At the mature age of 4 or 5 I decided to build my first airplane. I had a bicycle inner tube and a peach crate that was in near new condition. We had a nice row of Lombardy poplars on each side of our driveway in the country and one of those trees was just right to hold my airplane.

I managed to climb up the tree to a sturdy branch and tie the two pieces of inner tube to it, I then managed to get the peach crate tied to the inner tube pieces and it looked pretty good! Now all of this I did without Mom knowing what I was doing. You really don’t want to share a brilliant idea when you get one! Anyway, it came time to take an initial test flight so up the tree I went!

I crawled out on the branch and lowered myself into the cockpit and still hanging onto the branch above I made a few test bounces? This was going to be great!! Still hanging on to the branch with one arm I grabbed the side of the peach crate with my other hand, when I let go of the branch to grab both sides of the crate? My engine must have stalled! As my plane immediately flipped over and I crashed!!!

When I could breathe again and quit hurting a little, I looked to see if Mom had seen what had happened? Then I immediately took the airplane down and hid it! I probably should have had a few more design lessons, and I never wanted to fly again!