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Howard Fried |
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| About the Author ... |
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Howard Fried started flying with the Army Air Corps in WWII, where he
served both as a multi-engine instructor pilot and in combat piloting B-17s.
After a stint teaching sociology and on-the-air and management jobs in the
radio business after the war, he turned to teaching flying again full-time.
Over 40,000 general aviation hours later, he is still instructing
and running his own flight school. Along the way he administered over 4,000 flight tests
as a Designated Examiner until victimized by rogue FAA
officials.
He has authored two popular flying books aimed at student pilots and
instructors, Flight Test Tips and Tales and Beyond The Checkride, and a
series of audio tapes, Checkride Tips from
Flying's Eye Of The Examiner.
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When
the United States was celebrating its 200th anniversary back in 1976, the
Chairperson of the Ninety-Nines asked Fay Gillis Wells, one of the original
organizing founders of the Ninety-Nines,
to come up with an idea to participate in the celebration. Fay's answer was the
International Forest of Friendship. Fay, who has outstanding skills at getting
people to do things, somehow talked the City of Atcheson, Kan., birthplace of
Amelia Earhart, into donating the land and convinced the Ninety-Nines, the
International Association of Women Pilots, to pay for the work. It was certainly
fitting for the president to assign this task to Ms. Wells, as she is a true
pioneer aviator, and was the Ninety-Nines' first secretary. It is also fitting
that this park and forest is located at Atcheson and sponsored jointly by the
city and by the Ninety-Nines, since the city was Amelia Earhart's birthplace and
Earhart, of course, was the first president of the Ninety-Nines.
Why the "International Forest of Friendship"? Well, in part because
the organization's motto is "World Friendship Through Flying." In this
beautiful park, a tree from every one of the 50 states and most of the countries
of the world has been planted, and a genuine forest has grown with a real
international flavor. There is even a "moon tree" grown from a seed
taken to and brought back from the moon by one of our astronauts. The moon tree
is located near the entrance to the park and the Fay Gillis Wells Gazebo, and is
surrounded with granite plaques on which are engraved the names of our
astronauts.
Bronze Statue of Amelia Earhart
with Fay Gillis Wells Gazebo in the background.
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At the entrance to the park is a lovely, large gazebo, dedicated to Fay and
named the Fay Gillis Wells Gazebo. Adjacent to the gazebo is a life-sized bronze
statue of Amelia Earhart. Meandering through the forest so that it comes close
to each of the state and country trees is a concrete path called "Memory
Lane." Embedded in this concrete walk are granite plaques engraved with the
names of men and women who have made some kind of contribution to aviation. Each
year a few outstanding aviators are selected to be added to the list of honorees
who have their names engraved on new plaques embedded in the path, and although
the plaques are reminiscent of headstones in a cemetery, persons both living and
deceased are honored in the Forest.
Such luminaries as, General H. H. (Hap) Arnold, former President George Bush,
Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chenault, Jacqueline Cochran, Glenn Curtis, Lt. Gen Benjamin
O. Davis, General James (Jimmy) Doolittle (my personal aviation hero), former
President Dwight Eisenhower, William (Bill) Lear, and Charles A. Lindbergh, to
name just a few, have been honored by being memorialized in the forest.
In
late June of each year, there is an impressive weekend-long ceremony at the
Forest to enshrine a few new honorees, who have been nominated by various
recognized aviation bodies and approved by the board of trustees. There is a
banquet, highlighted by a prominent aviation speaker on Saturday. Then on
Sunday, the induction ceremony is conducted at the Forest, with a brief rundown
of that person's contribution to aviation and the presentation to the honoree,
or his or her heirs, a wall plaque and photo of the granite stone. During this
ceremony there is a parade of flags from all over the world and all the states
of the Union. Participating in this parade are Boy Scout troops from Atcheson
and representatives of the Atcheson Police Department.
The 1999 ceremony was held on June 19th and 20th. The Greater Detroit Area
Chapter of the Ninety-Nines nominated one of my students to be honored with a
plaque in the forest, and I was asked by the chairperson of the chapter to write
the brief bio that is published in Atcheson's daily newspaper, The Atcheson
Globe, and read at the induction ceremony. Here is what I wrote:
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Sue Siporin's contributions to aviation
are far too numerous to even list in the limited space allotted, so all
that can be done here is to highlight just a few of them. She donates
her time, talent, and airplane (a full-deice Seneca II) to fly for Mercy
Med Flights, Inc. For over 3 years she served as secretary to this
group. Sue has been a member of the Greater Detroit Area Chapter of the
99s for 22 years and has held every office except treasurer. She chaired
the chapter in 1988-89 and under her leadership it grew to become one of
the most active of all the 99s. She has also flown children to Camp
Catch-A-Rainbow, a camp for kids with cancer as well as regularly flying
handicapped children for Challenge Air, and for many years she has used
her airplane to deliver Christmas gifts to needy children in the Spirit
of Good Cheer program. She has participated in the SMALL race on
numerous occasions as well as the Michigan Air Tour. She speaks (and
arranges) for other speakers to classes in the local school system. The
Greater Detroit Area Chapter of the Ninety-nines nominated her for the
Governor's Service Award, which she was awarded in 1996. She is a
long-standing member of EAA Chapter 13, the longest continually running
chapter in the United States. And all these are merely a few of Susan
Siporin's accomplishments in the field of aviation.
 And
now, if you will forgive me, I will inject a personal note. I first met
Susan when she was a young college girl, and although she never knew
this, I got the (mistaken) impression that she was a stuck-up snob. She
appeared to be cool and aloof, and I was sure she didn't like me.
Several years later when I was a volunteer flight instructor in the
Pinch Hitter Program run by the Greater Detroit Area Chapter of the
Ninety-nines, one of my students remarked, "Boy, I understand I'm
lucky to have you for my instructor. My response was, "Where did
you ever get an idea like that?" "That lady over there says
you're the best!" and she pointed at Sue. Needless to say I was
shocked.
A year or so later Susan showed up at my
office and said she wanted me to train her for an instrument rating, a
multiengine rating and a commercial pilot certificate (at that time she
held a bare bones private pilot certificate). I thought to myself,
"Oh Boy! This is going to be an extremely difficult project. She's
going to want me to open up her head and pour it in. I'll have to do all
the work for her, but as long as her pocketbook and my patience hold out
I guess I can do it." I have to tell you that I've never been so
pleased to be wrong in my entire life. Susan turned out to be an
absolutely outstanding flight student. She did her homework and came
prepared. I would demonstrate a maneuver or principle and then she'd do
it, and do it right the first time! It was a joy to instruct her, and
since that time she and her husband, Sandy, have become good friends of
mine. If anyone is deserving of enshrinement in the International Forest
of Friendship it is Susan Siporin. |
I have been attending the induction ceremony at the Forest for the past
several years as has Susan. Needless to say, it brought me great pleasure to
write this tribute to Susan, and an even greater pleasure was observing the
surprise, even shock, when she arrived at the forest for this year's celebration
and found that she was to be an honoree.
For many years I had been laboring under the impression that the Ninety-Nines
is a sort of social club for women who have some kind of (possibly remote)
relationship to the world of aviation. I'm sure this is true of some chapters
and some members, but I was in for a real awakening when I became aware of the Greater
Detroit Area Chapter of the Ninety-Nines. This particular group is made up
of active aviators who actually do things, good things. Some examples include
painting compass roses on the run-up pads of airports all over Michigan, raising
money to sponsor aviation scholarships for deserving young women, and providing
speakers for school programs. They also sponsor and participate in aviation
safety programs throughout the year, and every spring they have an all-day
safety forum for VFR pilots and another one in the fall for IFR pilots.
But most impressive of the many things the GDAC does is the Pinch-Hitter
course they offer annually in May. They literally take over the
tower-controlled Ann Arbor, Mich., airport for a weekend and, using AOPA's
structured curriculum, which includes four hours of ground instruction, four
hours of flight instruction, and four hours of debriefing, they teach a bunch of
non-pilot, frequent passengers (usually spouses), sitting in the right seat, to
find an airport and get the airplane on the ground without hurting themselves or
anyone else and without bending the metal. And it is all done with volunteer
help.
Organizing
this program is an absolutely monumental task. Enrollment is limited to thirty,
broken up into three groups of ten pinch-hitters. While one group is receiving
ground instruction (from a member of the Ninety-Nines who is a certificated
ground instructor), another is flying with a volunteer certificated flight
instructor, and a member of the Ninety-Nines is debriefing the third group. The
pinch-hitters supply the airplanes, and every attempt is made to match the
pinch-hitter with a debriefer who flies the same make and model. Each
pinch-hitter must also be paired with an instructor who is familiar with the
make and model airplane they fly. Paperwork for the airplanes (including annual
inspections, insurance, etc.) must be carefully checked. For the most part, each
flight instructor has two students, occasionally only one, and sometimes as many
as three.
For 13 years, I have volunteered my talent and my time for a weekend to teach
in this program. Because of my experience with a wide variety of general
aviation aircraft, I have used a Cessna 414 (a pressurized twin in which I
taught the student to use the autopilot to find an airport), a Cessna 180 with a
STOL kit, and a TriPacer.
One
of the most gratifying experiences I have ever had as a flight instructor
occurred at the GDAC Pinch-Hitter course several years ago. A man had brought
his wife and 15-year-old daughter in for the program in a beautiful old Stinson
Station Wagon (a wood and fabric four-place taildragger). If the daughter had
had a student pilot certificate, I could have soloed her. She was that good. Her
mother, the guy's wife, was another story altogether. The poor woman was so
uptight and nervous that she had to excuse herself and go to the ladies room to
barf before we ever got to the airplane!
When we finally took off, she crossed her arms across her chest and refused
to touch anything! I abbreviated that session by merely flying around the
pattern and landing. Of all my accomplishments as a flight instructor, I am most
proud of the fact that by the end of the second day of flying (her fourth hour),
I had that woman landing that airplane unassisted! And I'm sure that if she is
ever flying as a passenger with her husband and becomes incapacitated, she will
keep her cool and get the airplane on the ground with little damage and no
injuries. She may run off the runway, but nobody will be seriously hurt and the
airplane won't get seriously bent.
I am a great believer in the value of this program. Over the years, the
pinch-hitter program has been credited with several saves when a pilot could not
complete a flight and a passenger who had been through the program has taken
over and brought the airplane safely home to mother Earth.
These are but two examples of the fine work performed by the Ninety-Nines.
Blue skies and sunshine to you all.
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