Born to Fly - Excerpt

Born to Fly

I don’t believe I had a choice but to love airplanes as a child, it was either that or to attempt to block out all of the animated aviation talk around me.  The most important men in my life are aviators.  I’m glad the passion for flight is in my blood; it has brought me so many places, connected me with unforgettable people and has taught me life lessons that are simply irreplaceable.

On my father’s side is my grandfather, Harlan.  When he was “young and daring” he flew a Piper Cub under a fellow engineer’s instruction regularly between Madison, WI and Milwaukee, WI while working on an advanced servo project.  He recalls, “I landed several times without breaking a thing!”  He later joined a flying club to keep the passion going, training in a stripped down T-6.  He ended up only logging around eight hours, “I was lucky I didn’t kill myself,” he remembers.  Harlan gave up flying when his career “became more interesting.”

Harlan: Center bottom

When I was a child, my room had two unique decorations hanging from the ceiling.  One was an airplane and when you turned it on it will fly around in circles, I believe that to be my father’s influence.  On the opposite end of the room was an inflatable astronaut, where that ‘becoming an astronaut’ dream was brought on completely by my grandfather.  Harlan’s work became more interesting because it brought him straight to the ultimate flying machines at NASA.  He headed the engineering group in mission control for all of the Apollo missions as well as Skylab, the first manned space station launched by the United States.

“We had designed and manufactured G&C equipment in partnership with M.I.T Cambridge Mass. We were responsible for the guidance and navigation equipment (GNC) on both the LEM and the Command module,” my grandfather tells me, “whenever we heard G & C from mission control; my group had better get it right!”

Harlan

His most tense moments in the program were when trouble began on the Apollo 13 mission. “We had to shut off the power because the explosion wiped out the fuel cell. By shutting this elegant guidance system off, we weren’t certain what it would do because they required such a delicate balance.  However, we didn’t have a choice but to shut it off because they were running out of power. We were worried about what would happen with trying to turn back on these systems.  All our science told us it was unlikely. 

What we didn’t know was that the spacecraft was kept in a BBQ mode; it rotated really slowly, exposing its surfaces to the sun. It turned out there was enough heat convection from having done these rotations that this compartment the gyros and accelerometers were in was kept warm enough to get started again. 

As we approached the earth we had one shot at turning everything on and finding out that the instruments would reactivate and work properly.  When they fired it all up it again, everything came up right on the money.  Upon reentry the spacecraft was surrounded by a plume of fire from the disintegrating heat shield that disrupted communication entirely.  So for ten minutes we didn’t hear anything and then eleven and twelve and it finally came on.  There were several moments there that we were all pretty shook up. That took all the luck I ever had,” he retold me emotionally.

Harlan now enjoys visiting local schools and flying clubs to share his exciting experiences during such a historical time for NASA. He continues to indulge in aviation through building and flying the R/C aircraft I remember filling his entire basement when I was younger.  He is very involved in a local R/C flying club and has served as the president.

The stories my flying relatives have told me make me smile tremendously, for I have been touched by that joy of flight myself.  I thank these excellent role models for getting me where I am today.  Here is the proof that flying is in my blood. Even if I didn’t have this excellent and inspiring background, I know deep within my heart that I would have found my path to aviation some other way.