Well Ward, I've had time to dig out a book .. while at the remote site for
a number of hours chasing the prized Scarborough Reef BS7H ham expedition
across the dawning here on 40 meter CW.  For the only couple days that it
will likely ever be available for the rest of my ham radio life!


 WD> Was that TWA or the Yellow Banana?


From one of the most fascinating books I've ever read,

       ''Citizen Hughes''
       In his own words - how Howard Hughes tried to buy America
       Copyright 1985 by Michael Drosnin
       Published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston - New York
       ISBN: 0-03-041846-1


 WD> The gravity of the situation or "his" situation? ;-)


From the Chapter "The Final Days", page 438 -- I quote.  Please
forgive the lack of side indents - FidoNet is not the same as book
architecture as you well know thus I'll between the lines it:

    ******************************************************************

"He had been in London less than two weeks, however, when news from
the States sent his spirits soaring.  On January 10, 1973, the Supreme
Court handed down its long-awaited decision in the TWA case.  It was a
stunning victory for Hughes.  Reversing all lower-court findings, the high
court dismissed the case he had lost by default when he refused to appear
ten years earlier, and threw out the judgement that with interest now
exceeded $180 million.


Hughes was ecstatic.  He decided to celebrate, to break free of his
earthbound prison, to relive his past glory -- to fly again!


The Mormans were shocked.  Hughes had not piloted a plane for a dozen
years, had rarely left his bed in the time since, his eyesight was so bad
he couldn't read without a magnifying glass, and of course he didn't have a
valid pilot's license.  No matter.  He was going to fly.  He sent his aides
in search of the proper outfit, a leather flight jacket and a snap-brim
Stetson, like the one had worn back in the 1930's when he had broken all
the records.  He also started to watch a steady stream of movies --
Zeppelin, Helicopter Spies, Doomsday Flight, The Crowded Sky,and Skyjacked.


Months passed while Hughes readied himself for the big event.  Finally it
was set for Sunday June 10.  The night before he watched Strategic Air
Command twice and that morning called in an aide to groom him.  It took
four hours to cut his hair, trim his beard, clip his long nails, and get
him dressed, but shortly before two P.M. he slipped out of the hotel and
headed for Hatfield Airport, just north of London.


There a private jet waited.  Hughes inspected the Hawker Siddeley 748,
settled into the pilot's seat -- and stripped off his clothes.  Naked now
except for the trademark brown fedora, Hughes gripped the contols and took
off.


He spent all that day flying, an experienced English co-pilot who hoped to
sell him the plane at his side, and he flew twice more in July, by now
quite at home again in the skys.


It was during this time of high adventure that Howard Hughes discovered
Watergate.  He was looking at a picture of an airplane in the London
Express when he noticed a story about the crisis he had unwittingly caused.


''What's Watergate?'' he asked.  It was the first time he had seen the
word.  His Mormans tried to explain, but Hughs didn't understand and soon
lost interest.


A few weeks later, on August 9, Hughes got up in the middle of the night to
go to the bathroom, lost his footing, fell to the floor and fractured his
hip.


His flying days were over.  He would never get out of bed again."


    ******************************************************************


I'd recalled this as a DH125 some twenty years after reading this book but
then - my appologies.  There is a WHOLE lot more in this book with which I
am very familiar.  But it's not an aviation echo subject such as this was.

     " Stary stary night ..
     amber fields of violet haze ..
     painted by the artist's loving hand .."


And yes, I was present in the room in the Holiday Inn in Newton, Iowa,on
New Year's eve after a flight in our Beech Baron N7826R up to Iowa for a
sales closing in Baxter near there, when McClain sung his song for the very
first time in public.


Aviation both touches so much in live .. and frees one from the gravity of
it in some cases.  Such a treasured experience to be able to have been a
part of it.


--> Sleep well; OS/2's still awake! ;)

Mike {at} 1:117/3001

--- Maximus/2 3.01