Once upon a time there was a Rascal 110 who had spent a large portion of his life in a box. As he sat in the box he would dream of the day when he would soar into the sky. He couldn’t wait to do rolls, flips, and dives. He imagined how it would feel to go screaming through the sky at top speed, straight up, and how great it would feel as he tipped over and dove full speed at the ground. He would chuckle as he thought about how jealous the other planes would be when they saw just how low and slow he could fly. He would fall asleep counting the number of loops that he could do.

Then one day he heard a sound of something being torn open… and then there was a bright light… and suddenly he was free!

Oh, happy day! He wiggled his rudder in happy anticipation. He could almost feel the bugs smacking his propeller as it cut through the air!

As he was being assembled he openly talked to the many other planes and jets that he found in the hangar. He told them of his dreams and the anticipation of that first flight!

The MiG and the F16 just laughed at him.

“You silly Rascal! You aren’t a jet! You can’t go screaming through the sky straight up until you’re out of sight! You’re just a silly airplane! You were meant to glide high and slow!”

The Rascal tried not to let the jets hurt his feelings, but a tear managed to escape his eye. Okay, fine, if he couldn’t scream through the air like a jet then he would change his dream slightly. He began to dream of the beautiful knife-edge passes that he would do… of how jealous the other planes would be when he could hover longer than any other airplane in the hangar!

The Edge guffawed from his spot on the wall.

“Seriously?! Dude! You can’t hover! And you think that you’re going to knife-edge, too?!? Wow. You are delusional! You are just an overgrown trainer. Get used to it. Here, talk to the kid, LT, about what your flying is going to be like when you get out to the field.”

“Oh, Mr. Rascal! We’ll have a LOT of fun! We get to fly high and slowly drift over the field. Then we get to turn in a circle and do it again. The best part is when the girl who is flying us doesn’t set up for a good landing because then we get to go round AGAIN!! And if you’re lucky she will make you a spiffy set of wheel pants, too! You can’t have these ones, though. They are mine.”

So, resigned to his fate of flying high and slow, the Rascal took his place on the field. He wiggled his ailerons, flapped his elevator, and began to turn his propeller.

His wheels left the ground and he was free! He was amazed by what he saw below him. He was way up there, but at least he was in the air instead of in a box. It was kind of enjoyable, and even though he wouldn’t be flying like a jet or a 3D airplane, at least he could enjoy a serene flight now and again.

After he landed the Kid was there to chew his ear off.

“Wasn’t it great?! They won’t take us out very often, but when they do it’s always nice. Well, except today. She brought me down just a little too hard, so now my legs aren’t in good shape. But it’s okay. The guy is good at fixing us. He’s really a lot of fun to fly with, but he prefers the jets so we don’t get to fly with him very often.”

It was time for his second flight. The guy was going to fly him again. That made the Rascal feel better about keeping his legs intact! He glanced over at the jets who were resting from the last exhilarating flights they’d had and the Rascal felt a pang of envy. He sighed, and prepared for his take-off. As he started to roll away he heard the guy yell, “Hey Sam! Watch this!”

…. and he went screaming straight up into the sky! Just like a jet!! At the top of his climb he fell over, and dove straight down. The bugs were smashing all over his wings and wheel pants, but he didn’t care… HE WAS FLYING!!!

When he was doing a beautiful knife-edge pass across the field he couldn’t help but grin. If only the Edge could see him now! But the Edge was still at home, on the wall. And the Rascal was FLYING!! They said that it couldn’t be done, but he was doing it!

After that second flight he didn’t think that he could get much happier. After the third flight he was sure that he couldn’t get any happier. Yet, each time the Guy took him up into the air he was able to do all sorts of maneuvers that he’d been told he wouldn’t be able to do.

As it got dark the Rascal started to get sad. He knew that soon the Guy would be packing him up and taking him home. Then there would be no more flying for a while.

Or so he thought…

When the LEDs were turned on and he started glowing the jets finally understood what the Guy had known all along… this wasn’t just any airplane and this wasn’t just any Rascal 110. This was Jay’s Rascal 110 and it would do so many things that it typically doesn’t do (like 3D maneuvers). The Rascal 110 would go on to become one of Jay’s favorite planes to fly. The F-16’s and MiG slowly began to gather dust on their wings. Once in a while Jay would take them out to stretch their wings, but he never went to the field without the Rascal in tow. And that was just how the Rascal liked it.