Encounters With Arrogant Celebrity Pilots

[User546]

I will answer my own post. Interesting means Martha yell's QUICK THRUST, QUICK THRUST. (for you folks that don't know, that is a restricted area)

You SO didn't just go there!! Man, oh man, you just concreted a scenario in my head which I will probably not be able to purge this otherwise Happy Holiday!

Good Job BD!!!

 

[avbug]

Ahh, would you like to restate this?

No, not really.

 

[ClassG]

Got to fly with John Travolta a couple of nights in a row in the PC-12. It's single pilot, so I let him sit up front and we talked. He's a real "regular guy" when it comes to talking about planes and everyday topics. Stray away from the Scientology talks if you're not open to "different" approaches to religion and spirituality. I even got the tour of the house at Greystone. I'd fly with him again anyday.

Had Patrick Swayze on a flight once and he acted a little too important to have to mingle with the public on a commercial flight, a Beech 1900, of all things!

Jodi Foster was the absolute COOLEST! celeb chick I've met. Cleaned up her son's throw-up (too much popcorn and coke during a bumpy flight in Wyoming) herself and apologized over and over. Stopped at the flight deck on the way in, and asked so nicely that I was delighted to let her (Sam?) her son sit up front for a few minutes before the flight while I did paperwork. She just knelt there in the doorway talking to me.

I find it's the "un-famous and only slightly-rich" that turn out to be the biggest schmucks on a regular basis. Most of the really-rich are just a pleasure to deal with once they can relax. The former Chairman of the Board for Pfizer Pharms is one of th nicest guys I've ever met. Guy's gotta be worth a couple $$Billion$$.

Had a few other big celebs on flights and have no complaints.

I can defintely see where SLY would suck as a passenger, though.

ClassG

 

[Checknsix]

Some more of the good guys...

Michael Dorn (Worf) - Met him at a little airport north of San Diego. Great guy. We BS'd on the ramp for about an hour. He loves his planes. Had a Spanish trainer to start I believe, then a T-33, an F-86. Last thing I saw him with was a Sabreliner. This guy can stand in the middle of any airshow and nobody recognizes him...probably a big reason he was such a good guy. If I had to be an actor, I think his gig as Worf would be perfect.

I met Bob Hoover at Reno...he signed a copy of his book for me. Took enough of an interest in me to personalize the signing of the book. For anyone considering reading about the days of him and Yeager out at Edwards and WWII, I highly recommend his book over Yeager's.

Phil Boyer has a real interest in the GA crowd's dilemmas. I left an email for him regarding an insurance issue on my twin and an AOPA sponsored firm. Next morning, I get a call..."Please hold for Phil Boyer." Two seconds later, he is on the phone and must have chatted with me for 20 minutes. Genuinely good man. Glad he is on our side. Wish he could represent my union.

Couple of guys that I have no desire to hang with..

Briefly talked to Hurricane Bob Hannah after a race at Reno. It is definitely all about him. Confirmed by a couple of other pro-motocross guys I know.

Chuck Yeager...definitely seems to be all about him too....read his books and you will see what I mean. A buddy sat down to lunch with him one day at a training center he tends to frequent. He was self-centered enough, the buddy decided to leave the table. Some students of mine from Edwards confirmed this as well. Too bad. Must be tough to be the Speed of Sound busting hero...when you know you really weren't the first to do it.

- Checknsix

 

[Ty Webb]

Some more of the good guys...

I met Bob Hoover at Reno... For anyone considering reading about the days of him and Yeager out at Edwards and WWII, I highly recommend his book over Yeager's.

Jimmy Doolittle's autobiography is one of the best, also. Ernest Gann's, too ("Hostage to Fortune").

Chuck Yeager...definitely seems to be all about him too....read his books and you will see what I mean. Must be tough to be the Speed of Sound busting hero...when you know you really weren't the first to do it.

Not sure what you mean here . . . care to elaborate?


.

 

[GravityHater]

Y'know its possible you are seeing some of these people on a bad day. Who hasn't had one of those? They are just people in my book and are entitled to be pi$$ed at things.... maybe more so with the papparazzi crap and public pressure they experience. We can't judge anyone from one encounter.

He11, I have heard MANY people say to me, "man I am tired of 'ARROGANT PILOTS'" or something to imply all of us are First Class Ah-Souls so I found the entire thread and its' title kind of humorous!

 

[CSY Mon]

Had Buzz Aldrin on a flight once. (Second guy to walk the moon for ya youngsters out there.)

Had to go back and shake his hand and chat.
Hell of a nice guy...He seemed to appreciate a fellow aviator saying hello.

Sat next to a head-of-state once in First class on a Middle East 747...Untill the bodyguards politely removed me...Mixed up boarding cards, not a fellow dictator..

Trained at Pan-Am Flight Academy a few years ago when John Travolta was doing his re-current there.
The window on his class room door was all covered up and the area smelled strongly of cigarette smoke...If ya got the gold, ya make the rules.

Employees and instructors said he was a nice guy and signed autographs with a smile..Never met him, sort of hoping I would...GREASE was the hit movie when I came to the US and did my flight training in 1978, JT was THE cool guy then.

Flew a Kennedy charter once, body guards and all...Nice guy, Edward Jr. I think.
He wanted to "fly", gave him the controls for a few minuttes as he was already in the right seat, but had to take 'em back soon..Not sure he had any stick time.

 

[A Squared]

Quote:

Chuck Yeager...definitely seems to be all about him too....read his books and you will see what I mean. Must be tough to be the Speed of Sound busting hero...when you know you really weren't the first to do it.


Not sure what you mean here . . . care to elaborate?


.

Yeah, Chuck yeager wasn't the first to break the sound barrier. DIscounting a number of reports of various credibility involving Me262's and other operational WWII aircraft, the first to break the sound barrier was George Welch, flying an XP-86 at Muroc (later Edwards), He first did it 2 weeks before Chuck Yeager's ballyhooed flight, and did it again on the morning of the same day as chuck's flight (again, before chuck) The sonic booms were heard all over Muroc (kinda hard to hide that sort of thing) However, this accomplishment was covered up by the air force. Kinda hard to justify an expensive program like the X-1 whose sole raison d' etre is to break the sound barrier when civillain contractors are doing exactly that in prototypes of production fighters. SO it was buried by hte powers that be. THere is every reason to beleive that Chuck was well aware that the sound barrier had already been broken (again, the KA-Booom had been heard all over the air base two weeks prior) and that he was just going through a dog and pony show. There is little question that yeager is well aware he is living a lie.


http://www.dataquality.com/dqn11983.htm

http://yarchive.net/mil/yeager_welch.html

http://home.att.net/~historyzone/Welch2.html

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0113.shtml

Also this was reported a few years ago in an article in the Smithsonian institution's Air and Space magazine. I read the article at the time but I didn't save it, and Air and Space magazine doesn't have that article on thier website.

 

[Ty Webb]

Hmmmm. That's really interesting. I hadn't heard any of it before.The "historyzone/welch2 one is very convincing. Thanks for the links.

 

[moonlight]

I brought James Caan up from SMO to LAS a year or so ago when he was starting to film Las Vegas, and he was a totally cool guy. Came up and chatted with us rather than having sunshine blown up his a$$ by the stuffed shirts that were with him.
Two months ago, I flew the OCC boys down to PHX. Totally cool guys! Paul Sr.'s arms are every bit as big as as they look on TV. Mikey asked for a club soda or a DIET 7-up, and I had to bite my tongue. I felt like saying something to effect that a couple of diet sodas wasn't going to get the job done, ya know?? Anyway, they were great. Paul Jr. and Vinny were pretty quiet, more interested in what movie we could play on the airshow than anything else.

 

[414Flyer]

Even the USAF website somewhere lists Yeager as being the first to break the speed of sound in "level" flight.

 

[mar]

I have never heard of this before

THere is every reason to beleive that Chuck was well aware that the sound barrier had already been broken (again, the KA-Booom had been heard all over the air base two weeks prior) and that he was just going through a dog and pony show. There is little question that yeager is well aware he is living a lie.

This is very interesting and makes his comment about the Voyager flight even more snide. He said something along the lines of: "All of the most important records have already been set."

I couldn't believe he would diminish a 'round the world non-stop flight to make himself look better.

Sad old man.

Back on topic, I've never flown with a celebrity pilot but I did work at the flight school where Michael Dorn and Phil Hartman learned to fly. Seemed to be nice guys.

Oh and I went to college with Scott, Scott, Scott, who was the F16 pilot that got shot down over Bosnia and was eating insects to survive? I can't remember his last name.

Anyway, great guy. Real straight forward and a true professional even in college when most of us were still a bunch of dips hit kids.

 

[SPBRIAN]

Even the USAF website somewhere lists Yeager as being the first to break the speed of sound in "level" flight.

Well Yeager is the first person to break the speed of sound in level flight. Welch had to dive the XP-86 at a 40 degree angle to get the aircraft to accelerate through the speed of sound, I believe Yeager did it in level flight after a short climb?

-Brian

 

[dash8driver]

Oh and I went to college with Scott, Scott, Scott, who was the F16 pilot that got shot down over Bosnia and was eating insects to survive? I can't remember his last name.

o'grady.... you went to erau prc?

 

[mar]

Scott O'Grady, exactly.

ERAU PRC, yup, graduated Dec '90.

 

[FlyGirlFelicia]

Pukey Clebs as Pax!

Try Alec Baldwin! Man, what a jerk. He flew into MRY once on American Eagle as a pax and was very rude. I'm Definitely not a fan. Nice celebs on my list include Matthew McConeghey (sp?) and Oprah's guy Steadman Graham.

 

[kilroy]

Flew General Schwarzkoph.. really nice guy hung on the ramp for 20 minutes talking to line guys and us..Also Russell Simmons and Rev. Run (run DMC) flew them for a week straight nice 500$$ tip from them.Mandy Moore is a biatch but Andy Roddick real cool.... Ludicris was an arrogant a$$..

 

[TrafficInSight]

Well Yeager is the first person to break the speed of sound in level flight. Welch had to dive the XP-86 at a 40 degree angle to get the aircraft to accelerate through the speed of sound, I believe Yeager did it in level flight after a short climb?

-Brian

Pretty sure it was just in a climb, the X-1 was definitely capable of it.

Yeager himself knew the F-86 was capable of it. He mentioned that the successors to the X-1's research were already being built. The engineers already knew it was possible... Yeager knew it was possible. Just about every other pilot at Edwards(Muroc) knew it was possible. I don't think anybody around thought it wasn't... some of them just didn't want to ride the rocket. I think the whole event was blown out of proportion by the public perception... imagine that

 

[wrxpilot]

Flew General Schwarzkoph.. really nice guy hung on the ramp for 20 minutes talking to line guys and us..Also Russell Simmons and Rev. Run (run DMC) flew them for a week straight nice 500$$ tip from them.Mandy Moore is a biatch but Andy Roddick real cool.... Ludicris was an arrogant a$$..

That's funny about Mandy Moore, as her dad is a captain w/ AA. Though I can't claim to have ever been in a plane with him, I have given him a ride in my car! I met up with him and a friend (Captain Moore's F/O) when they were in Denver for the night. Very cool and down to earth guy, insisted on paying for the entire dinner tab.

 

[Vector4fun]

This story is pretty dated, but I'll tell it anyway. You older guys may remember a comedian named Jerry Clower, who passed away about six years ago. Played at the Opry all the time. Anyway, my Dad happened to be seated next to Jerry years ago while dead-heading home. They got to chatting and Jerry asked if my folks had ever been to the Opry. Dad said no, but that my Mom was a huge fan, and always wanted to go, but tickets were hard to get with their schedules. Jerry told Dad to get a weekend off and let him know the date.


A few weeks later, my folks showed up in Nashville, and reaching the Hotel room, found two backstage passes and a boquet for my Mom. Jerry introduced them to a number of performers, and I recall that Marty Robbins played that night, and the crowd wouldn't let him off stage...

I only tell the story as a tribute to Jerry, a real class act.