About eight years later, while hanging out at the radio control airplane club, a fellow arrived
with a red and white scale model of a Citabria. That had to be the most gorgeous airplane
I had ever seen. It wasn't until almost a year later that I finally saw that model
Citabria fly. I was impressed at how it retained it's beauty in the air, but when it
came into land and the man flying it touched it on the ground in a perfect three point landing,
I was hooked. Not only did that airplane look nice, but that three point landing was the
coolest thing I'd ever seen. I didn't want the Cardinal anymore, I wanted a Citabria.
Many years later, around 1987 or '88, a friend of mine at work invited me to go flying with him.
On the appointed day, I showed up at the airport early in the morning. As we walked to
the hangar, Rick told me that he could use my help pushing it out. After
pushing the hangar door out of the way, I turned around and parked inside was a red and white
Citabria. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Not only was I going for
an airplane ride, I was going in a Citabria.
I hung out at the airport a lot that year and tried a few times to get started on earning my
pilot's license. Though, between the cost of keeping a family and not being able to find a
satisfactory instructor/airplane combination, I finally had to give up on my dream. I
went for rides in a couple of different types of airplanes that summer, but nothing compared
to riding in that Citabria.
Then one day thirteen years later while talking to Rick about my latest radio control airplane
adventures, he said to me, "You know, you should quit messing around with those little airplanes
and get your pilot's license. Then you can fly 'real' airplanes."
He was right and I knew it. Over the next few days I tried coming up with all sort of
excuses for why I couldn't do it, but none of them was really true. So finally I went
to him with what I thought would be the ultimate excuse. I wanted to learn to fly in a
Citabria. Without the slightest hesitation he said, "Have I got a deal for you.
There's this gal out at Potomac who teaches in a Citabria and I know you'll like her real well.
She's real laid back, just the type person you get along with." Now what excuse did I
have? All I had to do now was try to sell my girlfriend on the idea. I also
needed to figure out how to keep this a secret from my daughter. I wanted to be able to
surprise her someday by taking her for an airplane ride.
The rest is history. I even managed to keep it a secret from my daughter.