Good Bye, Cheetah!

...live long, and prosper!

Great weather today. A bit cold, but sunny, calm, and overall very promising.

I rolled out the Cheetah out of her hangar for the last time.

This was a weird feeling.

When you have an airplane sitting in the hangar 20 minutes away from your house, you tend to sometimes put flying off.

It typically goes along these lines.

Hey, it's Saturday coming up. I gotta go bounce around! check the weather Hmm...looks a bit iffy. Maybe I should do this-other-thing-around-the-house-shop-or-whatever-I-hadn't-gotten-around-to. Maybe, I'll go flying after that...

Evening rolls in, you're tired and not up for flying anymore.. Meanwhile, weather was perfect the whole day!

"Next week", you think. And you go out next week, but this time it's something else that pops up and you have to get to it later in the day, and instead of spending half a day bouncing around, you buzz around the pattern for half an hour and go back to your daily messes and stuff to do around the house.

Not every Saturday was like that since I got back to having time to do plane stuff... but often, it did.

But this time, today. It was weird. The knowing that I am flying her for the last time, that I am listening to GTU ATIS on her radios for the last time, the last VOR to be tuned in, last turn direct to the destination, last approach guy handing you over to your destination's Tower...

"Field in sight"...

On a day like today...

Sunny, silky smooth, a touch of clouds, with all the gauges' needles frozen in place...

You remember all the good times you had together, and think... I'll miss you, Cheetah!

I guess, in the Spirit of Thanksgiving..?

Thank you for all the wingovers, low passes over lakes, and river runs.

Thank you for all the kids we've flown as Young Eagles.

Thank you for getting my ass out of that fog along the coast of Madagorda Island (that one was the "bag of luck" to "bag of experience" type thing for sure!)

Thank you for all the fun I had messing with you.

Thank you for that unique kind of smell that your inside smelled with (and my tiger LeRoy who lived in the plane still smells like you!)

Thank you for being a good plane and not giving me any trouble.

I hope I'll see you again sometime! And maybe then, we'll go bounce around together again. Just like the good old times.

The Cheetah

Those who hoot with the owls by night, should not fly with the eagles by day.