Just our Dwight

At the same meeting the City Manager complimented me on a couple recent columns about "non-city" topics. Further he enjoined me to "Keep up the good work!" Sounded like he threw down the gauntlet, a warning for me to stay out of city business. There is nothing like the harsh glare of publicity to keep a bureaucrat on the straight and narrow so now my interest is piqued.

Sometimes sharing the highway with trucks makes one proud. Coming through Winslow, Arizona a big sign over the interstate read "Right lane closed. Accident ten miles ahead." Then a couple of highway utility pickups with lights flashing were parked diagonally in the right lane to usher all traffic to the left on the east-bound half of the four lane Interstate Highway. Traffic was backed up doing about five to ten miles per hour. A couple miles down the slow road several drivers, probably liberal democrats, couldn't be patient and started passing on the right. Five miles on we passed a wrecked semi that had obviously plowed into the rear of the stopped semi in front of him. Looked bad, windshields shattered, pieces of plastic and junk from the collision scattered all over. Just past that wreck I glanced in the rear view mirror to note a bright orange semi pulled over in the right lane and running the same really slow speed as another semi beside him. No more crowding past! Just made me feel good. Americans simply don't like for people to "cut the line"! In a few miles we came upon the semi that started it all. My guess was that he had crossed the median, overturned and sprawled across most of both lanes. Junk all over there too but emergency workers doing their best to clean up.

Last week I wrote about Cassie instructing pilots at Lufthansa's pilot training facility in the good old USofA. The following was forwarded to me by your editor:

"Dear Dick, 
Just a short correction: Not ALL German pilots are trained in the US, but all LUFTHANSA pilots spend a six month stay at the Lufthansa flight school, located in Phoenix, AZ (not Texas or Florida). Other than that, thanks for the nice mentionings.
Best regards,
Martin Riecken
Deutsche Lufthansa AG
Head of Corporate Communications The Americas"

Ah the miracle of modern communications and I appreciate the correction! It staggers my mind that responses to my columns come from all over the United States.

This week I received a note from my cousin John, we always called him Jack, who lives in Aniak, Alaska. It is worth sharing so I quote in full as Jack wrote: "I see from reading the McCook news in the Gazette website that the McCook airport has lost another of the "colorful" characters from years ago, with the passing of Dwight Ginther.
 When I was working at Red Willow Aviation in the early '70s, there were about as many "Dwight" stories as there were about Elton Neiman. One that I particularly remember was that he had flown his T-Craft (small fabric covered two place airplane built in the 1940's) to Wichita to visit friends for the weekend, and because they lived close, he landed at McConnell AFB, parking near the fence which was more or less across the street from the friends they (Dwight & Diane (Dike)) went to visit. As the story went, they didn't get the chance to climb through the fence before the APs (Air Police) caught them and gave them a ride to talk with some officer in charge.
 That officer tried to explain that you can't land on an Air Force Base with a civilian airplane, and Dwight countered with the argument that with 65 HP, his airplane had plenty of performance to handle an airport of this size; after all, they had just flown clear across Kansas. In the end, the officer decided it was pointless to argue with Dwight and told him to go away, and don't come back. They gave him a ride back to the airplane; Dwight took off and parked somewhere else, even though it was less convenient.
 When Dwight related the story to me, he indicated that the AF officer was really rude."

Yep that was the Dwight that I knew when I came back home and started to hang around the airport again. Thanks for the remembrance Jack!

That is the way I saw it!

Dick Trail