My biography as it relates to my two hobbies in life:
Aviation and the Spitfire
Hi, I'm Mike Ross. I first came to love the Triumph Spitfire in 1968 while working as a line boy at an airport in Ohio. The airframe mechanic for the fixed based operator at the airport was selling his Mk2 Spitfire. He had made a few modifications, oil pressure and temperature gauges, etc. I bought the car for $1,200.00; my dad co-signed a loan through the local credit union. That was the summer before my senior year in high school.
I learned to expect the unexpected from British cars when one of my wire wheels came off. I was driving home from work with my buddy following close behind. As I crossed a railroad track the knock-off spinner for my right front wire wheel unscrewed as I applied the brakes. The next thing I saw was my right front wheel rolling down the road ahead of me. I coasted to a stop in a nearby parking lot and looked in the rearview mirror as my friend was leaping over the railroad crossing bar that had lowered because of an oncoming train. He had stopped to retrieve my knock-off cap from the track and just missed getting hit by a freight train. I had to save up four paychecks to afford a new wheel and splined hub. Later that summer I bent a rear axle while driving too fast around a curve and letting the rear tire fall off the pavement into a rut at the side of the road.
Just before I left for college at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, I had to sell my beloved Spitfire to pay for my first quarter. The next year I worked at obtaining my flight instructor's license and was able to get a job at O.U. as a staff flight instructor. I taught Air Force R.O.T.C. students as well as the general student body basic flight instruction in Cessna 150's and 172's and flew some small charter business trips during the summer, as well as instructing. It was great fun! One of my Theta Chi fraternity brothers and I made several sky diving jumps too. These activities were probably a substitute for the exileration I once got from my Spitfire. I met my wife Julie through a Theta Chi fraternity brother during my junior year at O.U. We were engaged after 2 weeks and married after six months. We've been married now over 27 years. I graduated with a B.S. in Zoology and was accepted to The Ohio State University College of Dentistry in the summer of 1973.
After three grueling years in dental school I spent a year in a general hospital residency at the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. After graduating from the residency in 1976, I began my private dental practice. Unable to fly since undergraduate school due to lack of free time and money, I now took up aerobatic flying. After several years I had to give up flying due to diabetes, but I became an avid flight simulator pilot on my PC.
I owned an MGB for a year, but it never held the same affection I had for my Spitfire. Finally, 30 years later, I bought my second Spitfire. The excitement began within hours of leaving Cleveland from where I purchased it. Five minutes out of the city limits the cockpit began filling with smoke. I pulled over and my son, who entered O.U. in the fall of '99 as a freshman, and I popped open the bonnet to find the wiring harness smoldering and and oil splattering from a makeshift rubber hose someone had wedged into the intake manifold with electrical tape to take the place of the missing emission control breather valve hose.
I've spent the year since purchasing the Spitfire planning the restoration. During that time I've done some minor repairs just to keep it running; replaced the emission control valve, replaced the left rear half axle and wheel hub, replaced the right rear brake cylinder and several sections of steel brake lines, installed reclining GT6 seats from my GT6 parts car - which are much more comfortable, and some small appearance upgrades. I'm in the process of building a large garage before really beginning the disassembly. I'll try to update the progress regularly.
February, 2000.