The day was just picture perfect spring day, I got up got ready for school left as usual but on the way to the bus stop something changed. For some reason for the first time in my life I just didn't go to school. Instead I did as I had done 100'ds of times I went to the airport. I walked through a small woods, left a math textbook there. Then I just went bumming around the airport.
After a couple of hours sticking my nose in airplanes, walking through the hangers I came across a cessna 150 with the key in it. I'm not sure why but I took it and continued walking around.
At the time another airport nearby was flooded and all the airplanes and a temporary control tower wer at this airport so there was much more than usual to look at. At some point I got in another cessna 150, the one pictured above, pulled out the key and started it!!! It started to move and I didn't know where the brakes were. All the reading I had done never really mentioned them. Now moving and afraid I taxied to the runway. I could remember most of what i had read and kept on going. As I approached the end of the runway the tower gave me a green light meaning I was cleared fot takeoff. I did.
The take off was less than professional looking and they guessed right away that this was not right. It was however too late, I was flying and had no intention of coming back. What followed was about 15 minutes that passed between terror and wonder. I was flying not well by any standard but I was flying. I knew I had to land sooner or later so I picked a corn field to land in. Very poor choice as I was later able to tell many of the people I taught to fly without giving them the details. Anyway there are a couple of points I want to stress, first I picked a place to land and landed there. Second is that the airplane had been on all three wheels after I landed, but going across the rows the nose gear snapped and I flipped over hitting my head on the instrument panel and causing a pretty good cut in my forehead. Hanging upside down I released the seat belt and got the hell out of there.
Bloody and dirty running like crazy and not realizing that I had been followed on radar from the moment I left the ground it was not long before police, fire, and ambulance arrived on scene. Not to mention a local St. Paul tv station and a reporter named Quinten Neufeld. At the time they had no trouble showing a minor on tv and by dinner time all of my friends and their parents knew about it. This is where my world went to hell.
Bleeding like I was the first place I went was a hospital in Hastings Mn for stitches to my fore head and to wait for my parents. That as you can imagine did not go well. By dinner time I had heard from all of my friendsn, they were no longer allowed to be around me. This was a Friday when I went to school on Monday it was all over. The name calling pushing and what ever bullying you can imagine began that Monday. It lasted until the day I graduated. I had a few friends over the remaining 5 years and to everyone of them I am eternally greatful.
The bullying even extended to teachers. Remember I said I left a math book in the woods, well someone found it and turned it in. My math teacher at the time was Mr. Woods funny huh. Well he decided to all by himself teach me a lesson about "leaving a book out there" and proceeded to join in with most of my classmates and started beating me up inthe hallway. Very tough guy taking on a 13 year old kid. For thebiggest part of the rest of my time at that school I avoided it and everyone. I honestly believe if I would have had access to guns the way they are out there now. I bring this part up because it profoundly changed the way I looked at and remember my school years, and also thst bullying isn't something new but it is something you can survive and even thrive. I went on followed my dream and became an airline pilot. The fellow who owned the plane taught me how to fly, hired me as a flight instructor and helped me on my way to a career as an airline pilot.
The reporter Quint Neufeld on my 16th birthday came out and filmed my legal first solo flight and years later was news director at that same tv station who called to have me fly reporters and camera men to stories. The airplane I soloed in is the same one that is in the picture above.
The next part of the story is much harder to tell but equally important because it had a big influence on who I am. But its late and that is for next time.
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