Well, it's been 10 years. Back in the 90s I was riding high on the dot-com bubble. Had a Mooney Rocket and 421. Then the bust came. Sold the airplenes. And the powerboat. And the sail boat. And the condo on the strip in Vegas. And, well, you get the idea. Lived for a bit in a '92 Accord. With a wife and five cats. But all's well that ends well. Actually made a full financial recovery by the early 2000s but never really got around to flying again. Maybe it was the 20 hour days spent building up the new business, the fact that I am now living in the Washington DC area, which is the most unfrendly spot in the world to GA outside the Iraq no-fly zone, some medical issues, or just plain inertia, but I just didn't get around to it. I took a couple of demo rides, in a Trunda and a Carbon Cub, but other then that, my feet stayed planted firmly on the ground.

Well, I finally did it. Flew with an instructor in a 1958 172. I didn't know how much of my skills I would retain, but I was able to make the entire flight unassisted. Take-off, fly around the local area, track a VOR, find my way back to the airport, and make three landings we were able to walk away from and use the airplane again. If I can renew my medical, I have use of the 172 and, once it's annual is over a Citabria for tailwheel time. Or, I may go light sport. Carbon Cub was cool and ever since the latest Swingle video, I've been obsessed with a Rans S7. In any case, it's great to be back in the saddle again!

Best,
O-2

It's good to hear you made it back in the air. Thanks for sharing your .com experience, it proves that all it takes is hard work and determination to get back on top.

Steve

Great to have an aviator back in the air! Congratulations!

DC is rough, but the Eastern Shore/Chesapeake Bay of Maryland is priceless. If your into grass, hit Kentmore. Kentmore is Americas first fly-in community and has a great restaurant.

Hit Tangier Island if you love Maryland/Virginia Crabs. The history of the island is crazy and it has been inhabited since the 1600's. The population was isolated until the modern electronic age. The population still speaks Elizabethan English and people from England studied them to see how they themselves used to sound and speak. Leave your cell phone home as their is no signal.

Stop in Campbell field. Gordon has "Soup on Sunday" with $100.00 hot dogs. Great guy, great field! Watch the wire on the south side. Free camping, pilots Tiki bar and courtesy car. Peolpe flying in and out all day.

Fly up the barrier islands south of Wallops Island. 40 miles of near uninhabited shore. See everything from ship wrecks to shells stacked 12" high. You need ABW to land on the sand I presume and it may not be legal to land on the beach. but their is plenty of drift wood for night time fires.

From DC you can fly from the Appalachians to the Ocean, and no one will be better than you at managing airspace. FRZ, ADIZ, TFR's, Moving TFR'S, Expanding TFR's, , A through Z airspace and environmental hazards. The man made regulatory hazards will snatch your license faster.

I hope all America feels safer. 6000 DC airspace infractions and not one of them was a terrorist. Just to make the clowns everyone sends to DC feel important and safe, which they are neither.

All said, Flying is great here and there are a great bunch of guys that fly a lot around here.

Take care!

Great to have an aviator back in the air! Congratulations!

DC is rough, but the Eastern Shore/Chesapeake Bay of Maryland is priceless. If your into grass, hit Kentmore. Kentmore is Americas first fly-in community and has a great restaurant.

Hit Tangier Island if you love Maryland/Virginia Crabs. The history of the island is crazy and it has been inhabited since the 1600's. The population was isolated until the modern electronic age. The population still speaks Elizabethan English and people from England studied them to see how they themselves used to sound and speak. Leave your cell phone home as their is no signal.

Stop in Campbell field. Gordon has "Soup on Sunday" with $100.00 hot dogs. Great guy, great field! Watch the wire on the south side. Free camping, pilots Tiki bar and courtesy car. Peolpe flying in and out all day.

Fly up the barrier islands south of Wallops Island. 40 miles of near uninhabited shore. See everything from ship wrecks to shells stacked 12" high. You need ABW to land on the sand I presume and it may not be legal to land on the beach. but their is plenty of drift wood for night time fires.

From DC you can fly from the Appalachians to the Ocean, and no one will be better than you at managing airspace. FRZ, ADIZ, TFR's, Moving TFR'S, Expanding TFR's, , A through Z airspace and environmental hazards. The man made regulatory hazards will snatch your license faster.

I hope all America feels safer. 6000 DC airspace infractions and not one of them was a terrorist. Just to make the clowns everyone sends to DC feel important and safe, which they are neither.

All said, Flying is great here and there are a great bunch of guys that fly a lot around here.

Take care!

OscarDeuce wrote:

I didn't know how much of my skills I would retain, but

There's a great short story by Richard Bach titled "Return of a Lost Pilot". O-2's story reminded me of it.

For those of you under 50, O-2's story also brings to mind a lyric in a song by Pink Floyd...

"Where have you been....? It's alright, we know where you've been."

Welcome back. This time around buy a small inexpensive house, pay cash for it, and rent it out while you're riding whatever bubble comes next. If the bubble bursts, you'll have a place to live and fight your way back out from. Please trust me, that little chunk of wisdom was paid for by my own personal stupidity and short-sightedness in 1990