The photo digitizing project is continuing. Got through at least one box of Air Force pictures. Don't know if there are others. If there are, they're not in the second box I've looked through. However, there were some decent pictures.
Dang, I was young once. Picture was on the squadron manning board. at the entrance to the squadron.
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| L to R: Mongo, Hef, Mrs. Capt. J, Conehead, Me, Jug and the fire extinguisher used to wet her down after her Flight. |
I think I mentioned the other day that Mrs. Capt. J had had an incentive ride in the F-4. She'd received that because she'd been the Company Grade Officer of the Quarter. Mongo was her Pilot. Hef was her boss at the time and my first Flight Commander at Moody, Conehead (callsign story at a later date) was my crewed back seater, Jug was my current Flight Commander. Good times!
She also got an incentive ride (of sorts) while we were stationed at Holloman. Unfortunately, the "rules" had changed and the incentive ride was suit up, start up, go through the arming area, onto the runway, run it up. light the burners, accelerate to 100K then abort. I'd have been bored, but she seemed to enjoy it.
Yes, she got wetted down afterwards. It's kind of a fighter pilot tradition thing.
There is one truism that I dislike.
All good things must end.
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| Rotgut Champaign? Check! Beautiful Babe (Babes, there's two of them there) ? Check! Soaked Pilot? Check! |
Final flight in the Eagle. That's a fire truck behind me and Mrs. Major J. Yes, I was good and soaked.
Unfortunately, my gut was telling me that was that for the flying gig. And it was...
Rats!
OT: I've been informed that our AWOL (AWay On Leave, Beans, we ain't in the military any more) Sarge is en-route home. He asked if I'd post another one tomorrow. Said he'd increase my salary 20 fold, so I said sure. Wait...20 X 0 is????? That having been said, I found some really neat things in one of the boxes of pictures. I think you'll find them interesting also.
Peace Out Y'all!
Oh My! Photos of things that fly, yeoman posts these past few days juvat. Doing the conversion must be firing up some neurons that have been inactive for awhile.
ReplyDeleteNylon,
DeleteThanks, Those were generally happy times (not that the family aspects of now aren't), so there's definitely a nostalgia effect. Stay tuned for tomorrow. Found some really neat (IMHO) things in the next box I started going through. I think y'all will find them historically interesting.
Alas Juvat, we were all young once (both the good and the bad).
ReplyDeleteI remember my mother telling me that when my father was in the Navy, they did the equivalent of a incentive ride for spouses and significant others by doing a short cruise (he was a radar man stationed on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hancock). Apparently during the cruise and demonstration, a plane overshot and went over the edge (they did rescue the pilot). Made quite an impression on her.
THBB,
DeleteLife in general is dangerous and the end of it inevitable. That having been said, military life, even in peace time, is an order of magnitude more dangerous. In addition, as an outside observer, life on a carrier seems to be another order of magnitude more dangerous. Takeoff and landing in the Air Force were generally routine endeavors, not the near emergency situation that the carrier presents in those phases of flight. I read something somewhere (so don't quote me) that DOD had done a study by strapping heart monitors on aircrew members and measured their heart rates during all phases of flight. The three other services had graphs that were generally dome shaped while the Navy had U shaped graphs. I think that's likely true.
Very cool. Seeing a real life fighter pilot is too nifty. I've talked to quite a few pile-its too. Good work getting those fragile films into the bits and bytes for posterity. I remember them cutting the shirt of the guys that soloed at school. The always wore a tee shirt on that day IIRC.
ReplyDeleteYeah my first solo was in that little airport south of the Loop in LBB. Cessna 150. Somewhere in long sealed boxes is the framed cutoff portion of that T-shirt with the Date and Tail Number on it. That would have been late '76 or early '77. I remember the ride quite well.
DeleteWas attracted to flying as Uncle flew fighters in WWII, including recon. Spitfires. In the early 60's decided the Cessna 150 was the plane of choice for this aspiring pilot. I found it attractive since the plane and fuel only ran $10/hr., don't recall the instructor fees at the time. Grass airport, with 90 ft. high tension power line and railroad located beyond runway north end and busy highway on the south. Rice fields surrounding. Managed to solo and pick up a few more hours, then bought a "new used" car (term involves a friend from the Island of Grenada-long passed-selling used Japanese cars he imported from Japan), money available for flying dried up as car ownership and college costs increased. Flying career was "Kaput" up at that point.
ReplyDeleteFew years later took a ride with a Lieutenant flying a Cessna O-1 for an Artillery outfit. Only ride I ever took in a tail dragger.
Still fascinated with aircraft...especially the WWII Warbirds.
Regards,
Cletus
Cletus,
DeleteI think I've mentioned that the Confederate Air Force regularly has formation school at the local airport. The FAA has a currency requirement for formation flying at parades and air shows and the like.. Since we live on fairly unpopulated property about 5 miles from the airport, the frequently practice in our area. The Instructor Pilot in me is fairly strict. The Fighter Pilot in me is insanely jealous. Such is life.
Agree, such is life.... We live about 6 miles to the NE of the airport (I'm pretty sure our house is used as a turning point for approach to T 82). The "Birds" formation fly up this way too. Those radials pull me outside, or if I'm outside get whiplash from quickly looking up. Caught a "finger four" formation fairly close to the house & took a picture of them with my long lens...shows both silhouette(s) in the cockpit. I think it's a pretty neat picture, so if you know of a way to attach a picture to a comment let me know.
DeleteWell, according to this site this site it's doable. Blogger squawked illegal code at me when I pushed publish however.
DeleteEstablishing URL for the picture is an issue...tried two different sites to do so and received "Forbidden". Will keep searching.
DeleteCletus
Yeah I think it's a Blogger shortfall, rather than a global HTML prohibition.
DeleteIncentive rides sound nice, but not being able to consummate the act? That's just a tease! Although we couldn't even let our family sit in the ejection seat of the S-3B after a tragic accident killed two brothers when one of them pulled out a pin then the handle. Rules were written in blood.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't know what the reasoning was in the Mid-80's. I find it hard to believe that a high speed abort was saving any money in the long run, breaks, tires and such. But, some genius in the Pentagon probably made O-6 on suggesting it. Fortunately, we were back to normalcy when I got to Eagles. Since my name was painted on a D-model and, unlike some Eagle baby's (folks who'd never flown anything but Eagles), was used to having someone else aboard. I kinda liked it. Ostensibly, they'd gotten the ride by doing something really well. This was their reward. I always started the briefing with "Are you interested in seeing the sights? The view is phenomenal. Or would you rather make an E-Ticket ride at Disney Land look tame in comparison? Since Kadena's runway ended on the beach and the prevailing wind came from that direction, getting a AB take-off and max performance climb wasn't difficult. Made a lot of non-pilot friends on that tour.
DeleteWe did spend a lot of time talking about what to do it things went wrong, however.
Juvat- You are getting gooder at this writing stuff. Sarge might want to check six.
ReplyDeleteJohn Blackshoe
Well Thanks, John. He extended his Vacay a day or two. So Tuna and I are covering through Wednesday. Theoretically, he'll publish tales of wild debauchery and such experienced on his time off. Who knows? He's a pretty unpredictable, if prolific blogger. I don't think I'd come close to taking his place.
DeleteAh yes, the wetting down... A military tradition that 'thankfully' IS continuing! I was on the last airline flight of an old shipmate when he retired as a senior captain. The fire trucks sprayed the airplane as we taxied in, but he didn't get a 'real' wetting down.
ReplyDeleteI got the "Real" treatment from the fire truck on the last one. Thought I might drown standing up.
Delete