Carl and Chris

Flight instructing was mostly an avocation for me, but I took it seriously. It often led to some interesting flying like what happened in 2000 when Carl Ziegler bought an Alon A-2. If you haven't heard of it, the Alon is a derivative of the Ercoupe. Ercoupes were built by Engineering and Research Corporation (ERCO) starting in the 1930s. The A-2 is called the Aircoupe. Unlike ERCO, Alon put rudder pedals in their airplane and equipped it with a sliding canopy. They also used a more powerful motor and bucket seats.

A-2s are rare, only 245 were built. So are instructors who've flown one. When Carl's insurance company said he needed an instructor with time in the A-2 to check him out it was a problem. The solution was I would fly with the previous owner then fly with Ziegler. It was comic. I got in the right seat while the owner flew and talked. He didn't let me touch the controls, but I now had "time in the type." Carl got in the left seat, and we spent some time figuring out how to fly it. Yes, it would stall. No, it wouldn't spin. Carl called it the "Love Coupe."

Carl Ziegler is an accomplished pilot, but his forte is fixing airplanes. Recently retired, he maintained Airbus and Boeing airliners for Northwest then Delta while being a light airplane guru on the side. Carl worked in the inspection department at Delta for the last 13 years. He inspected aircraft that arrived for routine checks then verified work is performed correctly prior to returning an aircraft to service. Carl is also certified as an aircraft inspector for general aviation aircraft.

Carl let me fly the Alon and it was fun. The sliding canopy could be opened in flight. That was neat, but you had to make sure everything was stowed as I learned one day when I pushed it back and turned cockpit debris into air pollution. Carl also arranged for my most satisfying experience as an instructor.

Christopher Ziegler is Carl's son. After the minimum amount of training required, Chris received his Private Pilot Certificate. He just finished high school, I was his instructor, and he trained in Carl's A-2. He barely needed me and pretty much got everything right on the first try. Chris was my best student, no contest. Now he's a Major in the United States Air Force and flies F-16s for the Minnesota Air National Guard's 148th Fighter Wing in Duluth. Chris Ziegler is a big success!

Careers don't necessarily take a direct course. After high school Chris joined the United States Marines. He was a reservist but got deployed to Djibouti for seven months. The Marines trained Chris to be a weather observer, but all Marines are riflemen (rifle persons?) and that's what he did in Africa. Before the Marines took over, the base at Djibouti was occupied by another elite military group called the French Foreign Legion.

After six years with the Marines, Chris Ziegler joined the 148th. At first, he followed his dad's example and fixed airplanes specializing in electronics. He also worked at Cirrus Aircraft and got to fly an SR-22 with the company's flying club. Cirrus and his military jobs supported him while he got associate and bachelor's degrees. Persistence paid off and the Guard made Chris a Lieutenant and sent him to pilot training at Shepard Air Force Base, Wichita Falls, Texas. He calls that "the most fun year I never want to do again." After "fighter fundamentals," the next stop was F-16 training at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. Chris says he would gladly repeat the F-16 training.

Not the traditional "weekend warrior," Major Ziegler works full time for the National Guard. Right now, he's the Wing's chief scheduler which takes a lot more time than flying. He's been deployed four times by the Air Force to such lovely places as Kuwait, Georgia, Saudi Arabia and Okinawa. During the deployments Chris got to spend time Egypt and India.

Carl Ziegler now owns a Cessna 172 which is a little slower than the F-16. Neither the F-16 or the 172 have a sliding canopy. Carl still does a lot of aviation writing mostly dispensing his wisdom on how to maintain flying machines. Chris is thinking of moving from scheduling to simulator instructing.

Carl and Chris are both a credit to aviation. I feel privileged to know them and flying the "Love Coupe" was a lot of fun.