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Korean A388 at Tokyo on Jul 21st 2011, engine pod strike
I don't know what was worse, scraping a brand new aircraft or there was only 168 people on board an aircraft that can hold 300+! (avherald.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Awwwwwhhh, i feel like i am on Eharmony now, lol. Joking... Hope you guys can share more stories and maybe one day, have a beer together;)
Wayne: My personal e-mail is [email protected]. I can bring you up to date on Charlie--well up to a point, I haven't talked with him in several years but we did keep in touch until my heart problem some years ago.
Alistair, One experience I haven't had is flying the later model fighters. For several years I lived in So. Missouri and commutted to LAX for my trips. This was before the US decided that their own citizens were a danger to the country and if you had a pilots uniform on the tower personell would welcome you into the cab for coffee. I spent a good deal of time there waiting for my flight to LAX to get ready to go. One VERY foggy morning a mcdonald test pilot was taking a new F-4 for a production test flight and he called for clearence to take off and climb to VFR on top while heaqded for the test area. The controller tapped me on the sholder and said"watch this". He gave the F-4 driver a very complicated departure after he overheaded the local VOR or report VFR on top as the pilot desired. I don't remember the numbers so I'll just call it "test". Well "test" took the runway, lit off all 4 stages of the after burners and went tearing down the RW, lifting off at aprox. 3500'--he then proceeded to STL VOR. reported overhead and the blip from his plane just stopped right over the VOR, about 2 1/2 minutes he reported "test" VFR on top flt. level 400, proceeding west to the test area. I swore to God that if he would just let me live long enough I would fly on of those planes before I died! Several years later I finally got to fly one at George AFB, but that is another story.
lol,you guys (Wayne & Gene)should exchange phone numbers or email addresses! Gosh, i just came back to this post today and i must say that all the posts between you two after the comment from Danish, are very interesting. I love to read about this stuff. It reminds me of the books i have read about Johnnie Johnson, Clarence Anderson, Chuck Yeager or Grant McConachie - don't let your heads inflate from this, lol. But, just reading about the experiences you guys have had, is very interesting. Thanks so much for taking the time to write about them here :)
I don't know why I said Harris. I guess I got him mixed up with another Charley I know up there. That's how it is when you get old.lol. So far my ticker has held out. Got some Atrial Fib right now but Doc says nothing to worry about and my buddy in OKC will still grant a waiver on the physical so I'm good for now. Charley had a round with, I think prostate cancer a few years back but seems to have gotten thru it. I haven't seen him in a while and I can't remember the last time I saw Gloria. A mutual friend bought a little shortline railroad over here back in the 90's and we got acquainted through him. I'm not sure at the time but Charley may have had an interest in it to. They opened the shop then too and we all had an interest in model RR.
Wayne: Charley Craig have a long history together. He flew tankers in the AF and I flew B-47's. Of course we didn't know it at the time but we had also had similar childhoods. I don't remember exactly what year Charlie retired but I do know I flew for several years after he retired. Charlie and his wife, Gloria, invited us to visit on our vacation from Korean Air, which we did, then bought a house on Plesant View Rd. A lot of water underthe bridge since then, I've had open heart surgery (a very quick way to destroy a retirement, both financialy and physically). and doing medium well and using every Alternate Health idea I can find in an effort to more fully recover my health and life! My Son Art Ray has an operation flying out of Springdale, AR which is fortunate as we get to see him and his family more often that way. Good Luck!