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

Dick Russ

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

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

Key Takeaways:

A young private pilot's challenging 1964 cross-country trip involved multiple aviation mishaps, including a borrowed plane being force-landed by a friend and the narrator's own emergency landing of a second aircraft on an Arizona mountain due to engine trouble and fuel exhaustion.
Following his mountain landing, the pilot was unexpectedly rescued and lavishly assisted by Robert McCulloch, the wealthy developer of Lake Havasu City. McCulloch provided men, equipment, temporary repairs, and even arranged a makeshift runway for the pilot to fly off the mountain.
McCulloch's extraordinary generosity further extended to flying the pilot home to LAX in his private Lockheed Constellation and later arranging his return. The damaged aircraft was found to have been fully repaired by McCulloch's staff, free of charge, before the pilot's retrieval.

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(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.

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

Key Takeaways:

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