Yes, that’s right. The “Tripe”, our 1954 Piper Tri-Pacer, is no longer part of the House of Fielding.
It was David’s pride and joy, so naturally I’m a little choked up about it. After many years of renting, plane ownership became a reality for David in 2003. The full story is here.
We both loved to fly, but David was the pilot and I was the… passenger with a camera, taking pictures and video and enjoying the scenery.
“When can I put you into ground school?” David was fond of asking.
“Oh, soon, soon. But I like taking pictures!” (I made a point of filming every single one of David’s take-offs and landings, too. Which is why I have so much footage.)
I understood David’s urge to teach me the basics, however. It was for safety reasons, and he was a very safety-conscious pilot.
I took the photo on the top left last September, the day before we went to Rhinebeck. We had a long belly laugh after I downloaded it from the camera because it is SO DAVID. He loved the picture so much he used it as his website icon. A “shadetree mechanic” is what David called himself.