Famous pilots you have met.......I'll start out...

[Albany Tom]

I've flown with Doug Stewart, not sure if that counts. Not all that famous I suppose, but a sharp and pretty down to earth guy.

 

[Pilawt]

Bill Collins was a rotary-wing instructor at the small flight school where I worked at LGB in the early 1970s. Bill wrote the Hughes Helicopter flight training syllabus, and had been the last FAA examiner to give a checkride to Howard Hughes. That, he told me, was in a twin-engine Convair airliner in the middle of the night at the Hughes airport in Culver City.

 

[kgruber]

I flew formation with Bob Hoover. He was right seat in the LR-24 and I was right seat in the LR-36A. This was to a new airport dedication in Idaho.

 

[Pilawt]

Ernie Martin was another instructor I worked with. We were the only seaplane school in Southern California at the time (using a Lake LA-4-180), and Ernie was our seaplane instructor. He was part-owner of a PBY Catalina that he kept on our ramp at Long Beach, towering over the Cherokees and Yankees on the flight school line.

Ernie was the pilot flying "Da Plane!" (a modified Grumman Widgeon) in the opening sequence of the Fantasy Island TV series.





Ernie was flying the world's only airworthy DC-2 in this 1980 McDonnell Douglas publicity photo. He told me he had to throttle back so that Clay Lacy could keep up with him in the DC-3. Ernie says the lightweight DC-2 was the "sports model".

 

[luvflyin]

Ernie Martin was another instructor I worked with. We were the only seaplane school in Southern California at the time (using a Lake LA-4-180), and Ernie was our seaplane instructor. He was part-owner of a PBY Catalina that he kept on our ramp at Long Beach, towering over the Cherokees and Yankees on the flight school line.

Ernie was the pilot flying "Da Plane!" (a modified Grumman Widgeon) in the opening sequence of the Fantasy Island TV series.

View attachment 98896

View attachment 98897

Ernie was flying the world's only airworthy DC-2 in this 1980 McDonnell Douglas publicity photo. He told me he had to throttle back so that Clay Lacy could keep up with him in the DC-3. Ernie says the lightweight DC-2 was the "sports model".

Wonder how the DC-2 1/2 fit in

 

[Joe Pilot]

Another Bob Hoover here

 

[Arm3]

Based on an informal poll and personal experience, typical time from engagement to ID is on the order of seconds

Nauga,
and extremely cooperative target recognition

I met him at Oshkosh in 1998. He sat down across from my dad and me at lunch. The name tag on his hat made target recognition pretty easy. Fortunately we had just been at the EAA Museum and spent some time at the Voyager exhibit otherwise I wouldn’t have known who he was.

I asked what it was like flying the Voyager and his response was memorable. “Son, do you know what a female dog is? It was a b***h!”

He mentioned his time as a Misty FAC in Vietnam, I wasn’t aware of what they were. I read a book about them during a deployment and if I ever get the chance to run into him again will have a lot more questions for him about that.

We had a good conversation and he offered to drive us back to the museum to listen to the presentation he was giving on flying the Voyager.

It was the highlight of that trip.

 

[AlphaPilotFlyer]

Flew with the RAF pilot that torpedoed the WW2 German warship Bismarck. I Was a CFI at SMO in 1980s. Older gentleman comes in and says was visiting US and wondered if he could fly, so we did. After he asked if I’d sign his log book….it was a leather bound RAF book and I came across an entry that simply said, “scored hit on Bismarck”. …I was amazed that such a historic event was so simply and unceremoniously documented….. quite a testament to his generation. He gave me details, including how they figured out the ships guns had trouble shooting low, so he flew just above the water to get close enough for a sure shot…..he hit the rudder which caused the giant ship to be only able to do a 360 circle. Eventually allied ships arrived and able to sink it. A real hero…… I regret not having him sign my log book!

 

[jkgoblue]

Bill Lear, Howard Hughes, Neil Armstrong, Bob Hoover, Burt Rutan, Dick Rutan, Pappy Boyington, Al Haynes, Mike Busch, Chuck Yeager, Barry Schiff...

Most at Oshkosh and other fly-ins, but some just coincidentally being at an out of the way place at the same time.

Howard Hughes! Out of all the names mentioned, this is the most interesting. There has to be a story behind this one...

 

[Stan Cooper]

Howard Hughes! Out of all the names mentioned, this is the most interesting. There has to be a story behind this one...

I was working for Photo-Sonics, Inc., at Naval Ordinance Test Station (now Naval Air Weapons Station), China Lake CA, in the summer of 1966, and paid the owner of the Desert Inn motel in Ridgecrest $20 a month to use the motel's swimming pool during the long summer afternoons after work. One evening I was the only one using the pool and lounging poolside when a tall older long-haired man entered the pool area and struck up a conversation. We wound up talking about ham radio and airplanes and as it started to get dark, I excused myself and went back to my apartment and then went out to dinner. Several days later I was back at the pool and the Desert Inn owner's daughter was netting leaves out of the pool. I asked her who the guy was I had met poolside and she suggested I ask her father, John.

John told me the man had several Navy contracts at NOTS during the war and always stayed at his motel when meeting with the Navy. He said that since the end of the war, the man would occasionally show up unannounced to spend a few days "getting away from the rat race." He then told me the man was Howard Hughes.

In 1969 and 1970, I wound up working in the Flight Test Division of Hughes Aircraft Company in Culver City developing the AIM-54A Phoenix air-to-air missile using both F-4 Phantom and F-111 Aardvark as test beds. I recounted my story to some of the long time division employees and they told me my encounter was very likely with Hughes.

 

[Albany Tom]

Flew with the RAF pilot that torpedoed the WW2 German warship Bismarck. I Was a CFI at SMO in 1980s. Older gentleman comes in and says was visiting US and wondered if he could fly, so we did. After he asked if I’d sign his log book….it was a leather bound RAF book and I came across an entry that simply said, “scored hit on Bismarck”. …I was amazed that such a historic event was so simply and unceremoniously documented….. quite a testament to his generation. He gave me details, including how they figured out the ships guns had trouble shooting low, so he flew just above the water to get close enough for a sure shot…..he hit the rudder which caused the giant ship to be only able to do a 360 circle. Eventually allied ships arrived and able to sink it. A real hero…… I regret not having him sign my log book!

Wow. I'm sure most people here are familiar with the story of the Bismarck. It had to be terrifying in the biplane. Glad he survived the war. He saved a lot of lives.

 

[3393RP]

Wow. I'm sure most people here are familiar with the story of the Bismarck. It had to be terrifying in the biplane. Glad he survived the war. He saved a lot of lives.

Those Fleet Air Arm pilots flying Fairey Swordfish biplanes (also known as a Stringbag, a women's shopping bag that could carry anything) sank more Axis tonnage during WWII than any other Allied aircraft. In addition to fatally wounding the Bismarck, Swordfish pilots sank an Italian battleship and damaged two others in the Battle of Toranto.

 

[GaryM]

IF he drives a blue Vette with the license plate ‘Salty’ and he was in Twin Falls, Idaho this afternoon, then I almost met @Salty

 

[Salty]

IF he drives a blue Vette with the license plate ‘Salty’ and he was in Twin Falls, Idaho this afternoon, then I almost met @Salty

LOL One of my evil twins.

 

[Magman]

Paul Poberezny 1967 Before EAA got big.

Every Christmas I think of George “ Bud” Day.

John McCains cellmate and Medal of Honor recipient.

We last met Christmas 1966.

Long story involves an unopened bottle of J & B.

google. ( Bud Day. Collings Foundation F-100 )

 

[Trobaugh]

Debby Rihn-Harvey, Wally Funk, Jessica Cox

 

[Crashnburn]

I've only come close to famous pilots through the transitive property. My wife and I had BBQ a few times at the KC BBQ joint in San Diego, before it burned down from a grease fire and was rebuilt. It had two claims to fame. The first one is it was where the Top Gun bar scenes were filmed.
The second claim, is the ceiling fans were loaded down with bras. It seems girls would get loaded, take their bras off, and toss them on the fans. And, the management left them there. I never saw that happen.

When she had a previous job, my wife would sometimes go to San Diego on business, and bring back some of their BBQ. It was that good. However, it wasn't nearly as good after it was rebuilt.

 

[3393RP]

Theodore Van Kirk, navigator of the Enola Gay on the August 1945 Hiroshima mission.

Richard "Dick" Cole, James Doolittle's copilot on Aircraft No 1, the April 1942 Tokyo raid.

Colonel Ralph Evans, B-29 pilot, 498th Bomb Group, Saipan, Marianas Islands group, 1944-1945. Ralph was a personal friend that went to war as a B-29 pilot at the age of 20. He was a good man that performed great accomplishments, just like all of his fellow Army Air Forces aviators.

 

[Rick182]

I met a glider pilot named Sully on the floor of the California State Senate. He was being honored for something. Nice guy.

 

[cgrab]

Arnold Palmer. We were picking up my mother-in-law at Pensacola airport on a Friday evening and Palmer was waiting for his flight. Before I had a chance to say anything, M-I-L asked if he was there for the golf tournament. He rolled his eyes and said "yes I was." I smiled and shook his hand and we left. I explained to my M-I-L that a golfer in the airport on Friday didn't do well enough to make the cut and didn't want to be reminded of it.

 

[Maxnr]

The Director of Safety of the outfit that I worked for was Jim "Bud" Culpepper. He was a well known pilot in our community. A tape was playing in the pilots Flt Planning room one stormy weekend. Black Sunday. A 1977 flick starring Bruce Dern and Robert Shaw. And one of OUR BH 212 helos.

Plot: Terrorists plan to fly an explosive loaded blimp into the Miami Orange Bowl on Super Bowl Sunday. Robert Shaw commandeers a Bell 212, lassos the blimp and tows it out to sea where it explodes. Dern (terrorist) dies.

I was told that our outfit provided the helo & pilot. I was told that Bud did all the air to air shots in the 212. I later ran the tape to the credits looking for Jim's name. Not listed, but there was someone who was a member of SAG who was credited as Helo Pilot for the cockpit shots. I caught a very brief look at the N number. It was either N93AL, N94AL or N96AL. Could not be sure. I checked my log and all three were there.

The A&P that once teamed up with Jim on a fire contract told me how he returned to land with the water bucket on a 100' rope. He landed the bucket first, then hovered down while coiling the rope in a neat coil. He then parked so that the bucket was at 10 o'clock, the coil at 12 o'clock and both under the rotor diameter. This was likely common among the fire pilots. I dunno.