Found a sister plane on cross country
While we were flying cross country in our Cherokee six, N8625N, to see grandkids, we stopped in Mount Vernon kmvn Illinois for fuel and lunch. A few minutes into our meal I noticed another six land. It turned out to be a very similar N8621N. We thought it was a cool photo op. Ours is a model D built late in 1970.
Comments
Proof that aviation is such a small world lol. Carl
48 yrs A/P IA DAL aircraft inspector. 172N
Story time
About 2.3 million years ago, I was a student pilot. I needed a few more solo XC hours, so I flew from PWK (Chicago area) to Cedar Rapids, IA.
No FlightAware back then, so I had to go into the terminal and call my instructor to confirm I had landed where I was supposed to. Later I found out that my instructor was secretly tracking me by phoning Flight Service and the towers whose airspace I had to traverse en route. Hard core, old school flight tracking.
Walked back to the ramp to fly home. Saw a police car parked nearby, and a police officer standing next to my plane. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Good morning officer.
PO: Good morning, is this your plane?
Me: Yes it is, [wondering why he was there] did I do something wrong?
[Here's where the sister plane reference is made.]
PO: No not at all! Years ago, I took flight lessons and flew the sister plane to yours. Your tail # is 2272M, the plane I flew was 2273M. It was the same paint scheme, and same interior. Identical to yours!
Me: Cool! I'm a student now, on a solo XC, building my hours.
I opened the plane and let him look around. I could see a flood of memories coming back to him and we discussed a lot of things.
PO: Do you need me to sign your logbook as proof you were here?
Me: I already called my instructor, so I'm good, but thank you!
Looking back, my only regret was not having him sign my logbook.
Side note: He was right on, N2273M was registered to a 1978 PA-161 (exact same plane and year as mine, and only 1 serial number apart). The tail number was de-registered when the plane went to live in Malaysia.
I chased the dinosaurs and velociraptors off the runway (remember, this was 2.3 M years ago), flew back to PWK and earned my PPL the following week.
Jim "Doc Griff" Griffin
PA28 - 161
Chicago area
The other couple were from somewhere close and had flown in for lunch. KMVN had an excellent restaurant with a really nice buffet. I would go this route again for the food.