Crew: The hands that lift the wings, scrub the bugs, drive the trailers, and more..
During the IVSM this past summer at Harris Hill, Dr. Walt Cannon overheard his wife and chief crew person, Irene, and myself discussing whether crewing for our husbands was compatible with being liberated women. We both had been teased by professional female friends for scrubbing bugs, lifting wings, driving trailers and using up our vacation time to do it!! Walt listened for a few minutes and then commented, " Me thinks the ladies doth protest too much." Zap! He'd managed with that one line to cut through all the rhetoric and emotional ambivalence. I felt somehow challenged to seriously analyze what crewing was all about for me.
When I first watched the exquisite Cliff Robertson film, "Running on Empty," and heard Charlie Spratt, who was crewing for Eric Mosher, say that the crew became the support structure for the pilot, I entertained grand and beautiful thoughts about the job. He made it sound as if being a good crew person was. akin to being the pilot's guardian angel. There have been a few times I've felt somewhat that way while crewing, like when I remember Tim's lunch, water, or pee-bags that in his rush to grid, he sometimes forgets. There are many more times, however, that I feel my halo is tilted, or rusty, like when the tape isn't precisely straight or has a teenie crinkle on the end, or I do the right thing, but at the wrong time, or I miss a bug, or don't run fast enough to catch the wing tip before it touches the ground.
While crewing, I've felt competent and imbecilic, proud and humiliated, useful and useless, excited and frustrated, exhilarated and depressed, angry and loving, and probably every other conflicting pair of emotions able to be registered in our vast repertoire of feelings. I've been terrified and also thrilled by messages on the radios. I've prayed, cursed, and cried while he's in the air. (And, admittedly, sometimes when he's on the ground!) I've looked forward to the end of a contest, especially the ones with long, difficult retrieves, and then had tears as it really ends and we bid friends farewell.
In conversations with many friends and acquaintances who do this crew thing, I've discovered they ride this same emotional roller coaster at contests, so what is it that keeps us looking forward to the next time? (And the pilots who do the fly thing admit to having their fair share of emotional swings and conflicts as well.)
I've asked around, read and reread the SCUM (Soaring Crew Union Members) Journals, interviewed persons who have been crewing for years (Some are real paid professionals in this business), read everything I've been able to locate written about it, and searched through my own experiences and psyche to be able to form a viable answer to this question.
The first written words about crewing that got my attention big time were written by Helmet Reichmann in his CROSS COUNTRY SOARING, l978: According to Reichmann, "The ideal crewperson should be easily satisfied, free from personal demands, perspicacious and diligent, performing all duties without having to be asked by the pilot, always cheerful and always satisfied with the pilot's performance. The crewperson should never mention any error of the pilot, but should always console and sympathize with the pilot, and always work hard to assure the pilot will have success. The crewperson should never offer suggestions, but should be polite and supportive."
My pilot and husband, Tim, was reading this to me while I was on driver duty to the 15 Meter Nationals in Livingston, MT, two years ago. He really was pushing the edge of my "crew-nature," but I was laughing on the outside. Then, he reads, "The ideal crew should be female and is likely to be the pilot's better-half, assuming he has one who deserves the name."
It became harder to laugh, even on the outside. Had we not been cruising at 70 mph with the trailer attached, I would have stopped the car for a real "heart to heart," or "mind to mind." He continues, "Like so much in life, the dream crew is likely to remain a dream."
First line with which I agreed. HR ends his comments with the line: "Not only is the crew responsible for the daily preparation of the sailplane and all that goes with it, but should be an intelligence service for all the important questions that can mean the differnce in winning or losing a contest."
I felt overwhelmed, scared, and irritated at HR's soul, but another part of me was aware that I could never live up to his criteria, and was thankful that the pilots I know would never expect that kind of crewperson. Well, perhaps, if they hire Paul Weeden or Mark Townzen, but even they don't qualify on "the gender should."
During the Livingston contest, I became a careful observer of other crewpersons, trying to decide if Reichmann's "dream crew" did exist. To my delight I discovered wonderful, supportive, competent, nurturing, fun loving real people were doing this job. I heard them gripe, moan, utter some choice explicatives, laugh, tell jokes, express fears and stand up for themselves when they felt put down. I watched them expertly lift wings and other things, assemble ships, fill water bags and bottles, tape, wax, prepare lunches, tow to the grids (while avoiding gopher holes), sit in hot, hot sun for hours without excess complaining, remind pilots to drink water, stay covered, etc. They exhibited loving concern and support for their pilots, the "significant others" usually gave the pilot a kiss before the canopy closed and then we ran wings and said our prayers. And waited, and waited, and waited, watching the sky and listening to the radios.
Competent crewpersons at Livingston, and all other places I've crewed, have spanned gender and age groups. There are sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, parents, aunts and uncles, and friends of pilots crewing and filling various support positions. There are pilots crewing for each other. There are a few hired professional crew. There are pilots without crew who usually find that there are crewpersons willing to help when help is needed. Being "the significant other" does not seem to apply, but each crewperson is significant in that each is dedicated to supporting soaring and doing whatever is necessary to help create a safe contest.
Suzanne Moffat does something incredibly special once her pilot is in the air.. She sends "stay-up" vibrations, or psychic energy (a scientifically proven reality) to her pilot husband, George. He does exceptionally well, so it seems we all should take lessons from Suzanne.
After the pilots were through the gate and on their way, crews did many other things, some work, some play, sometimes some sleep. Often sharing thoughts and feelings and always cooperating with each other to make each person's time at the contest a special time. Mothers with small children would plan special activities and trade off child care time, making it more fun for the kids, and giving themselves a few deserved breaks.
Suzanne has written several things about crewing that I find immensely more inspiring than Reichmann's. She writes: "He flies. I crew. It could just as easily be the other way around, but he chooses to fly; I choose to crew. Both roles are necessary. Both roles should be accomplished with excellence, which means caring and doing the best you can."
As George leaves the ground, she says, "Fly well, Soar high, Go free." She then feels she is also free as they both develop and actualize their potential. She recommends taking light reading along for the waiting periods, but nothing too heavy to interfere with high flying thought waves or that would cause us to miss a radio message. In the SCUM journal at Livingston, Suzanne wrote that after 30 years of crewing, she looks at it as a microcosm of life, with its ups and downs, which are all learning experiences, lessons about realtionships to ourselves and others. She does not minimize the conflicts that arise with nerves tense and anxiety high at contests, but realizes that growth takes place through conflicts. This is certainly a basic psychological truth, but one that is easy to forget when we are in a conflict. I've noticed that conflicts between pilot and crew are rarely over flying, or even over anything to do with the contest per se, but usually have to do with where to go to dinner or what to do in spare time (when there's such a phenomenon) or over the normal picky stuff, just like home...kids, miscommunications, etc.
When asking people what they enjoy about crewing, usually at the top of the list is the friendships that are formed through the shared interests and experiences. This holds across gender and age groups. When I asked Danny Sorenson what he enjoyed most about crewing for his Dad, Ken, he quickly responded, "It's not the crewing, but all the fun I have with my friends."
Several of this younger group have grown up together on soaring sites and have become fast friends for life, plus they've learned invaluable lessons in sportsmanship, soaring and contest skills, and developed an appreciation for competition in a healthy, cooperative environment. Would that all of our children could have such an opportunity. Molly Jacobs, who's been at soaring meets since she was a tiny tyke, writes that she really enjoys helping her Dad, Doug, take apart his glider. One is able to sense that there is a unique and special connection between the members of these families who share the ups and downs of a contest.
The next most appreciated aspect of being crew is the opportunity to travel. Sharon Paris,wife and crew for Jim,writes that since childhood, she's wanted to travel and see the world, and soaring has provided trips to places she never dreamed she would visit, like a "ghost town" in South Dakota. She and friend, Frances Clack, wife and crew for Bob, have become a real "Thelma and Louise" team on the highways from east to west. They drive and pull the trailers, using CB radios to communicate. They plan ahead for special sight-seeing and are glad for the opportunities to stop when they choose without having to contend with husband pilots' anxiety over the approaching contest. The pilots fly to the contest commercially, and pray wives won't be having such fun they forget to show up.
Sharon writes that in addition to her travels and getting to know a "great mix of people," one of the most rewarding parts for her is that soaring allows for her and Jim to be a team in a special way. Several wife crew agree with this and say that crewing for their husbands has enhanced their relationship considerably. Shirley Emons, wife and crew for Joe, claims that soaring offers Joe his only relaxation from high stress at work and gives them fun time together. She has crewed for the same husband for almost forty years and still loves crewing and her man!
There are a few unique couples, who crew for each other as both are pilots. Suzanne and Fred Schmidt are an incredible team, who seem to appreciate each other's expertise regardless of who is flying and who is doing the ground work. They exchange roles with a kind of harmony that's beautiful to observe, seriously listening to the recommendations and advice of the other out of mutual respect. If I ever fly in a contest and dare ask Tim to crew, I hope we can follow their example.
There are several of us crew wives who have found that learning to fly has made us more appreciative of our husband's skills, moods, concerns, and fears. It has also made listening to the details of the flights over and over again "somewhat" more interesting, and Tim says that my suggestions now that I fly are "sometimes" of value. Another bonus is that just watching planes take off and land at contests seems to improve my take offs and landings, which need all the help I can get. Knauff's TLAR gets reinforced hundreds of times per contest, and every once in awhile, I even see a TNER (That's Not Exactly Right).
Pilots who crew for each other claim to enjoy the "hanger flying" as much as the actual events of the day. They never seem to tire of sharing stories, comparing experiences, and learning from each other. Although soaring pilots are competitive, the real competition is with nature and I'm terribly impressed with the courtesy, cooperation, and respect they extend to one another, in the sky, as well as on the ground while assembling, repairing, or disassembling their gliders. Not that there's not sarcasm and teasing galore, but not with malevolent intent. Therefore, another positive for crewing is the exposure to cooperative competition. Pilots who crew for each other, however, do have a fear unique to this circumstance----a double landout! These have resulted in late nights and some hilarious stories. Ask Tim and Dave Welles about Newcastle in l990. There's a rumor that a farmer who loves sharing his brew is still hoping for more gliders to land in his pasture.
Landing out gives us the other side of the picture, the most negative aspect of crewing--RETRIEVES!! There is total consensus from crewpersons on this one. When the calls begin before the task could possibly be completed, every crewperson feels that knot in the belly, that reminds us we could be summoned next, and our physical, mental, and emotional resources move into "standby alert." The redeeming side of retrieves is the joy of recounting the details.like sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories.
Everyone should take lessons from how to turn a trailer around in a graveyard from Anita Jurado, Alfonzo's wife and crew, or how to rescue a glider from the mud of Mono Lake from the Heinz Weissenbeuhler (Jr.) crew, or what to do when some nice farmer's dog has gotten a tooth stuck in the tire tread of the trailer as you're pulling out of a field with the dog going around and around, following his head, following his tooth, kerplunk, kerplunk. Sharon Paris can fill in the hilarious details of that one. There was the retrieve from hell last year at Fairfield when Tim had landed in a field that the only trailer access was through an acre of ten inches of fresh, wet barnyard and stable excreta. We spent the next morning driving the truck and trailer through a creek bed.
Then there are the accounts of the poor worried crews searching, calling, frantically trying to locate a pilot who doesn't answer through any form of communication----because he's been taken in by someone who is wining and dining him, laughing at his stories, making him feel like a king. Joan Ruehle, Jane Shepherd, Irene Cannon, and others can tell tales that bring tears--of sympathy and the kind that come from laughing until you cry. Many wives have stuffed children, babies, and dinner into the van, hitched up the trailer, headed off and discovered Dad was having the time of his life, unable to imagine why "she" felt irritated and frustrated.
My most frustrating retrieve was in Montana two years ago when I discovered there were three "Dry Rock Creek roads, a North, a South, and a West. Having already gone the extreme limits of the west and the south and having experienced great difficulty turning the trailer around both times, as both of these many miles long dirt roads ended in someone's front yard, I stopped a car to ask if there might be another dry rock creek road.
Luckily, the local postman and his wife were the occupants of the car. The postman explained there was also a north version, as his wife added, "Henry, no pilot could land a glider out there. There's nothing there but rocks and rattlesnakes. He'd be dead by now and the glider would be in a hundred pieces."
Encouraged, I started down this death valley. The dust was so thick I could barely see the rocky hills, which did seem to be all there was for miles.....but finally I saw a green field with a white spot in the middle of it. Hope springs eternal. I wanted him to be alive, with maybe just a tiny snake bite to pay him back for the trauma of the past two hours. He was alive sans a bite and an hour later we were headed back toward Bozeman. By this time it was 10:00 p.m. and we'd not eaten. We spied a light on in a Pizza Parlor. The Montana Barber Shop Quarteters were practicing there. We went in, the music stopped, and they stared at these scruffy, dusty people, wanting to know who we were and why we were there. We told our story. Although the kitchen was closed, the owner, who was one of the singers, said he would fix us a pizza and sent us in the next room to eat, so the practice session could continue. After we'd eaten, vented our accumulated anxieties, and more or less made peace, we went into the main room to thank the owner. They burst into singing "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines," emphazing the "up, up, up, and the down, down, down," ending down on their knees. We were overwhelmed and filled with warm appreciation. At this point, they asked my name, and swung into harmony with "My Heart Belongs to Paddy." I dissolved.
All of the frustrations I'd ever felt or any ill feelings I'd ever experienced about crewing were totally washed away. When we walked out that night, I felt that God had set up the entire experience so that we each could appreciate at a new level the magnificance of the opportunities and experiences soaring has given us. Crewing is an act of love---love for intensity, life, nature, people, and ourselves. It helps when we are acknowledged and appreciated by our pilots, which most pilots are aware of and often do, but it is equally important to acknowledge and appreciate ourselves for the commitment and competencies required to crew well.
Charlie Spratt, our SCUM President, has expressed it beautifully: "Crewing is often overlooked when the stories of races and records are told. The truth is that many times it is having a crew that knows what he or she is doing that makes the difference between success and failure. For most of us crew types it might be the only way we can support the sport we love. Not all of us can be the hero in the cockpit, but being a part of what is going on mixed with our own dreams puts us in the air with them, and it is this bond that attracts me to this wonderful sport."
This is why we come back,----and yes, liberated women (and men, and boys and girls) can enjoy being the crew part of the team. We all protest about some of the negative aspects, but they are perhaps required to make the whole. Everything has a dark side that needs to be recognized and openly dealt with or it will dull the light. Expressing the negatives is positive in that it cleans out our systems to keep us open for the next time. This holds for pilots as well as crew. Some falsely feel that a part of the crew's job is to keep the pilot in a good mood---impossible and not even desired in most cases. We each need a safe place to ventilate frustrations, disappointments, angers, and fears. We need a special safe someone who will allow us to do this, knowing that once the protests and negatives are heard, they tend to dissipate. This is an area where pilots and crew can support each other equally. This allows each of us to truly "fly well, soar high, and be free."
PS. Several of us are working to compile a SCUM Directory for the purpose of networking as well as to give the pilots a resource for finding crewpersons. If interested in adding your name, please send name, address, phone numbers to P. Welles, POB 448, Horseheads, NY, 14845. Also note whether or not you would be willing to crew for pilots other than your family members or close friends. There is now a partial list available, which is already circulating. It will be distributed, and hopefully lengthened, at meets this coming year.
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