50+ years after..He views film of his Spitfire Crash Landing.

X3 Skier

X3 Skier

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WWII Photo Recce pilot makes a wheels up landing which was filmed by the Flight Surgeon. The Flight Surgeon's grandson finds the film, locates the pilot and makes a documentary. The pilot is amazing. 93 yrs old and as sharp as ever.


The Dixon the pilot mentions is Bob Dixon, General USAF (Ret) who was eventually commander of TAC. I had a few encounters with him in my career. Not a man to suffer fools gladly.

Cheers
 
I love what he said at the end; "Every pilot should fly a Spitfire at least once." I wish. Thanks for sharing!
 
Cool story! Got kinda choked up watching the guy, and he didn't even show a lot of emotion but you know he was feeling it. I remember Gen Dixon too. This my fav Spitfire video though:

Warning: Earmuffs kiddies!

 
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Saw that not to long ago. They don't call them the greatest generation for nothing.
 
That was indeed very cool.
My father turned 92 in Feb this year.
Went into WWII, stayed in through the Korean war, and retired out during the Vietnam war.
He was a paratrooper mostly...and worked building bridges and setting up communications after chuting in over enemy lines.
He is still fairly sharp, but I can see the years creeping in. So I sat with him about a month ago and asked him a lot of questions.
Below is a list of planes he jumped from. It's probably not a complete list, but the way he talked....it was like he was there. Like he was 20 again.
It was great.

C-46
A-20
C-24
C-130
C-82 (he says a Nun designed it) I have no idea
C-124
C-54

He also used several types of chutes. They would call upon him to evaluate changes or newer types of chutes.
I always teased him about that part. About being a 'parachute tester'. We'd laugh and I'd rib him saying they must not have worried much about losin' him.
But we both knew deep down, just like the pilot in this video, that he'd do what it took to do the job right.
I always shake a vet's hand if I have the chance.
And to any here on the forum... a big salute.
 
I have seen this before.

Very cool, in part because I am friends with and regularly fly sailplanes with General Dixon's son
 
Skyrys62 said:
Below is a list of planes he jumped from. It's probably not a complete list, but the way he talked....it was like he was there. Like he was 20 again.
It was great.

C-46
A-20
C-24
C-130
C-82 (he says a Nun designed it) I have no idea
C-124
C-54
Click to expand...

Surprised at no C-47 and very surprised the A-20 Havoc. I supposed everybody who jumped from the A-20 because it wasn't flyable because of combat damage or other failures.

Cheers
 
He probably did a C-47.
We talked a long time and I was jotting down numbers as he said them.
He said they would jump out of just about anything when they needed to get somewhere.
One of the things he was trying to explain, but couldn't remember the model, was some old open cockpit deal.
I threw out a few names like Piper Cub, Stearman, etc..but he kept saying no.
Three or four of them would all sit with their legs hanging out cause they couldn't fit, and when the pilot yelled go they'd just roll off the sides.
 
I love that after all those years he wanted to talk about flying and planes the most.

My favorite part is when they start to showing him landing he is busy describing the c-47 and his first night landing with it until he realizes what he was watching.

Amazing! Once you get bitten by the aviation bug, you truly never turn back.
 
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