When dad got his private pilots license or whichever license it was when you solo--they cut a piece out of his shirt tail--I understand that is a tradition--
Dad was teaching a man to fly and the man froze at the stick on takeoff-it was all dad could do to wrestle the control of the aircraft from the man--they clipped a barbed wire fence and flipped into a field--no one was hurt--but it was the closest dad ever came to a bad outcome.( with injury) the plane was broken.
Dad once pulled a man on water skis so that the man could break a Ginnis record for the fastest on skis. He pulled him with a sea plane.
Dad performed in air shows at Lee Field--nothing spectacular-but little things like--turning the motor off and circling and landing to show what can be done in an emergency--
The small aircraft participated in a sort of skills competition--spot landing contest--where you try to set the wheels down closest to a line across the field--the bomb drop where you drop flower sacks and try to hit a target--and the toilet paper drop where you throw out a roll of TP and try to cut it with your wings before it hits the ground---Our house was near the airfield and when we got home it looked like our yard had been rolled in Toilet paper.
I don't think there was anything my dad couldn't do if he set his mind to it--I remember watching him fabric airplane wings and fuselages---in the day that's what was used a lot instead of metal--fabric was stretched across the frame under a lot of tension.
Dad became such an accomplished pilot that he was offered the job of flying the personal airliner of one of the Duponts--which he knew--he chose to continue working as an engineer for Martin Marietta--later to be Lockheed Martin.
We had a large hurricane come through when we lived in Edgewater-her name was ?--and she tore down a few of our huge trees--I was given the job of chopping one up--not with a chain saw --just a cross cut saw and an ax--it took me a long time but I made $36.00--which was the most money I had ever seen in my young life--OK that's it I'm tired----more fun later----adios amigos-- Senor Codger