Flight of Passage: A True Story (46 page)

And it’s always a satisfaction for me, after a long absence from Cubs, to grease it on and know that I haven’t lost my feel for the design. Ken suggested that we go around a few more times, which we did, and then finally I turned back in for the last landing. I didn’t want to burn up too much of his gas.

On the ground, when we got opposite the pilots’ shack, Ken stood on the brakes in the backseat, opened the door, and got out. Gee, I thought, this is real generous. He’s letting me solo it.

“Rinker, I’ve only got one rule,” Ken said. “You break it, you fix it.”

There were some men repairing the runway lights on the pavement so I went off the grass.

It was an overwhelming feeling being alone in the plane that I flew with my brother through the pass. Twenty-eight years had passed swiftly. The old Continental roared, the floorboards throbbed and the cockpit smelled of burnt oil. All the old gauges and dials were still in the same place. I wasn’t troubled anymore by the waterbag or the El Paso gam, and it had been years since I blamed myself for not being closer to my father, and not doing more for him while he was still alive. I was forty-three that year and over time the truth, or what you declare to be the truth, does arrive. I had done all I could just knowing that man. No, I wasn’t worried about a thing at all. Nothing could spoil this reunion. I banked left for the summit of Greylock, leveled the wings, and hung the Cub on its prop. I was up in the sky over mountains I love in a plane that had aged gracefully, and all I wanted to do was fly around for a while in 71-Hotel.

Many minds go to work on a book like this, and I would like to thank the wide circle of family and friends who helped while I was writing it. Most of them know me too well to doubt that I would apply my sense of humor and perspective to events, and they were unstinting in their assistance all the same.

My brother Kern, who is a lawyer now, insisted that I divulge “nothing but the truth” about our relationship as boys, which gave me the courage to include events I might otherwise have fudged and to reveal other critical material that formed the backdrop of our coast to coast flight in 1966. In some cases my brother’s memories and interpretations differed from my own. But he understands that a first-person narrative like this inevitably reflects the author’s personal voice and view of events. No one will get very far in this book without realizing how fortunate I am to have him as an older brother.

My mother, Pat Buck, cringes at the language I use and sometimes is appalled by my cast of mind, but remains marvelously supportive of all that I do. My sisters Dempsey and McNamara were particularly helpful in recalling events while my brother and I were crossing the country in 1966. Bryan and Nicholas contributed their memories of our flying days together in the 1960s. My uncle and aunt, Jim and Joan Buck, also helped a great deal, and they continue to be the model family leaders described in this book.

Jack Elliott, the aviation columnist for
The Newark Star-Ledger
, covered my family and its various aerial exploits back in the 1960s, and thirty years later he and his wife, Esta-Ann, proved invaluable in digging up clips and reuniting me with many old friends in aviation. Jack is an extremely lucid and perceptive writer, and his insights into my father’s personality and flying style were immensely helpful while I was sorting out the events leading up to our 1966 flight.

A number of old flying companions from New Jersey—Valerie Mahler, Lee Weber, Bill Machauer, Jack Sylvester, Tom Morley, Helen Yankaskas, Tom Kanach, Art Storm and Jan Mock—dug into their logbooks and pulled clips from their attics, patiently enduring all of my questions. Joseph Heller, Iggy Wolfington, Sterling Dimmitt, John King, Barclay Morrison, Father John Corr, Sarah and Paul Feakins, Louis DeChiaro, Terry and Natalie Gallagher and Nicholas Platt contributed their recollections about my father and family. The monks of St. Mary’s Abbey/Delbarton School were also generous with their time, and I particularly want to thank my former English teacher, Gerard Lair, O.S.B., now the abbot at St. Mary’s. His capacious intelligence and wit helped greatly while I was writing this book and, indeed, have been a lifelong source of support.

The inimitable Robert Warren Pate continues to delight me as a friend and correspondent, some thirty years after we first met in El Paso in 1966. I wrote from memory the long soliloquy by him in Chapter 17 before I tracked him down again in northern California. Pate was kind enough to carefully read it and confirm its accuracy.

My agent, David Black, prodded me for years to write this book, and his assistants, Lev Fruchter and Susan Raihofer, cheerfully attended to the all the details of representing a writer. My editor, Brian DeFiore, displayed admirable patience between revisions, and his insistence that I probe more deeply into the psychological motives behind our flight greatly improved my own understanding of the material. My attorney, Kenneth P. Norwick, puts up with me and provides thoughtful counsel well beyond the confines of law.

Anyone who marries a writer comes to doubt the wisdom of their choice during a book project. But my wife, Amelia, never lost patience or faith, even on the many nights when I didn’t return home and remained at my office computer until dawn.

A number of people who knew and respected my father might be surprised by some of the things I have written. But much understanding comes from writing a book, and there is one thing I know for certain now that I only suspected before. If he were any different a man, any different a father, my brother and I would never have taken on the things we did.

© Christopher Little

Rinker Buck began his career as a reporter for
The Berkshire Eagle
in Massachusetts. He then worked for
New York, Life
, and
Adweek
magazines, and his writing has also appeared in numerous national magazines and newspapers.
Flight of Passage
is his first book. He and his wife, Amelia de Neergaard, live with their two daughters in Connecticut.

Photo credits:
Preceding title page (brothers shaking hands)—A Carmine Photo Introduction: (1) and (2)—Nicholas Buck; (3)—
Newark Star Ledger
Chapter 2—Kernahan Buck Chapter 4—Rinker Buck Chapter 5—Rinker Buck

Chapter 7—Jack Sharon

Chapter 9—Rinker Buck

Chapter 16—Robert and Ellen Pate Chapter 17—
Newark Evening News
Chapter 19—
Los Angeles Time, Morris County Record, New York Daily News, Newark Star Ledger, El Paso Times
Chapter 20—Rinker Buck Chapter 22—Rinker Buck Piper Cub art by Michael Gellatly Opening map by Graphic Chart and Map, Inc.

C
OPYRIGHT
© 1997 R
INKER
B
UCK

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information address Hyperion, 1500 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the original print edition of this book as follows: Buck, Rinker.

Flight of passage / by Rinker Buck.—1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN: 0-7868-6100-2

1. Transcontinental flights (United States) 2. Buck, Rinker–Journeys–United States 3. Buck, Kernahan–Journeys–United States 4. United States–Description and travel. I. Title TL721.B83A3 1997

629.16’097–dc20 96-27745

CIP

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-7868-8315-8

eBook Edition ISBN: 978-1-401305772

First eBook Edition

Original hardcover and trade paperback editions printed in the United States of America.

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