Comments on: Up, up and away

By: Pat Patterson

Pat Patterson — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:08:27 +0000

I was four years old the first time I flew and it was on a Constellation. Of course at that time I didn’t really know the difference just that I was flying and going on a trip with my mom. I still have the plane shaped pin the stewardess gave me and the brochure describing the routes Western Airlines flew in 1952.

But I especially remember that we hit a very bad pocket of air near San Francisco and a man using the toilet was banged up considerably. The head stewardess was a nurse who cleaned and stitiched a gash and I think reset his broken arm. The last I’m not too sure about just that he made a lot of noise then calmed down after getting a sedative and a splint.

Years later when I began flying regularly it was a shock to find out that even in the 50′s there were only a few stewardesses that were still nurses and by the 60′s there were none as a condition of employment. I had assumed that the nursing requirement was still followed.

By: Jay

Jay — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:54:44 +0000

I flew with a bud out of San Jose, CA in 1960 when I started grad school at Stanford. My bud had an instructors rating. Once we were airborn and flying over the coastal range he did several no G up and over maneuvers. The first time I became totally disoriented. The other two times I held onto the map pocket and so of enjoyed it. But the Cessna’s fuel tanks were not designed for zero G and we vented fuel. He shut of the radios, opened the windows and we flew in circles for a while. I turned green and so he landed in a small field in the East Bay. We had a cup of coffee and then flew back to San Jose. The runways there are the same as in 1960. We approached from the south but the radio did not work after it was turned on. It was getting dark and I could not see the runway but he could. He flashed the landing lights and the tower signaled a green flash and so we were cleared to land. I believe that the tower operator at Idelwild was operating such a light signaling device.
My scariest flight was on an Eastern DC9 with my wife from Pittsburgh to Roanoke, VA. We were vectored through a thunderstorm. They do not do that anymore. We had St Elmos green radiation on the wings and for a while we were not flying but were tossed around. When the pilot turned on the no smoking light and the landing light I almost panicked. But we made it.
The other hairy flight was on the final to Austin on a AA 727 from Chicago. There were several AF pilots on the flight. Then Bergstrom was an AF base. A thunder storm south of Austin suddenly moved north and when we were about 1000 feet in the final the 73 started yawing. It was still clear but the winds picked up. When we landed the AF pilots clapped. That got my attention. I waited until most of the passengers disembarked and I asked the captain what speed he used in the final few minutes. He was over the max for normal approaches. He was a bit shook up and told me that he had to do it to avoid wind shear. No wonder the AF pilots clapped.
When I went outside the terminal to wait for my daughter to pick me up I could hardly stand up because of the wind. The rain was the typical central Texas deluge.

By: Ned

Ned — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:57:42 +0000

Wretchard,
Fantastic post! My first memorable flight at age ten was Sioux Falls, SD to Denver on a DC6B. I’m sure I drove the school teacher next to me nuts by continuously asking her if it was time to change my watch back. On another note, we’ve had B-24′s and B-17′s buzzing over on fathers day weekend. The only thing better was the year that the Blue Angels performed over Eliott Bay and we could count the rivets from our deck.
The sound of freedom.
Ned

By: Jim Davis

Jim Davis — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:11:11 +0000

#11–the guy in the right seat is Dick Merrill. Merrill was the consumate airline pilot and a good friend of Arthur Godfrey.

(from Wikipedia)
Henry Tyndall “Dick” Merrill (1 February 1894 – 31 October 1982) was an early aviation pioneer. Among his feats he was the highest paid air mail pilot, flew the first round-trip transatlantic flight in 1936, was Dwight D. Eisenhower’s personal pilot during the 1952 presidential elections, set several speed records, and would go on to be Eastern Air Lines’ most experienced pilot with over 36,000 hours until his retirement in 1961. In total, Merrill flew over 45,000 hours as pilot in command, covering over eight million miles.

At a time when record-breaking pilots were treated as celebrities, pioneer aviators like Dick Merrill gained a unique status. His most famous flight was a 1936 round-trip transatlantic flight that has gone down in the annals of flight as the “Ping Pong Flight.” The following year, Merrill also completed the first commercial trans-Atlantic flight.

Godfrey may have been in the left seat, but it was definitely DIck Merrill’s airplane.

By: Roy Lofquist

Roy Lofquist — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:49:08 +0000

My only flight in a Super Connie. Pakistani Airlines from Lahore to Peshawar. Sat near the back. Guy up near the middle had a goat that defecated in the center aisle. Takeoff. Just short of V1 on come the brakes. Back to the hotel. Three hours later tried again – same thing. Next morning the takeoff was fine. Actually landed OK.

Most harrowing experience. A3D. Refuel in Khartoum. Forty thousand pounds of JP-4 and 115 degrees. Commander Pruitt hops us over the fence at the end of the runway, bounce off the desert and lumbered up. Tower guy comes on the radio and says “did you hit our fence?”. Pilot was fingering the JATO button all the way to Nairobi.

By: Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:37:41 +0000

My worst flight was Al-Italia from Rome to Dubai, it wasn’t the flight it was the staff, they’ld sooner spit on you than help. Thought the flight out from DXB to Rome and then ORD was fine and so too from ORD to Rome. My uncle supposes the staff were PO’ed they had to go to the Middle East. I suppose flying in that puddle jumper from Milwaukee to Detroilet would qualify as I vaguely remember flying through a rockin’ n rolling thunderstorm — but I was mostly asleep for it.

Best flights are those involving bump-upage. Dubai to Manila & Manila to Japan. The MNL to Japan flight especially, we sit down and the stewardess asks if I wold like something to drink OJ, this juice, or some bubbly. I smile and ask for the bubbly and finish it rather quickly and she asks if I would like another — what a dumb question! They served us breakfast before takeoff too, it had been a long time since I had an American style breakfast and it was much appreciated. However from Japan to Detroilet we were back in peon class and had to deal with an immigration situation (once they got to us our case was dealt with fairly expeditiously but we missed our onward flight – just caught the next one).

If the winds are right we get buzzed by takeoffs and approaches to the nearby regional airport. I still amaze at it all, the whole dance of people to build, maintain, fuel, load, sell tickets, arrive at the airport, staff the plane, etc.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:20:06 +0000

My least pleasant flight?

C-118 (DC-6) in-country MEDEVAC from Chu Lai
to Nha Trang with either two or three intermediate stops.

Litters on board were too short for me, so I was partially hanging off on both ends, with
numerous open wounds on both legs.

Junior Flight Nurse was the cutest and most voluptuous dark-haired Cajun woman I have ever seen. Her air force garments were
s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d to the max. I could barely work up any interest.

However, she, the Senior Flight Nurse and a couple of MedTechs were busy keeping a couple of other guys alive until Nha Trang. I decided to refrain from complaining and Count My Blessings instead.

The fact that such service was available more than made up for the discomfort.

By: RWE

RWE — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:43:33 +0000

My scariest flights all had me at the controls. And they get scarier the more I think back on them.

Getting lost because I did not bother to look at a chart or at the compass or by following the wrong road, trying to fly formation on two other airplanes in thick haze and depending on them for navigation to boot, trying to climb over vaulting cumulus, flying when the engine was acting up, taking off when I could see a thunderstorm close by.

Whathell was I thinkin?

Compared to all that, the other stuff – flying near thunderstorms and losing engines while riding in airliners are big yawns.

But then there was the day I was driving to the airport and a woman ran a red light and hit me – that tops all the aviation dangers.

By: Konyok

Konyok — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:19:49 +0000

Scariest flight: Denver to Durango, Colorado.

A bit more than halfway through the flight over the Rockies the smell of something burning filled the cabin of the 24 seat Embraer. “Hydraulic fluid?” I thought to myself. The stewardess disappeared into the cockpit, leaving us passengers with our own thoughts for one, two, three … five minutes, an eternity. The lady in front of me, flying for the very first time in her 60 plus years, became hysterical, triggering a general panic. Finally, the stewardess emerged with an explanation: a huge forest fire, 150,000 acres of the San Juan mountains ablaze. Within seconds we could see the fire below us, and catch glimpses of bright red helicopters below us dropping buckets of retardants. As we approached Durango, we were forced to circle around in severe turbulence and the fringe of a thunderstorm for nearly an hour to accomodate the higher priority slurry bomber traffic. The smoke plume was a mushroom cloud …
I kissed the ground when I alighted.

By: toad

toad — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:32:47 +0000

IIRC, Godfrey was rated for multi-engine, and flew a DC-3 a lot.

Ah those engines, mechanical supercharging, blow down turbo charging, Pressure Discharge Carbs, dry sump oil systems, and what seemed like hundreds of especially shapened sheet metal airflow guides around the cylinders. Quick disconnect fittings for fuel, hydraulics, and electrics were a necessity for these engines.
They were excellent at squeezing the mileage out of the fuel. For a brief span of time piston engines also had the altitude edge over jet engines.