Some Sad News

Welcome, since it is officially not Christmas anymore… I feel as though I should share some recently learned terrible news that lately has consumed my thoughts. My father is a pilot, in his spare time. For as long as I have been alive, he has co-owned a fantastic little blue Beechcraft 36 Bonanza airplane. His partners in the plane and him, share its use and the costs of upkeep etc. and for the last twenty years or so it was wonderful fun and convenience to use it to fly all over California for vacations and visits to see family.

This past Friday, December 23rd at 3:20pm one of my dad’s partners was flying the plane into Livermore Airport and had a terrible accident that took his life along with his wife who was flying with him. This, is a shock of course. It is such a terrible thing to happen, especially before Christmas. My thoughts are with the Mack family this holiday. I don’t know what else to say. Just terrible. I found this article online with photo & video.

I grew up in that plane. Like any old artifact of your childhood, nothing about it changed. The seats were always scratchy wool, the color blue, and the smell faintly of engine oil. That plane held so many memories from my youth. After sitting in the back seat my whole life, staring out the window at the ground below. Always looking at this big red bar that said OPEN IN CASE OF EMERGENCY ONLY. There was this pin and lever also that I was never aloud to touch. You can see where this is going… but you can’t put a hyperactive child in a plane for hours with the equivalent of a BIG RED BUTTON that says DO NOT PUSH. One day, (I think I was about 6 or so) I guess I wanted to test the waters.

So I had never opened this window before and I didn’t know that you could open it WITHOUT pulling the red pin out of the lever. So that day, at about 9,000 ft. I learned that you could open it easily just by pulling up! Instantly, the cockpit filled with tons of air and papers and all sorts of things went flying everywhere. My mom reached behind her and somehow managed to close it (from what I recall). It was only open for a few seconds, but boy was that classic young Jenny. I’m sure I scared the crap out of everyone that day. Leave it to me, never boring.

Also, I hate spearmint gum. Forever and always it reminds me of taking off in the plane. I guess my mom must prefer it. She used to buy us gum and a drink for the plane (often the kind of gum with the oozing gel center) and she always got spearmint. When you takeoff in a small plane the forces at work often make your stomach swoon with displeasure. So chewing spearmint just makes me nauseous.

Every time we took off, the propeller blasting, noise and wind blowing in the cabin she would reach behind her from the front seat and hand me gum by yelling at the top of her lungs, “DO YOU WANT SOME GUM? ITS FOR YOUR EARS!!!” Then she would make this motion that looked like exaggerated chewing while pointing to her ears, I assume, to highlight the benefits of chewing to clear the pressure that builds in your ears during takeoff and landing. Sometimes, when I got older the routine was so classic that I would say “WHAT???” a few extra times just so she’d keep gesturing back to us. It was always hilarious.

I wanted to share those two stories, because they are my fondest memories associated with my relationship to that plane. I sat up front with dad, helped navigate, pushed buttons and listened to tower communications. I am so sad that it crashed, and even sadder that two wonderful people lost their lives in the process. It’s the kind of news you hope you never hear.

R.I.P Bonanza 5942 Sierra

In other not so depressing news:
My father Dan Secord is running for Second District Supervisor for Santa Barbara County. I am going to be helping on the campaign remotely, from Plymouth. Specifically, Ryan and I have been collaborating on his campaign website: www.dansecord.com
Ryan is doing a fantastic job of it, and it is really fun to actually be doing work with him. Hopefully this is the beginning of more future webby fun.