I remember being told the story of my father’s flight with the Vellinga twins (Clarence & Clifford) on several occasions. It turns out that my Aunt Arlene lived with her husband on a ranch near Idaho Falls. I don't know exactly where, but they lived atop a very high plateau. My father having been a pilot during the war determined that he and my mother (prior to any children's birth) would travel to Aunt Arlene’s farm one particular day. Inasmuch as airports we're not available, my father determined to land the small plane they were flying in on the road that my aunt’s farm was on. I'm sure they visited for a while and my father apparently decided to offer her young twins, Clifford and Clarence, (who were very young at the time [about 4 or 5]) the opportunity for a plane ride. Apparently, Aunt Arlene, Uncle Clarence and the twins we're agreeable two such a flight. So, they arranged the twins seating together in the back seat of the plane and prepared for a takeoff along the road they had earlier landed on. Mom, along with Arlene and Clarence we're watching as my father prepared the plane for takeoff away from their farm (down the road they’d landed on). They watched as the plane raced down the road. Unfortunately, the road ended with an abrupt cliff. Watching the plane race away from them they undoubtedly became very concerned as the plane approached the end of the plateau and the cliff. The story indicates that the observing adults watched as the plane seemed to tip over - nose first - off of the road, over the cliff and plummet out of their sight. As they watched this, they ran frantically down the road toward its end. As they ran, they dreaded the very worst for all the plane’s inhabitants. About halfway down the road they saw the plane slowly rising above the plateau; and we're undoubtedly relieved to observe its 'successful’ takeoff! To hear my father tell the story, he apparently realized that the plane would gather speed and fly just fine following its nose dive off the cliff. 

I don't know whether the next part of this story occurred on the same excursion or not. Apparently, my father and mother we're flying through Weber Canyon toward Ogden in a small plane. They were flying beneath some clouds; and Mom felt that they were flying way too close to the sides of the Canyon. To hear her tell the story, she said “You could just about reach out and touch the sides of the Canyon!” Apparently, this frightened my mother so badly that she never flew with dad again!