Page 12 - Volume 15 Number 2

“The Lear was a challenging aircraft to fly, but it was a great experience so early in my career,” she added.
Next, she was hired to fly a Hawker H.S.125 for Formula One and IndyCar racing champ Emerson Fittipaldi, For three years, she flew “Emmo” to tracks and locations all over the country until a racing accident convinced the famed driver to end his career.
Then She Met This Guy...
Larry’s journey to the left seat was a bit more circuitous. His father was an air traffic controller, which peaked his interest in aviation. During college, he signed up for flight lessons several times but never completed his license. After graduating from Auburn University, he decided he’d waited long enough.
“I decided this is what I wanted to do. I enjoyed it immensely and
kept current by flying various aero club planes,” Larry said.
Then one fateful night in 1996, Larry was introduced to an attractive woman named Kelly. The chemistry was immediate, but what sealed the deal was that she was an aviation enthusiast and pilot.
“I remember an early date that coincided with her birthday. I planned to fly her to Busch Gardens near Tampa in a club 172,” Larry recalled. “Once we arrived at the airport she took one look at the 172 and said, ‘I don’t want to go in that old, crappy plane. I have an A36. Why don’t we take that?’ So we pulled out her plane, which was a high-tech machine to me at the time. She hopped in the left seat and started flipping switches. I was amazed.”
Two years later, they married and a partnership in life and aviation began. Kelly was Larry’s instrument
instructor in the A36, which they purchased from her father.
“After I got my IFR, that’s when my life changed. I could use the aircraft for movement, not just fair- weather flying,” he said. “Not long after, we bought a 1998 Malibu. At the time, it was a huge move up for us and we thought we’d never need another airplane.”
Then problems with the engine grounded their aircraft, which took nearly a year to resolve. Although they said Lycoming took extraordinarily generous care of them, they decided it was time to move up to the reliability of turbine engine.
“As soon as it was flyable, we flew it directly to Spokane, Wash., to have the JetPROP mod done.”
Rocket Engineering’s JetPROP is an aftermarket conversion for the Malibu and Malibu Mirage that equips the aircraft with a Pratt &
Covington Aircraft En- Covington
gines Aircraft Engines
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10 • ­TWIN & TURBINE
FEBRUARY 2011