay a retirement to an employee that had only worked there seven years, it was common knowledge that new comers did not get retirement pay just the old timers that had been with the company for many years.

Nelly and I had bought our townhouse in Destin, FL which had a view of the beach and we went there frequently. She managed a shoe store for a good friend and worked out a schedule where she and another lady would share keeping the store, she would work Thursday, Friday and Saturday be off Sunday, then work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then would be off for a whole week, while the other lady filled in with the same routine. We would leave for Destin when Nelly got off work Wednesday evening arriving before midnight and sometimes spend the whole week being beach bums, I had a wet suit that allowed me to go into the water year around and Nelly was a sun worshipper and loved to wear a deep tan all year.

We really enjoyed going there and we enjoyed inviting other couples to join us, I guess you could say it was the best of times. Going to Destin was almost always via the quickest route, but coming home was a different story Nelly wanted to stop at every antique shop, thrift shop and junk store we saw, I wanted to investigate every airport we passed, I soon learned that there are a lot more shops than there are airports, but we had fun. We traveled all possible routes from Destin to Huntsville a few times meandering into Mississippi and Georgia on our way home, yeah we had become world class seekers of old stuff and out of the way airports. I wrote short articles for the EAA chapter news letter each month of what I found at the various airports including photographs, it worked out just fine, Nelly even had a booth in one of the local antique malls and kept it stocked with wares she bought along the way, we enjoyed those rides home, a couple times we arrived near midnight but happy.

Mark McCutchen approached me about selling him my Pasmany PL-4 experimental aircraft, project I gladly agreed, I had solved all the engineering and had figured out how I would complete the project but with Nelly and I spending so much time in Destin and me being distracted with other interests the PL-4 project had become dormant. Mark seemed enthusiastic and I thought he might complete it and I might get to fly it one day. It has changed hands several times since then, each owner letting it become dormant again, but every thing is there to complete it if they would. But I was glad to have one less project, I kept the C-75 engine, prop, wheels. tires, brakes, brake master cylinders, tail wheel, instruments, radios and ELT (emergency locator transmitter) all off the shelf replaceable items. Eventually Don Langford bought them all for his Wagabond project, he got a bargain but we were both happy.

John Massy took me one day to Mr French’s place near Eva, AL who had a Mustang II kit stored in a shed and he had married the widow of the origional owner and did not know what to do with it, I told him the truth that Nelly and I each carried a $50 bill that we could spend with out conferring with each other, but if he wanted more then I would have to confer with my wife and she was not likely to approve of me getting involved in another airplane project he said give me the $50 dollars and get it out of here today. It took two trips to Eva to get every thing, but there was no license to build, no plans and no construction manual. So I had bought a bunch of metal at a bargain, I made the announcement at the EAA meetings that I had plenty of .025 and .032 2024 aluminum for free if any one needed it, only one person that wanted to replace the cowling on his champ came by and took enough for the flat parts of the cowl, I was happy to let him have it. But surprised that no one else asked for a free be.

I did some freelance flying for Teledyne and a couple of doctors here in town and helped out once and a while with a tech manual or response to a government bid package but I kept Nelly’s free time sacred so we could go to the beach when she was off work. Saturday 29 July 1995 I had gone to the shoe store to pick up Nelly’s pay check to deposit it and bring her a Dairy Queen cup of ice cream, I gave her a kiss and a pat on the butt and that was the last time I saw her alive. A drug crazed idiot came in wanting enough money to buy a $175 party drug kit, robbed and killed her. There was only $141 in the till at that time, why he killed her we will never know. It took a couple of years and some really good detective work, two trials and a good jury to put the murderer behind bars for life without parole, we could have asked for the death sentence, but when we learned that lawyers would earn a million or more reviewing the case before any death sentence could be carried out and the appeals for life sentences were much more routine, we as a family opted for life without parole.

After the funeral I sat with the children at the kitchen table and laid out Nelly’s jewelry, we sorted it per Nelly’s written wishes, maybe she had a premonition but there was a list of who should get what. I told the children that they could have anything in the house they would like except what was in the kitchen, master bedroom and den, all else was their’s if they wanted it but I wanted it gone by Christmas. I ended up with a totally empty dining room, one bare bed room three empty closets and an empty heart. Those first few months I traveled a good bit; Laon, France with John Dowds to deliver the jewelry Nelly had designated for her family, we even went to central France to deliver a star sapphire ring to her orphaned niece, I attended a reunion on Cape Cod, visited sister and brother in law in central Florida where we visited Kirmit Weeks “Fantasy of Flight” museum and took a boat ride on the chain of lakes around Winter Haven where I later bought a place on the lake that hosted Jack Brown’s seaplane base, adjacent to the Winter Haven airport. I went up to see Natalie at Silver Springs, MD and went to the Garber aircraft restoration facility that is part of the Smithsonian. We even attended a Three tenors concert in Washington. Yes it was a busy time, I guess I was running away from an empty house.

Don Langford sensed me needing a project and he proposed that we buy, build and fly an ultra light Air Bike kit that had been started but had become dormant, the price was right so we bought it and after rearranging things in the work shop moved all the metal parts in and started putting every thing together. Don worked on the wings at a different location, by the next summer I had the fuselage on the landing gear, tail feathers were finished and mounted and had the little 25 HP Zenoa engine running, it was good therapy, there were many visitors that would stop by to watch the progress, I had a small fridge in the shop that I kept stocked with beer and soft drinks so I am sure some visitors came by just for a free beer, oh well I enjoyed the company.

After PanAm went belly up Don went with Atlas Air Freight flying 747 freighters and as a new hire he spent a lot of time away from home setting stand by, once they forgot that they had pre positioned him to Taiwan he finally called them after two weeks of no flying and they gave him a few days off, that month his paycheck was pretty small. Anyhow nothing much was happening on the wings, so I rearranged every thing in my shop and we moved the wing material and the wing assembly bench into it, yeah it was a bit crowded but we got used to it pretty quickly. I would get all the pre fabricated parts together for one of the construction steps then when Don was in town we would finish that step, rewarding ourselves with beer, we had to let the glue dry… I purchased a hanger at Moon Town airport and spent some time fixing it up, I told the airport owner he could use it till I needed it. Don and I finished the wings and sent them off to be painted, the plan was to trailer the Air Bike fuselage to the airport and when the wings had been painted we would take them directly to the hanger and do the final assembly there. I notified the airport owner that he would have to move the airplane that was in my hanger soon, because things were going to happen pretty fast, there was an airplane still in my hanger when I drove up with the wings, I was not happy.

The lame excuse was that the airplane in my hanger had a low tire and they could not find the community air tank to pump it up, there were several bicycle type pumps available and there was electricity available in my hanger, so what was the problem, I became even more unhappy, I had tried to be a nice guy but now I was sure I was being abused, I fumed. While I waited I started to assemble the Air Bike out side the hanger, I had one wing mounted and the front lift strut adjusted for the proper dihedral, next came adjusting the rear strut so there was no twist in the wing, Jim Lamb came by and he gave me a hand measuring and checking for twist, I had every thing clamped well and before drilling the final holes I double checked every thing and finally using model airplane eyeball alignment verified that it looked OK and I drilled those final two holes for that wing. Jim and I mounted the second wing leaving the wing tip on the grass, the next step was to install the front strut so the second wing had the same dihedral as the other, but before we could do that a puff of wind lifted the wing almost vertical which crushed the inboard rib, we took the wing back off,put it back in the van and I fumed some more.

About then they came with an air tank pumped up the low tire and towed the intruding airplane to a new location. I put every thing away and went home to survey the damage, needless to say I was pissed because none of the problems would have arisen if the hanger had been empty when I had asked for it to be empty. I had learned my lesson, I don’t even try to be a nice guy any more on things like this, counting on the good will of another has burned me enough times that I am just not going to go there any more. As I remember it only took a couple of days to repair the damage, but I had plenty of bits and pieces, epoxy and other stuff left over from the construction process so I did not have to buy any materials. It was time consuming because I had to cut and fit a lot of small rib material parts that had been broken and there was the waiting time for the epoxy to set up, it was still a sound repair and you could not tell there had ever been damage, in the process I made provision for a factory five gallon wing tank and made a sheet metal cover for it.

Early October of 1997 Don was in town and we completed the assembly and flew it for the first time, just a hop down the runway getting the feel of it, we did not go around the pattern just yet, Don hoped it down the runway and said it is just like a Cub with power steering. I still have a picture of our first flights. I made many more hops down the runway and one day when every thing felt right took it around the pattern, yeah, it was a thrill to be up there in an airplane you had built. Don was home in a few days and he to took it around the pattern and came back smiling, we had a new toy and we enjoyed it as built for about 20 hours.

We had a contest going, who could get to the highest altitude, Don won hands down, he was about 50 pounds lighter than me, my top altitude was about 3000 ft agl. The Air Bike had an endurance of a little over an hour with a two and one half gallon fuel tank, so the two times we flew it to other airports in the area we played ground crew for each other, Don insisted on using Amoco gasoline and a special Penzoil that minimized deposits in the air cooled engine. The ground crew would head for the en route air port with the gas and tool kit the pilot would wait 20 minutes, then following the same roads would pass the crew car arriving a few minutes ahead of them. The farthest I flew it was about 35 miles and used just a little more than half the fuel. One pretty day we went to North Huntsville, Hazelgreen, Fayettville, North Huntsville and back to Moontown, refueling and changing pilots at each stop, we had fun showing off our home made toy. The other XC was to Scottsburo, and a private strip up on Sand mountain near Pisgah, AL. Don flew the Pisgah legs and I flew the Scottsboro legs, again we had a full day showing off our toy, but we had run out of air ports within fuel range so our XC adventures just fizzled out.

A lady friend had asked if I would give her grand children an airplane ride, she even volunteered to pay the rental fees, so as summer approached we had a nice warm Saturday that was perfect for flying I called her and said to bring her grand children and I would give them all a ride, I rented the Champ gave four rides and every one had a good time. That done I asked if they would like to see me fly my home made airplane, oh yeah the kids were all fired up about airplanes, so I got the Air Bike out of the hanger taxied out and took off, I barely got over the trees several hundred yards past the end of the runway, I finally found a thermal and climbed up to pattern altitude then I made a pass down the runway, again it was a struggle getting above the trees so I landed, sent the family on their way and put the Air Bike away. Leaving the airport I stopped at the pilots lounge and checked the density altitude, it was 2400 ft. In the cold dry air of winter I could get to 3000 ft but in warm moist air I was simply running out of power to climb.

John Harris had sent a video tape of him making the first three flights in Pete Sinclair’s Mini Max that had a 40 HP Rotax engine, Pete then flew it and then Pete’s partner crashed it on the forth or fifth flight. I called John to see if he knew if Pete still had the engine from the wreck and if so would he sell it and at what price. John called back a day or two later and said “how does $250 sound” I said I will be there a quick as I can. Becky and I left Huntsville Friday after she got off work, spending the night some where east of Little Rock. We got to John and Marie’s early afternoon Saturday loaded the engine, had a martini or two, had some supper and talked a good bit. In the process I mentioned that I had an old 41 caliber Colt revolver that I would send to John when we got back to Huntsville. John and Marie had met Becky the previous September when we attended the first Aviation Cadet reunion at Tinker AFB, the AF Thunderbirds were there and I invited John and Marie out for the Air Show. They knew Becky and I were about to get married so they invited us to spend the night with them, we did. Sunday morning as we were getting ready to head back to Huntsville, John insisted that I take a bunch of his model airplane equipment, he had a whole room full, he gave me way too much. I think John had pretty much given up flying R/C and his models had become dust collectors, as mine did a few years later.

Becky and I got home about 10 PM stopping only for food and fuel, it had been a quick but fun and rewarding trip, thanks John. Pete had done a very good job of cleaning the engine after the wreck, I am sure he had at least thought of repairing it, the gearbox was shattered, both the driver and driven gear had a couple of teeth that showed evidence of sudden stoppage they were bent ever so slightly. When I had them both out where I could roll them against each other there was a spot that they jammed just a bit, I sent the innards off to the local Rotax shop with out the gears and bought what ever they needed to make what was left like new, $850 later I had gear box for my almost new 40 HP engine. While the gearbox was in the shop I mounted the engine on a tree stump near my workshop and ran it with out the gear box for several hours to make sure there was no internal damage, it ran fine, and continued to run fine for all 40 hours we flew it.

This is a good place to cut this episode off so I can finish up in the next one. Till then. Bob