Dan Wilson

Well reading that is very informative. Seeing as they are Marines, did the flay the skin off of the FE - SLOWLY - as they should have? Its really amazing, the FE has to most hours on the crew (with all but the AC having significantly less than a 1000 hours) and he should have been the linchpin to keeping everybody on the same sheet of music and failed miserably, but then again he apparently caused the malfunctions in the first place. I am firmly convinced that Murphy makes things like these happen every few years so the CRM instructors occasionally have new material to teach. You wont hear me say this often but I really feel sorry for the AC on this plane, sure he made mistakes but the climate was worse than a single seat aircraft - his crewmates were working against him! You would think the FE would have enough balls to fess up in the first place but he pulls the Regan \"I dont recall\" routine, I have never had any respect for that crap. Dan

That Works great. Thanks Dan

That works, thanks!! Dan

Thats a really nice read, thanks for posting it Tom Dan

Really nice:cheer: Thanks for posting!! Does anybody know of a video capture program that will work with youtube? Dan

Letter to the FAA Federal Aviation Agency, Washington 25, D.C. Gentlemen: I was asked to make a written statement concerning certain events that occurred yesterday. First of all, I would like to thank that very nice FAA man who took my student pilot\'s license and told me I wouldn\'t need it any more. I guess that means that you\'re giving me my full-fledged pilot\'s license. You should watch that fellow though, after I told him all of this he seemed quite nervous and his hand was shaking. Anyway, here is what happened. The weather had been kind of bad since last week, when I soloed. But on the day in question I was not about to let low ceilings and visibility, and a slight freezing drizzle, deter me from another exciting experience at the controls of an airplane. I was pretty proud of my accomplishment, and I had invited my neighbor to go with me since I planned to fly to a town about two hundred miles away where I knew of an excellent restaurant that served absolutely wonderful charcoaled steaks and the greatest martinis. On the way to the airport my neighbor was a little concerned about the weather but I assured him once again about the steaks and martinis that we would soon be enjoying and he seemed much happier. When we arrived at the airport the freezing drizzle had stopped, as I already knew from my ground school meteorology it would. There were only a few snow flakes. I checked the weather and I was assured that it was solid IFR. I was delighted. But when I talked to the local operator I found out that my regular airplane, a Piper J-4 Cub, was down for repairs. You could imagine my disappointment. Just then a friendly, intelligent line boy suggested that I take another airplane, which I immediately saw was very sleek and looked much easier to fly. I think that he called it a Aztec C, also made by Piper. I didn\'t have a tail wheel, but I didn\'t say anything because I was in a hurry. Oh yes, it had a spare engine for some reason. We climbed in and I began looking for an ignition switch. Now, I don\'t want to get anyone in trouble, but it shouldn\'t be necessary to get the airplane manual just to find out how to start an airplane. That\'s rediculous. I never saw sow many dials and needles and knobs, handles and switches. As we both know, confidentially, they have simplified this in the J-4 Cub. I forgot to mention that I did file a flight plan, and those people were so nice. When I told them I was flying an Aztec they said it was all right to go direct via Victor-435, a local superhighway, all the way. These fellows deserve a lot credit. They told me a lot of other things too, but everybody has problems with red tape. The take-off was one of my best and I carefully left the pattern just the way the book style says it should be done. The tower operator told me to contact Department Control Radar but that seemed kind of silly since I knew where I was going. There must have been some kind of emergency because, all of a sudden, a lot of airline pilots began yelling at the same time and made such a racket that I just turned off the radio. You\'d think that those professionals would be better trained. Anyway, I climbed up into a few little flat clouds, cumulus type, at three hundred feet, but Highway 435 was right under me and, since I knew it was straight east to the town where we were going to have drinks and dinner, I just went on up into the solid overcast. After all, it was snowing so hard by now that it was a waste of time to watch the ground. This was a bad thing to do, I realized. My neighbor undoubtedly wanted to see the scenery, especially the mountains all around us, but everybody has to be disappointed sometime and we pilots have to make the best of it, don\'t we? It was pretty smooth flying and, except for the ice that seemed to be forming here and there, especially on the windshield, there wasn\'t much to see. I will say that I handled the controls quite easily for a pilot with only six hours. My computer and pencils fell out of my shirt pocket once in a while but these phenomenon sometime occur I am told. I don\'t expect you to believe this, but my pocket watch was standing straight up on its chain. That was pretty funny and asked my neighbor to look but he just kept staring ahead with sort of a glassy look in his eyes and I figured that he was afraid of height like all non-pilots are. By the way, something was wrong with the altimeter, it kept winding and unwinding all the time. Finally, I decided we had flown about long enough to be where we were going, since I had worked it out on the computer. I am a whiz at that computer, but something must have gone wrong with it since when I came down to look for the airport there wasn\'t anything there except mountains. These weather people sure had been wrong, too. It was real marginal conditions with a ceiling of about one hundred feet. You just can\'t trust anybody in this business except yourself, right? Why, there were even thunderstorms going on with occasional bolt of lightning. I decided that my neighbor should see how beautiful it was and the way it seemed to turn that fog all yellow, but I guess he was asleep, having gotten over his fear of height, and I didn\'t want to wake him up. Anyway, just then an emergency occurred because the engine quit. It really didn\'t worry me since I had just read the manual and I knew right where the other ignition switch was. I just fired up the other engine and we kept right on going. This business of having two engines is really a safety factor. If one quits the other is right there ready to go. Maybe all airplanes should have two engines. You might look into this. As pilot in command, I take my responsibilities very seriously. It was apparent that I would have to go down lower and keep a sharp eye in such bad weather. I was glad my neighbor was asleep because it was pretty dark under the clouds and if it hadn\'t been for the lightning flashes it would have been hard to navigate. Also, it was hard to read road signs through the ice on the windshield. Several cars ran off the road when we passed and you can sure see what they mean about flying being a lot safer than driving. To make a long story short, I finally spotted an airport that I knew right away was pretty close to town and, since we were already late for cocktails and dinner, I decided to land there. It was an Air Force Base so I knew it had plenty of runway and I could already see a lot of colored lights flashing in the control tower so I knew that we were welcome. Somebody had told me that you could always talk to these military people on the international emergency frequency so I tried it but you wouldn\'t believe the language that I heard. These people ought to be straightened out by somebody and I would like to complain, as a taxpayer. Evidently there were expecting somebody to come in and land because they kept talking about some damn stupid son-of-a-***** up in that fog. I wanted to be helpful so I landed on the ramp to be out of the way in case that other fellow needed the runway. A lot of people came running out waving at us. It was pretty evident that they had never seen an Aztec C before. One fellow, some General with a pretty nasty temper, was real mad about something. I tried to explain to him in a reasonable manner that I didn\'t think the tower operator should be swearing at that guy up there, but his face was so red that I think he must have a drinking problem. Well, that\'s about all. I caught a bus back home because the weather really got bad, but my neighbor stayed at the hospital there. He can\'t make a statement yet because he\'s still not awake. Poor fellow, he must have the flu, or something. Let me know if you need anything else, and please send my new license airmail, special delivery. Very, truly yours, LP

I would have a hard time seeing them change all the ducts from SS to inconel, it must have been restricted to a certain portion of the B/A system? Dan

Just trying to narrow something down here. Is this site really slow to load or is it my computer? Dan

I have seen more than a couple decouple with power on. It always worked out to a failed safety coupling. Its a mechanical device and like all mechanical devices they have just so much life. I have never heard what the cause for this crash was but strangely enough these guys were crashing within a few hours of 213 crashing in the Stan. Dan

Good One Gary, its too bad sometimes being 45 with a body thats 95 The control and mouse thing must need the crippled stuff turned on, my self respect prohibits me for using any crippled stuff (except any really cool drugs they may give me ) Dan

And believe me, my poor scarred noggin thanks you (ouch) Dan

I dont really see any sims moving, it costs too many millions to move them. Its cheaper per year to pay per diem as that would total much lest per fiscal year than a one time cost of a single sim move would. That leave so much more money they can give the fighter guys. Dan

Okay, lets take something that could be really really simple and totally bolox it up so that it hurts everybody. Who is the asshat that thinks this stuff up? Watafrigginklown The last thing they need to do is retire the T1\'s with the demand out there for refueling platforms, and I bet the dorks have done nothing to get those four MC-P\'s (with new center wing boxes BYW) back from the PDRK natl. guard. Maybe, just maybe the morons in charge of AFSOC and the 711th need to pull their heads out their butts and do something that would work FOR mission accomplishment not against it. This all reads as \"lets just find something for them to do\" and thats a crock of sh*t!! Guess the plan of reserves all T1\'s and active all MC-P\'s would actually work too good, must not be enough brown nose points in for the generals. ARGGGGGHHHHH, rant off. Dan

Thanks Bob. I didn\'t know that, It appears that rescue meant more in the 50\'s and 60\'s than is does today. Guess thats what happens when I dont have Zak here to keep me straight:woohoo: I remember my first flight over the big pond to Europe when I was in EC\'s. I had maybe 50 hours total flight time, prop light on start at Goose Bay, shutdown and service. Just past the ETP and it starts flickering again:woohoo: than about an hour later another prop light starts to flicker:S Landed with #3 and 4 lights acting like disco balls. The next flight over the pond going to Europe we took 1857 from FL22.0 to 6000 AGL in about 10 seconds - that was a mess. Both times Lajes was a very welcome sight!! Dan

Yep, they sure planned the BRAC really well didn\'t they? Thanks Bush Sr. and the idiots in charge of the AF (Mostly that weasel bush sr. and McDork). Dan

Thats what I thought, the herk that takes the ugly prize:laugh: Looking at them (harrisburg) it was a wonder they could get off the ground with all that drag:woohoo: Dan

A solemn memory for our WWI dead and Armistice day, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. and a Thank You to all vets living and dead, currently serving and those who have served. Dan

No AF planes were assigned to Ladjes (sp), they all did rotations. Navy is probably different thought. Dan

LOL I know what you mean Col, when I sit at the computer its unfortunate that I am just too far for my bifocals to work but too close for my regular lenses. So I usually end up glassless and my nose at the screen hunched over like some old fart driving. A size larger on the standard font wouldn\'t hurt me none either. Dan

TalonOneTF wrote: Okay, lets go a step further. Are you talking about ABCCC EC-E\'s or them ugly thangs that were up in harrisburg? Dan

Not herk related question but PDRK fire related. Why has it not been in the news that the PDRK REFUSED and DENIED admittance to volunteer FD\'s that showed up at the boarder because their fire trucks did not have tier 3 engines???? Ohhhh bad fire trucks are going to pollute the smoke filled air with their BAD diesels! Got this from some NM firefighters that I know, after they spent a couple days awaiting admittance to the PDRK then went home. People talked about the crackhead wealfare junkies in N.O. after the storm, well it just goes to prove the Peoples Demokratik Republik of Kalifornia aint far behind. Guess thats what you get when nobody but peter puffers and tree huggers vote. Dan

EC-E\'s have never done any long wire missions to my knowledge. Interesting photo. Dan

talonlm wrote: It makes so much sense when you look back on it that we GAVE four MC-P\'s to the Guard for rescue and are mothballing the MC-E\'s Just who is the idiot in charge of AFSOC these days Dan

Yeas Hallo! I General Mugooboo from Niger Ar Forc. I need get this money to the Gubermint bank acount in USNEWYORK City, pleas cash for me and just return stratopower hyd pump to me here in Nigeria and keep extra for youself

US Herk wrote: So does that meant that none of the P models have had any of these flight hour restrictions that the rest of AFSOC seems to be having? I thankfully bailed before this latest abortion occurred but I do know that all of the P models already have the SOF CWB. They started changing them out our fleet in conjunction with the SOFI mod back in the early 90\'s. Dan