Dear Garrett..

Chapter 16

FIRST FLYING JOB CHORES AND COMPENSATION AND CHEROKEE ALTITUDE RECORD

A lot of what I would come to learn about flying professionally occurred rapidly over the next several months. I flew everyday, often multiple flights per day. In between my flying, I stayed busy handling my other assigned duties. I kept our three Cherokee 140 aircraft perpetually clean. I wouldn’t let them get dirty enough to ever need a wash job. I liked to wipe them clean daily – – a wing and a fuselage at a time, etc. I didn’t clean for hours on end but 15 to 30 minutes here and there throughout the day mixed in with other duties when I wasn’t flying.

One of my “secondary mentors” was Chad Sproule. Chad out did me on airplane hygiene. Chad kept his plane so clean that he actually waxed the paint thin in areas. Chad flew a Beechcraft Queen Air for the Bud Antle Produce Company.

It was my responsibility to tend to office chores too – – waiting on customers – – keeping the office clean and keeping fresh coffee made up. I also called in “live weather reports” daily to the Watsonville radio station. That part of my job had me feeling like a celebrity – – being a radio personality and all!

$250 per month – – plus 20 hours free flight time in the Piper dealership company aircraft – – plus free flight instruction to acquire my Professional Pilot Certificates and ratings training. The 20 hours of free flight time were in addition to the flight time I was already flying to perform my work assignments. I was flying a lot and building the flight time needed to acquire my first Professional Pilot Certification, my Commercial Pilot Certificate. The Commercial Pilot Certificate required 200 hours of flight time in the 1960s.

My work related chores and flying involved so many hours, it was sometimes difficult to get my additional 20 hours flight time in each month. With my extra 20 hours, I would fly with an instructor – – whichever one I could get to go up with me and work on my Commercial Pilot maneuvers training. I would also go up solo and practice my maneuvers to proficiency.

One day, I took off alone working toward flying out my 20 hours for the month. I had no particular flight objective in mind as I departed runway 19 at Watsonville. It was a quiet and beautiful end of the work day flight. The air was calm and slightly cool as it frequently is near the coastal waters in Northern California. It was probably an ISA plus 5 or so degrees day.

Climbing out heading towards the Monterey Bay, a thought suddenly occurred to me, “I wonder how high this Piper Cherokee can fly?” The sky was clear so I didn’t have any clouds to worry about. The usual coastal fog hadn’t rolled in for the evening yet. So I continued to climb. Several minutes into the flight, I cleared 10,000 feet. 10,000 feet felt really high in the small single engine piston aircraft. It was a much higher altitude than I had flown previously. In several more minutes, I reached 18,000 feet.

I stopped climbing at 18,000 feet. Not because the Piper couldn’t climb any higher but because 18,000 was as high as I could legally climb without having an IFR clearance. Above my altitude was the Positive Control Area where no VFR flights were allowed. The view of the Monterey Bay area was magnificent from this altitude. I felt so small my small four seat piston Piper in such a massive sky at this unusually high altitude for a Piper Cherokee 140.

Having reached this unexpectedly high altitude, I then decided it was time to descend and return to the Watsonville Airport. Shortly after beginning my descent, I decided to make my descent to the runway with the engine shut off. Passing 17,000 feet, I retarded the throttle to idle and shut the fuel mixture control off. Then I stalled the Piper to stop the prop from spinning. The sensation of flight with the engine off and the propeller stopped felt both strange and wonderful. It was so quiet and peaceful. I thought, “Gosh, this feels great!”

It took me awhile to descend to the near sea level elevation of the Watsonville Airport. When I began the descent, I prepared the engine to do a quick start if my descent planning for my dead stick landing on runway 19 at Watsonville didn’t work out as planned. I set the magneto switch to the left mag, mixture control rich and throttle open 1/4 inch. During my descent, I noticed I had to keep the airspeed extra slow to prevent the propeller from turning and restarting the engine inadvertently.

I planned my approach to the runway to allow for a constant descent profile versus the leveling off at the traffic pattern altitude for a customary downwind approach. Approaching the airport on a sweeping base leg my descent profile to the runway was looking good. The short “Hershey Bar” rectangular wing carried the Piper downward much quicker than other training aircraft like the Cessna aircraft I had flown during my initial pilot training. As I completed my base to final approach, my altitude looked perfect. I crossed the runway threshold and numbers on profile landing perfectly in the touchdown zone of runway 19. Everything about my un-preplanned flight felt like a flawless success for a young 20 year old newly licensed pilot.

While I was rolling out on the runway, it was time to start the engine. Already having the engine controls in position for a quick start, I engaged the starter. The engine started right up and I continued my landing rollout to the next taxiway, exited the runway and taxied to the ramp.

After parking and shutting down the engine, I felt a positive sense of accomplishment, more than most of my other solo flights to date except for my solo cross country flights. I had spread my wings farther than ever before and it felt good.

Throughout the flight, I knew I was operating outside the normal flight envelope for a solo training flight. And throughout the flight, I did feel a slight sense of apprehension. I knew I was operating outside my previously conditioned comfort zone. On this flight, I was just spreading my wings out a bit further checking to see what they could do.