This is me next to N40009.  This was taken around February, 1996.  It was a brisk day, but my passenger elected to fly doors-off.  Too bad she's only brought a sweater to wear!  Another pilot crashed this helicopter a couple of months later.  He was okay, but N40009 was destroyed. As it happens, four of the R-22s I've flown have crashed.  None of the crashes involved serious injuries.  The first was being autorotated to a touchdown (simulated engine failure).  It got a little sideways and rolled.  The second was forced down in bad whether.  The pilot was warned not to fly that day but he "had to" get the ship to its new owner.  (FAA poster:  "Get-there-itis / May someday bite us!")  Another pilot got into a vortex-ring state ("settling with power") and did not initiate the recovery, or did not attempt recovery in time.  The hard landing wrecked it.  N40009 was lost on an attempted ridge landing.  The pilot did not use a high-angle approach and was unable to climb out of a downdraft on the lee side of the ridge.  The R-22 rolled about 200 meters down the hill.  The machines are safe, but "Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous.  But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect."
 
 
 

This is a Schweizer 300CB.  It has two seats like the Robinson, but there's a lot more room.  This photo was taken by "Corine", who is a waitress at Foxy's Landing, the little diner at Fox Field in Lancaster, CA.  She came out and snapped the photo when she saw me land.  I'm in my typical mild-weather flying gear:  A flight jacket, shorts, and hiking boots.

This is my friend Sandy.  She lived across the street from me (sort of) and we went to high school together.  I picked up a book called H-60 BLACKHAWK in action (Squadron Press) and I found her in a group photo.  (I added the highlight and her name on the photo.)  She was a Blackhawk pilot in Operation Desert Storm.

Here's a closer look at the same pic.

A couple of me and my nephew

This is me with my nephew Charlie.  I'm not eating him.  TASTING!   Just TASTING! (Heh heh heh.)

Ah, the venerable N84573.  This is a 1970 Cessna 172.  This is how it looked in 1976 when dad bought it.  It was originally blue and white when it came from the factory, but the radio station that bought it for traffic reporting had it re-painted orange.  Oddly, perhaps, they retained the blue interior.  This is the aircraft in which I learned to fly.  I earned my fixed-wing rating in 1982.  Dad kept N84573 for a few years after that, along with his 1968 Cessna 182.  He sold it around 1986.  Recently, I found out that the newest owner lives in Brea, CA and I guessed that the most likely place for it to be was Fullerton Municipal Airport.  And so it was.  There was no rubber on the left main and it was sitting on the rim.  The right main was flat.  Black hydraulic fluid was on the nose-wheel strut.  The airport guard said it hadn't flown in at least a year.  I've considered contacting the owner and asking him if he'd like to sell it.

Dad's 1968 Cessna 182 was in need of repair when he bought it, but mostly it was sound.  Leaking fuel had damaged the paint, which was a bit dated anyway.  He replaced the leaky fuel bladders with long-range units and had N42546 repainted in a 1984 scheme.  The interior was also done.  On a trip up to Medford, OR, we stopped off at Red Bluff.  We didn't need fuel, but we filled up anyway.  The lineman thought it was a brand-new aircraft!  Dad sold it around 1990.  I tracked the location of N42546 to Paso Robles, CA, but I don't know the owner's name and it would be way to expensive too buy back anyway.  This was one fine ship!