AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2013 - 12

LETTERS

FROM OUR DECEMBER 2012 ISSUE

Gone West
Many readers related to author Chip Wright’s story on the passing of his father
and their final flight together.
I read the article “Gone West”
by Chip Wright with tears in
my eyes. It brought back so
many memories of my own dad
and the many ways in which
he influenced my life. My dad
passed away very unexpectedly
at the early age of 54. He never
had the opportunity to become
a pilot, but it was a dream of
his. A friend who he worked
with took him for a flight in a
rented Cessna 152, an experience that he often talked about.
In the years after his death, I
have become a student pilot,
and hopefully someday soon
I will take that checkride and
fulfill one of the dreams that my
Dad was never able to realize. It
wasn’t until after his death and
I had started taking flying lessons that I stumbled across a
picture his friend had taken of
Dad standing in front of that
rented Cessna. I got a lump in
my throat when I recognized
the tail number. It was the very
airplane I had been using for my
flight lessons.
Greg Sollenberger,
AOPA 5578221
Quarryville, Pennsylvania

Little jet, big mess

Interesting article about the
BD–5 and, of course, the infamous Jim Bede (“micro”). I
believe one point most fail to
make is not how many generations of pilots Bede inspired but
how many he destroyed. I can
cite two—both good friends
who dreamed, purchased,
chased, and ultimately failed
at ever getting the BD–5 built,
much less flying.  They both
spend untold time, money, and
12 | AOPA PILOT February 2013

of three) scrimping and saving and working overtime only
to lose everything he invested
to a big talker. Bede stole their
dreams of flight. You might say
it wasn’t strong enough, but
knowing my second friend, a
B–24 combat pilot in World War
II with 50 missions, you might
have second thoughts.

BY CHIP WRIGHT
ILLUSTRATION BY JIM CAREY

My father takes his final flight

“Well, it doesn’t look like I’m going to get any better.”
My father was telling me
what my mother already had.
He was dying. It wasn’t really
a surprise, at least not to me. I
don’t think it was to him. His
voice was weaker. He was having trouble staying awake.
He’d had a stroke in 2011,
but that hadn’t killed him. He’d
had lung cancer that had been
caught early and removed. He

had made a remarkable recovery from the stroke, relearning
how to walk, talk, write—even
drive a bit. When he wound
up back in the hospital in April
with a seizure, we were told it
was just a minor setback.
But this time his recovery
never really took root. He suffered crushing headaches. He
was tired. Medicines weren’t

72 | AOPA PILOT December 2012

Gary Bunn
Las Vegas, Nevada

www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 73

Thank you for a great article on Jim Bede’s BD-5J. I had
the privilege of growing up on
the same street as Bede.  His
energy and enthusiasm for aviation is what got me interested in
obtaining my private pilot certificate. My brother also worked
at Bede Aviation at Cuyahoga
County Airport. His stories and
the memories of Mr. Bede were
brought back reading the article. Thanks for portraying him
in a respectful manner.  Too
many times past he has been
maligned for bad business practices and not appreciated for his
aeronautical accomplishments.

“I earned my private pilot certificate in
1980, and my late dad was my first passenger—in a Piper Tomahawk, no less. He didn’t
say very much while aloft, but I could tell
he was amazed at the beauty before him as
we cruised along one mile above the Earth.
The air was smooth and the skies clear. We
landed on Runway 34, and to this day, I cannot repeat that landing. It was so smooth I
could not feel the tires touch the pavement.
As we pulled off the runway, Pop said to me,
Steve Kitko,
AOPA 4275383
‘Thank you for a wonderful flight. I’ll rememSolon, Ohio
ber this day for the rest of my life.’ I leaned
Everybody wins
over and whispered, ‘You’re welcome.’ ”
Rod Machado’s columns are
William M. Reigle,
AOPA 716636
Spring Grove, Pennsylvania

energy (even traveling back to
the factory from California to
secure paid-for parts) trying to
get their dream airborne, all the
while being deceived by Bede

and his ilk. In the end, having
spent all their money and energy,
they never built or really flew
again. Imagine a simple bluecollar electrician (with a family

always humorous and informative. By far the most humorous
column I’ve read in a long time
is “License to Learn: Everyone
Wins.”
I started instructing in
1967 and was paid a lofty
$7 an hour at the Burbank
Airport in California. It was
great fun and the money
allowed me a campus lifestyle that very few students
http://www.aopa.org/pilot
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2013

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