STORY BY DANE GOLDEN PHOTOS BY TERRY HANKINS

A year ago July, Gardner Bride flew his restored 1947 Luscombe 8E airplane from Petaluma to the world’s largest air show – the Oshkosh Fly-In – that takes place in Wisconsin every summer. Bride’s small, all-metal, single-prop, 85-horsepower aluminum craft seats two and carries 25 gallons of gas.

Unfortunately, the plane had a few hiccups on the trip, including a navigational system that went out, an engine that ran too hot and a dead battery. But Bride, 75, a former Navy and commercial pilot who first took flying lessons at age 13 and had his private license at 17, persevered.

The Luscombe, which he purchased two years ago, is Bride’s fourth – he owned three others in the days before they were considered vintage. Over the years, he’s flown Panthers, S2Fs, F8F Bearcats, F6F Hellcats, landed on aircraft carriers and was an airline pilot for United for more than a quarter century. As a college student at the University of Texas at Austin, his summer job was crop dusting in a Piper Super Cub. Of course, he had to fly under the telephone wires to make sure he did a good job on the crops.