Dave and Avril Forster are former neighbors of my writer’s critique
group member, Marilyn (Chica) Zapata, and current neighbors of my flying
instructor, Jeff Kling. I had the pleasure of seeing them both again at my Surprise
Party recently. Dave also flew in the same Sport
Air Racing League race in Taylor, TX that I attended. It’s a small, small
world!
Since Dave knows that I love to fly fast, he invited me to
take a spin in his F1 Rocket experimental aircraft. “Experimental” means that the plane was built
from a kit. It took him three years to complete, and he is rightfully proud of
his accomplishment. Here we are at left in this amazing aircraft.
On a gorgeous, sunny morning, with a blue sky filled with
white, puffy clouds, we hopped in, buckled our seatbelts, donned our headsets
and took off into the wild blue yonder.
Our top speed registered around 250 mph, and Dave introduced
me to “cloud dog fighting”. Since we’re not allowed to fly through the clouds,
under VFR (visual flight rules), we must go around them. But doing so at a
leisurely pace would simply be too boring. Dave zips over them, sending us into
almost zero-G free fall on our way down the other side. Then he tips the plane
on its side to slide through narrow openings. I felt like Luke Skywalker in a
Star Fighter, diving through that narrow channel to bomb the Death Star. It was
super fun, but my tummy revolted after a while, and we needed to settle into
straight and level flight for a spell until things calmed down a bit.
Next we moved on to rolls, where the pilot literally rolls
the plane over to the side into a 360º turn. It’s an incredible feeling, but it was over in
a flash. “Let’s do it again,” I said. I tried to take a photo while we were
upside down, but this was as close as I could get. As I mentioned—it’s quick!
For our third roll, Dave decided it was my turn. He handed
over the controls and said, “Pull back on the stick, pull back, pull back, pull
back!” And we shot straight up into the sky. “Now push the stick to the left,”
he said. “All the way, all the way, all the way!” And before I knew it, we were
rolling upside down. AMAZING!!
I know I’ve used these words many times when talking about
my flying experiences, but here is comes again, “WOO-HOO WHAT A RIDE!” Only
this ride was “WOO-HOO 2 !!!!”
Avril returned home just as we were pulling into the hangar
driveway, and took this great photo to capture the moment. It was a wonderful day in the sky!
Thank you so much Dave and Avril for your high-flying
hospitality!
