When I was an AFROTC cadet I did the same as part of a summer training program where we pretended to be active duty for 3 weeks assigned to a real USAF flying unit. I still remember that flight better than many of my own later USAF flights as a pilot trainee or as a pilot.
The prior year I’d had a training / incentive ride in a T-37. That too was a memorable milestone.
Yes how awesome is that, sports fans!!!
I’m quoting The Great Santini. Didn’t he fly an F-4?
ETA: yes he did. Buenos dias russpickers.
I’ve flown in and flown a Fairchild PT-26 (WW II trainer) and a Stearman N2S3 (pre and early WW II) biplane trainer and also flew with famed WW II pilot and later test pilot Bob Hoover in his P-51 Mustang.
The first two planes were owned by my dad (I inherited the Stearman) and we bopped around the midwest in them both. Pure thrills with our flying helmets and scarves and goggles, the wind in our faces and the bugs in our teeth! We got a lot of attention at every airstrip we landed at and had a ton of fun. Lots of little fly-in pancake breakfasts, small airshows, and just general getting to know the hanger-ons in general aviation. We crashed the Fairchild in 1974 (but survived) and got the Stearman in 1980 (mom wouldn’t allow another plane for a while). Glory days!
My dad had connections with Rockwell International thru his work, and one year when we’d flown into Oshkosh airshow in the early 70’s he got introduced to Bob Hoover. He and Bob really hit it off, and Bob offered him a free ride in his P-51 (specially modified with a passenger seat). Dad actually turned down the offer to allow me to take the ride (my father was a truly awesome dad) and next thing I knew, I was up in the air in that thing, experiencing amazing acceleration and climb rates, and suddenly we were doing barrel roles and snap roles over Lake Poygan. Next, he gains some altitude and we’re doing loops and hammerhead stalls!! I was truly thrilled and amazed.
After about 20 minutes of thrills, he’s in the pattern getting ready to land when some bozo in a Bonanza flies in front of him! He does a high speed 90 degree turn while cussing a blue streak, and repeats the pattern, and down we land.
He does end up taking my dad up next, they end up having a night out drinking together, and we come home with dad wearing Bob’s hat (which I still have).
Now that is a cool story. Thanks for sharing.
My uncle was an account executive at North American when Bob Hoover was a test pilot there, and he worked with him each year on their presence at the Paris Air Show.
He dropped this on me casually when I began learning to fly. “Hey, have you ever heard of this pilot named Hoover?” When I tell this story to non-pilots I liken it to someone asking a kid shooting hoops if they’ve ever heard of this guy Michael Jordan.
Uncle said Hoover was a southern gentleman and basically confirmed the usual stuff we hear about him. Which is also interesting because Hoover’s counterpart in aviation history, Chuck Yeager, was apparently a very unpleasant person. I’ve known a number of people who knew Yeager, and I have yet to hear a nice word about him.
Very cool story @Qadgop_the_Mercotan! And yes your dad is a cool guy. Awesome.
I have no personal knowledge although I’ve certainly heard the same impression umpteen times from other folks repeating stories they supposedly heard or read.
Which reminds me of an old airline (or is it aviation in general?) saying:
Q: What do (airline) pilots use for birth control?
A: Their personality.
I’ll be here all week. Try the veal.
When it comes to reading, Yeager’s autobiography is instructive. I have it on the shelf next to Hoover’s. Reading them together is interesting because Hoover comes off as a nice guy, while in Yeager’s own book he appears petty, vindictive and nasty. Even assuming it was ghost written, coming off as a jerk in your own book seems quite a trick.
End of hijack.
That’s the B-17 I crawled around in, also when named Chucky. I think Jack should have kept that name.
I can add to that number. As I mentioned above, I worked at the National Air and Space Museum, and every year, near the anniversary of his famous flight on Oct. 14, 1947, he spoke in the IMAX theater, which I managed. Now, 30+ years on, I don’t recall any specifics, but he was definitely not a pleasant person to deal with.
On the other hand, Scott Crossfield, first person to fly twice the speed of sound, was a true gentleman, and a very nice guy.
My warbirds story is different. I think I’ve shared it elsewhere here. I was born in the Philippines to Filipino parents (mom is half Russian). My dad was old enough to remember the air war fought overhead. I was born in 1961 (to which I now say, holy cram only 15 years after WWII!). I was born in the PI and my parents emigrated to the US when we were kids. As kids we grew up with my dad’s collection of those Ballantine’s Illustrated History of World War II ᗺᗷ books and their really good pictures. Then we started building scale plastic models, usually from Monogram and Revell and Tamiya, and usually of warbirds.
We grew up loving the beauty of those old planes, and my dad was a big fan of them too. We’d go to airshows when they were near . My younger brother joined the Air Force, and eventually he flew in the FB-111 as the navigator, and then in the F-16. How I ended up in Marine Corps artillery well, that’s a story for another time.
And then there’s my mom who, before she met my dad was a flight attendant on PAL’s DC-3s. In fact, my parents met when my dad was a business traveler on one of my mom’s flights.
My mom is still around and she is now in her 80s. She can still get around pretty well and she lives down south. It would be very cool to take her for a ride in C-47 That’s All, Brother. And then I could just go up in B-29 Doc by myself.
I kicked off the family discussion for giving my mom a ride in the C-47. But for B29 Doc, unfortunately I have a conflict. Bummer, because I was close to pulling the trigger on a seat!
The seats are selling out. Pasted from their site:
Each B-29 Doc Flight Experience flight has 11 seats:
Pretty sure I shared these pics elsewhere but here is my Mom with the DC-3. The trophy award and magazine cover were from when she won PAL’s award for 1959 Miss Aviation.
