Back in the late 60's when I lived in Pittsburgh, Ray Charles' pilot invited
me to take some of the teenagers I worked with as an adult leader up for a
ride in Ray's plane. My Dad, an Air Force pilot,
(http://users.erols.com/viewptmd/Dad.html) went along. It turned out that
the flight was a post-annual checkout, which my Dad was a bit miffed about:
he thought it was irresponsible taking along 15 passengers on a maintenance
checkout, but the rest of us enjoyed it. IIRC it was a Convair 440, but that
was before I was quite so obsessed with aviation. I never did get to meet
Ray. Too bad.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to love
America

"Bill Denton" wrote in message
...
Just some trivia...

Note: I don't remember all of the details on this and what I remember are
sketchy. I believe this info came from a Playboy interview, and some of it
may have come from a conversation I had with Mr. Charles.

Ray Charles, the blind R & B singer who died recently used to fly some
enroute portions (with a co-pilot) in a plane he owned. I don't remember
what kind of plane he had, but I believe it was a "medium" twin (421,
Aerostar, or similar). I believe they had installed a "mini" panel with
the
minimal gauges with the glass removed, so Mr. Charles could "read" them.

Ray was kind of a crusty old *******, and I believe his comment on this
was
something like: "If I'm going to pay that much for the thing, I'm damn
sure
going to fly it!"

As I said, I'm fuzzy on the memories, so if anyone can correct me or add
on,
please do...




"Magnus" wrote in message
...
Er....no.

Just read an article about a blinc guy in england who's going to fly
around in a modified warrior. Apparently the system uses audio to
translate what the instruments show.

Good thing he has a safetypilot however, since he can't see traffic for
example. Maybe it's the wave of the future, soon you won't need eyesight
to get a PPL.