It wasn’t a big deal. Shortly before Judith and I were slated to leave for a trip (possible only with our own airplane) to a reunion of college friends in Wyoming, a stop to help with haying at the Flying A Ranch in South Dakota and a week at AirVenture in Oshkosh, I fell off a horse. I was team roping and had headed a steer?slick horns for a change?dallied, turned off and begun dragging it when the saddle slipped and I came off. I know, I should have done a better pre-ride inspection!
The fall was really pretty mild, but it got Judith thinking about my rapidly increasing age and concomitant fragility. Propitiously, the mail the day before our departure brought CheckMate Aviation’s laminated Emergency Substitute Pilot, a checklist to help non-pilots control and land an airplane in case of the incapacitation of the pilot.
