To the Editor:

It is July, 1979. The 99s, a women’s pilot organization, is having a convention in Colonie. Three aircraft manufacturers wanted to bring some of their wares to the convention.

In order to do this we had to taxi nine planes from the Albany County Airport down the streets of Colonie to get them into the parking lot of the then Turf Inn on Wolf Road.

I was one of the pilots selected to take part in this event. As a Piper representative, I will present a new Tomahawk and Super Cub.

Here is my story. 

One of the airplanes is a single engine Cessna equipped with amphibious floats.

This allows the airplane to be operated from water as well as from land-based airports. Due to this configuration, the airplane sits much higher off the ground than its land-based counterpart. This could present a problem when approaching the Northway bridge overpass.

I had a brief conversation with the pilot, Hank, and explained to him my thoughts concerning this situation and clearance between the road and the overpass.

It is 4:45 a.m. as I leave the ramp and jockey the Super Cub into position to follow the road leading to the traffic light.

 Our escorts are the Colonie Police and the Albany-based Federal Aviation Administration; both have stopped traffic until we have passed.

I am last in line. Looking over the nose to get a glimpse of our procession, the wings of each airplane stretch over the two-lane road leading to the airport.  

The next hour would produce some very interesting events.

 Periodically, one of our escort people would remove a no-parking sign to make way for our wing tips.

There were moments we would have to shut down and wait for our ground crews as we negotiated the narrow overpass we encountered on our way to Wolf Road.

On one shutdown, I was blocking the road that led to a nursing home in the area. Opening the door on the right side of the Super Cub and looking to my right, I noticed the driver of a parked tractor trailer approaching my airplane. 

Handing me a pen and pad of paper, he asked me to write him a note explaining the situation for he was doubtful his boss would believe him when he explained why he was an hour behind schedule.      

With a sense of humor and pen in hand I wrote him a note: 

 Dear boss, please excuse your driver for being tardy. He made a wrong turn approaching the airport and ended up on the runway, where he asked me for directions. Signed, Ed

At the next stop, I was approached by the owner of the house I was parked in front of. Wearing her robe, slippers, and hair still in curlers, she tried to extract her morning paper out of her mailbox, the one that the right wing of my airplane was parked over.

Since I was last in line on our way to Wolf Road, she did not see the other eight airplanes.

“Good morning!” I said. “What service, your newspaper was delivered airmail today.” I was not well received.

Shaking her finger at me, she told me that my sense of humor was as bad as my navigation skills, and that I should remove my airplane immediately!

“Young man, the airport is that way!” she shouted.

I closed the doors of the Super Cub and proceeded to Wolf Road.

The sun had just started painting morning shadows as I arrived at Wolf Road.

The faces of bystanders ranged from disbelief to awe, and in some cases people cheered us on as we made our way into the Turf parking lot.

During breakfast, I was questioned about a conversation I had with the woman retrieving her newspaper; it seems she called the police to report a lost airplane blocking her driveway.

Shortly thereafter, Hank, the pilot of the Cessna on amphibious floats, yelled to me from the table next to where I was sitting.

“Ed, guess what? It fits!” 

The expressions of the people sitting at my table were quite interesting to witness.

For me, this was one of the most memorable entries in my pilot logbook.

Film clips of our morning excursion were seen as far away as Germany.

E. A. Chevrette Jr.

Guilderland

Editor’s note: E.A. Chevrette Jr. is the author of the book, “Wings of Fortune: Personal Tales from the ‘Golden Age of General Aviation.’” Three years ago, he was featured in an Enterprise podcast.