Back in the late 80s there used to be a retired 747 captain that bought a little run down airport in Mentone Indiana, He built a huge house on it and ran a skydiving school out of it, He owned a Pilatus PC-6 Porter that was used for the jump plane. He also had a PZL-104 Wilga and a blue Breezy. Short story long.... my best friend at the time and myself used to ride our bicycles from my house to that little airport, bout a 6 mile ride if I recall. We had to be only 13 or 14 or 15 years old or there abouts. We used to just sit in the parking lot and watch the things that were happening, one day an skydive instructor came out and asked why we just sit in the parking lot. We didnt know what to say. He invited us "in", he introduced us to the owner of the airport, I wish like hell I could remember the Captains name. I wanna say it was a normal name like Bob or something. He took all afternoon to show us the hangar, all his planes, his house, the skydive classroom..... at the end of the day when we needed to pedal our butts home, he told use to bring our dads by, and if we did that we could go hang out there all we wanted. I told my dad about it and he was stoked, he drove me out there one weekend so I could let him meet the owner of the airport, My dad being retired 20 years Navy, he hit it off quick with the Captain. I cant remember if my best friend got his dad to go out there? (well he had to of otherwise we couldn't have done all that happened following) ANYWAY, the owner of the airport told my dad that we were welcome to come and hang out anytime we wanted.
Ok so now that the meet and greets were over, my friend and I spent a couple summers riding our bikes to that airport every chance we could get, we had free reign to do anything we wanted within reason, he could tell we were good kids and respected his place, we hung out in the hangars, we sat in on jump school classes, helped fuel planes, helped grounds keep, explored the old hangar and office that had fallen in on itself shott pool in the basement of the house, swam in the pool in the same basement, WE JUST DID WHATEVER WE WANTED.
Then one day it happened, the Captain asked if we wanted to fly!! WE ALL BUT FAINTED. I said I dunno? I have to ask my parents, he said don't worry about it, that was why I asked you to bring your fathers out to meet? Turns out my dad and the Capt had a private conversation while I was being distracted by shiny things, ultimately he asked my dad if it was ok if he took us up in his aircraft.
We got so many rides in that Wilga, and Breezy, he would take the Breezy and damn near drag the wheels through the trees, landings were the best, there was a small patch of woods on the north west corner to the runway, he would skim the fields low and pop us up over the patch of woods and yank it around get lined up and slap us down on the runway, he would call ahead too my dad and tell him to be outside around such and such time, he would fly us to our houses and buzz our pasture and freak out our horses, my dad loved it, mom not so much.
The Wilga could be outfitted with snow skis, so naturally snow didn't stop him, he took us off in the grass along side the runway in the snow one time and flew us to Rochester Indiana and flew us around the lake Manitou. That was the first and only time I saw a frozen lake from above.
He would let us ride up in the jump plane, and watch the skydivers jump out, that about made me sick to my stomach, why on earth you would want to jump from a perfectly good airplane was beyond me. And then the best part the pilot would chop the throttle and pitch down and free fall the plane along side the skydivers, That is an image I will never forget, hanging from my seatbelt looking out the window at the skydivers free falling, then looking out the front windshield at the ground screaming and laughing with pure excitement and adrenalin pumping. After that rollercoasters never had the same appeal LOL
ANYWAY sorry lego, for a long winded story in the middle of your build thread, but when you said Breezy a flood of memories came back too me..
Ill take a blue Breezy please.