).
I thought he was terrific as Willie Moon, one of the search pilots in Island in The Sky. I don't know if Andy was a pilot himself, or whether it was William Wellman's outstanding direction, but Andy was thoroughly believable in the left seat of that C-47 (except maybe how someone of his size got in and out of it!
There were all kinds of aviation "bits of business" in that film, little things the actors did in and around the airplane that made you believe that they knew what they were doing. Watch when Andy figures a quick time-distance problem on an E-6B "whiz wheel". He doesn't make a big deal out of it, you can barely see it, it's just something he does every day.
Even better, he had a clothespin on the trim wheel to act as a ciggie holder. He also had some sort of retractable wand for doing stuff on the overhead rather than strain himself reaching.
Not only was he on the set, but Ernie actually flew one of the C-47s in the movie for the in-flight shots.
Funny thing, though... despite the work of Gann and others to keep everything authentic, I know a former RCAF/bush pilot with many many hours in C-47s (in the same era and region) who said about those scenes "we were never all bundled up like that on the flight deck, even in winter..." maybe Gann remembered Goonies with bad heaters.
