Michael McCafferty - USA Biplane Tour


Day Seven
Biplane Pilots Do Laundry?


Today looks like we stay on the ground. Early morning high winds will probably last all day. Maybe we can get a break and get flying later in the afternoon, but not likely.

What a great day to do laundry. Cross country biplane pilots are not known for their fresh-as-a-daisy appearance. This is due to the very limited baggage storage space aboard these old planes. So for this trip, I had to leave the tux at home. As well as a second pair of footwear, a third shirt.... you get the idea.

Late last night we talked to Dan Murray, flying a 1928 Travel Air biplane, who started out with us at Apple Valley in the desert north of LA. You may remember that Dan left us at Spanish Peaks, Colorado. He flew ahead in the strong crosswind that I decided was too much for me and my overloaded airplane. He did eventually make it to the National Biplane Convention in Bartlesville Oklahoma, but the weather was poor, and only 50 biplanes showed up. The poor showing was most likely due to the nasty weather all week in the South and Midwest.

Dan related to us that there was a real tragedy involving some people he knew who were at the show. It seems that two planes attempted to occupy the same airspace at the same time, thereby creating a few additional widows and orphans in the world. The filmmakers who we documenting our trip were on the scene and got the whole thing on video. CNN offered to buy the film at "name your price", but our man tastefully refused to sell.

Safety in the air is the number one concern of any professional pilot. When a mid-air occurs, we all re-examine our procedures and practices and analyze what we would do differently. The FAA will spend the next several months investigating this one, but the cause will almost certainly be "pilot error".

Art and I discussed this last night and again this morning, and we are thankful that we were NOT in Bartlesville to see the accident. The only reason why we weren't there is because I refused to take off in the strong crosswinds at Spanish Peaks Colorado, several days before. Sometimes it is amazing to see the results of seemingly unrelated decisions.

For now, I'm going to go do my laundry. Hopefully, the result of that decision will be that I'll feel a lot cleaner for the next couple of days. From there we'll rent a car and mingle with the locals, absorbing the ambiance of a remote and typical part of rural America. That's what this is all about: pure adventure is not knowing what is around the next bend. Sometimes, it's only washing your dirty clothes. Sometimes, it's getting your knickers dirty... in a hurry!

-------- later that day:
Not much going on around Yankton this Sunday afternoon. The hot suggestion was to take the tour of the local dam, the last dam on the Missouri river. Folks here are mighty proud of that dam. Nice dam, too. More interesting than I thought, and more interesting certainly than laundry.

We drove around town hitting various laundromats, and asking likely looking suspects if they wouldn't mind doing some laundry for a few extra bucks, but didn't get any takers. Seems folks hereabouts are kinda independent-minded and expect a fella to do his own. One lady had owned a laundromat for 30 years, but at the moment was just doin' her laundry like everyone else, and she sure didn't act like she wanted to do more. At another place I confronted another woman with the idea, but she just stared back at me and said "Huh?" and I got the strong idea that her family had been marrying into her family for a long time before she came along.

We finally sweet-talked 3 young ladies from the Yankton Inn into helping 3 out of town biplane pilots with their laundry, and then went off in search of a matinee movie. Paid 3.25 to see Spy Hard (because it was just starting), and then snuck in to 2 other movies (Twister and Mission Impossible). Twister was the best of the three, maybe because it was more realistic, and the kind of stuff we have been flying around for the last week.

By the time we got back to the rooms several hours later, the laundry was all done and waiting for us. Ain't America great!


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