Stupid questions asked at airshows

[CobraKai]

Almost forgot this one.

As Joe Bagofdonuts is looking at the fine coating of brown dust/hydrofluid/oil/fuel on the outside of the the entire -135, and the layer that coats the entire interior of the plane.

Why is this plane so dirty?

It just got back from the desert the day before we flew it out here.

Oh, you guys were in Arizona?

 

[Talon83]

Your both wrong - don't you know if its a black T-38 or 2 seat F-5 its a
MIG-28.

Oh yeah, I heard that at every airshow I went to in the black T-38. It got to where I just said it was one of the jets from "Top Gun" and people were happy to hear that.
Except they wanted to know, "Why does it have the little F-117s painted on the tail?" At Pope AFB one year, I even saw a US Senator with her staff and a couple of generals walk by, stop for a moment, and I could see her asking them the same question. Of course, I wanted to go up and ask her how Bob Dole was doing.

When I went solo I would often install the backseat travel pod, which fit neatly inside the rear seat pan, stuck up almost to the canopy, and looked like a dog house. I lot of good folks who knew the T-38's F-117 support mission thought that "big thing in the back" was used to track the Stealth fighters, since no one else could see them on radar. I didn't have the heart to lie about it, but lots of people really thought that the dog house contained top secret stealth tracking equipment. Some actually thought I was making up the fact that it was used for carrying my baggage, as a cover story.

When I used the more conventional travel pod, which attached to the underside of the jet, people thought it was a bomb, unless they were Star Trek fans, and compared it to a photon torpedo.

 

[splatt]

A B-52 co-pilot sitting in a British Harrier on display @ a Canadian Air Show... "Hey, what does this red handle do?" ... as he pushed it and discharged the fire bottle into the engine. (The area had to be cleared so the engine could be started to get rid of the extinguishing agent.)

 

[JDriver]

A loadmaster in my unit was asked what was the difference between the C-130J and the C-17. His reply was that the C-130J is a intergalatic airlifter, and the C-17 was intertheater. The crowd in amazement them mumbled, "that is why they must have 6 blades insted of 4".

The funny thing is that the loadmaster said intergalatic by mistake....people r stupid.

 

[SIG600]

I ask him when he flew and he casually mentions that he was the AC on aircraft #4 on the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.

Holy Crap! A genuine Air Force legend is sitting in my cockpit telling me how neat all this new-fangled stuff is.

I'll put up with a lifetime of dumb questions to get one experience like that.

I gotta say I could meet just about any Hollywood actor and not really care who they were. To meet that guy I'd be completely awe struck. I HOPE you at least got a picture with him.

Oh.. and he woulda been Army Air Corps. Air Force dosen't have that much tradition!

 

[Gorilla]

...
After giving him some water, I asked him how many phone #s he was getting from all the babes.

He said "None".

I said "None?...dude, your a single, 1Lt, F-15 driver at an airshow in Hawaii and your not getting any phone #s??...I don't think it gets any better then this...it must be you"

It MUST have been him! I remember a certain F-15 dude at an airshow in the '80's autographing sweet young things on their gluteii and other personal spaces with a sharpie. While busily occupied, the hottie would usually say something like "So you guys wanna hang after the show?"

Too bad the guy was married, but the temptation was great and the opportunity there.

 

[mannyaplus11]

Sitting static display with a Predator Unmanned Air Vehicle at Miramar, the most asked question:
"Where does the pilot sit in this thing?"

 

[414Flyer]

I gotta say I could meet just about any Hollywood actor and not really care who they were. To meet that guy I'd be completely awe struck. I HOPE you at least got a picture with him.

Oh.. and he woulda been Army Air Corps. Air Force dosen't have that much tradition!

Au contraire! Harry McCool, A/C of #4 B-26 on the Doolittle raid, did stay in service, retiring from USAF at a Lt Col in 1968.

So an Air Force legend, is an appropriate term. Unfotunately, Col McCool went south in 2003, RIP.

 

[Scrapdog]

Sitting static display with a Predator Unmanned Air Vehicle at Miramar, the most asked question:
"Where does the pilot sit in this thing?"

Which hurt more - actually having to sit with a predator or having the guy ask the retarded question?

 

[SIG600]

Which hurt more - actually having to sit with a predator or having the guy ask the retarded question?

I think a better question, is what self respecting pilot would sit with one?