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On June 3, 2018 I accomplished a major feat in my aviation career, and was able to check the done square. I finally flew a chartered trip with my long time friend and mentor Buddy Roberts, and hey….it only took 20 yrs to accomplish this. I’ve flown several charter trips, but none to this point with Buddy. Now I know your asking why did it take 20 yrs, well after graduating from the University of North Dakota, I stepped away from pursuing anymore flight ratings for about 10 yrs. I have flown several chartered trips, but none with Buddy. Yeah, I know what a bone head thing to do. But, back to the story, so as I was saying I finally got to fly with Buddy, as a real crew member. Of Course, Buddy and I have flown before, but never as a professional crew. Until that glorious Saturday morning our flying had been restricted to flying his Cessna 337, which I affectionately named Yolonda some years ago.
That Saturday morning I awoke at 0430, hadn’t slept a wink. I had so much adrenaline flowing through my veins, I could have stretched out my arms, ran down the runway leaped into the air and I would have taken off! I drove the 45 minutes from my house to the Houston Executive Airport in Brookshire TX( Katy), and tried to listen to some smooth jazz to try and calm my nerves….didn’t work I was so excited that if a doctor had taken my pulse he would have sworn that I had drank a case of Red Bull. I parked my car, took a deep breath, put on my aviator shades, went to the trunk and got my carry on and my flight bag. Then as any respectful aviator worth his own salt would do I strolled, not walked into the FBO as if I had a band playing my theme song behind me. Ok in my mind I did. I found Buddy in the Flight Planning Room, he extended his hand as he always does, and with a big boyish grin said “ good morning Homer, how are you”, my response was I gotta pee. Buddy maintained his composure and pointed to where the mens room was and simply said that’s allowed.
When I returned it was all business we discussed the flight plan, what we were going to do in the event of any emergencies, and what time our passengers were expected to arrive. We looked at the weather, and all the time I was doing my best to try to calm my heart down from the excitement so I could hear what Buddy was saying over the beat of my own heart. Once the ground crew had pulled up our magnificent flying machine, Buddy and I went about doing our preflight inspection. I had only been out there for two minutes and the sweat was starting to bead across my forehead, which is not uncommon on summer morning in South Texas. I climbed into the cockpit, and at the same time the ground crew hooked up the APU to the airplane and with the sudden rush of cool air in our face Buddy and I both grinned liked two little boys. The only thing better than flying in the Southern US, is flying with AC!
Once our passengers arrived we quickly put away their bags, and buttoned up the airplane. Once we were in the cockpit we gave the signal to the ground crew that we were ready to fire up the engines. First the number one, then the number two, our bird was alive. We gave them the customary salute and we began to taxi out to the runway. I was busy running the taxi checklist, and before takeoff checklist. Once we were at the hold short line, everything seemed to start going in slow motion. Tower cleared us to take the active and takeoff. My heart began race from the anticipation, it was pure joy, accompanied by an indescribable peace all happening at the same time. Buddy advanced the throttles, and my ears welcomed that familiar sound of jet engines spooling up to full power. Brake release! In an instant everything went from calm and slow to Mach one. My eyes automatically went to the airspeed indicator, 40 knots airspeed alive I called out, Buddy confirmed with a simple Roger. A few seconds later I called out 80 knots,, cross check, Buddy in his years of experience as an Air Force and Continental Airlines Captain called back in a firm but relaxed 80 knots. At 90 knots I called V1, at 92 I called Rotate. Buddy gently pulled back and the yoke and we leapt off the runway into the air. Tower gave us a left turn to a heading of 258, and instructed us call Houston Center. After contacting Houston Center, I ran the climb checklist then the cruise checklist.
While in cruise flight, I had a moment to relax. I was airborne cruising along at 270 knots at flight level 340 (34,000 ft). I was once again back in the air, my home, the place where mere mortals only once dreamed of being, and this time I was sitting next to man whom I have nothing but admiration and respect for. We landed in Athens, GA. some 2hrs later. We saw our passengers off, got into our rental car and checked into our hotel. We met up later that night and went to dinner and did what old friends do. We talked about current events, laughed, and just enjoyed each other's company. We flew back to Houston the next day.
When I was younger it was all about the airplanes, but as I have matured I have come to realize that the airplanes are really the bonus. It’s the people that you meet along this journey and the experiences that you have, and the shared love of aviation that makes this such a wonderful industry, and of course the cool pilot shades that we aviators wear.
Homer L. Randle III