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This photo was taken on the occasion of my first flight in the winter of 1930. It was frightening to go into the rear compartment of this airplane and find a toilet installed with no trap! You looked into the ceramic bowl and saw the ground going by. Sightseeing from a TravelAir can be much more refined than that! I am the small one with the long stockings and the knobby knees. The big guy is my father Philo (Phil) Lund and the lady next to him my mother. The little girl is my older sister Judy. Phil Lund was Northwest Manager of Black & Decker and in that role dealt frequently with the Boeing Company designing and adjusting tools for the production of aircraft. Prior to that he worked for the US Air Mail Service based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, headquarters for the Mountain Division that stretched over the Continental Divide, 400 air miles to Salt Lake City. My pursuit of flying continued with building and flying model airplanes. It wasn't easy. We had a dog that could retreive my models, and usually chewed them into smaller pieces - easier to bring back!. By age 11, I had graduated from rubber-band drive to an Olsen 60 and U-control. At age 17 real flight began in a Luscombe with a Continental 65hp, NC23097. The Navy helped out with some free round-engine time (1944-46 and 1950-54.) In May of 1952 I was assigned as copilot on a PBM-5S piloted by Fred Sindlinger who has supplied some of the photos in this collection. We took off for a 4 hour test hop to check out an engine change on the Mariner. He flew us over to Del Monte to observe the races and much to my amazement, circled around the racetrack only slightly faster than the horses. I had never been in a PBM going that slow in the air. We've been friends ever since. In Patrol Squadron Forty (VP-40) we managed to hassle the Chinese and Russians for a couple of tours and not get shot down and then moved on to easier careers with United Airlines. Retirement from United was in 1987. Aviation, its achievements and the people who have made it so great, continue to be an avid interest for me. The fantastic aviation sites on the internet, where so much history is open to view and study, is a great furtherance to the industry. |
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