Bogus pilots

[CorpLearDriver]

At an outdoor bar in Wichita about 9 years ago as a 1900 driver with 3 of my co-workers. Sitting next to us was 3 guys, one gal speaking loudly about airplanes. We start chatting and they say they fly for DAL on the 737. Cool, I say, what model? The A model. Awesome, you guys are cool that must be a real hard job. Is it hard to be a pilot? So, what does a pilot's license look like? Like a drivers license? (as a take my ATP out of my wallet). No it's larger, yada, yada, yada. My co-workers and I proceded to bust them big time. Pretty funny overall and they fessed up and were humbled pretty quick. They commented on the odds of trying that story on a couple of airline pilots...

I think the best bust I ever heard was during and airline interview. The applicant had a lot of DHC-6 Twin Otter time in his logbook. So one of the interviewers asked him to describe the emergency gear extension system on the Twotter and this guy went into elaberate detail about the emergency blow-down system and all. They thanked him for his time and told him they'd get back to him. As he walked out into the lobby, another applicant asked him what some of the technical questions were. He told him about the Twin Otter question and the other applicant asked him incredulously what he answered. The guy once again explained, in front of a number of other pilots and was told the Twin Otter has fixed gear. I would have loved to see the look on his face.

 

[IFollowRoads]

I think the best bust I ever heard was during and airline interview. The applicant had a lot of DHC-6 Twin Otter time in his logbook. So one of the interviewers asked him to describe the emergency gear extension system on the Twotter and this guy went into elaberate detail about the emergency blow-down system and all. They thanked him for his time and told him they'd get back to him. As he walked out into the lobby, another applicant asked him what some of the technical questions were. He told him about the Twin Otter question and the other applicant asked him incredulously what he answered. The guy once again explained, in front of a number of other pilots and was told the Twin Otter has fixed gear. I would have loved to see the look on his face.

I think this one wins the prize.

 

[fxbat]

But you never really know, I could not believe the one about Vietnam where one fighter nudged up under his wing man that had taken massive damage and pushed him out to sea for a safe ejection.

 

[AerroMatt]

But you never really know, I could not believe the one about Vietnam where one fighter nudged up under his wing man that had taken massive damage and pushed him out to sea for a safe ejection.

Yanno... I had read about this one as being a Korean War story. Was reported as being true. Just can't remember the names, although I think I remember that it was F86 aircraft. It was over 30 years ago when I read about this story though, so my memory is a bit hazy. If I recall, this guy held up a shattered wingtip of his wingman's airplane with his own wingtip. Is this the same story? Maybe also the wingman was unconscious due to O2 failure... I can't recall. Good tale all the same. Sure hope no poser tries to hijack this story to regale some floozy about his exploits over Afghanistan.

 

[inthewind]

When I was a new hire at Atlantic Coast I was going through systems on the D-328 and the instructor f-in hated me. Because hed had been telling everyone that he flew F-4s in the Marine Corps. Even kept his squadron coffee cup on his desk, with the shiny NFO wings on it. I had to laugh at him cuz he and I both knew that those wings stand for NON FLYING OFFICER. I used to wear my leather flight jacket to class with the real wings on it just to irk him. ROFLMAO

 

[Prof. ATP]

...wrote the algorithms for GPS......

One of the key GPS algorithms (spread spectrum) was invented by the actress Hedy Lamar during WWII. Unfortunately, her patent ran out before GPS was imlemented, so her estate never got any benefit.

True story.

 

[pilotyip]

Grst Guys NFO's

NFO= Naval Flight Officer, he was a flying officer, but not in the pilot's seat. NFO's often had mission controll authority, and could direct the employment of the weapon system, except for safey of flight issues. I worked with many very cool NFO's.

 

[con-pilot]

But you never really know, I could not believe the one about Vietnam where one fighter nudged up under his wing man that had taken massive damage and pushed him out to sea for a safe ejection.

I will try to look up this case, however, I far as I know it is true.

It was in Viet Nam and it was two Air Force F-4s. The damaged (or fuel less) F-4 dropped his hook (yes, the Air Force version also had an arresting hook) and the other F-4 pilot placed his radome between the bottom of the fusulage and hook and pushed the other F-4 either to safe territory, a re-fueler or a US Air Base (I can't remember which).

I really can't remember all the details. The 'pushing' F-4 did a lot of damage to the radome.

Okay, I found it, and I did get some details wrong.




Pardo's Push
It was March 10, 1967, in enemy skies over Hanoi. The last of 44 F-4 aircraft
were just coming off a bombing raid into North Vietnam when Capt. Bob Pardo and
his wingman Capt. Earl Aman were both hit by enemy fire. Aman's aircraft was the
worse off. Hit by two damaging blows to the fuel tank, he suddenly was down to
2,000 pounds of fuel instead of the 7,000 pounds he needed to safely return to
the refueling tanker.

Pardo knew he had to do something quickly if Aman was going to make it out.
First, he tried to use Aman's drag chute to help the wounded Phantom. With the
drag chute extended, Pardo tried to maneuver behind Aman's aircraft so he could
use the drag chute compartment to push the aircraft toward the tanker. No good.
Turbulence was too great.

Pardo decided to try to use the tailhook on Aman's aircraft. He moved in under
Aman's aircraft and got the tailhook against the windscreen of his F-4 Phantom.
Success. By this time, Aman's aircraft was so low on fuel that Pardo told him to
shut down the engines. Pardo's push was working, but the two aircraft had to
stay directly in line with one another. Pardo would push for 15 to 20 seconds,
lose the necessary balance and slide off to the side. Then he'd have to
reposition and push again. By now the pressure of Aman's F-4 aircraft was
cracking the windscreen of Pardo's fighter. As the spider web of cracks grew,
Pardo became increasingly concerned. He moved the hook down the windscreen into
a small metal area below. The hook stayed put, and the push continued. To keep
his own damaged Phantom flying, Pardo shut down one engine for the last 10
minutes of the flight.

After pushing Aman's aircraft almost 88 miles, the two damaged Phantoms reached
friendly air space. At 6,000 feet, with practically no fuel left, the two pilots
and their weapons systems officers parachuted to safety.
"That was one hell of an airplane," retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bob Pardo


There is a painting of this incident in the Air Force Museum.

 

[tracearabians]

Well the most interesting thing in this thread is your avatar!!!! WOW!!!:nuts: :beer:

When I was a new hire at Atlantic Coast I was going through systems on the D-328 and the instructor f-in hated me. Because hed had been telling everyone that he flew F-4s in the Marine Corps. Even kept his squadron coffee cup on his desk, with the shiny NFO wings on it. I had to laugh at him cuz he and I both knew that those wings stand for NON FLYING OFFICER. I used to wear my leather flight jacket to class with the real wings on it just to irk him. ROFLMAO

 

[Gatorman]

Uh, Gator...

Assuming your plausibilities, how the devil would someone get up into that cockpit without a ladder? F4's were still in service with the Navy when I was in, and they always had an external ladder they'd hang on the side of the fuselage for crew ingress/egress. I guess the shot-down wingman may have happened upon one in a rice paddy after parachuting down, then asked this guy to shut down one engine so he wouldn't be sucked in the intake.

Does anyone know if the F4 could re-start one engine on the ground without a GPU cart? Too much BS for my BS detector I'm afraid, but I appreciate you checking with your Marine buddies about it. Maybe they'll get a laugh out of it like I did. Cheers! :beer:

Ok, I got it. There is no way they could have started the engine without a GPU. It does not have the capability to cross-over bleedair start. I did hear that the Air Force version later had an APU installed.