Updates

On the right side of this page, you will see links to pages that have photos of the interior and the exterior.

Circumstances in my life have changed. I might be in a position in awhile where I have to seriously consider selling 33C.

Keeping a Promise

Years ago, when I was getting my private ticket, I paid my CFI to give my kid sister a ride. I took a photograph of that day, which my father framed and is now in my sister's house. Her daughter asked about it when she was very young and, upon being told the story, wanted to know when her Aunt Stephanie would take her for a ride in her airplane. I promised her that I would when she was a little older.

My niece is nearly ten years old. I kept my promise this Summer.



Of course, that also meant that I had to take her kid brother up for a ride.



I kept both flights short, maybe ten or fifteen minutes. I also did them fairly early, before the heat of the day began generating thermals.

Why I Bought 333C

I bought it because of my father.

Dad worked very hard from the time he was nine years old.[1] He had ideas and plans about what he wanted to do after he retired. But when he finally retired, a lot of those ideas were out of the question for medical reasons.

I had wanted my own airplane for a very long time. So, channeling a little bit of Travis McGee, when I could swing buying it, I did.

Was it a good move on a financial basis? Hell, no. Do I regret it? Not for a picosecond.

If you don't know the fun in being able to look outside at a nice day and decide to go for a flight, then I sort of pity you. There is a near absolute freedom in being able to fly.[2] By diving and then pulling up in a climb, I've made the Sun appear to set and then rise in the West. I've seen fireworks burst below my wings like colorful AAA fire. I've flown down over highways in the evening rush hour and seen the white headlights and red taillights turn the roads into rivers of light. I've seen Christmas light displays on houses that I've seen from ten miles off. I've circled a formation of Navy YP boats doing maneuvering exercises in Cape Cod Bay. I've flown in and out of airports with significant jet airline traffic and short grass strips, sometimes on the same day. I've gone on cross-country flights lasting from a couple of hours to ten days or more.

All are easy to do, but only if you have an airplane at your beck and call.

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[1] He grew up in the Depression. The stories usually began with: "You damn kids don't know how good you have it. Why, when I was your age..."
[2] Or there was until those 9-11 assholes ruined everything.