From a letter to Gram and Gramp, January 1991. Fred is 25, living in Aurora, CO, working at Telenomics.
I’ve got 42.3 hours so far in the plane — I go on another cross country solo this weekend, to Wyoming, then a few more lessons and I have my Private test. When I get finished with that I’m going to go on and get my IFR rating. I’m flying a Piper Cherokee 161 — single engine low wing non-retractable; it’s supposed to be more powerful than the 140 I was flying from El Monte, but with the altitude, there’s not a lot of difference.
This weekend I’m going to be flying my third solo cross-country, probably up to Wyoming somewhere; the other two were to Goodland, KS and Pueblo/Lamar, CO. I’ve been hoping for some good days to practice my crosswind landings — but the airport I fly from here is pretty well situated for winds, and though they have a runway that is usually cross-wind, it isn’t used much. The main runways are 17/35, and the wind’s almost always from 150–170.
The Telenomics office is right at the northeast corner of the airport. I drew Gram and Gramp a diagram of the runway layout with my annotations — I labeled the main runway “Full stop landings, private jets,” and the secondary “Usually straight in to 28 or takeoffs from 10; touch and go discouraged.” The box in the corner says “Telenomics office is here.” Felt like the kind of thing a 25-year-old ought to include in a letter to his grandparents.
It snowed last night, and today it’s about 15° out. I’m not used to this cold weather! But actually it’s not a whole lot different than El Centro in August — sure, it’s miserable outside, but you don’t spend a whole lot of time outside. Except that strategy doesn’t work when you’re skiing. But I figure if I’m out skiing I don’t have the right to be complaining anyway.