I Learned About Flying From That: The Flight I Will Never Forget

Dick Russ

Saturday, February 04, 2012 at 12:03 AM ET

Verified

** To see more of Barry Ross' aviation art, go to
barryrossart.com.**

Key Takeaways:

A young private pilot faced a cascade of challenges during a 1964 cross-country trip, including a borrowed plane being left due to weather, a friend's subsequent emergency landing, and the pilot himself making an emergency landing of his small Taylorcraft on a mountain due to engine trouble and fuel exhaustion.
Stranded after his mountain landing, the pilot unexpectedly received immense assistance from businessman Robert McCulloch, who orchestrated the on-site repair of his plane, cleared a takeoff path, and provided luxury flights for his return and retrieval.
McCulloch's unprecedented generosity extended to fully repairing and fueling the pilot's damaged Taylorcraft at no cost, transforming a stressful series of aviation mishaps into a remarkable tale of human kindness and support for a stranded pilot.

See a mistake? Contact us.

(February 2012) This story is not only about an aviation experience, but it is also about a man who went out of his way to help a young pilot he didn’t even know. It is also a story about meeting some really great people in this country.

It all happened back in 1964 when I was living in Simi Valley, California, where I was a test engineer working on the Saturn S-II project at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana rocket test facility in the Santa Susana Mountains. My wife (now ex) and two children were on the return portion of a cross-country trip in a TriPacer I had borrowed. We were heading home from Wiley Post Airport (KPWA) after attending my sister-in-law’s wedding in Oklahoma City.