"Robert Tenet" wrote in message
...
The situation:

The aircraft was originally certified without an electrical
system. It's usually flown with a handheld radio powered by
a battery. The battery is dead. The airport is
non-towered. The wind is nearly 90 degrees crosswind. You
haven't been able to fly in 4 weeks, and if you don't fly
today, you won't be able to get in the air for at least
another week.

Would you fly?

If it was only to do "bumps and rounds" (learned that from my Brit
pals in the Royal Marines) about the home patch..., yeah, probably. But KIYK
(Inyokern, CA) is nestled deep into R-2508, snuggled right alongside R2505,
and just minutes from R-2506, not to mention a page full of MOAs. I would
NOT venture far from the patch without being able to communicate with
"Joshua."
Interestingly, the only time I've seen a military jet flying close
to my position was when I was driving on the highway -- he missed me by
about 200 feet high and a quarter-mile crossing right to left. It was back
in the days of the F-4 and I saw the smoky exhaust trail before I spotted
the airplane, so it must have been Air Force.