"I'm a pilot." No you are not.

John Baker said:
This reminds me of when I had recently finished my astronaut training. I had just landed my F-14 at March AFB, and was in a nearby bar explaining this to a very hot barmaid, when this clown comes up and claims he himself is a jet pilot. I brought him back to earth when I told him I was also an astronaut.

He did give me some funny looks though. I guess he couldn't believe that someone who looked like me, long hair, old Levies, GD T shirt, could be doing such things. I had to explain to him it was because I was a CIA operative, so it was necessary for my undercover work. I was infiltrating the hippies at the time. Actually just one of them, very cute little love child, but of course I couldn't tell them about that.

Anyway, the barmaid didn't seem to believe me either. Funny world.

-John
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Zephram Cochran was somewhat of a hippie. Not hard to see another astronaut that way.
 
I've reconsidered. He needs a Captain's hat with some "scrambled eggs" on it too. All that experience, he's earned it. ;)
 
rainsux said:
> I told him I was also an astronaut ...

Every summer, I attend a party ... That involves floatplanes, friends, food and beer. One of the attendees is an honest to goodness, retired astronaut. We
Had a new guy attending ... And he had not yet been fully introduced to everybody.


So, it's past midnight. A drunk front has blown thru. The stories are getting, um, grander. We've got quite a collection of VARIED experience. Airline pilots, airshow pilots, a C130 pilot, a P51 and Seafury owner, an honest to goodness test pilot, a Citatation X DPE and us GA hanger-on'ers.


Somebody told a story ... And the retired astronaut replies, "that reminds me of something interesting that happened on my 3rd Shuttle flight ...


New guy interrupts with, "BULLS#!T! There's always some a-hole who claims he's a fighter pilot ... An astronaut? Three Shuttle flights? BULLS#IT!"


The room got REAL quiet. The retired astronaut listens politely, and says, "You're right, I didn't make three Shuttle flights ... <insert dramatic pause> ... I did four Shuttle flights."


All of us are trying to tell the new guy, "He really did four Shuttle flights."
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It's a tough job, but SOMEBODY'S got to do it!

Great story. So did you convince the guy?
 
> Great story. So did you convince the guy?

Yes.

The rest of the story ...

The new guy has a plate full of roasted crow. But he makes an admirable
recovery. Asking the astronaut, "when my daughter comes down in the
morning, will you please call me Commander?"
 
Why are you friends with this person?
 
This guy sorta reminds me of Tony Air from the Red Board...
 
So we went to this really nice place; "resort" is not quite right - and it's not a dude ranch. It's an old ranch, historic, fixed up very nicely and very relaxing. They have a very nice runway, as well.

At this place, meals are served in a dining room with a couple of long tables, all guests sit at the tables, so you inevitably end up chatting with the other guests, something I really enjoy.

During one of the meals, the husband / father (of a couple of real charmers, good kids) asks me if that's my Bonanza up at the airstrip, and I admit (!) that I am, and in the conversation, he admits to being a pilot too, nothing fancy (he says). Tells me he's an aerospace engineer, works in Houston.

Yeah, right.

Found out later, that (1) yes, he's an engineer, (2) yes, he's a pilot, and (the Paul Harvey moment) (3) he's a week off of a Shuttle mission. From his modest demeanor, I believe he would have denied it if I'd recognized him by trade.

By the way, we left about the same time, we in the Bo, and they, in a Suburban (for the 9-hour drive). Astronaut, yes, but they still pulled to the side of the road and watched us take off. Pilots is pilots, after all.

Imagine, watching your spouse or dad strap on a rocket and blast into space. These are strong souls!
 
reminds me of Penelope from SNL.
 
SCCutler said:
So we went to this really nice place; "resort" is not quite right - and it's not a dude ranch. It's an old ranch, historic, fixed up very nicely and very relaxing. They have a very nice runway, as well.

At this place, meals are served in a dining room with a couple of long tables, all guests sit at the tables, so you inevitably end up chatting with the other guests, something I really enjoy.

During one of the meals, the husband / father (of a couple of real charmers, good kids) asks me if that's my Bonanza up at the airstrip, and I admit (!) that I am, and in the conversation, he admits to being a pilot too, nothing fancy (he says). Tells me he's an aerospace engineer, works in Houston.

Yeah, right.

Found out later, that (1) yes, he's an engineer, (2) yes, he's a pilot, and (the Paul Harvey moment) (3) he's a week off of a Shuttle mission. From his modest demeanor, I believe he would have denied it if I'd recognized him by trade.

By the way, we left about the same time, we in the Bo, and they, in a Suburban (for the 9-hour drive). Astronaut, yes, but they still pulled to the side of the road and watched us take off. Pilots is pilots, after all.

Imagine, watching your spouse or dad strap on a rocket and blast into space. These are strong souls!
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Most guys who are the real deal don't need to brag, or be anything but modest. That's why it is so painfully easy to pick out the fakers out there :)
 
LJS1993 said:
Did I ever tell you guys about the time I was flying a Lockheed Constellation for General Eisenhower?
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Nope, but I'm listening...
 
I just read this entire thread and thought about all the people I've met throughout my fire department career and four years in the Navy that fits the category. There is guy on the job right now that is my age (47) and if he did everything in his four year military stint as he says he did, he would have to have been in for 30 years. We always joke that he commanded a tank regiment in the Ardennes Forest.
 
What's fun is if you really have done a lot of things (in my case, jobs. Have had lots of them, concurrently, many times...)...

Because there's so many of these "I've done all that and more" nut-jobs, sometimes people think you're one too.

Then after a while when they ask "how do you do X, do you suppose?" and you just do it for them and show them...

They look at you funny and say, "How'd you know how to do that?!"

You remind them that you told them you worked for Company X doing that, and you slowly see their eyes glaze over and then the realization hits that you weren't kidding about ALL of those jobs you said you've done.

They have a "holy crap!" look on their face which they're usually trying to hide because they're embarassed they didn't believe you.

Haha. That one is a fun moment for a serial workaholic.
 
SCCutler said:
So we went to this really nice place; "resort" is
By the way, we left about the same time, we in the Bo, and they, in a Suburban (for the 9-hour drive). Astronaut, yes, but they still pulled to the side of the road and watched us take off. Pilots is pilots, after all.
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So true.
 
denverpilot said:
What's fun is if you really have done a lot of things (in my case, jobs. Have had lots of them, concurrently, many times...)...

Because there's so many of these "I've done all that and more" nut-jobs, sometimes people think you're one too.

Then after a while when they ask "how do you do X, do you suppose?" and you just do it for them and show them...

They look at you funny and say, "How'd you know how to do that?!"

You remind them that you told them you worked for Company X doing that, and you slowly see their eyes glaze over and then the realization hits that you weren't kidding about ALL of those jobs you said you've done.

They have a "holy crap!" look on their face which they're usually trying to hide because they're embarassed they didn't believe you.

Haha. That one is a fun moment for a serial workaholic.
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This is especially true if you worked for yourself or small companies or even small/specialized parts of big companies. You end up having/getting to do all sorts of "out-of-scope" jobs because they need to be done and you're there.

Heck, even in the Coast Guard, the various non-rated or junior petty officers got to wear a lot of hats. I saw telephone techs climbing radio towers and radiomen running networks and brownshoes painting boats at times. Any petty officer could get sent to Boarding Officer school and a follow up course at FLETC and be qualified to be an investigator. One of our cooks was a fully qualified volunteer firefighter and paramedic, and you'd better believe that he got put to work if there was a SAR case where his medical skills would be useful.

And some of the folks I met when I was in the DEA who came over from the military and intelligence special ops community had... interesting and varied skills.
 
denverpilot said:
What's fun is if you really have done a lot of things (in my case, jobs. Have had lots of them, concurrently, many times...)...

Because there's so many of these "I've done all that and more" nut-jobs, sometimes people think you're one too.

Then after a while when they ask "how do you do X, do you suppose?" and you just do it for them and show them...

They look at you funny and say, "How'd you know how to do that?!"

You remind them that you told them you worked for Company X doing that, and you slowly see their eyes glaze over and then the realization hits that you weren't kidding about ALL of those jobs you said you've done.

They have a "holy crap!" look on their face which they're usually trying to hide because they're embarassed they didn't believe you.

Haha. That one is a fun moment for a serial workaholic.
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Yeah... LOL

I was an electronics tech at a cable company, nuclear power plant operator in the Navy, fabricator at a small company that made x-ray machines for industrial use, machine set-up operator at a place that made hardware like eye-bolts, screw-hooks, and the like, volunteer firefighter, EMT/Paramedic, Assembly line worker at Honda, Telephone tech support, administered home warranties at an insurance company, Welder at Caterpillar, Jack-of-all IT at a supplier in the auto industry, and now Jr IT at a bank. Tell me I don't get some looks!
 
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There are more bull**** artists in and around aviation than anywhere else....well except Hollyweird perhaps.
 
Bobcat1 said:
And politicians who hold SAG cards and fly are the worst!
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That just means they are actually trained to sell the script! :mad2:
I had a guy that worked for me, Vietnam vet, he had done it all, which was pretty amazing considering he was 12 when the war ended! :nono: Apparently being a 10 year old boy was the perfect size for a "tunnel rat" :yikes: Of course none of us believed his BS, we just laughed when he wasn't around. :D
 
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