Introduction

One day, after working on this book for five or six years, one of the many pilots who sent me their stories asked, Since youre not a pilot yourself, what is your connection or interest in aviation?

Good question, I thought. At that moment, I decided to tell all right here in the very front of the book. My love of flying comes naturally. Ive been fascinated by air travel in all its forms since I was a preschooler and took my first airplane ride in a small private plane with my Dad in the left seat. The reason I didnt become a pilot myself is hard to admit. I simply never had the courage, the smarts, the finances, the guts, or the gumption to make a career of piloting any sort of flying machine. Im a wannabe, a wish-Id-stuck-with-it kind of gal.

I did take flying lessons from Dad when I was in high school and even took over the controls on various occasions when Dad, brother, or nephew was actually the pilot-in-command. But when it came to my own flying lessons, I opted out when Dad insisted I learn how to do power-off stalls in the little Cub Cruiser that Uncle Francis owned. It was the oldest flying Cub Cruiser in the United States at the time, a bright orange beauty with one seat in front and one in back.

The idea of reducing the power to idle and pushing the throttle forward to make the plane go faster in its nose-down direction toward the earth to get the engine jump-started scared me more than a room full of snakes and I decided Id had enough of the learn-to-fly bug.

I wish I hadnt been such a chicken. I wish Id finished those flying lessons. After college I married, became a mother, then a writer and a speaker. I believe the good Lord gives everyone a special talent. Some people are born to be pilots and others are born to write about it.

Pilots and aviation have been part of my entire life and rank high on the interest list and career choice of those on my family tree. My dad, Edward J. Kobbeman, born in 1919, was a fighter pilot during World War II, serving seventeen months in the South Pacific and flying mostly P-39s. Youll find the story of the day Dad shot down a Japanese Zero and was hit himself, earning a Purple Heart, in this book. (WWII Fighter Pilot Remembers Two Special Days.)

Dads older brother, my Uncle Francis, flew small planes including a mail plane and, during WWII, the Curtis Commando C-46 transport over the Burma-India-China hump. Later he purchased the little Cub Cruiser J-5, which is now owned by his son John, also a private pilot.

My mothers only siblings were both career Air Force men. Uncle JimMajor General James Barclay Knappwas chief of staff of the Strategic Air Command at Offutt Air Force base in Omaha. He flew fifty-seven different aircraft, totaling up over ten thousand flying hours. The most historically significant of those aircraft was the B-24 Liberator in which he flew forty-three combat missions during WWII, mostly against the oil refineries at Ploesti north of Bucharest, Romania. For these missions, he was awarded the Silver Star. The other planes Uncle Jim flew between 1939 and 1969? Hold on to your hat: PT-3, BT-4, AT-6, BC-1, BT-14, PT-19, PT-17, PT-18, BT-15, AT-9, B-25, AT-17, C-36, UC-78, AT-11, BY-15, B-24, P-40, P-38, C-53, C-47, P-51, C-45, B-29, B-17, L-13, F-82, B-5D, C-54, B-26, B-47, VC-54, 5A-16, H-5, H-19, KC-97, T-33, C-124, C-119, L-20, T-29, B-52, C-135, U3A, YH41, Fairchild F-27, JC-130, Jetstar, F-5, T-39, C-131, C-141, UH/TH-1, U-37, and H-23.

Uncle RalphLieutenant Colonel Ralph Knapppiloted over thirty different planes during his career and ended up in the Office of Special Investigation for the Air Force. Youll read about Uncle Ralphs adventures in this book in Flying Under the Golden Gate Bridge and World War II Memories.

My only brother, Joe Kobbeman, has flown over a dozen different kinds of planes and is currently a 747 captain for UPS, flying across the big ponds to the Near and Far East nearly every week. Hes also a small plane pilot who owns a Piper Cherokee and who reads more flying magazines and pilot books than anyone I know. I hope he reads this one.

In 1980, I moved from Rock Falls, Illinois (where Dad still lives in the house he built right after WWII), to Oak Creek, Wisconsin, living just seven minutes from Milwaukees General Mitchell International Airport. I raised my four children, for the most part as a single parent. Then in 1994, after all but one of my children were grown and gone, I opened my home and three empty guest rooms as a crash pad for a number of pilot friends who needed a warm place to stay before they took off for the wild blue yonder.

The Lorenz Crash Pad lasted ten years before I finally figured out why all those pilots who flew for Midwest Airlines and were based in Milwaukee lived in places like Florida, Texas, Missouri, and Virginia instead of Wisconsin. After one more final brutal winter, I smartened up and, in 2004, moved to Florida where this book finally took wings.

Those forty crash pad pilots and all the others Ive met over the years told me stories about their experiences with flying that are interesting, thought-provoking, funny, amazing, scary, or historical. They were stories too good to let slide.

Other pilots got on the bandwagon when they heard about my book: military pilots, private pilots, cargo pilots, commercial airline pilots, a hot-air balloon pilot, helicopter pilot and even one guy who flew a blimp. As I listened to their stories, then wrote them up myself or edited the ones they wrote themselves, I discovered that pilots are a different breed of human. Whether theyre sharing a funny story or a scary adventure, they all have one thing in common. They love to fly. The pilots Ive met feel more at home in the sky than the rest of us do on land.

I hope this book gives you a new appreciation for the level of dedication, responsibility, fun, and zany adventures Americas pilots have.