Page 4 - My world came to an end, when I prop the plane...

     It is Halloween night 1952. The trip to Montana has been planned. I have saved the money, and weather permitting and the airplane checking out ok, I'm going to Montana no matter what anyone says.

     The early evening of Halloween, I will give the little airplane a check flight and see if all the systems say "go." I fly around the patch a few times doing take offs and landings. I notice on the last landing, in the approach mode, the airspeed indicator says "ZERO." It has to say something as I am flying, but this problem will have to be taken care of tonight!



     I land and tell my wife that after supper (we live on the airport) I will take the airplane out to the shop and work on it. My wife protests against the idea saying that someone pulling Halloween pranks might come on the airport and hurt me or hurt something. She insists this is something I should not be doing and to let a certified mechanic check out the airspeed indicator.

     I was bullheaded. I would not listen. After supper, I will go and work on the airplane after I take it from the tie down area and take it to the shop and just leave it in the shop overnight. My trailer house is right beside the maintenence shop, and I can load the airplance the next day for the trip.



Loraine Carter - Owner of the Plane I hit.


     Supper over, I go out to the airplane, look it over, and put one shock in front of the right wheel. I put the magnitos to both and will prop the plane. My world came to an end when I prop the plane and the throttle creeps forward and spins the airplane around. As I am getting into the seat to cut the switch, TOO LATE! BANG! I hit an airplane that is next to it as part of the wing of the adjacent plane goes through the windshield of my airplane and through the hair of my head! Of all the airplanes to hit, it would be one owned by a woman aerobatic champion. My dreams have come true. It is now real. I can't go to Montana.

     Everyone, even my best friends would tell me not to make the Montana trip because of lack of experience, and the airplane would lack the performance to safely make the trip over the Sierras, and the Rocky Mountains would still be a problem that my experience could not cope with.

Page 3 - Why doesn't someone say "yes?"

     One early summer day in 1952, there is an ad in a paper called "Trade a Plane."  There would be a Piper Vagabond for sale. I would inquire about the airplane, but could not afford the down payment or monthly payments. Time will tell, maybe something will come up. I continue with dreams about going up to Montana in my own airplane, but all the dreams end in dissappointment.
     I'm now living at the San Mateo Airport.  I service amny private airplanes every day, and I would see a number of airplanes every day.  I would see a number of airplanes that i would like to own, but "if wishes were fishes, we would all take a swim." With the pay that i get I can never ever afford an airplane.
     One day, I would see an airplane I would like to have.  I liked it so well I wanted to actually kiss it!  I was falling in love with it.  I was visiting with the owner about what this airplane would cost when my wife comes running down between a row of parked planes, laughing and saying "See what I got?"  It would be a letter about the Vagabond I wanted to buy and couldn't afford. The owner would now sell it for half the down payment and cut the monthly payments in half! It is possible, I think, I can get this airplane.  I would meet a pilot from England that flew at the San Mateo airport, and it would end up he would go get the airplane for me. It would be setting in the door of a silver mine at Globe, AZ. The dreams continue and as all dreams I never can make a successful flight to Montana.
     I bought the Piper Vagabond. It was like I had a new friend to go with a new and little friend.  "How much is that dog in the window? I do wish that dog was for sale." He was for sale, and  I needed a flying partner.  This shepard cocker spaniel dog would be named "Pilot" and he would fly with me for eleven years.
     Now, just maybe, I will be able to make a flight to Montana and show off this little jewel. I will carefully plan everything it will take to make this flight. Everyone tells me no, that I will not have enough fuel range to make certain legs of the flight nor will I have the experience. Why doesn't someone say yes?

Page 2 - I want to be a pilot

     One winter day while I was in grade school, I saw an airplane parked by the fence adjacent to the school yard.  I hoped school would be out before the airplane left. "I have to see this airplane!"  School would be out before the airplane left, and I ran out to see it, touch it, examine it, see who made it, and what kind of plane was it.  The soft falling snow made the atmosphere that surrounds the airplane all the more mysterious and exciting. There were pelts from coyotes hanging on the wing struts, and that only added to the excitement of what I was seeing. The airplane was a Taylorcraft, a two place side by side airplane on ski's. YES! I'm hooked. I WANT to be a pilot.      I was thirteen years of age, when I was building a model plane on the dining room table. My father would walk into the room and question me as to what I was doing. I told him that I was building a model airplane, and he said, "That's for babies to do. Why don't you do something worth while?"  I told him that if I ever got another dime I would buy a  model just like it, and I would build it better than the one I'm building, and if I ever got a dime after that I would buy a model plane just like it and it would be better still!
     "Harlan, you will never learn to fly, and if you did learn to fly you could never afford to buy an airplane and if you did ever get an airplane it would be useless and to what good would you ever get out of having it?"
     I would never ever forget the remarks that my father had made to me concerning airplanes.  The remarks would be branded in the back of my mind. In all my spare time, I would wonder about airplanes, anxious to take a ride in one someday.
     September 6, 1947 I would solo in a Piper J-3 Cub, N92288, at Minot, North Dakota.
     Time would go by and I would join the United States Navy. I would go overseas to Guam, MI. Almost every night, I would dream about airplanes. In almost all the dreams, I'm going to take an airplane home to Montana, but in all the dreams, none of the flights or to be flights to Montana were to be successful.
     Around June 20, 1950, I would arrive back in the United States (a strange story just about my arrival). June 23 I bought my first airplane. I'm still continuing to dream about flying home and in my own airplane.
     Now that I have the airplane, I will fly my airplane home on leave.  Harry S. Truman says NO.  All leaves are cancelled, and we will invade Korea.  The dreams, no matter how dissappointing, are still like dreams would be, I have my own airplane and still can't go home.
     One day previous to January 9, 1952, I would see the airplane, a fiesty looking little airplane, a Piper PA-17 Vagabond.  I loved the Piper J-3 Cub, but I was never able to take it to Montana, and I would one day sell it.  The dreams of going to Montana has nearly faded.  I will never ever make it to Montana in my own airplane.

1937 - Page 1

     One day during the school year, I was very depressed. I really didn't want to go to school. Nothing seemed right to me, and I would skip school. I started out from home like I was going to school but would stop at the bottom of a little hill beside a creek bottom. I would lay down in the tall grass, listen to the wind, watch birds fly by, and listen to nature. How comfortable I felt! Sort of all alone with God. We are not here by chance. Every thing seems too beautiful, and I enjoy the peace that surrounds me. I will probably be punished for not going to school, but the peace and joy that surrounds me will be well worth it.
     On a rainy day, I'm looking out the window, listening to the rain and breeze that was along with it. I'm alone looking out the window, wishing I could go out and play but knowing I'm not able to in this rainy weather.  While I listen to the light rain drops touching and running down the window, someone, someone I can't see, tells me that one day I would be flying airplanes. What is happening? What is all of this? I'm not sure of what I heard or anything about airplanes. How would I tell my parents? They will only laugh at me. I could tell an older sister or brother, but they would not believe me or even understand what I was talking about.
     What do I do? I'm no different than anyone else, but something has happened to me that I don't understand.  I would play cowboys and indians with my friends, play like we were pirates, but somehow I think about things differently and in a way I can't explain.
     Now, about airplanes, maybe I could like airplanes, but it is not likely I will ever see one up close.

Sneak Peak

"Harlan, you will never learn to fly and if you did learn to fly you could never afford to buy an airplane and if you did ever get an airplane it would be useless and to what good would you ever get out of having it" - Fred Yates