Some folks just have more flying stories than you ever will!

Bill Watson

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Dec 5, 2007
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Durham NC
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MauleDriver
Over TG we were staying in a medical center hotel. Wife went out for a rare smoke (family holidays can be stressful) and some guy invited her to sit in his car and enjoy the heat while they puffed. Turns out he was a pilot so she brought him in the lobby to meet her pilot husband. I don’t think I got 2 words in edgewise...

He started at 15 and has been flying the jagged edge of mostly legit flying since. No turbine time but everything from powered parachutes to B-17s. I could have written a book if I had taken notes.

There was a lot of crop dusting time though he may have swallowed as much toxic stuff as he sprayed. At that point I asked how many crashes? “...none up until 19xx then 7 in about a year, damn power lines. Usually you just pull ‘em off after you land and keep quiet but sometimes...”. And on and on. Fact is, it all held up. And I found out that the B-17 is a really docile plane given what it was.

He may not have known it, but we are the same age though he’s lived it a bit harder.

As we go through various family illnesses, I recognized that he was attending to his hospitalized wife and doing the best he could. I enjoyed the stories and hope it helped him with the anxiety, for a few minutes anyway.

Happy Holidays All


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Odd that he has that much experience and flew they much AG and didn’t end up in a turbine.
 
Those "exciting flying stories" are always better to hear or read than to experience. I much prefer my flying to be boring and unremarkable . . . . But growing up, I read about lots of exciting war-time flying.
 
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