Recently I had an e-mail conversation with a friend who’s also been a contributor to these pages. I’ll fictitiously call him “Hal.” Hal started flying early in life and was lucky enough to make it his life’s work. He flew heavy iron in the military, and then went to work for one of the major U.S. airlines. His timing was perfect; he never got furloughed, so he flew his entire adult life with no interruptions.
When Hal aged out of the airline, he was far from ready to actually retire. He bought a small ranch that was big enough for a 2900-foot grass strip. The ranch house suited him and his wife quite well. The property included some nice outbuildings that consisted of a shop and the ample storage a ranch seems to need. Of course, one of his first orders of business was to clear a runway, build a hangar, and get an airplane.
