Who would guess – there’s a day called “Poem in Your Pocket Day” and it just happened to be this week. (You can learn a lot listening to PBS while driving to work!) The day slid by unnoticed on the blog but it got me thinking about the lovely poem, written by our very own lady taildragger pilot Melinda Hooper, that says it all so beautifully.
Melinda flying her Champ
ODE TO A CHAMP
In the fall of nineteen-ninety
On a mild November day,
I lost my heart to a little white Champ
As it flew me up and away.
So unhappy was I that I didn’t know how
To myself take a plane to the sky.
And I hadn’t the funds if I did have the skills,
To buy my own aircraft to fly.
Well, after a while I’d mastered the art
Of piloting planes in the blue.
But to own a champ – now that was a thing
How to manage I hadn’t a clue.
For that kind of airplane was rising in price
So much faster than I could save.
By the time I had enough money, I feared,
I would have one foot in the grave!
Some years went by and I flew the planes
With the third wheel on the nose,
But my heart was still with the tailwheel types -
I just had to have one of those!
My funds grew slowly, and from time to time
I’d think that maybe I could
Find a Champ somewhere that I could afford,
But doubted that ever I would.
And then one day – YES, there it was!
A Champ just perfect for me.
The plane, the location, the price was right
Oh, could it really be?
I conferred and thought, had mechanics look,
And after some anxious time,
The deal was made, registration sent -
Eight-Two-One-Four-Seven was mine!
It needed some work and some TLC
To achieve a return to the sky,
But several months later, inspection complete,
The airplane was ready to fly.
Now I swing the prop, bring the engine to life
And take flight whenever I please.
I go up with the birds and the clouds so high
And look down on the tops of the trees.
Yes, I take off and fly in my very own Champ,
From a pretty grass runway, no less!
On the fine autumn day those eight years ago,
Who would have been able to guess?
Melinda Hooper & twin sister and also Champ pilot, Melissa Adams
By “Lindy” (Melinda Hooper)
Autumn 1998
”
It was no easy task either! I had bumpy air, problems with the examiner’s headset so that it was difficult for us to hear each other, and out-of-the-ordinary requests from the control tower along with a request from the examiner for a maneuver that I had never even tried before! After we landed, I was SO relieved (and surprised) when she said, “Well, I’m going to send you home as a private pilot today.” I couldn’t have been more excited than I was in that moment! Thanks for the well wishes and support. Now, to prepare for Osh…”
