On October 4, my old friend Andy Brown — recently retired after 27 years as a pilot with Northwest Airlines — flew down from Minneapolis in his beautiful little four-seater Cirrus for a brief visit before continuing to Chicago. He only stayed for a couple of hours, but that was long enough for him to take me up and let me fly the plane past Grundy Center, around Ackley, and back to Waterloo. That was the third time I've taken the controls of a small plane — both other occasions were in 1982, first in Rota, Spain, and then a few months later over the Persian Gulf on the way from Pakistan to Bahrain. It was a thrill back then, and it was a thrill again this time. Thanks, Andy!