I am humbled, not only by the kind words but mainly by the attitudes of our fellow pilots.
We all know (yet sometimes forget) that true airman-ship goes a lot further than simply when you are in the air. The comments on this thread display true airman-ship.
Pieter and Ozgyro, Grumpy, Jabbanaught and all the other posters on this thread have displayed what I consider to be true airmanship. We are all saddened by the loss of a fellow pilot to our sport - (perhaps thats how an evangelist feels when he loses a member of his congregation, question is whether he misses the contribution to the collection plate or the congregant... I dunno
) What I do know is that we will miss Mike for his airman-ship.What really impresses me is that while we bid Mike farewell, we all look forward to seeing him back and offer him a flight whenever the opportunity arises regardless of whether we have an ironing-board out back or not. Thats airman-ship.
Mike, having parked next to you and ZU-EXP for so long, and having gotten to know you, the spare seat in either RDR or RJR is always available should the urge to fly overcome you (as I know it will). You have my number and it will be an honour to fly with you. Best of luck with whatever you chose to do from here on - just promise me one thing please, DONT GET A BIKE. They are too dangerous
(Now the backlash from all the biker/flyers will follow no doubt) heheI must share this little story with you... I have about 3 empty jerry cans in my hangar (Illegal I know blah blah - so sue me). One day Mike needed to get some fuel and didn't have a jerry-can handy and saw mine standing there empty and un-used. Now most of us would probably grab one, dash off to the garage, fill it up, empty it into our machines and put it back. Nothing wrong with that. Not Mike. Mike phoned me, asked if I would mind if he used one briefly and that he would return it to where he found it.
Duh? Of course! Why even bother asking!?... Only after I put the phone down did it dawn on me that Mike would not even consider using an empty jerry can that was not his without speaking to the owner first. It was obvious that with this attitude my machines and things in the hangar were in good hands with Mike around!!Gonna miss you pal.
All the best
Len
