I remember two of my neighbors going to “stewardess school” in the late 60’s. We all thought they were soo cool groovy. They even learned how to flick a cigarette properly ~ girls only!! Yea, times have changed.
Rusty ~ you have some expensive toys in your life!! Planes, trains, buses (no trucks?) Barry ~ I’m glad you unlocked this thread!!
HEY ~ if you highlight the (above) link a drop-down menu appears with a button “go to this website” if we’re not allowed to post a DIRECT PATH to a website then. . .oh nevermind
Can you imagine being fully trained and battle ready in one of those and tooling along with some B-17s heading for Germany, just waiting for a chance at the first flight of Messerschmidts to find out you were now going to be around??? What an experience that had to be!
Linda, I sold my big rigs last year...I had three, all paid for and everything. I could not and can't compete with all the "Jose and Julio Mexicanos" in that rough business anymore...my unavoidable costs and expenses were eating up all my marginal profits, anyway, so I "jumped ship" from that sinking enterprise before it took more from me than it had already. I had two F4300 TranStar Internationals and a FLD-120 Freightliner, all "large car" conventionals. The governmental regs and mandates are just too much, even with me doing all of my own fleet maintenance, repairs and inspections, etc. Over 2.5 million accident-free miles driven from well above the Arctic Circle to the Panama Canal in Central America, in big rigs and buses. For three years, I was one of those "Ice Truckers" they have a docu-series about on the Discovery Channel. Yet I can't get preferential loans and cost offsets like 'certain others', if you get my drift. So, I bagged the trucking business in its entirety. Now I fiddle with trains, planes and automobiles...(heh-he-he-heh!). I like old stuff and odd stuff. I have a rather rare 1984 Lincoln Mark VII "LSC" TurboDiesel car. Very few of these were built. These cars were way ahead of their time. I really like my LSCs...I have two other gasoline-powered Mark VII LSCs, too! One's a 1989 Bill Blass 'Designer Edition' car, the other is a 1986 'regular' LSC. 5.0 HO(High-Output) Mustang GT powertrain in a very nice-looking 2-door luxo-cruiser makes them "sleepers". I also have a very rare 1966 Ford Econoline "SuperVan" 8-Door Deluxe Panel Van, one of only 44 such vans ever built. NO RUST! (I LOVE Arizona for this reason!). Then there are the two classic ex-Greyhound buses I've discussed here, and two other trucks--a 1984 F-250 Diesel Extended Cab Lariat pickup, my 1991 Dodge Ram 350 Cummins 1-ton flatbed, and my 1974 Dodge Charger SE; this last car---a daily driver, no less---owned and driven exclusively by me for 24 years this month. That's the 'menagerie'. I help my pilot friend with the 1943 Lockheed LodeStar, and I get to fly it with him as partial payment for my work. That's how ya can get to do exciting things...be creative and very flexible! Now, if I can get my 'freebee' antique early 1960s Dorsett Ski/Speedboat repaired, I'll take that out and have some fun with it, too. It needs some fiberglass/wood repair on the foredeck. I'd still like a stainless steel ex-KCS caboose in my yard...cool guest house or home/office location. The unusual aircraft shown here amaze me! I watched "Fat Albert", the Blue Angel's Lockheed C-130H Hercules support aircraft, take off with the purple-flamed JATO(Jet-Assisted Take-Off) system. That was amazing...Poof! "Fat Albert" was 'up there' quite a ways in nothing flat and gaining altitude like crazy! - LHA-3 Rusty
While in the Navy in the early 1980s, my ship was the site of some tests and evaluations of the Marines' Hawker-Siddely AV-8B "Sea Harrier II". I put in a request chit for a ride in the AV-8B/T trainer version of that aircraft, never ever dreaming it would be approved. It was! I made the mistake of telling the Marine LT Colonel pilot, "Now, Sir, no "funny stuff", please..." . Even though I was in a special suit, I thought my innards were gonna part ways with me in that Harrier jet when he pulled up vertically right off the end of the USS Belleau Wood's flight deck! He did snap rolls, four-point rolls, hammerheads, and dives. I now know what "blowtorch drivers" (jet pilots) have to deal with. It's amazing. When we came in over the edge of the flight deck to land, he hovered the Harrier, using on-board water injection to help generate more thrust from the powerful Rolls-Royce jet engine for hovering. What a weird feeling...it's ALOT different than a typical helicopter, which I've flown before(Bell "JetRanger" 206-B LongRanger). The powerful Harrier is VERY 'tweaky', and it's easy to flip over onto its back when hovering if the pilot doesn't closely mind all his Ps and Qs. The AV-8B Harrier "Jump Jet" is an awesome aircraft! I was wobbly-kneed for the better part of an hour after that fast thrill ride! Kudos to the Marine Corps...Semper Fi! "Oooohhh-Raahhh!"
The P-51s were such a class act...I understand that landing airspeeds with them were really critical...the short wings lost lift/stability very quickly in landing configuration if approach speeds got too slow. You had to come in pretty hot and fast with them. I still enjoy hearing and seeing those Allisons and Rolls-Royce Merlins fired up and throwing fire out the row of stacks on each side! We sure had some amazing aircraft, truly flown by the 'seat of the pants'! LHA-3 Rusty
Being a pilot, but never having flown one of those crown jewel warbirds, I noticed the way they behaved as they were landed at numerous airshows. It sure looked to me like the lift issues were exacerbated as the Mustangs came in and set up for the landing flare...being taildraggers, this is touchy stuff. The tail quits flying pretty early on that model of aircraft. Lift over the wings, and control surface authority disintegrates very quickly. The bird basically just drops onto the runway. Those Mustang drivers really had to have their acts together...the mighty P-51s were not very forgiving birds to fly, let alone land. I've talked to several P-51 pilots...and the newer P-51 RepliBirds have had some STC mods to help address the temperamental and 'intolerant' nature of the P-51 Mustangs. -LHA-3 Rusty
Originally posted by LHA_3Rusty: The P-51s were such a class act...I understand that landing airspeeds with them were are really critical...the short wings lost lift/stability very quickly in landing configuration if approach speeds got too slow. You had to come in pretty hot and fast with them. I still enjoy hearing and seeing those Allisons and Rolls-Royce Merlins fired up and throwing fire out the row of stacks on each side! We sure had some amazing aircraft, truly flown by the 'seat of the pants'! LHA-3 Rusty
Fixed it for ya.... Remember, ther are some still flying. I sure do like the flights I have been in one! This one was rebuilt here on my airport by Martin Aviation:
And originally owned by this guy who had the one I flew in several times:
"P"-factor from the very powerful engine and the fairly short wing, and its chord design, which is designed for high-speed performance, just stinks at lower airspeeds. The tail control surfaces were short as well...rudder authority on the Mustang is so marginal below some what? 120 knots or so? You go, "Wow..." when you think about those WW-II guys throwing those powerful warbirds all over the sky the way they had to in dogfights, etc. My friend Don Anderson, a famous aircraft test pilot from aviation's early "Wood & Rags" days up to the early "blowtorch" jets, told me those warbirds were pretty much just huge radial engines with some stubby wings stuck on them, and barely controllable by the daring and plucky pilots of the times! - LHA-3 Rusty
P-51 crashing on Iwo Jima after flying nearly 2000 Nautical Miles round trip to Japan... Imagine the fatigue that had to set in with no auto pilot and primitive navigation gear....
Mr. Anderson tested the P-40, P-42, P47, and most all of the other earlier and later Allied warbirds being drawn up on the designer's draft tables. He had to test them and report back to the designers with suggestions to improve the aircraft and correct serious or potentially fatal flaws revealed during his various test flights...he had some major "brass ones", to be sure! He nearly lost his life several times when things went horribly wrong during test dives and evasive maneuvers on some of the birds he was testing. He'd eject and watch the wreckage fall & crash into the ground under him...that has to be pretty unnerving to experience! One bird, a P-42, I think he said, reached such high speeds in the test dive he did with it, that the wings' leading edge metal stretched, folded back and had a distinct wrinkle in it! He said the airspeed was so fast...almost 1/3 more than VnE...or some such incredible number. He told me the airspeed indicator maxed out and was on its way around a second time...when he ejected. SCARY! He survived that disastrous dive to test-fly again for many years. I have his book, "I Flew Them First", autographed just for me. He was well into his 80s when I last visited him quite a few years ago...he's likely flying that same Jet Stream that My late father is flying. God bless them all.
I can't imagine flying a P-51 for 2,000 miles...the noise, the vibration, the lack of an autopilot, and the other things...a cramped cockpit, how did they poo? I know about the #1, that was easy...but #2 at altitude? That had to be very trying situation to have to deal with. What dedicated people they were and still are. - LHA-3 Rusty
I'd guess a lot of coffee about 2 hours before takeoff time.....
The P-51s from Iwo had to hook up with a "Path Finder" B-29 and follow it all the way to Japan. And the same thing back... If they got lost, or had to turn back, they would probably never make it back home. 21 fighters were lost that way in one day when they flew into a typhoon. The Japanese were jamming their radios at the same time, destroying their chance to coordinate a join-up or egress home. None came back - -
Dad was a chief mechanic on Iwo. He wanted to be a pilot, but he was 28 and had a little touch of color-blindness. He earned a bronze star, because none of his five fighters ever aborted for mechanical reasons on 20+ missions. But at the last instance, the Air Corp decided only to award them to the pilots, so he never got one...
He did have planes fail to return because of combat lose. He hated losing those young kids - -
if we’re not allowed to post a DIRECT PATH to a website then. . .oh nevermind
- LHA-3 Rusty 
