Ventucky Red
Pattern Altitude
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Jon
Coolest and Craziest Aviation Stories
- Thread starter SkyChaser
- Start date
Daleandee
Final Approach
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Dale Andee
That's a great story. I've never met Ms. Wagstaff. Have a friend that got to spend the afternoon with her and says she's quite an amazing lady.
However we are not the only country to be blessed with aerobatic pilots that are really good:
When I was a brand new pilot, I worked in the fuel pit at RHV. One day, a Pitts came in and the pilot waved at me to come over to the cockpit.
The female pilot was unable to pull the mixture control far enough to kill the engine and gestured for me to reach in and pull hard on the handle. I was distracted by her huge curly blonde hair, but somehow we got the engine shut off.
Yep. Patty Wagstaff.
The female pilot was unable to pull the mixture control far enough to kill the engine and gestured for me to reach in and pull hard on the handle. I was distracted by her huge curly blonde hair, but somehow we got the engine shut off.
Yep. Patty Wagstaff.
I was at Sun n Fun when Bob Hoover did his last airshow in the Commander. I went to the tent where they hang out between flying, to get an autograph. Patty was there too, and she took a picture of me with Bob, then Bob took a picture of me with Patty. My wife has the Patty picture, she is my wife's favorite acrobatic performer.
Bob and Patty are both fine examples of the top aviation skills, and certainly treat the public with great friendly attention. I have one of Bob's gold Mustangs for a tie tack, which does not get much use any more.
Years earlier, I was at Dulles for the Transpo event shortly after Dulles opened. That was when he landed the Mustang with only one gear down. Amazing skill, very little damage.
Bob and Patty are both fine examples of the top aviation skills, and certainly treat the public with great friendly attention. I have one of Bob's gold Mustangs for a tie tack, which does not get much use any more.
Years earlier, I was at Dulles for the Transpo event shortly after Dulles opened. That was when he landed the Mustang with only one gear down. Amazing skill, very little damage.
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Mantis Toboggan, MD
Neither fiction nor fantasy, stop me if you've these:
FTE becomes a runway model
The T-45 Toad
Nauga,
a model of discretion
FTE becomes a runway model
The T-45 Toad
Nauga,
a model of discretion
Crazy story? Paris, in the late fall, with orders to fly back to the USA in a C 54. For three consecutive days, the ground fog was too thick to fly, but the third day we were taken to the airport any way, A guy with two flashlights with the yellow cones lined us up in the terminal, ordered us to keep closed up tight, and follow him. Out the door we went into the pea soup fog, and he took us to the front of the plane, and walked us under the fuselage, and out to the boarding stairs. The fog was so thick that we could not see the outboard engines, and some of the guys insisted that it was a 2 engine plane. I disagreed, the Army did not do transatlantic flights with passengers in 2 engine planes. The question was answered when the third engine was fired up. I was right, there were 4.
I watched out the port side window as the guy with the lights walked us out along the taxiways and onto the runway. There, he carefully lined us up exactly with the runway center line, gave a thumbs up, and walked back under the fuselage. The tower turned the runway lights up to the max, and we started the takeoff run. All went well, and very shortly, we popped out on top, with only one object visible in the total white coverage below us. The very top of the Eiffel Tower. One engine out would have been a non event, but a double failure with transatlantic fuel on board would have been tough. I have often wondered what the pilots would have done in that event?
If I had thought about the conditions while in the terminal, I would have "gotten lost" on the way to the plane and been rescheduled for a flight another day, but the flight went well. As a side issue, I would have had a much better string of events back in the states if I had arrived two days or more later, including release from service at least a week earlier than actually happened.
I watched out the port side window as the guy with the lights walked us out along the taxiways and onto the runway. There, he carefully lined us up exactly with the runway center line, gave a thumbs up, and walked back under the fuselage. The tower turned the runway lights up to the max, and we started the takeoff run. All went well, and very shortly, we popped out on top, with only one object visible in the total white coverage below us. The very top of the Eiffel Tower. One engine out would have been a non event, but a double failure with transatlantic fuel on board would have been tough. I have often wondered what the pilots would have done in that event?
If I had thought about the conditions while in the terminal, I would have "gotten lost" on the way to the plane and been rescheduled for a flight another day, but the flight went well. As a side issue, I would have had a much better string of events back in the states if I had arrived two days or more later, including release from service at least a week earlier than actually happened.