Embarresed myself today.

[Fugawe]

I must be a pushie or something. F18 takes of at my airport. Shakes the ground. Comes screamin back around for a low overhead and I raise my arm to give him a good ol HELL YEAH! He waves back (the wings that is) and shoots almost straight up and dissappears in a 6500' BKN layer in a matter of seconds. My eyes well all up and I've got a brand new student by my side that probably thinks I'm the biggest pushie on the planet as I fight back tears of euphoria. I've seen this plenty at my airport b/c we're near Snowbird MOA but there was something about this fly over. What he did with that jet mixed with all the surrounding mountains with sun beams coming through the BKN layer was just too much.

Today was a good day.

YEAH BABY!

 

[Gorilla]

Flip, this one's for you, buddy, and for all other ex-fighter types out there getting a bit long in the tooth, and lightweight to boot.


There is no such thing as an ex-fighter pilot. Once a young man straps on a jet aircraft and climbs into the heavens to do battle, it sears his psyche forever. At some point he will hang up his flight suit - eventually they all do - and in the autumn of his years his eyes may dim and he may be stooped with age. But ask him about his life, and his eyes flash and his back straightens and his hands demonstrate aerial maneuvers and every conversation begins with "There I was at..." and he is young again. He remembers the days when he sky-danced through the heavens, when he could press a button and summon the lightning and invoke the thunder, the days when he was a prince of the earth and a lord of the heavens. He remembers his glory days and he is young again.

Robert Coram, "Boyd"

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

Sounds like alot of you are in the Bay. Why don't you and your students head up to my airport (STS) and ask for MK. We get alot of the military stuff Fun to watdoing the ILS up here.ch, the C130's do there touch and goes and one day I took an imbound on a U2 which was one of the coolest things ive seen up here.

 

[Lostdog65]

Flip, this one's for you, buddy, and for all other ex-fighter types out there getting a bit long in the tooth, and lightweight to boot.


There is no such thing as an ex-fighter pilot. Once a young man straps on a jet aircraft and climbs into the heavens to do battle, it sears his psyche forever. At some point he will hang up his flight suit - eventually they all do - and in the autumn of his years his eyes may dim and he may be stooped with age. But ask him about his life, and his eyes flash and his back straightens and his hands demonstrate aerial maneuvers and every conversation begins with "There I was at..." and he is young again. He remembers the days when he sky-danced through the heavens, when he could press a button and summon the lightning and invoke the thunder, the days when he was a prince of the earth and a lord of the heavens. He remembers his glory days and he is young again.

Robert Coram, "Boyd"

We had the Collings Foundation's B-17 and B-24 at our airport some years back. Lot's of old timers came out of the woods to see them. They were stooped old men with faded hats and bomber jackets on as they walked into the FBO. But when they walked passed the rope that cordoned off the aircraft, the stood a little straighter, a little taller, a little more spring in their step, a brighter smile on their faces and a sparkle in their eyes. They were no longer old men, wore by time and tide. They were young hot shots, once again taking those lumbering bombers off the grass in England to drop bombs on the Hun.

They argued, again, which one was better; the -17 or the -24. Heated arguments that were never fully resolved even after 50 years. They extolled the virtues and demons of each plane, grabbing anyone within arms length to regale them with stories of how they had one engine on fire and one nearly blown off and still...they landed back at the base, safe and sound.

Not all were pilots. Some were navigators who said they were the ones who were the best on the plane. Others were bomabadiers who claimed if it weren't for them, the plane was nothing but a big semi-truck. Others were gunners who could still see the faces of their friends in the -24 next to them as it burst into flames and descended to earth; no white chutes popping out of them.

They say once a fighter pilot; once a bomber pilot; once a freightdawg....well, you know...

Eric