It Takes Two To Tango Charlie

N180TC, or November One Eight Zero Tango Charlie, holds a special place in my heart. It's the aircraft in which I earned my tailwheel endorsement, and that makes me a "real" pilot in the eyes of many, perhaps even including myself.

She's a lovely bird, a Cessna 180 Skywagon, which is basically the pickup truck of the airports. There's more Skywagons flying around with great stories to tell than you can shake a stick at, though she doesn't need a stick shaker to tell you that she's about to stall....

My friend Tom is a CFI, (Certified Flight Instructor) and he decided one day that I was competent enough to fly his airplane, and that I was even competent enough for him to endorse my logbook saying so. But the real story is how I got to that day.

My good friend Mark is the person who got me flying. If you're interested, I've written a bit about him in a posting called "It All Started At A Forty Watt Radio Station in Saskatoon", but Mark is partners in a Skywagon with our friend Steve, and because of that, and because Mark and Steve are both my aviation mentors, I've spend tons of time in the right seat of their 180. Neither is a CFI, but the hundreds of hours I've spent haven't been wasted just looking out the window.

I've been so fortunate. There's Rob too, who owns a 140A, is a CFI, and learned how to teach by teaching me some great tailwheel training, at his expense, for hours and hours. Each pilot has shown me many things about their plane, so that the day that Tom agreed to help me get my endorsement, it was mostly just a matter of showing him that I knew where the rudders were located, that I could perform an emergency landing in a crosswind, and that I could do it with enough skill that we could re-use the plane each time.....

Without these friends, I'd still be sitting somewhere hoping and praying that some day I'd be a pilot. It's what this great community of aviation is all about, friends helping friends, sharing their joy at the privilege of flight. I promise to do my utmost to continue the tradition.