Ah, memories...
I was a VNY rat too. I got my CFI there in 1990, then taught at Bud Walen's till it shut down in 94. The building isn't even there anymore.
Phil is the best controller, anywhere. If I had a student that I was ready to solo, I made sure it was when Phil was in the tower. I knew he would keep an eye on my students, even while talking to every other plane in the sky. His comforting drawl set my students at ease. He would want to meet every one of them, it was a great way to make students comfortable while flying in some of the busiest airspace in the country. I was a safety counselor for the FSDO there and Phil used to come by Walen's and give talks about what the tower wanted from pilots flying in the area. He used to talk about our Tomahawks, calling them N22poo-poo, making wakes for the C-130's that used to be based there.
Flying lots of planes, teaching for hours and hours, pumping gas for Petersen, learning the charter business while flying Chieftains for SunQuest, sitting in the sun on the CFI bench next to the abandoned Caravelle, the temporary tower after the 94 Northridge quake, the crusty old guy that used to sell parts in the shop next to Walen's, watching the fighters and the heavies coming in for the airshow every year, listening to Blossom go off on her soapbox when she had an audience on the weekends, Greg and his Thailand stories, flying my first jet with Zack when he worked at Schaeffer, Flight 1, going to the ditch for Sunshine, fueling Citations on taxiway H at 3am, flying traffic watch in a C150 at SkyTrails, it goes on ad nauseum...
What a great place. I haven't flow into VNY for at least 8 years, but I will never forget the frequencies or the airport layout. I have waited for the moment that LAX goes below minimums and VNY is the only place to land, I'd go there in heartbeat!
Did they ever build anything on the ANG ramp? There have been so many movies shot on that ramp, that could be a thread on it's own!
Didn't Adam Berg go on to produce porno films?
I sent a Japanese student to Adam for his commercial single-engine. He got in an argument with him when Adam said he shot down a Kate at some battle, and my student told him there were no Kates in that battle... He still passed, but I told him to argue with the examiner after you have the ticket in your pocket, not during the oral...