Last June 26, on the final day of the fly-in at Frederick, Md., we were having a cookout when a young couple walked into the picnic grounds. Jimmy Eckenrode and Maria Veloz chatted with some of the deaf pilots, and then Jimmy asked if someone would be willing to take them up for a short flight.

I asked around, and Bob (Hook) Rose said he would be happy to give the young people a ride. Fifteen minutes later they took off in Bob's Socata Rallye, bound for Sugar Loaf Mountain.

Jimmy was sitting up front with Bob, and Maria sat in the back watching the lovely view. Suddenly Jimmy pulled out a small box and surreptitiously showed it to Bob.

"What is it?" Bob asked.
Jimmy opened the box. It was a diamond ring.
"From whom?" Bob asked. And suddenly he got the picture.
Jimmy showed Maria the ring. She seemed puzzled.
"Will you marry me, Maria?" Jimmy asked.
For a brief moment Maria was shocked.
Then she said "Yes."

Back at Frederick Bob parked on the AOPA ramp and tied down. As he walked toward me he looked a bit stunned.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I feel great!" he said, and then told me about the engagement drama aboard his airplane. Then we captured the event in this photograph:

Bob Rose, Maria Veloz and Jimmy Eckenrode after the young couple
became engaged over Frederick, Md., in Bob's Socata Rallye.

Jimmy and Maria plan to get married this summer-and they invited Bob to the wedding. --Tim Mulford

New members: One of the more interesting newcomers to IDPA is 69-year-old Dennis Whitley of Smithfield, N.C., who is not only a student pilot (he flew his first two solos last Dec. 18 in a Cessna 152) but also a serious model airplane enthusiast who flies his own radio-controlled aircraft.

Dennis Whitley is an aeromodeler as well as a student pilot.

Dennis Whitley with the Cessna 152 in which he recently soloed.

Dennis, who is retired, came to aviation through his brother, Adam, an Air Force veteran who has been a pilot for 25 years, and has been doing his training at Douglas Airport near Charlotte, N.C.

Dennis attended Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis, then high school in Smithfield and spent a year at Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C.

He is a member of the Johnston County Aeromodeler's Club and the Carolina Aero Club. The club is sponsoring two fly-ins this spring and summer, and Dennis invites all IDPA members to drop by.

The first fly-in is on May 13 at Cox Field, a 2450-foot grass airstrip eight nautical miles from Raleigh-Durham International Airport on the 117.2 VOR 215-degree radial.

The other fly-in is on June 11 at Bagwell Field, a 2200-foot turf strip 14 nautical miles from Raleigh-Durham International Airport on the 117.2 VOR 150-degree radial.

Plan on arriving after 11 a.m., Dennis says.

Miscellaneous: Texans Charles Fontenot and his partner, Patricia Clark, who own Lead Dog Aviation in Del Rio, Texas, report that their sales in their first year as aircraft brokers topped the $2 million mark. Charles offers these observations on the used airplane market: "Real 'steals' are next to impossible to find because of the strong stock market. Most of the old pilots are dead and they already sold their good airplanes two years ago. Too many young millionaires from dot-coms have sucked up the really good deals. Almost all used Cessnas are appreciating at about 4 to 8 per cent a year!

"If a plane you like comes along, waste no time. Get the escrow down and the inspection done, the title searched, and bag it while you can. Several people recently lost the planes we had available to cash-ready buyers in less than one day. The market is really crazy."

Bet you didn't know that one of the pioneers of space flight was a Russian who had a severe hearing loss. Bernard Gross recently visited the Aerospace Museum in San Diego, California, and found an exhibit devoted to "Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, Space Pioneer."

The legend under the large photograph of Tsiolkovsky (shown at right) reads:

"Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was born at Izhevskoye, Russia, on September 17th, 1857. Although handicapped at age ten with a hearing loss, he completed his studies in mathematics and the sciences at Moscow and won a teaching post at Kaluga.

"Inspired by his fascination with science fiction, he applied his scientific talents to the problems of interplanetary travel and soon evolved from fiction writer to space theoretician. Tsiolkovsky's hypothesis and calculations addressed rocket control, gyroscopic stabilization, escape velocities, reactive action and liquid propellants.

"Tsiolkovsky is generally considered to be the father of astronautics and rocket dynamics. Entering the world more than one hundred years before Sputnik became the first object rocketed into space, he prepared the way for it and for all space exploration which followed. Tsiolkovsky died in 1935."