Aviation Stories

[Geico266]

I was having a beer with a well known local pilot that is 81 years old. We were talking about first flights, instructors, where you learn how to fly away, that kind of stuff. Come to find out the instructor for this guy was trained by Orvil & Wilber Wright. No, he was not kidding, in fact he didn't think it was a big deal.



I bought that round.

What good aviation stories do you have?

 

[Corpsmaide]

During my time on the Honor Guard in the USAF I was on a funeral detail for a pilot who participated in the Doolittle raids. I kept a copy of his obit but shortly lost it. The family put a lot of emphasis on his military career and the Doolittle raids.

 

[zaitcev]

Nothing this cool, sadly. Back when I played Air Warrior, one virtual pilot there was Mr. Earl Miller, who flew P-39 and P-47 out of Africa and later Italy. Here's what he relayed Jack Ogilvie saying about B-25H (Mr. Miller was escorting one of those flights too):

"Yes I remember those flights very well, I think I was on all of them. They were not bomb runs, those were B-25's that were fitted with 75 mm cannons and they were trying to knock out some flak boats that were in the harbor at Leghorn. They had a gun emplacement on a point going in to the harbor that had two 105's and several 88's. They were the most crack shot's I ever saw. They had a gung ho full colonel that was in charge of the Squadron and he had us come to the briefing. His plan was to go in with three flights of four planes and to go in four at a time stacked one behind the other on the deck, we were to be circling above them. I tried to talk them out of it and he got mad as hell. When we started in and were maybe a mile out those 105s shot four rounds and knocked down four planes - the rest scattered and aborted the mission. The colonel had another meeting and ranted and raved and threatened court-martials for cowardice. He said he was going to do the same thing the next day and would lead the flight. He did and the first round was a direct hit on his plane. As far as I know they were never used again."

This was such an amazingly stupid, Russian way to fight that it stayed with me. Americans were supposed to fight smart. But perhaps it only came after Vietnam, or always was one of many legends about America that I found somewhat overblown.

Earl Miller had a 150 and flew it into his 80s.

BTW, I think Wilbur Wright was an FAA inspector and Lane Wallace once met a guy whose certificate was signed by him. It was right before paper certificates were switched to plastic, so again in late 90s or early 2000s.

 

[Sac Arrow]

I was having a beer with a well known local pilot that is 81 years old. We were talking about first flights, instructors, where you learn how to fly away, that kind of stuff. Come to find out the instructor for this guy was trained by Orvil & Wilber Wright. No, he was not kidding, in fact he didn't think it was a big deal.



I bought that round.

What good aviation stories do you have?

I would have really been impressed if it was the guy that TRAINED Orvil and Wilbur Wright!

 

[MAKG1]

BTW, I think Wilbur Wright was an FAA inspector and Lane Wallace once met a guy whose certificate was signed by him. It was right before paper certificates were switched to plastic, so again in late 90s or early 2000s.

Wilbur Wright died in 1924, (well) before there was a Civil Aeronautics Board, let alone an FAA.

Orville was an advisor for the CAB. The FAA wasn't formed until 1958, a decade after Orville's death.

 

[FlySince9]

Found out that my Flight Instructor (when I was 18 years old 1972) made an emergency landing on the George Washington Bridge in an Aeronca Champ... (I think it was 1962 or so) "I would have made it," he explains, "if I hadn't caught up with that damn truck!" Broke a bunch of bones and still had a scar where the airspeed needle was removed from his hand. The guy in the front seat walked away with barely a scratch, as he tells it...

Since he has always been a local "character" in the NYC area's aviation community... Sound off if you know his name!

 

[dukeblue219]

BTW, I think Wilbur Wright was an FAA inspector and Lane Wallace once met a guy whose certificate was signed by him. It was right before paper certificates were switched to plastic, so again in late 90s or early 2000s.

Sorry, Wilbur Wright was born in 1871. Even if he hadn't died young he would have been 125+ by the late 90s!