Old Story

Here's an old story, parts of which you've probably already heard.

I was at MIT in my mid twenties. The MIT Soaring Association has been around (off and on, with various names) since 1910. The modern club was re-established in 1968 by a group of alumni and professors. I joined in the fall of 1973. I was active in that club until I moved to Vermont in 1986. MITSA was absorbed into the Greater Boston Soaring Club in 2002, but it still exists on paper. I like to think that I am still an honorary member of MITSA.

The Post Mills Soaring Club was founded in 1988, and just about every rule, procedure, bylaw and financial aspect of PMSC was copied directly from MITSA. Shortly after our founding, we were visited by my friend Ira Blieden, another MITSA oldtimer (not quite as old as I am, but almost) for one of the very first PMSC cookouts. At the cookout, Ira made a speech congratulating us on our new club, which he called a "wholly owned subsidiary of MITSA." This year we celebrate PMSC's 20th anniversary, and MITSA's 40th (or 98th, depending on how you count).

Back in the seventies, when Ira and I were young punks, along with Todd Pattist, Rand Baldwin, Guppy Youngren, Dave Nadler, Mike Newman, Steve Bussolari, and others you may have heard of, the "real oldtimers" were the alumni and professors who kept MITSA on track and kept a modicum of control over the youngsters who were convinced you couldn't get hurt in a 1-26. (Once, Todd got cut off by a sea-breeze front and decided to glide across Buzzard's Bay to Cape Cod. This seemed like a reasonable decision to us at the time).

One of the real oldtimers was Walter Lob. After taking a few years off from flying, Walter became active again at about the same time I joined MITSA. I remember that he refused to use the standard pre-takeoff checklist, preferring one of his own design. It was a long checklist that included items like "hankie" and "bezel" (the latter being the item associated with noting the time on his watch. The term bezel – pronounced "beezle" – seemed strange at first, until you realized that the entire checklist rhymed).

Walter and I both finished off our Silver Badges in 1975. He had been working on his since 1941. After his Silver Distance flight in the 1-26, he calculated that his average speed for the 50 kilometers was about the same as he could do on his bicycle. I remember being impressed that such an old guy could still ride a bicycle. He was about the same age I am now.

That's the end of my old story. If you want to read a better one, read this recent account by my 89 year old friend, Walter Lob.