At 81, Racing Pilot Decides His Future Is Up in the Air

--Flying airplanes is a way of life for Steve Wittman, and he says he has no intention of sitting on the ground just because he’s 81. Wittman, one of the nation’s leading pilots in the heyday of air racing in the 1930s and 1940s, is attending the Experimental Aircraft Assn.’s 33rd annual fly-in and convention at Wittman Field in Oshkosh, Wis. Wittman operated the airport from 1931 until his retirement in 1969 and the facility is named for him. He opted not to participate in the annual 500-mile race this year after crash-landing his plane in a field. He’s fine, but the plane is still in the shop. “I’ve had a number of crashes,” he said. “Never any broken bones, but I’ve been bruised up a little.” Of his latest crash, Wittman said, “I was a little afraid of a broken neck. When you make a sudden stop like that, it snaps your head pretty hard.” The veteran pilot is building a new two-seat plane in a hangar near his Wisconsin home and plans to fly it to Ocala, Fla., for the winter. “I may or may not race again,” he said. “At my age, I don’t know. I’ll just have to wait until next spring.”

--Mayor Bud Clark says he wants to establish Portland, Ore., as the nation’s “most comfortable city.” And, to get things started, he has proclaimed Aug. 14 as Dress as You Please Day. His proclamation urges the city’s employers to allow their workers to wear whatever they want that day. It is all “in the spirit of levity and good will,” Clark says.

--Artificial heart recipient William J. Schroeder will be permitted to return to his Indiana hometown of Jasper on Sunday to take part in a festival parade, hospital officials announced in Louisville, Ky. Before the parade, he will rest at his home, which he has not visited since receiving the artificial heart implant on Nov. 25 at Humana Hospital Audubon. Schroeder, 53, is the longest living artificial-heart recipient.

--British police used frogmen and dogs to make security checks for a visit by Queen Elizabeth II to the seaside resort of Great Yarmouth--identified in June as being on an Irish Republican Army bombing hit list. No bombs were found, and the queen’s visit proceeded without a hitch, although a little girl did try to climb into the royal car at one point. She was gently told by the queen’s husband, Prince Philip, that only he and the queen would be riding in the vehicle.

--Some people just can’t stay away from the office, even after they retire. But most aren’t sea captains like Robert Arnott. He is retiring after 18 years as captain of the liner Queen Elizabeth 2 but has signed on for the luxury vessel’s next world cruise--as a passenger. “I really have a very close attachment to her,” said Arnott, 62, after docking at Southampton, England. “It’s very nostalgic, I must say. I’m sad to leave. And yet, having said that, after 45 years at sea, I do feel as though I’m ready to retire.”