I never want to see that again

My emotions ran rampant Thursday when a big turbine-powered spray plane (crop duster) accidentally overran a Piper Cub parked on the aviation ramp. The Super Cub was unoccupied and the turbine pilot escaped with his life from the huge fireball.

It was an ugly thing to watch! The scars remain today with the Cub wing, fuselage and tail outlined on the concrete somewhat like the haunting images of humans caught on the sidewalk when the nuclear weapon exploded over Hiroshima in 1945.

For me watching that beautiful blue and white Super Cub burn up on McCook's airport ramp was akin to seeing a good friend die! A short time before the accident I had visited with the owner who'd stopped for fuel on the way to the annual aviation meet at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He and a young son had just flown the airplane here from its home at Kelly Air Park some 50 miles south of Denver.

My new friend and I toured the more interesting places on McCook airport while I simultaneously mentored one of my young students out on an initial solo flight. My new Cub owning friend was awaiting his wife who was driving the family van loaded with camping equipment and two other young sons. The plan was for the wife, also a pilot, to fly their Cub along with another of the boys to Crete, Nebraska, for the next fuel stop. In that manner they planned to hopscotch across the states on their way to the annual AirVenture the largest gathering of pilots and airplanes in the world. It was not to be! The loss-stricken family turned their van West to leave the sad scene.

Now referring to a recent column about McCook's wonderful Independence Day Celebration in Norris Park.

I had commented that it is a shame that President Obama did not attend, so that perhaps he could have found a reason to be proud to be an American. A wag commented in the online Gazette edition following the column that perhaps the reason our President didn't attend was because he wasn't invited! Good point.

Therefore I am issuing a formal invitation to President Barack Hussein Obama to come to Southwest Nebraska so that I can teach him to fly.

You see, when getting a new student started in the learning-to-fly business there are a few steps, paperwork, that an instructor must accomplish.

One such step is to direct the aspiring pilot to get a flight physical and a student license. Those two documents are necessary before the individual can go "solo" -- that is fly the aircraft by themselves sans instructor.

Since 9/11, a new requirement has arisen and that is to ascertain that the new student is indeed a citizen of the United States.

Foreign-born are still able to join the learning process, but permission has to be granted by higher-ups in the Department of State. That investigative process is overseen by the Transportation Security Agency better known as TSA.

For the native born, we lowly flight instructors are required to examine a person's birth certificate and photo ID. Only then can we endorse that student's log book, "I have examined a legal birth certificate and an official photo ID and have ascertained that this individual is a native-born citizen of the United States of America" signed, certified, and dated.

We make the same notation in our own log book or certain other permanent record. Our instructions include the caveat that the birth certificate must be "official" and it is specifically stated that the student's mother, obviously present at the birth, cannot vouch for the student's legal status!

Going through that little process recently an individual commented that it is interesting that our President would not be qualified to learn to fly as he refuses to allow anyone to see his own birth certificate!

I wonder -- nah, never happen!

That is the way I saw it.