CONTENTS TARPA TOPICS THE MAGAZINE OF THE TWA ACTIVE RETIRED PILOTS ASSOCIATION
DEPARTMENTS:
FEATURES:
NAV. ARTIFACTS
PRESIDENT 'S MESSAGE Charles Wilder
3
25
EDITOR' S NOTE John P. Gratz
4
26
SECRETARY/TREASURER 5 Rufus Mosely
29
FLOWN WEST
43
41
GRAPEVINE Gene Richards
59
55
TARPA TOURS Jean Thompson
87
24
by Alice Hoeveler
OZARK AIRLINES by Earl Jinnette
THE BONEYARD by Mike Larkin
AIR FACTS (Reprint) by Ed Betts
PARIS CHIROPRACTOR by Mike Sibbald
GANDER, GANDER, ... by Jeff Hill
FREEDOM TO LIVE
86
by Art Ruhanen
Material contained in TARPA Topics may be used by non-profit or charitable organizations. All other use of material must be by permission of the Editor. All inquires concerning the is publication should be addressed to : John P. Gratz, Editor TARPA TOPICS
1646 Timberlake Manor Parkway Chesterfield, MO 63017
TOPICS is an official publication of TARPA, a non-profit corporation. The Editor bears no responsibility for accuracy or unauthorized use of contents.
Front cover: John Rohlfing Back cover: Dan McIntyre
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EDITOR
John P. Gratz 1646 Timberlake Manor Pkwy (636) 532-8317 Chesterfield, MO 63017-5500 jpgratz@ charter. net David R. Gratz ASSOCIATE EDITOR 1034 Carroll St.Louis, MO 63104 (314)241-9353 drgratz@swbell.net Gene Richards GRAPEVINE EDITOR 2840B Sherwood Ave Modesto, CA 95350 (209) 492-0391 gene_richards @pacbell.net Felix M. Usis III HISTORIAN 1276 Belvoir Lane Virginia Beach, VA 23464-6746 (757) 420-5445 fusisi@cox.net 2616 Saklan Indian Drive#1 FLOWN WEST COORDINATOR John S. Bybee Walnut Creek, CA 94595 (9 2 5)938-3492 jbybee4@comcast.net Jack Irwin 2466 White Stable Road INTERNET WEBMASTER Town and Country, MO 63131 (314) 432-3272 jack@smilinjack.com 63 Birdsong Way Apt15 TARPA TOURS COORDINATOR Jean Thompson Hilton Head Island, S.C. 29926 (863) 681-6451 jetslandin@adelphia.net OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS, 2003 - 2004 PRESIDENT
FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT
SECOND VICE PRESIDENT
SECRETARY/TREASURER SENIOR DIRECTOR DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR WEBMASTER
PAST PRESIDENT
EDITOR
Charles L. Wilder 122 Wild Dunes Way Jackson, NJ08527-4057 (732) 833-2205 clwilder@optonline.net Guy A. Fortier Box 6065 Incline Village, NV 89450 (775) 831-3040 guY4ta@msn.com H. O. Van Zandt 1810 Lindbergh Lane Daytona Beach, FL 32128 (386) 767-6607 hopvz@compuserve.com xB Ed Madigan P.O. 3o56 (775) 831-1265 Incline Village, NV 89450 edmadigan @ charter. net Robert C. Sherman 1201 Phelps Ave. San Jose, CA 95117 (408) 246-7754 resherm@sbcglobal.net Rockney Dollarhide #1Riverside Farm Dr. Crescent, MO 63025 (636) 938-4727 rockney@charter.net William Kientz 14981 Chateau Village Chesterfield, MO 63017-7701 (636) 391-5454 wkientz@aol.com Jack Irwin 2466 White Stable Rd. Town and Country, MO 63131(314) 432-3272 jack@smilinjack.com Robert W. Dedman 3728 Lynfield Drive Virginia Beach, VA 23452 (757) 463-2032 rwded@earthlink.net John P. Gratz 1646TimberlakeManorPkwy Chesterfield, MO 63017-5500 (636) 532-8317 jpgratz@charter.net
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The TWA Active Retired Pilots Association
PRESIDENT ' S MESSAGE As I write this, we are looking forward to our cruise to the Western Caribbean this November. We are anticipating our best cruise ever with approximately 240 people on board. Special thanks go to Vicki McGowen who made all of the arrangements. Negotiations for the arrangements with the cruise line took a lot of time and work. Also, thanks to Ed Madigan who took the bull by the horns and handled the convention treasurer job superbly! Everything was extremely well organized. Due to Royal Caribbean's requirement that Ed send reservations to them in groups, rather than individually, some TARPA members experienced delays in receiving confirmations. Due to the later date of our convention, Rufus Mosely has decided to resign as Secretary-Treasurer in order to have the new Officer listed in this issue of TOPICS. Rufus has served us well over the past few years and we all owe him our gratitude. The Board of Directors has elected Ed Madigan to serve in the interim. Please send your dues for next year to Ed Madigan using the envelope enclosed. Bob Eaton, who lives in the New Orleans area, has volunteered to assist in picking up drinks, etc. for our hospitality room while in New Orleans. Thanks, Bob, in advance! After chairing the Reno Convention, Guy Fortier pitched in and has helped co-ordinate plans for the cruise. He will also assist by arriving in New Orleans three days early to complete arrangements for the hospitality room at the hotel. Our attention now turns to our 2005 convention in Philadelphia next September. Although no firm date for the convention has been made at this time, the convention will be held after the air races in Reno — toward the end of September. We are extremely pleased with the tremendous response to the cruise this year. For those unable to attend this year, we look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia in 2005. Our conventions are not only fun, they are the lifeblood of our organization. Encourage your TWA cockpit friends who are not members to join with us in TARPA! Helen and I would like to wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving, a merry holiday season and a happy, healthy new year.
Charlie
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EDITOR'S NOTE The first thing that you may notice about this issue of TOPICS after seeing the gentle reminder inside the front cover is the lack of stories and photos of the Convention. That is because this issue is being produced before the 2004 Cruise Convention even begins. We hope that many memories of that event will be sent to us in time for the March 2005 issue. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we are fortunate to have received several contributions that we trust you will find interesting and amusing. We are pleased to include in this issue stories from Earl Jinnette, Jeff Hill, Art Ruhanen, Mike Sibbald and from TARPA friend, Alice Hoeveler. We also present another poem by Mike Larkin and various bits and pieces of general interest. We are especially happy to include two reprints that we believe are sure to be well received our gentle readers. Some time ago, longtime contributor Bill Dixon, sent us a small magazine from 1947, "Air Facts." It had not only one of his stories, but another from Bob Buck. Some readers may be especially pleased to see that exigencies of production caused those stories to be seen here in LARGE print. We are also offering a reprint of TARPA TOPICS from twenty years ago, December 1984. Al Clay was Editor and Ole Olson was Grapevine editor. We hope that TARPA Members, both young and not so young, will enjoy these historical documents. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that in using the reprints noted above that we were scrambling to make up for the loss of Convention material. This is not to say that those items were not interesting in and of themselves, but it highlights for us that we engage in a constant struggle to make a more interesting magazine of the type that you have come to expect. You could help relieve us of this awesome burden if, for example, you would just compose some simple reminisces of your memorable trips both working and in your leisure time. We don't expect to find another Mark Twain, but then again we just might. We do have Charles Davis, also from Hannibal, Mo. In the last issue of TOPICS, I ended this page with a plea for help in finding the designer of our TARPA logo. One of our best helpers, and eagle eyed reader John Bybee, informed me that the answer to that query was in the same issue on page 98! On that page, Dave Richwine, responding to my earlier questions noted that the designer was TARPA Eagle, Lofton Crow. Ouch! Lofton is an old friend and I did read Dave's letter, but unfortunately long before writing Editor's Note. Short term memory lapse for sure.
'Photos in this issue of TOPICS courtesy of: Jeff Hill, Jack Irwin and Art Ruhanenl PA GE 4 ... TA RPA TOPICS
The TWA Active Retired Pilots Association
SECRETARY/TREASURER'S REPORT SEPTEMBER 22, 2004 As of September 22, 2004, the membership is as follows: (R) Retired: 828 (A) Active: 58 (E) Eagles: 542 (H) Honorary: 485 TOTAL: 1913 There are also 42 subscribers to Topics, and 21 who receive complimentary copies. We have added 10 new members since the last Topics, they are listed in this issue. Here is the financial report for the first eight months of 2004: 1/1/2004: Opening Balance $45,945 . 83 $57,168.50 Income Expenses $37,698.23 Cash Flow $19,470.27 Balance 8/31/04 $65,416.10 H. O. Van Zandt continues to update the e-mails of all members. Please send your correct e-mail address to: ho vz compuserve.com . This will be my last report to you as Secretary Treasurer. I am resigning the position at the end of September. President Wilder has appointed Ed Madigan as my replacement subject to ratification at the annual meeting. It has been a real pleasure to have been of service to this wonderful organization. I have particularly enjoyed the many notes sent with dues payments and the phone conversations with quite a few of you. I know Ed will do a fine job, he can be reached at: Ed Madigan P. O. Box 3565 Incline Village, NV 89450 Tel: 775 831-1265 Fax: 775 831-8261 e-mail: edmadigan@charter.net Ed's address will be on your enclosed 2005 dues envelopes. Respectfully submitted,
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NEW MEMBERS John Gileno (Fran) 56 Wakeman Hill Rd. Sherman, CT 06784
Carl Palmer (Kathy) 3108 St. Margarita Rd. 11 W. Palm Bch, FL 334 admrlcarl@aol.com Richard Ackley (Carolyn) 249 Ebelhare Rd. Pottstown, PA 1 94 6 5 ackle a95@aol.com Jeff Edgar (Mayra) 110 Miller Ct. Roseville, CA 95661 effe ar(mybluelight.com Tommy Christopher (Toshiko) 22721 Hwy 8 E Grenada, MS 38901 ttigrelo @bellsouth.net Les Banks (Mitzi) 127 Florence Av. Arlington, MA 02476 lesbanksoo@aol.com
George Phillips (Barbara) 41A Queen Catherine Way Chester, PA 21619 gbnhillips@verizon.net Stuart Rehnstrom (Pamela) 1 55 0 62 Av. NW Gig Harbor, WA 98335 ietlagtwa@aol.com Gerard Scanlan (Marlene) Box 191 Readsboro, VT 0 535 0 ermar sover.net Robert Schulz (Patricia) 810 Hemingford Court Westminister, MD 21158 Bobpat6@ade1 phia net
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TARPA Tales Revisited (Twenty Years Later)
The sketch below was from the December 1984 issue and was used as an introduction to this section of stories of two pioneers of our famous airline along with some others. This issue was one of the earliest TARPA TOPICS in the magazine style. In those early days, TOPICS was made in the fold-over center stapled manner such as Time, Life and Newsweek of the era. The current bound style TOPICS has been produced for a little over ten years, or roughly half of its existence as a chronicle and forum for all TWA cockpit crew members . The artist responsible for the tales or tails if you like looks like it could have been our friend Russ Day. Although Russ was not retired at that time he was always sought after. If our guess is not correct, we are sure to hear about it from our careful readers. Please know that we have no qualms about correcting any errors contained in our pages.
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"DUTCH"
HOLLOWAY REMINISCES
I learned to fly at Chateauroux, France. It was a French school. The instructor knew no English, and I could speak no French. He managed to get along by slamming the stick from one side to the other. You could almost say I was batted into flying. The planes we flew at Chateauroux were the Caugron. They were a very primitive design, having been designed in 1911. They used warped wings for lateral control instead of ailerons. I soloed in four hours and twenty minutes, then went to the Caugron with Hone Rotary engines, which were lighter and much easier to handle. Had to spend about 25 hours to get my Brevet, which is a French word for license. You had to pass certain tests and then we were licensed as Military Aviators. From Chateauroux I went to the American Advanced School at Issoudon. There we were flying Nieuports. We started out on the 21 meter, and went to 19 and finally to 15 meter. The meter had to do with the square meters wing surface. The 15 meter were used for combat in the early stages of the war. At Issoudon, I was classified as a Pursuit Pilot. Pursuit was what they called Fighter Squadrons in those days. I was assigned to the 141st Squadron. Spad was a French fighter and very strong. It could not maneuver very well, but it stayed together. We were stationed at an airport just outside of Toul, France. We patrolled the Moselle sector of the front. Due to the long training period, I did not get out until the last few days of the war. As a result, I only had forty hours of offensive patrol before the was was over. After the war, we were sent to replace the 94th in Koblenz, Germany, in the army of occupation. We stayed at Koblenz for about six months and then came back to the United States. Koblenz is a very fortified German city. After returning to the United States, I was discharged at the Presidio in San Francisco, where I had enlisted. I wanted to buy a plane of my own. Earl P. Cooper, the old race driver, had bought a number of Standards. The Standard was a much better plane than the Jenny. They used a Hall-Scott engine that persistently caught on fire, so they side-tracked the Standards and concentrated on the Jennys, which used their own OX-5 engine. Cooper revised the Standards by revising the engine bed and putting the OX-5's in them. The plane I bought cost a little over three thousand dollars. I flew it to my home town of Bakersfield, California, where I had arranged for a flying field. I worked Bakersfield for a long time, as business was very good. Paid for the plane in about six weeks. I went to Bakersfield in March of 1920 and stayed there until late June, when I flew back to Oakland, where I decided to put a different engine in my
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Standard. The engine was a Navy version of the OX-5. It had a half inch larger bore and two magnetos instead of one on the old OX-5, and put out 100 horsepower instead of 90. It made a much better plane. When the weather cooled off I started back down the valley, beginning at Lodi, and stopped at county fairs and other places. When I got back to Bakersfield I decided to go to Santa Barbara for the winter and used a small field they had at Santa Barbara. Business was very good. I had occasion to meet the Loughead brothers, Malcolm and Allan They were fine people. Malcolm had just invented the four wheel hydraulic brake. He had a stripped down car to demonstrate it. They also developed the molded wood fuselage that they used on all the planes until they started making all metal. The fuselage was used on several planes. The Loughead boys were very industrious people. They had built a two engine plane that they used for passenger carrying in front of the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara. Allan Loughead later on became a good friend. At that time John Northrop, who later on became a designer and builder, was working for them as a draftsman. I stayed in Santa Barbara the winter of 1920 and part of 1921, then I sold my Standard and bought a flying boat. There was a large fresh water pond just south of Santa Barbara. I intended to carry passengers, but the pond was fresh water and the plane had considerable more draft than it would have in sea water, so the pond was not large enough. After I assembled the flying boat, I flew it to Catalina Island in April of 1921. Three men came down to meet me. I asked them who I might see about getting the flying concession there. They smiled and said they did not think I would need to look further. One was William Wrigley, who owned the island. The other was Patrick, who was the president of the Santa Catalina Island Company and D. M. Renton, who was manager of the island. I got the flying privilege at Catalina in 1921. It was a grand place. I had more fun and made more money than any time of my life. I got "Saturday rich" and thought I was in love and sold out which was a big mistake. After I left Catalina, I flew at various places like Balboa and Santa Cruz, but no place could compare to the pleasant surroundings at Avalon. I continued to work at various places until I went to work for Western Air Express in the summer of 1928. I was flying Fokker Tri-Motors between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Later the route was extended to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and for a long time I flew the Tri-Motors between Los Angeles and Albuquerque.. TWA, TAT and a small eastern outfit called Pittsburgh Air Navigation joined to make a company called Transcontinental and Western Air. We continued to fly to Albuquerque and later on we extended the route to Kansas City, using the Tri-Motor. TAT was using tri-motor Fords - all metal. They were a much better airplane, although slightly slower than the Fokker. We changed over to the tri-motor Fords. At that time the outfit was called Transcontinental and Western Air, which
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had very little meaning outside of the United States. When they became more extended they changed their name to TWA, and continued to fly to Kansas City and later on extended the flight to New York. I flew for TWA for 26 years until I reached the age of 60, which was mandatory retirement. During World War II a part of TWA joined the Air Transport Command. I flew about 70 ocean crossings while in that service. We would usually go from New York to Gander, Newfoundland, and then to Meeks Field, Iceland, and then on to Prestwick, Scotland. At first we did not fly westbound to cross the North Atlantic, so we continued our flight on to Marrakech, French Morocco; from there we went to Dakar, on the western bulge of Africa. From there we flew across the south Atlantic to the bulge on Brazil, which was Natal, or Fort Aliza. From there we went to Belem which is on the equator and right on the Amazon River. From Belem we flew to Georgetown, then on to Puerto Rico, on to Miami and back to Washington where I was stationed. Howard Hall, who was also a captain with TWA, originated the idea of pressure pattern flying, and we used that to fly westbound to cross the north Atlantic. Pressure pattern flying was made possible by the radio altimeter, which told the true altitude over the ocean. This, compared to the barometric altimeter, told us if we were flying into a high or low pressure area, each with their individual circulation pattern. We kept our position known by the newly invented Loran. Later on, when the traffic increased we had to stay on a given route which made pressure pattern flying a thing of the past. During WW II we made many trips. As the war went along in Europe we flew to Bermuda, then on to the easternmost island of the Azores, then on to Casablanca. From there we went to Tripoli and on to Cairo, which was usually our destination. On a few occasions we went as far east as India. When the war in Europe was over we changed our route to fly on to Paris, Rome and Athens. From there we went south to Cairo. When the Air Transport Command was finished, I went back to domestic domicile and flew the four engine Lockheed CONSTELLATION from San Francisco to Chicago non-stop. I did that the last five years I was with the company until I retired. This made 39 years of active flying before I retired. * * * * * * * * * * * * DC-3 ON INTERNATIONAL? WHO KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT THIS MYSTERY? SKYLINER Associate Editor Anne Sanders sent Ed Betts an article (origin not stated) by Robert J. Saunders. Mr. Saunders is retired after a career with the RAF and various civilian operators. ,
The article says that on Saturday morning, January 10, 1948,
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Mr. Saunders was co-pilot on an RAF Dakota (DC-3) which took off from RAF Station Fayid bound for El Adam on the Libyan border. Engine failure resulted in the right engine separating from the wing, and causing a forced landing in the desert. The four man crew survived. They were chagrined when an airplane passing in the distance failed to see a flare which they fired. They were well aware that some crews downed in the desert were visited by thieves and murderers. They were pleasantly surprised when a plane suddenly swooped over the crash site. It was a DC-3 with TWA painted on the tail. The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Martin, recognized it as belonging to an American company "based at Cairo West", he said. After circling the crash site, the TWA DC-3 flew away and later the site was circled by the RAF. The crew was rescued about dark by a squad of Egyptian soldiers who thought from the report they got from the TWA DC-3 that the crew was American. Mr. Saunders- continues: "That night on the roof of our hotel in the heart of Cairo, we toasted our friends in TWA who found us and were thoughtful enough to go back and drop supplies in case we were still there. We returned to the Canal Zone the next day and shortly arrived in England. "Over the years I've spoken to many TWA the name of that pilot. When I finally a TWA flight from New York to Las Vegas that he had died. I never had a chance I find that I have forgotten his name."
crew members, asking did learn his name, on in 1972, I was also told to thank him - and now
Assuming that Mr. Saunders is correct in believing that it was a TWA DC-3 that aided his rescue (and he ought to know), the story begs some answers. Do you know anything about a TWA DC-3 operation in Cairo in 1948? Could it have been a contract operation providing services for an oil company or other Egyptian based company? Finally, who were the pilot and co-pilot of the TWA DC-3? If you can add anything to this interesting story, please write your Editor.
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LINE SQUALLS G. E. EVERETT, Editor PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY
Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc. Vol. 2 No. 9 SEPTEMBER, 1934
Last Salute to the Ford Like faithful old fire horses, unshod and retired to a Iife of ease amid green pastures, a fleet of veteran tri-motored airplanes this month is facing retirement after almost a decade of active service on the mid-transcontinental airway between New York and Los Angeles. The airplanes are the all-metal Fords with which Transcontinental Western Air, The Lindbergh Line, inaugurated the first coast to coast passenger service in 1929. Some of the veteran planes saw active service before that date on Maddux Air Lines between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Their retirement has been foreshadowed for a year or more by the appearance along the airways of the TWA Douglas Airliner, the latest creation in the world of aeronautics. Thousands of travelers made their first flights in the sturdy old Fords; thousands of air line mechanics have a real, almost personal affection for the tin Geese as they have been called. Sturdy, dependable and with thousands of miles of flying still remaining in them, they have never, of themselves, caused a serious accident or a fatality. Like so many man-made machines they have merely served their time and can no longer compete in matters of speed, comfort, passenger and cargo capacity and general all-round performance, with the younger, but al r eady severely-tested Douglas Airliner with which TWA is now operating its coast to coast service.
The retired airplanes can look back upon a career of service not surpassed by any other vehicle of modern transportation. Although there were only about two hundred Ford tri-motor planes manufactured, their total flying mileage reaches into the millions; the total number of passengers they have carried must be close to the million mark. They saw service on every major airway in the United States and in many foreign countries. The hum of their three radial motors was familiar to city and rural dweller throughout the world. The Fords were, at times , adventurers as well as prosaic carriers of passengers, mail and express over the regularly established airways. They have explored the Polar regions and they have pioneered the aerial routes along the Equator and across the lofty Andes. Some, among them, have military records. They were fast flying machines in t he early days of commercial aviation in the United States. Today, their cruising speed of 120 miles an hour has been (Continued on page 2)
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2
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exceeded by about 50 per cent by the larger, more comfortable Douglas. In its best days the Ford made the transcontinental crossing in slightly more than 24 hours; the Douglas today makes the same flight in less than 16 hours. Their capacity of twelve passengers was considered ample in 1929, and the noise of their three engines made conversation in the cabins difficult, almost i mpossible. Today, the Douglas Airliners carry fourteen passengers at almost 200 miles an hour and the two powerful motors of the Douglas make so little noise conversation is carried on in an ordinary tone of voice. Even on the earth, man and beast recognize the difference between Ford and Douglas. The Fords frequently wfrightened ith livestock and chickens the roar of their motors while the Douglas with its "geared" propellers and sound-deadened motors passes overhead without notice. There was a total of 1275 horsepower available in the three engines on the Fordpowerful pieces of aeronautic machinery in those days. Today the Douglas has only two motors but the total horsepower is 1420. The Douglas can fly, fully loaded on only one of its motors; the Ford could fly on two of its motors. Under favorable conditions the Ford could climb to an altitude of iabout ts 16,000 feet; the Douglas, with contrl-supercharged engines and its able pitch propellers, cruises normally at about 14,000 feet. In the Ford, the pilot had a few mechanical and navigating instruments to inform him of the planes performance; his throttles were the only means he had of varying his cruising speed. In the Douglas the pilot has a vast array . of perfected instruments, each of which tell a specific story. He regulates his speed by several methodsincreasing or decreasing his altitude, changing his
T W A
propellers from low to high "gear" (pitch) and increasing or decreasing the pressure under which the air passes through the carburetor. The Fords landed at one predetermined speed; the Douglas pilot, by means of the "air brakes" (sometimes called flaps), controls the landing speed within specific limits and needs much less area to make his landing. The Ford had a cruising range of about 500 miles at the outside; the Douglas can fly 1300 miles without refuelinga range sufficient to fly around any storm area. Although comfortable, according to the aeronautic standards of 1929, the Ford cabins were a bit cramped, particularly for tall passengers. The Douglas was designed for the comfort of the sixfooter who can stand erect with his hat on and not touch the ceiling. Passenger chairs in the Fords were adjustable to three positions; Douglas chairs are adjustable to any comfortable position and are reversible. The Douglas cabin is, in the truest sense, air conditioned. Today, along the TWA airway, the Fords sit shorn of their motors looking forlorn and forgotten outside the hangars from which they have been removed to make room for the more modern Douglas. Many a mechanic has been seen to slap a rugged Ford fuselage as if in farewell. Some have eulogized the old veteran in poetry. Enthusiastically received by passengers and air line personnel alike, the Douglas is prepared to carry on where the Ford left off, the lessons learned from millions of miles of flying being built into the able successor of the Tin Goose. • The driveway in front of the Kansas City Base is completed, marking the end of the mud and dust through which visitors had to drive or walk.
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GOODWIN T. "TED" WEAVER By Ed Betts TWAers were saddened by the death of retired Captain Goodwin T. Weaver on July 30th this year. "Ted", as he was known to all of us, literally spent his entire adult life, a span of sixty four years, flying airplanes that varied from the surplus trainers of WW I to TWA's most modern Constellation. He was truly a pioneer in civil aviation, and a very important part of TWA's roots. Ted was born on February 17, 1899, in Indianapolis and attended the various school systems there, including one year of college. His best grades were in math and the sciences, and he was an adept craftsman with woodworking and repairing engines. Ted's first interest in aviation was using his talents to design and build model planes which, according to Ted, were good flying machines. He was all signed up and prepared for military duty in November of 1918, but the armistice was declared on the same say that he was to report, so he returned to a job in an engineering office. One Sunday in the summer of 1919 Ted rode his motorcycle to the local airfield to watch the airplanes perform that were owned by the Indianapolis Aerial Association. Their fleet consisted of two planes: a three place Avro with a 110 HP Le Rhone engine and a JN4C (Curtiss Canuck) with an OX-5 engine. At that time they were giving rides that would bring in as much as $15 for a ten minute hop. On one approach the Avro made a poor landing that tore off the tail skid and smashed a number of pieces in the wooden structure. Since it was a Sunday and no shop was open for repairs, the plane was lost for the day as well as its potential revenue.... except that Ted came to the rescue and offered to take the broken pieces home to his shop for immediate repairs. Ted soon had the plane in flyable shape and the company's president was so impressed that he offered him a job as mechanic with the same salary as his engineering job ($35.00 a week) plus flying lessons. Ted accepted. He soloed that summer and had the JN4C turned over to him as "his ship". Ted described his early barnstorming days as pretty rough, but it was fun flying and good experience, especially picking your own cow pastures or other suitable fields to land, as there were few airports. Disaster overtook the financially strapped company in the fall of 1921 when another pilot cracked up the JN4C, and on the same night, the hangar burned to the ground destroying the Avro. Ted purchased the wrecked plane for $300 and spent the rest of that winter rebuilding it. The following spring Ted was in business for himself with plane #1. Business was good and for the following four years the Weaver Air Service continued
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Maddux Airlines had been flying out of the same Rogers Airport and on January 1st, 1929, had embarked on a huge expansion proram with a fleet of modern Fords as well as moving to the Glendale Airport. D. W. "Tommy" Tomlinson had been hired as the Vice President of Operations and was looking for experienced pilots. Ted's checking out on the tri-motor giant consisted of two takeoffs and landings with Tommy and he was all set to go to work, which officially was the date of his first trip on the line on April 25, 1929. At that time Ted was the 17th pilot on their seniority list. Ted's original pilot license was #6591 and signed by Orville Wright, his transport license was #2734. Maddux was, at the time, flying to San Diego and Caliente, Mexico as well as to the north to San Francisco. In late 1929 Maddux merged with the new TAT system (48 hours coast-to-coast, with night travel by train) and Ted was transferred to STL to fly the route west to Waynoka, Oklahoma via MKC and ICT. The next merger, between TAT-Maddux and Western Air Express to form T&WA, found Ted and Dot moving again, this time to Newark. None of the airlines had flown east of Columbus, so much work had to be done before operations began, including the survey work by Charles Lindbergh, John Collings, Bob Leroy and Ted. It was during this period that a close and lasting friendship was established between "Slim" Lindbergh and Ted Weaver. Ted flew the inaugural T&WA eastbound flight from Columbus to Newark; among the passengers was Amelia Earhardt. Another frequent traveler by air was Will Rogers, a very congenial passenger to have aboard and one of aviation's greatest boosters. It had been a practice started with Maddux by Tomlinson to have experienced pilots alternate one day in the office, acting as dispatchers to keep the pilots advised of weather forecasts and conditions, a day or two of flying the line and then a day off. T&WA also adopted this procedure and Ted was the first assigned to EWR, working in the operations office and flying the company's fleet of Fords and single-engine mail planes. Some of the stories of Ted's ingenuity are legends among the pilots of that era, such as how T&WA often had planes landing at EWR when ceilings were reported that forced all of the other airlines to divert to alternates. The Weaver's home just happened to be located directly under the northeast leg of the New Brunswick radio range that served the area, but was not located at the airport and was useless so far as an instrument approach because the pilot had no positive way of identifying his exact position (such as a fan marker, etc). Ted would be in the office talking to the pilot on the radio...Dot was outside of their house with the telephone and acted as the marker; the pilot would fly out the range leg until over the house and Dot would relay the information to the pilot via Ted. A procedure turn would be made and, when once again established over the Weaver house, the pilot would take up a pre-determined heading towards
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the airport and make a letdown. It worked, and on one occasion two Alpha pilots were low on fuel and considering bailing out when Ted talked both of them into trying the approach. When Major A. D. Smith left EWR to assume the head of the Mountain Division, in 1932, Ted assumed his former duties as head of the Eastern Region Division. This lasted until the infamous air mail cancellation in early 1934. This was the period when TWA made aviation history, first with the introduction of the prototype DC-1 and then with the production model DC-2. Jack Frye and company, including Eddie Rickenbacker, had made the headlines with a record-breaking flight across the country with the DC-1 on the eve of the mail cancellation. Jack Frye made even better time when the mail was resumed using the sleek Northrop "Gamma" Weaver was on duty for both flights with weather advisories, etc. When the DC-1 arrived in EWR, Ted had the pleasure of checking himself out in the new plane, and flew it westbound to Columbus on the return trip to MKC. Among Ted's hobbies in those years was photography and some of his color movies are one of a kind classics, such as Lindbergh piloting the DC-1 while Jack Frye is pumping the hydraulic handle to raise or lower the landing gear. 1934 saw the Weavers moving to MKC, with Ted a supervisor pilot flying the DC-2's west to ABQ, and a year later it was another move back to Burbank. This, however, didn't last long as Ted's expertise as a dispatcher was urgently needed. to set up a new system of dispatching and flight planning (then called Central Control) at the company's MKC home office. T&WA had lost a DC-2, with Senator Bronson Cutting among the passengers, and preliminary investigation by the authorities had been critical T&WA adopted the new procedures, of past dispatching procedures. as outlined by Ted, long before they became mandatory by the CAA in 1938. These included signed releases where minimum fuels, alternates, etc., were agreed to between the pilot and the dispatcher. Ted was also among the first to receive a license for dispatching when this became a requirement in 1938. In 1944, after nearly fifteen years of management positions and a lot of "desk flying", Ted bid back to Burbank to fly the line, DC-3 flights to ABQ. For the next fifteen years it was fun flying for Ted, especially when the sleek new Constellations were introduced in the post war years. He was #3 on the pilot seniority list, behind "Mo" Bowen and John Collings, when he retired in March of 1959...one month beyond age 60, as it wasn't an FAA requirement at the time, just by ALPA contract. Ted retired from TWA, but not from flying as he soon bought a two place Cessna 140 that kept him busy with his flying for pleasure as well as keeping the plane airworthy. At one time when the plane needed a major overhaul, he dismantled the wings
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and towed i t t o h i s backyard where he p r a c t i c a l l y r e b u i l t the plane from s c r a t c h . Even a f t e r Ted could no l o n g e r pass a f l i g h t p h y s i c a l , in 1983, he s t i l l c o n t i n u e d to f l y h i s p l a n e as long as t h e r e was a q u a l i f i e d p i l o t on b o a r d . His t o t a l f l y i n g time was near 30,000 h o u r s . As an i n s t r u c t o r , Ted was among the b e s t whether working with a new student in the a i r f o r the f i r s t ti m e , o r a seasoned a i r l i n e p i l o t . He had a q u i e t , but a u t h o r i t a t i v e manner that put the student or p i l o t b e i n g g i v e n a check at e a s e , and get the job done. He was a l s o the i n f l u e n c e t h a t made a number of men take up f l y i n g as a c a r e e r , such as a young Ed Flynn, who was a neighbor of Ted in 1937 in Kansas C i t y , took up f l y i n g with the CPT and j o i n e d TWA in 1942. T e d ' s f a v o r i t e student was h i s grandson, Ted Weaver L a c o m e t t e , who p r a c t i c a l l y grew up in the Cessna 140, and by the time he was 17 years o l d was a l i c e n s e d p i l o t , and a commercial p i l o t at age twenty two. At the time of t h i s w r i t i n g young Ted i s on furlough from F l y i n g T i g e r s , but f l y i n g as a DC-8 c a p t a i n f o r Evergreen I n t e r n a t i o n a l .
LIST OF TWA HISTORIC FIRSTS 1. TWA was the first airline to carry passengers on scheduled coast-to-coast service in the Unite States. (1930) 2. TWA was the first to require that pilots have a flight plan, flight log, flight clearance and cockp check list. (1930) By 1933, TWA was the first to have developed and used advanced "flight planning" for every flight, based on a thorough analysis of weather and overall operating conditions. 3. TWA was the first to fly and put into scheduled service the four-engine 3oo-mile-an-hou Lockheed Constellations on United States and transatlantic routes. 4. TWA was the first to inaugurate airline freight service with a shipment of livestock, from St Louis to Newark. (August 6, 1931) 5. TWA was the first to operate regular all-cargo service. In 1935, TWA was the first to fly coa to-coast all-cargo service, inaugurated with Ford tri-motor "Flying Boxcars", In 1947, TWA was the first to fly transatlantic scheduled all-cargo flights from the United States to Europe, North Africa, and Middle East. 6. TWA developed the DC-1, prototype of the famous DC series (first efficient modern airliner with the Douglas Aircraft Company. Many features now standard on most airliners appeared on the DC-1, including wing flaps, hydraulic line tunnels accessible from the exterior, a steam heat system, shock mounting of engines and a quickly removable storage battery.
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7. TWA was the first to fly 4-engine airplanes. In 1931 the Fokker F-32 was in scheduled. In 1940, TWA became the first to develop and use in transcontinental service the 4-engine pressurized cabin transports for over weather flying and passengers comfort-the Boeing Stratoliner. 8. The Nation ' s first "Flying Post office " was operated by TWA during inauguration of 5-cent airmail. (1946) 9. TWA was the first domestic airline to operate over-ocean flights around the world for Armed Forces during World War II, flying a total of 10,000 overseas flights under contract to Air Transport Command. 10. TWA was the first to place combination lounge-sleeper planes into service for greater passenger comfort. (1935 DC series (1951-Constellation) 11. TWA was the first airline to develop and use the quick-frozen pre-cooked method of food preparation, packaging and shipping, for in-flight meal service. (1947) 12. First to institute an "all weather" flying research staff, including ground and pilot personnel, and a special "flying laboratory" to study thunderstorm activity. (1941) 13. TWA was the first to organize an airline weather department and employ a professional meteorologist. (1930) Also, TWA was the first airline to conduct extensive aircraft icing research to determine synoptic free air conditions for icing aircraft. (1932-33) 14. TWA was a pioneer in " pressure pattern " flying, and was the first to institute this on its routes of navigation-utilizing the most favorable winds.(1943) TWA was also the first to apply modern "air mass" methods of weather analysis to airline operation. (1933) 15. First to cooperate with the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) to develop and install an ultra high frequency blind landing system. (1934) 16. TWA, United and Bell Telephone Laboratories developed two-way high frequency radiotelephone communications in 1930. In 1937, TWA cooperated with Bell Telephone Laboratories in an early Very High Frequency radio communications program. 17. TWA was the first to develop and use the anti-rain-static "homing" radio direction finder. 18 . TWA conducted extensive high altitude experimental work, employing a special airplane rigged for this purpose. Data collected from altitude studies up to 36,000 feet contributed to the 1 development of the turbo-supercharger, as well as high altitude flying techniques. ( 93 2 -35) 19. TWA was the first to adopt the Sperry automatic pilot as standard equipment to reduce pilot fatigue. (1934) 20. TWA was the first airline in the United Sates to use experienced pilots as flight control officers to handle increased airways traffic from ground control points. (1931)
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21. TWA was the first airline to add flight engineers to the crews of four-engine aircraft on United States routes. (1940) 22. TWA cooperated with the Goodrich Rubber Company in the development of the (1) rubber wing de-icer, and (2) the rubber, propeller de-icier, overshoe. (1934) 23. TWA was the first to train pilots in celestial navigation, enabling them to fly on or off-route without the aid of radio navigational or landmark aids. (1941) 24. TWA' s " Sky Tourist " Constellation inaugurated low-cost air transportation across the Atlantic from the United States to Europe. (1952) 25. TWA was the first airline to place into operation the "teleflite" a system of instantaneous reservations. (1947) 26. First to develop 10,000 and 15,000-foot pressure charts for upper wing forecasting. (1939) TWA is now working on pressure charts for upper winds at 40,000-foot altitudes for jet aircraft of the future. 27. First to develop the automatic trailing wire antenna release device, and the elastic de-iceable radio beacon antenna. (1944) 28. First to develop and altimeter-setting indicator, which automatically indicates, correct setting 1 for the airport for which it is calibrated. ( 944) 29. TWA underwrote the first book on aeronautical meteorology ever published in the United States, written by Dr. Horace R. Bayers. (1937) 30. First to offer commercial broadcast programs to passengers in-flight, providing the passengers individual receivers. (1940) 31. First to develop the lightweight electrical engine synchronization indicator, now standard equipment on most airlines. 32. First to develop the shock mounting of all main radio units in a single radio rack, and the pubmounted, quickly removable pilot's switch box. 33. First to develop the self-contained, radiant wall, automatically controlled aircraft heating and ventilating system. (1944-45) 34. Developed the first transport tail-wheel lock, applied to the Northrop Alpha airplane. 35. TWA conducted the first organization survey of airports, which resulted in the transport category landing and take-off runway chart. 36. First to provide non-stop transcontinental air service. (October 1953)
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37. First to propose and introduce an inexpensive one-way transcontinental excursion fare. (September 25, 1955) 38. First to provide non-stop transcontinental tourist service. (September 25, 1955) 39. First to install a Dynamometer type Engine Test Cell, resulting in greater accuracy and safety at less cost. (Mar 1956) 40. First to provide freshly brewed coffee in flight. (January 3, 1957) 41. Inauguration of first non-stop New York to Rome service using Lockheed 1649A aircraft. (October 2, 1957) 42. First to develop "Minimum Time Route" navigation system by which prevailing air currents are utilized for greater speed and comfort in air travel. 43. First to provide non-stop service between San Francisco and New York. (March 20, 1959) 44. First to provide jet service at: San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington/Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Kansas City. (1959) 45. First to fly the Atlantic in scheduled service using the Doppler radar system, a fully automated system of navigation. (October 1, 1962) 46. First to provide Boston to San Francisco non-stop jet service. (October 1, 1962) 47. First to provide non-stop service from Las Vegas to New York. (June 1, 1963) 48. First to provide in-flight movies. 49. First to become all-jet airline in international passenger service with cessation of piston aircraft service on overseas routes. (October 29, 1961) 50. First to offer non-smoking sections aboard every aircraft in it's fleet. 51. TWA introduced extended range twin-range operations (ETOPS) as the first U.S. airline to fly the Atlantic with twin engine Boeing 767 ' s. (1985)
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NAVIGATIONAL ARTIFACTS DISPLAY UNVEILED AT EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY by Alice Hoeveler Amid much pomp and ceremony, a permanent exhibit of navigational artifacts was unveiled at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's College of Aviation late spring this year. The display, designed by William McMunn and built by a local company, is modern, ingenious and realistic. Backed by a giant photograph of the navigator station in a DC4, artifacts are displayed on a table and around the walls of the display. One has the feeling that the navigator has just momentarily left his workplace. On either side of the 7 foot round case, are two "wings" containing large photographs of a DC4 and a Constellation, in flight, each bearing the TWA logo. The artifacts and the display case were donated to ERAU by the Retired Professional Navigators, made up of former TWA navigators. ERAU is thrilled to have this display, which besides giving the artifacts a permanent home, will ensure that the art of early navigation will not be lost. These artifacts had previously been displayed in the foyer of the TWA Training Center in St. Louis. ERAU's Dean Brady, himself a former navigator, was Master of Ceremonies for the unveiling. He introduced the President of the University, Dr. George Ebbs, for the opening address that included thanks to the RPN for the honor of having he display installed at the University. President of the RPN, John Allegra, responded with a short speech on how proud the RPN were to have their artifacts displayed in the most prestigious aviation school in the world. William McMunn, the nephew of the former Chief Navigator for TWA, the late William Hoeveler, followed with reminiscences of his uncle and related how he had envisioned the design of this unique case. A champagne toast followed the formal unveiling with a gourmet buffet supper for the more than 6o invited guests. The display, which has a video kiosk with links to each of the artifacts, as well as photographs, charts, and stories, is open to the public. ERAU always welcomes visitors to its campus, so the next time you are in Daytona Beach, make sure it includes a visit to this outstanding institution. You will find the navigator's display on the 3rd floor foyer in the College of Aviation building.
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OZARK AIRLINES by Earl Jinnette Immediately after the end of World War II, I hired into TWA as a student flight engineer. Our classroom was the old Art Goebel hanger directly across the runway from the passenger terminal at the old Kansas City Airport. After about three weeks of classwork, I decided to visit my wife, who was staying with her sister in Springfield, Missouri. The only practical source of transportation was the newly opened service of Ozark Airlines. I bought a ticket on Ozark for the flight that was scheduled to depart for Springfield Friday afternoon at 4:30 PM. Class was let out early on Friday, so I had time to go to my room out in the Plaza to shower and to pack for the weekend trip. On the way back to the airport, I hailed a cab to be sure that I would get to the terminal on time. As we arrived at the Missouri River, traffic was backed up several blocks because the drawbridge had been opened for river traffic. I knew that I had no chance to make the flight since we were stuck there for about 45 minutes. By the time I reached the terminal, I was an hour late! I also knew there was little chance of another flight to Springfield that afternoon, but I went to the ticket counter anyway to ascertain that fact. The lady at the counter assured me that there were no more flights Friday afternoon_. After a moment, however, she asked, "Do you happen to be Mr. Jinnette?" I replied, "Yes, I am." She responded by saying that they were still holding the flight for me! I couldnt believe it! When I went out on the runway, I found that the aircraft was a small twin engine Cessna T-5o Bobcat, affectionately known in the military as the "Bamboo Bomber." It was used for training purposes during the war. There was only room for three passengers in the back seat, but a fourth passenger could ride in the co-pilots seat. I couldnt believe they would hold the flight for only one passenger, but when I realized that a single passenger was 25% of their payload, it began to make sense!
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THE BONEYARD by Captain Michael L. Larkin You lie there motionless, so quiet and still, In an airplane boneyard, on a desert hill; Dignified in death as you were in life, Now far away from airborne strife Birds build nests where engines once hung, Deer leave their scent in piles of dung. Snakes find shade beneath your nose, Mice build homes in old seat rows. Once you were the Queen of the Skies, Witness to sunsets and stormy skies; The Earth was your oyster, each land your home As oer the earth you chose to roam. Millions of passengers you carried safe, Nary a one did you harm or chafe; Thirty years and thousands of hours, In Saharas heat and German showers. You bore immigrants and movie stars, Privates and Generals with silver stars; Husbands and wives, children with tunes, Newlyweds on their honeymoons. Yours was a magic carpet ride, Thru sides of blue, oer ocean tide;. In shirtsleeve comfort we roamed the earth, To far-away lands, to strange new turf. Hold your head high! Be proud, old girl! You gave us all a merry whirl Above the clouds in air so still, You gave us all an airborne thrill. To foreign lands, you opened our eyes, You shrank the earth, you conquered the skies; Rest now, old girl, as good- byes are spoken Thru tear filled eyes; our wings now broken. This poem is dedicated to Boeing 747-100, , N93108, born at Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington, 1968, retired as the last Boeing 747 to fly for TWA, 1998. She was the only 747 attired in the new livery. She had 100,000 hours on her airframe.
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Architect Named for Historic TWA Terminal Job The New York firm of Gensler Architectural Design and Planning Worldwide will design the new JetBlue Airways terminal at Kennedy International Airport. The $85o million, 26-gate terminal will enclose the architecturally celebrated Trans World Airlines terminal designed by Eero Saarinen in 1956, it was announced Monday. The historic terminal in the shape of a soaring bird sculpted in concrete. It has stood empty and in danger of being razed since 2001. A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the authority's board has approved an agreement with JetBlue that will save the TWA building by connecting it with a new Y-shaped building, Terminal 5, due to open in 2008. The Saarinen building will be embraced by the arms of the Y-shaped metal-and-glass structure which will have a low profile "to create a respectful background" for the landmark building completed in 1962, according to a spokesman for Gensler. It will be connected to the TWA building by two tubular passageways. The Finnish-born Saarinen, who died in 1961, was considered one of the greatest American architects of the 20th century, but designed only one skyscraper, the CBS "Black Rock"
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Letter from Dick Fishbaugh John, This is my latest attempt to stay out of the bars and Silver Mines. Sunday, July 18, I ran in the Iowa Games at Ames, Iowa (actually at Nevada, just 11 miles East of Ames). I entered the 10o M dash and the 800 M run. They put 3 age groups of us together for the 10o since there was no one else in those groups except 3 of us. At 8o and over was Mel Larson who is 8o and a legend in his own right and is ranked No. or 2 in the World. Then me at age 75, in the 75 - 79 age group, then Dan Tehran who is 72 in the 70 - 74 age group. At the gun, Larson was out of his blocks like a shot, I got a good standing start, but Tehran was slow coming out. I hit a good stride, but then my brain got ahead of my legs/feet and I thought I was going to fall. Tehran came up on my left and we ran neck and neck for a bit, but I couldn't hold him off. Larson won in 14.7, Tehran was 2nd with 16.7 and I was 3rd with 16.9. It was a good race and that was the fastest I'd run the 100. (fast being a relative term!) Since we were the only ones in our age brackets, we each got first place and the "gold" medal! ! The 800 was a little different. They called the race just as we were going into the blocks for the 10o so not much time to recover. They combined all over 50 into one race, which ended up being 9 runners. That meant the youngest could have been my son and made a 25-year gap in age between the youngest and me. I knew there was no way I could finish ` with any dignity. I said the runner's prayer - "let's do this together, Lord, - you pick em up and ` I'll lay em down". At the gun, I was soon running by myself - I passed one "contestant". With one more lap to go, I said to myself "how?" - which is Apache for "how am I going to survive this next 40o M". At the far turn, I went into my "kick" - just the mere thought caused me to hallucinate but Dixie was cheering me on. With all throttles pushed full forward and into afterburner, I passed another runner, but everyone else was already finishing. Outside the fence, I noticed someone walking almost as fast as I was running. I said "Fishbaugh you gotta be the dumbest 2-lunger I have ever known and I will never run a half mile again". I finished 7th but since I was the only one in my age bracket, I got another 1st and the "gold" medal. My time was 3:28. That's the last time I will ever do that, but I met some great "boys" (that's the way the schedule had us listed, for instance "boys 74 - 79 " , and they all want me to return next year. I said no way - they said they'd heard that before. - - - In the meantime, Mrs. Fishbaugh and I are still living together - she says she will "coach" me next year and I'll do better - glug, glug, glug. Richard
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Landmarks near airports can help in poor weather.
CHECKPOINTS FOR APPROACHES By WILLIAM A. DIXON "I
F you expect to enjoy a long and happy flying career, get to know the airports you use." That excellent advice was handed me by a veteran airline captain on one of my first flights as an airline copilot. I was handling the controls under his eagle eye and we were dropping into St. Louis from the West. I had been into Lambert Field but once before so had only a nodding acquaintance with it. Although we were flying contact, visibility was reduced by a rain shower. The tower had instructed us to land on runway 6 to the northeast, with a straight-in approach. I had the automatic direction finder tuned to the range station, which was situated east of the field. Although this permitted me to " home " over the airport, the ADF couldnt direct me to the head of the runway I sought. As we passed to the right of St. Charles, which sits on the west bank of the Missouri River about eight miles from Lambert, the captain saw that I was heading on a direct
line for the range station, and would worry about lining up with runway 6 after I had it in sight. Taking pity on my inexperience, he spoke up: " See the bridge and the highway swinging to the southeast on the other side? " He pointed to the left. " Yes," I replied. "Start slowing down and follow it around. Stay to the right. " About two minutes later he added, " Take a good look at that traffic circle ahead where those two highways cross at right angles. I want you to turn over it to a heading of 60 degrees. Have your wheels down and be at about 1200 feet indicated when you cross. That procedure will line you up with runway 6 and you cant miss, even if the visibility is down to a half mile." His instructions worked like a charm, and the runway popped up ahead of me in perfect position for a normal landing. It was after we were on the ground that he made his remark about knowing your airports. His statement applies whe25
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AIR FACTS there you are a professional pilot or an amateur, an instrument expert or a CFR man only. I m not an expert. Im very much the amateur. In writing this Im just jotting down some tips and information Ive been lucky enough to pick up in the nearly two years Ive been riding as an airline copilot. I learned quite a bit as an army pilot, but nothing to compare with what I have picked up from scheduled flying. What I ' m talking about is old stuff to airline and most commercial pilots, but perhaps I can pass on to the everyday pilot some of the unpublicized features relating to airports which have proved to be of importance to the professional airman.
hilltops, so that leaves reduced visibility as the number one villain. When visibility closes in to the point where he cant see over a mile or two ahead it poses two main problems to the pilot who hasnt radio to guide him: it complicates cross-country navigation oftentimes making it difficult to locate the particular airport hes seeking. Since this piece is devoted to airports and adjacent terrain, well leave the navigation for another day. After all, you can see maps to journey from one checkpoint to another, but when you reach the spot where you figure the airport should be and it "aint," then thats when you need a 360 degree swivel on your neck and not a map. You wouldnt be in this predicament if you had noticed on your previous stops that a certain road leads from a certain village and skirts a certain green barn which is just one section line south of that certain field you ' re bound for. You may ask, "What earthly goad does it do me to know the technique of a low visibility approach to St. Louis when I never get more than a hundred miles away from my home field ?" It ' s a good question. You may never have occasion to slip into St. Louis or Kansas City, or any of the
Look When Low With all the modern radio aids, the best instrument pilot becomes a strictly "seat of the pants" flyer after he has the ground and runway in sight. Instrument landing systems and Radar are great steps toward lining the pilot up with the proper runway for his final approach, but those developments are out of the realm of the average personal pilot. Well assume that the normal private pilot is smart enough not to take his light ship up on a day when the ceiling is resting on the
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others I may mention, but factors that help a pilot to fly safely in and out of those fields are applicable to any airport. Fly around your home roost a few times and really observe what you can see. How about that church with the needlelike steeple? Would a turn over it to a southerly heading bring you in to the north-south strip? Would it make a good base leg for a landing to the southeast? Make an aerial inspection of that large white house with the red and green roof. Will a heading of 45 degrees from it for a minute place you over the edge of the field for an easy touch down to the northeast? See what I mean?
er fast. Under such circumstances it is vitally necessary that pilots using the field know every important landmark in the vicinity. Fortunately, there are several good ones. North of the field and on the other side of the river is a levee that keeps the Missouri out of Fairfax Airport, Kansas City, Kansas. This levee, some 5000 feet from the north end of Municipals northsouth runway, serves as a perfect guide to it. In an approach from a northern direction, a pilot can line up with the river and then with the levee. You wont find it in any manual, but if a pilot will steer a course of 170 degrees from the levee he is a cinch to hit the south slab. The KC range station is approximately two miles northwest of the levee and pilots making an instrument approach make a quick grab for this levee after breaking out of the clouds. The south strip also has approach lights extending from the north end for over a thousand feet. These combine with the levee and river to make a first class runway lead-in. Runway approach lights are scientific proof of the value of ground markers to the pilot. Actually, it is not too much of a task to make an instrument letdown after sufficient schooling, but the trick is to line up with the desired runway, with a minimum of
Near City Kansas City Municipal Airport sits in a big bend of the muddy Missouri and is noted for its nearness to the cityfive minutes by cab. That very nearness makes it a tricky site to get into in sticky weather. Field elevation is 7 39 feet and there are buildings within a mile of the southeast boundary which exceed 1300 feet. It is often smoky in the area, particularly when there is a light breeze from the south. Combine this with a temperature inversion, which is a common condition in the spring and fall, and the visibility can low27
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...AIR FACTS
low turns, after youre contact. Low, steep banks are dangerous. Southwest of the Kansas City field are two smoke .stacks that tower up to 1008 feet. They are about 4500 feet from and almost exactly aligned with the northeast runway. Many a pilot has relaxed with relief as he sighted those twin stacks. With the stacks in view, the runway is sure to follow. Conversely, they would be hazardous if you didnt know they were there. The Hoosier state has a fine airport at Indianapolis, and it is one of the easiest to find. Highway Forty, the main east-west artery, passes just to the north. A word of incidental intelligence concerning the place is that the CAA maintains its principal landing aids experimental Iab there. It has nice runways that stand out well. From the city, railroad tracks (the old standby of the itinerant airman) sweep out in a west-southwest direction and roll along the north border of the airfield. The steel ribbons establish a ready reference for a base log to the south runway and bisect a road that is a perfect lefthand downwind leg for a north landing. So far we have neglected to mention night flying. It isnt too important, simply because the greatest percentage of private flying is ac -
complished during daylight hours_ However, the technique of utilizing landmarks is identical. Highways can be spotted up to a late hour from the stream of car lights. Other good sign-posts after dark are all-night filling stations, large electric signs, refineries, powerhouses, distinctive light patterns, factories, radio towers and last but not least, airway and airport beacons. Troy to Dayton Take the airport at Dayton, Ohio, for example. Ten miles due north of it and standing out at night like a welcoming light in the window is the city of Troy. A main highway extends south from it and takes off on a beeline to the eastern rim of Dayton airport. Cruising down from Toledo on a starless night with visibility close to minimums, you can take up a 180 degree course over Troy and hold it until you pick up the rotating green beacon that marks Dayton. As a check, halfway between Troy and the field is a little town of Tipp City sifting off about a mile to the east. The beacon at Dayton is atop a large hangar parallel to and at the northeast end of the northsouth runway. Knowing the position of the light, this permits you to conjure up a mental picture of 28
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the layout of the runways in relation to the rotating beacon. There are also several lighted watertanks adjoining the field which can prove valuable in orienting yourself for a correct approach. A beacon cant offer you a helping hand during the day, but a windsock can. Note its exact position on the surface. It can tell you the wind direction and double as a runway locator, too. If an outhouse will render any assistance as a marker, use it. Its been done before. Port Columbus, one of the first municipal airports and a transfer point on the early air-rail transcontinental route, boasts a good airmarker in the village of Gahanna, which is a little north of the field. Cross Gahanna southbound and you can ' t miss the airport if you try. From the East, there is an easy-to-follow railroad bearing southwest from the city of Newark. The roadbed splits Pataskala, a small town eleven miles from the port, then shoots straight west for several miles before veering left. Set up a course on this straight section of the tracks, correct for wind drift, and your heading should require only a slight correction to square you away with the nearest runway. Should the wind require an east landing, just angle off a
couple of thousand feet to the right of the tracks and you have a readymade downwind leg. Smoky Pittsburgh, industrial pride of Pennsylvania, has a difficult airport. Veiled in smoke from the roaring steel furnaces that dominate the area, the field crouches on a hilltop eager to trip the disrespectful pilot. I had an experience with Allegheny County Airport, as it is officially listed, during my army days which taught me to respect it. I flew up from North Carolina in a C-47 and was cleared by the tower for a contact approach. It was mid-winter and as I neared Pittsburgh it grew hazy. I flew twice over where I thought the field should be but couldnt pin it down. Finally I had to go to the range station and take a bearing from there to the field before I saw the snow-covered runways. Some twenty miles east of Pittsburgh, on the New York-Pittsburgh airway, are the twin cities of Delmont and Export, which serve as checkpoints for both pilots and the Pittsburgh tower. It is here that inbound planes call the tower for landing instructions. A magnetic course of 265 degrees from Delmont will bring you across the hamlet of Trafford and to a bend in the big Monongahela River where it turns parallel to your 29
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AIR FACTS " over " Flatbush at 1500 feet. Roger NCA 23. We have you over Flatbush at 05 at 1500. Youre cleared to the Whitestone Bridge to hold CFR. Runway in use is 27. You are number three to approach. Northwest 6 now turning onto final." This radio exchange means we can make a contact descent to the field, but because of the reduced visibility planes are being funnelled down into the smoke from the Whitestone Bridge. Aircraft are being held at this point because it is a prominent landmark and handy to the active runway. A turn to 270 degrees over its southernmost end will line a plane up nicely with the west runway. Other landmarks frequently utilized for holding points are the Bronx Tank, Five Stacks and the George Washington Bridge. The stacks furnish a precise guide to the southeast runway and the Bronx Tank is an excellent posi . -tionerfaldgthesouwest. Old man weather can become mighty catankerous. Someday when you are up for a joy-ride, he may open his bag of tricks with little warning and youll have to run for home in a hurry. Its then that finger-tip knowledge of the airports in -- your neighborhood pay off and well.
course for a short distance. Steer 270 degrees along the right bank up of this bend and you ' ll line neatly with the west runway. A radio tower sticks up on the cliff and acts as a double check. Just before you reach runway 27, you fly across the south edge of another airport. Its your final check. Inbound from the West, there are a couple of huge cinder piles and a smokestack, the removal of which would force half the pilots on one airline I ' m familiar with ,to work out a different system of locating Pittsburgh airport when forward vision is restricted. A favorite "quiz" trick of captains is to ask copilots to make the flight from Columbus to Pittsburgh without using any radio navigational aids. Those two cinder piles, between the Burgettstown smoke stack and the field, are the key landmarks. Now you might naively think that at New Yorks La Guardia Field everything is super-modern and such out-moded markers as bridges and smokestacks would have no place. You would be wrong. Lets listen to a typical conversation on a day when planes are making contact departures and arrivals through the low-hanging smoke pall that restricts visibility but doesnt hide the ground: "La Guardia tower, NCA 23 30
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Part IV. High-level Thunderstorm analysis.
How to Fly Safely in Bad W eather By
ROBERT N. BUCK
S
0
far weve talked about thunderstorms that were caused by summertime heating and by cold fronts. These, of course, arent the only ones. The ones we haven ' t talked about can be called highlevel thunderstorms. They are caused generally by either warm fronts, occlusions, convergence or night efthunder fect. These high-level storms add more complications to weather flying than just turbulence. They create problems of low ceilings and visibilities, particularly in the Spring and Fall as its during these seasons that high-level thunderstorms are more frequent. What is a high-level thundestorm? Its a storm that has a high base. Due to the process causing it, the actual thunderstorm, that is, the beginning of the cloud base and turbulence, doesnt begin until a fairly high altitude. This highlevel base can range from about six thousand feet to eight or ten thousand. Once, while doing some high-altitude work with thunder -
storms, I found the base of a few that didnt begin until fifteen thousand feet ! Now this doesn ' t mean that there isnt any cloud between the ground and the base of the storm. It means that the business end of the storm, the rough stuff, doesnt begin until quite a high altitude is reached. As a matter of fact there probably will be cloud down low. To explain this a little better lets take off and climb up in an imaginary flight to a high-level storm. Lets say the thing is right over the field. As we take off, its raining very hard, buckets full, but the air is smooth. Climbing up, we run into scud at about five hundred feet and go on instruments. This scud continues until about three thousand feet and then we are on top of it. Its raining so hard, however, that we can ' t see much and there are still occasional wisps of cloud and perhaps thin decks in this rain, But the important thing is that its smooth. 31
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AIR FACTS At about five thousand feet it gets choppy. It is still raining like mad and the sky is constantly being lit by lightning flashes. These flashes occasionally go to the ground, but most of it seems to jump from cloud to cloud. Since we generally dont see the actual leaps, all we are conscious of is the entire sky being lit with a bright blue light. We go off and on instruments through wisps of cloud and finally go on solid instruments. The rain seems harder, the lightning brighter, the air more choppy. Then, all of a sudden, the airplane seems to be sucked upward at a terrific rate. You grab the throttle and pull it back. You wince, mentally, in unpleasant anticipation of a terrific jolt.
ish and stay out of the turbulence. And thats quite true. But remember, its really going to rain ! Now to go back to the point where we were interrogating a weather man and said, "What kind of storms are they?" we should add, after he tells us that they are frontal, "Are they high or low-level?" If he says high-level, we can relax as far as the turbulence is concerned, because well fly low. If there is no weather man to talk to, then we have to go back to our newspaper weather map and the forecast. The weather map in the paper tells if its a warm front, cold front, occlusion or stationary front. If a front is going to cross the path of your flight, then decide what kind of a front it is. If its a warm front, or an occluded front and generally in a stationary front the storms are going to be high-level. So for that old devil turbulence you can relax again. But dont relax for long. There are other troubles. In our imaginary flight we took a moment ago you might rernernber with some misgiving, the cloud deck we went through at five hundred feet. Thats scud, or stratus. Its caused by the rain falling down through the lower levels of air and adding moisture to them. As a result, you get stratus. This stratus,
The Bumps At a little over six thousand, the base of our thunderstorm, your fears are realized and the bump comes and you really get tossed around. This tossing around will continue until you get quite close to the top of the storm, which could be anywhere from twentyfive thousand feet to seventy thousand feet From this experience we can quickly see one thing: if high-Ievel storms are present, we can fly low32
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of course, takes time to form. It ' doesn t form instantly. But if the storm occurs at night or late in the day, the stratus will be worse. This is because the air near the ground is cooling off simply because it is getting dark. Along with the cooling, the rain is adding moisture and raising the dew point. So you have a nasty set up in which the temperature is going down while the dew point is corning up ! Time of Day The point is that with any highlevel thunderstorm you will get low stratus. If its mid-day or on the growing side of the day, the base of the stratus may be five hundred feet or above. But if its late in the day and going on towards evening, this stratus may be right on the deck - - - very low. So again we emphasize the business about considering the time of day. This time of day gets even more important in the Spring and Fall, Temperature differences between day and night are then much greater than they are in summer. In the Spring and Fall you can have almost hot days, but the nights will cool clown a great deal. With the added moisture of the showers the dew point goes up and you have very low clouds or fog. Along with this night cooling
we might as well mention what can happen after the showers stop or pass. For this lets suppose that you are flying from joville to Bloville, a south to north course. About fifty miles south of Bloville a line of high level thunderstorms is causing heavy precipitation. The set-up looks as though this line is caused by a lazy warm front. It appears that by the time you get started and fly up there the front should have passed and the thunderstorms moved on beyond Bloville. Now if you are going to fly up there late in the day, and especially at night, it would be a bad deal even though the storms have stopped in the Blovill_e area. Why? Because its a lazy warm front. A lazy one doesnt have much wind. As it drifts slowly along it leaves still, warm air behind it. Air that has been loaded with moisture. As darkness approaches the
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Now what about flying highlevel thunderstorms? Well, it just about shuts off the low-experience, unequipped pilot. Unfortunately, high-level storms seem to run in packs. They arent just scattered. Occasionally they are and a weather bureau man can tell you theyll be scattered. If he says they are and it is morning and you will not be flying much past three in the afternoon, why then you can go on out there and duck around them. The visibility outside the showers will be fairly good because the chances are there will be a general high overcast and it will cut out the sunshine which tends to reduce the visibility in haze. With the scattered set-up you can wander around and avoid the rain areas. In flying high-level thunderstorms under these conditions everyone stays down. High enough to be safe, but not above two to four thousand feet above the terrain. The higher we go the closer we get to trouble. Now if they are more than scattered youd better have some experience and equipment before you go charging out among them. Since most of these storm are along warm or occluded fronts or in Iarge convergence areas, there will be a large area dotted with storms. If its frontal, there will be a defi-
air cools at a rapid rate and the first thing you know the radio says Bloville has ground fog and a little later zero-zero. So as night approaches one has to consider the cooling effects which are strong in the Spring and Fall. It must also be considered that moisture has been added to the air. If the gradient is weak, that is if the pressure changes are slight over large areas, and the winds consequently light or calm, fog is a real danger. Get high moisture content, Spring and Fall cooling and not much wind, and it ' s a perfect set-up for fog or low stratus. If the wind is calm it will probably be ground fog. If the wind is very gentle, say up to about ten miles an hour, there wont be ground fog, but there may well be a cloud deck with a five hundred foot base. Check Wind So look at the weather map and see if the isobars are far apart. If they are, the winds will be light. Check the sequence reports thoroughly for wind. If the wind is above ten miles an hour you will probably have a five hundred foot ceiling or more. If the wind is strong, you may not have anything in the way of clouds. If the wind is zero then the ceiling might be zero also. 34
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AIR FACTS
nite line of them. It will be generally overcast in the area an alto stratus deck about ten thousand feet or so. There will be fairly large areas of low clouds and especially rear the front itself. So we have something like this: You are flying from Joville to BloviIle. Its three hundred miles and there ' s a warm front half way between. Everything points to highlevel storms. Looking at the sequence reports we find that the stations half way are reporting thunderstorms and heavy rain. After looking at these sequences you may say, "Nuts, that ' s not high-level, that just plain old thunderstorms." But look again. Look at the wind. If its of a velocity above fifteen miles an hour or so and gusty youre right, but if its lower than that, even if the station is reporting heavy rain and a thunderstorm overhead, but the wind is light, not over fifteen miles
an hour, then it is a high-level storm. If you fly through that at two thousand feet it wont be rough. So watch the wind to see if those storms are really high-level or not. Now with the front half-way between our towns we will find a high overcast from about one-third the way towards Bloville, all the way to Bloville. The weather reports will show thunderstorms. But lets say we take off and fly there at three thousand feet_ We ' ll be contact until we get near the front. Then the storms start. It will rain. Light at first, and then hard. Everything will light up in brilliant flashes. Finally we get on instruments in the low stratus. The air will be slightly choppy. At first, this choppiness will be frightening because it suggests something bigger, but relax, this isnt rough air associated with the storm, it ' s just in that low cloud deck. Now in this deck we will get static, we definitely will not hear the range except at occasional intervals. Finally we ' ll run out of the solid scud and it will become broken as the rain becomes lighter and more scattered. Still farther past the front the scud will be gone and well be under a high overcast with pretty good visibility. In various places we ' ll see areas
SEPTEMBER 1, 1947
of falling rain that seem to be drifting towards the earth in slanted dark columns, easy to go around. If you are equipped with good instruments and radio you can go through a front like that. You are only risking engine failure in the front. If the engine fails there youll be gliding down through the scud to break out at five hundred feet or Iess. The pity of it is that even underneath, your visibility will be nil because of the heavy rain. It is really only for the experienced pilot with multi-engine equipment. The others had best stay away unless the storms are definitely scattered.
by a front. To sort of sum up. One, we ask or decided from newspaper maps, forecasts and sequences, whether the storms are high-level. If they are, we find out if they are scattered along our route. If theyre definitely scattered the pilot with low experience can go if its in the middle of the day three hours either side of noon. If they are frontal, and most of them are, and we have to operate near or in the front, all but the experienced stay away from the front. Everybody stays away if the front will be at or near the destination_ If ifs night when we go out, even if the storms have subsided, we become awfully Check Destination suspicious of ground fog or low But it is no good for the exstratus. In flying around, in, or perienced pilot either, if the front near high-level thunderstorms, we is going to be over his destination never go up but stay at a low safe when he gets there. Why? Because altitude. the ceiling will be low, necessitaVery soon now the Late Fall ting an instrument approach ; the Weather begins, the kind that has visibility will be very poor; and those nice cool rains that sound worst of all, his radio will be comso good on the roof and make you pletely useless for two-way conver- w ant to snuggle down under the sation (unless he has VHF for both covers a little more and sleep anotransmitting and receiving) and his ther hour. Of course, some people radio range reception will be out arent in that bed where they ought fifty to seventy-five percent of the to be, but out flying around with ti me. So most anyone should avoid a slightly worried expression or arriving somewhere along with a their faces. We ' ll be out there bunch of high-level storms caused worrying, too, in the next article. 37 PA GE 40 ... TA RPA TOPICS
Paris Chiropractor by The usually unflappable Parisians looked strangely at Charlie and gave him a wide berth as he sidled crab-like down the sidewalk. He didn't know it but he was doing a credible imitation of Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame as played by Charles Laughton and I liked that since we were only a few blocks from that magnificent landmark. Charlie had `thrown his back out' the day before and all night in the left seat a of the Lockheed had only made it worse. So here was Charlie scrabbling at the doorstep of a French chiropractor (spelled chiropract-eur), ably assisted me his faithful copilot. A young and very pretty Mademoiselle let us in. She had no English and my French is limited but no matter; you only had to look at Charlie to understand the problem. Also, they were expecting us since our chief of Paris operations had made the appointment personally. This unusual display of concern wasn't caused by his love for the pilots; he detested us for the barbarians we were. But the chronic nervous tic in his left cheek was accelerating into high gear at the thought of tomorrow's fully-booked Lockheed grounded in Paris because of a disabled captain. "Asseyez-vous. Madame vous examinera toute de suite." Have seat. Madame will see you presently. Madame. Hm. Interesting, I thought. A French lady bone crusher. I imagined a middle-aged practitioner, big around as a Fifties juke box, older than my mother-in-law and sporting a healthy moustache. She was no such thing. The minute she walked in, Charlie said later, he felt much better. So did I. She was a show stopper, a cross between Monroe and the youthful Bardot. Need I say more? Yes. She was tall and beautiful, exuding sensuality and she was built like the proverbial brick convenience. "You come in now please?" Charlie didn't really need my help getting up and into her surgerie but I wasn't going to miss whatever was coming next. " Charlie, let me help you up." " Huh? Hurts like a sumbitch." "C'mon, I'll help you in there." The goddess smiled at Charlie. "Please take off everything except you slip." "WHAT?!!! SLIP? For cripesakes, I don't wear no slip!" I explained. She means your undies, Charlie. Everything off but your shorts." So Charlie stripped down and the unkind thought crossed my mind that he looked a whole lot better with his clothes on. He bulged in the front and sagged in the rear and the shorts which had many miles on them, PA GE 41 ... TA RPA TOPICS
weren't helping much. Then the the godess laid her slim, elegant hands upon him. "It hurts here? This? Can you raise you like this? Comme ca? Ah, oui. Lie down here, please. Onyouface."In addition to her stunning good looks, there was the accent. The printed word does not do it justice. It was the sexiest voice I'd ever heard. Quel turn on! Watching her manipulate Charlie, I felt just the tiniest twinge in my back and I wondered if it wouldn't do me a world of good to have a small adjustment myself. Reluctantly, I put the thought aside. She massaged Charlie with a sinister, growling vibrator and then applied some heat to the small of his back. Finally she made what looked like two standard, chiropractic adjustments and another I thought distinctly kinky. Charlie squirmed voluptuously under her hands and enjoyed it all immensely. "You feel better now, no?" "I feel better now, YES!" Said Charlie. "OK. Now I put some medicine on you back. This is very old, um traditional - is the right word? traditional treatment." She reached high into a cabinet and brought down a large bottle of evil-looking black liquid and massaged it into Charlie's back. It smelt exactly like Ben Gay, did the ancient traditional treatment. After a few minutes Charlie was pronounced fit to get up. "Now I give you a small bottle of As to take wiz you. You put some on tonight and again in ze morning before you fly. Also you put a small cushion behind you back in ze airplane. And you go see you own doctor in ze States, OK?" She handed Charlie the small bottle of the ancient, French remedy and reluctantly, we left. We were out on the sunlit pavement when she caught us by the front door. Oh! Attendez! Wait! I foget to tell you. Be very careful wiz ze medicine when you have it on your hands, don't touch your zizi! It will make you jump and shout!
A distinguished looking gentleman in his mid-nineties, with his hair well groomed, a great looking suit, a flower in his lapel and smelling slightly of a good cologne, walks into an upscale cocktail lounge. Seated at the bar is an equally well-dressed woman in her mid-eighties. The gentleman walks over, sits along side of her, orders a drink, takes a sip, turns to her and says, "So tell me. Do I come here often?" PA GE 42 ... TA RPA TOPICS
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN BERNARD W. RAWLINGS JUNE 24, 1920 — JULY 19, 2004 Barney wanted to be a pilot from an early age. Raised in and around Kansas City, he saw TWA aircraft overhead throughout his youth. He was unable to afford flying lessons, but still he was drawn to the airline. Soon after high school, he took a job as a clerk in the TWA maintenance hangar. Wage: 55 cents an hour. World War II intervened. Barney enlisted and was accepted as an aviation cadet. Following his training in Texas and Tennessee, he was posted to England as a B-17 copilot. !n January of 1944, on his seventh mission, his plane was shot down, making a crash landing in a farm field in Belgium. For safety, the surviving crew members scattered. Barney crossed into France, made contact with the French Underground, and worked his way to the Pyrenees and freedom. After the war, he was hired by TWA as a copilot. Over the following decades, he flew almost every aircraft type TWA operated; DC-3s and DC-4s, B-307s, M-404s, L-749s, 1049s and 1649s Convair 880s and B-7O7s, 727s and747s. He became a Captain in 1954. One of his last flights as Captain, perhaps his very last—was to Paris: Flight 800. He was active in ALPA. For a time during the 1960s, he served as chairman of the negotiating committee. He was a frequent contributor to The TWA MEC Newsletter Lancet.
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stay on with TWA as a flight engineer. Heavy family financial obligations forced his hand; but he also said he couldn't bear to quit flying altogether. He continued with the airline until 1988. On one of his trips to Europe as flight engineer, in 1987, he visited the spot in Belgium where his B17 had comedown. Several local townsfolk walked with him into the field. They were deeply moved to witness his emotion upon standing at the place where one of the wounded crewmen—a waist gunner who was carried out of the plane—had died. After Barney returned to New York, the Belgian townspeople decided to erect a monument in honor of the crew that had descended in their midst—and by extension, in honor of all the young Americans who had come from thousands of miles away to fight, and possibly to die, for the liberation of Europe, The granite monument was dedicated in June of 1987, in a ceremony attended by virtually the entire local population. Decorated members of the Belgian Resistance, representatives of NATO, the US Air Force, and the Belgian Air Force were present, as were all the living members of Barney's B -17 crew . Belgian jet fighters did a flyby, and Barney and his B-17 crewmates were interviewed on Belgian TV. The monument bears the names of all the crew. The first name is that of the gunner who died on Belgian soil: "Miller Jackson, mort pour la liberte." Elsewhere on the monument are the words, "Grateful Forever." In 1994, Barney published a book entitled, " Off we went (into the Wild into the wild blue yonder)" about his wartime experiences. In 200l, he published a novel entitled "Debris fields," a speculative account of the downing of TWA Flight 800 on July 17, 1996. Barney died on July 19, 2004, following complications from heart surgery. He asked that his ashes be scattered in the Atlantic south of Long Island; where Flight 800 went down.
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN CHARLES P. MCMILLON SEPTEMBER 28, 1920 — JULY 28, 2004 Pete McMillon was born September 28, 1920 in Asheville, NC. He worked his way through college at Furman University in Greenville, SC as an auto mechanic where he majored in Engineering and Religion. Pete was an instructor at Souther Field in Americus, GA with the 56th Army Air Forces Flying Training Detachment from April 1942 to September 1944. This is where he met and married Mildred Elizabeth Greene on December 16, 1944. PA GE 44 ... TA RPA TOPICS
On July 16, 1943 he was inducted into the U.S. Air Corps Enlisted Reserve at Fort McPherson, GA and honorably discharged on July 30, 1945. He then joined Transcontinental and Western Air, stationed out of Washington D.C. Pete then transferred to Kansas City in 1947. He flew to almost every country and city including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Africa, Portugal, Spain, Bermuda, France, Canada, Mexico, Newfoundland, Italy and numerous others. In later years, he flew as a check pilot. He retired in 1980 after 36 years with TWA. His favorite plane was the Constellation (Connie) which he said "was the greatest plane ever invented." Pete could do everything he set his mind to. He was a master electrician, boat builder, house builder, plane builder, hunter and mechanic (his favorite tool was duct tape). His hobbies were trapshooting (life member of the Amateur Trapshooting Association) where he won countless championship trophies, going to Lake of the Ozarks, RV'ing and reading. Pete was also a 32 nd egree Mason and Past Master of Henri Lodge #190. He was also a member of the Order of d Eastern Star and served as Worthy Patron nine times. Although it is extremely difficult to accept the void of losing our loved one, his family rejoices in the wonderful memories that remain in their hearts. Pete worked hard and did everything he always wanted to do. He left no wishes unfulfilled. Above all, he loved his family. He was preceded in death by a son and leaves his beloved wife of over 59 years, Mildred; two daughters, three grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN JOSEPH R. BITAR OCTOBER 13, 1926 MAY 22, 2004 Joe Bitar passed away after lengthy illness. Joe was born in New York, NY. He dreamed of flying from the time he was a young boy. After short tours in the US Air Force and Air National Guard, he was hired by Trans World Airlines in 1952. He flew as International flights as Flight Engineer on the Super G Constellations. He later upgraded to co-pilot and then Captain on the Boeing 727. Joe retired as Captain flying L-1011 aircraft, after 34 years with TWA. He was dedicated to TWA and was proud to work for the company. He was on the Logo/Design
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committee and was awarded " Captain of the year for the Eastern Region " in 1982. He loved the crews he flew with and enjoyed learning from them and passing on what he knew. He always knew more than he gave himself credit for. When Joe wasn't flying, he always had to be busy. He was an expert mechanic and handyman who found much satisfaction in helping others. He renovated basements, rebuilt engines, made kitchen tables, birdhouses and Christmas wreaths. He made a balsa wood model of a clam boat (to scale), and a tool shed the size of a bedroom. Most of these projects were for other people. He was the quintessential self-made man. He taught himself almost everything he knew, including how to use a computer. He spent many years as a Big Brother for Catholic Charities and was an active member of the Knight of Columbus for over 40 years. After he retired on Marco Island, Florida, he spent more time on his favorite hobbies of fishing and golf Last year, he and his wife, Gloria, celebrated 50 years of marriage together. His 4 children and 11 grandchildren also survive him. Joe Bitar was dedicated to God and his family. He once said if he had to do it all over again, he would change nothing about the decisions he made in his life. Not many people can say that He by Ken Bitar was the greatest Dad in the world.
IN MEMORY OF JOHN L. SEAMAN MARCH 28, 1932 - JUNE 20, 2004 John L. Seaman was born at Toledo, Ohio on March 28, 1932 and passed away at St. John ' s Regional Medical Center at Joplin, MO on June 20, 2004 of Acute Leukemia and a heart attack. He graduated in 1951 from Northrop School of Aeronautics in California and was hired by TWA February 1952 as an Aircraft Mechanic at Chicago, Illinois. Shortly after, John went to serve in the Korean War as a Helicopter Mechanic. He became a TWA Flight Engineer in 1956. John transferred to San Francisco, CA in 1958 and lived in San Jose. In May 1968 he moved to Kansas City, MO where he became a Flight Instructor for sixteen years at the Training Center. In the-mid 1970 's he took an assignment to fly out of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for SAUDIA on the L-1011. During his career with TWA, John flew Constellations, Boeing 727's, Convair 880's , Lockheed L-1011,s and Boeing 747'S. PA GE 46 ... TA RPA TOPICS
In June 1988 John had by-pass surgery, which forced early retirement, losing his pilot's license. His last flights were out of STL to HNL on the B-747, which he truly enjoyed. His formal retirement date was June 1990, ending his 38-year career with TWA. After his retirement he moved to Neosho, MO and was a partner with son Kyle, in The Rotary Doctor, an automotive business rebuilding the Rotary Engines for the Mazda RX-7 sports car. John married a Bonanza Air Lines flight attendant, Mary Ann Fritch on June 19, 1960 at Atascadero, CA. They were married 44 years. They have three children, Jay who is with the Kansas Air National Guard (KC-135/FOE), Kyle, and Scott who is in the Operations Control Center at AirTran Airways (ATL). He is survived by a sister and a brother and six grandchildren. John will be remembered as a man who was generous, kind and always willing to help and will be greatly missed by his family and friends. One of John's special loves was the Connie and the family requests contributions to be sent to the Save-A-Connie Airline History Museum at 201 Lou Holland Drive, Kansas City, MO. 64116.
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN JOHN J. QUINN NOVEMBER 11, 1920 JUNE 1, 2004 Jack (JJ) Quinn was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1920. Wanting to experience life to its limits, the energetic and ambitious teenager started flying in rural Pennsylvania in the late 1930s. With WWII on the horizon, JJ joined the Army Air Corps as an Aviation Cadet and received his wings in an accelerated graduation ceremony 5 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He flew a variety of transport aircraft including the B-24, B-34, B-17, and B-29 on anti-submarine and U.S. Navy convoy coverage missions during the war. JJ was hired by TWA after separating from active duty in October 1945 where he flew the DC-3, DC-4 and the Martin 404 based out of Newark, New Jersey. In 1949, he joined the Pennsylvania Air National Guard flying the B-26. He was recalled to active duty from 1951 to 1954 in support of the Korean War. His wartime jobs included global transport flying as well as a tour as the Air Attache to Pakistan.
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With military service completed in 1954, JJ continued his career with TWA flying as Captain on the B727, and Lockheed 1011. For 38 years, JJ flew for TWA, many of those years as a check pilot He was based in Newark, Chicago and retired from Los Angeles while commuting from his home overlooking Lake Mead in Boulder City, Nevada. During many of his flying years, Jack managed or owned many businesses; a physical fitness gym, bus leasing corporation, and a detection dog service to name just a few. . Not to be thwarted by a little thing like his 60th birthday, the eternal optimist simply focused his wisdom into the courtroom. He studied and became a judge for the Clark County, Nevada Justice System where he reigned for 12 years. His lovely wife Nancy, 3 children, and an extended family including his first great grandson, Carson, survive JJ. The many friends of JJ know his absence leaves a huge void in our lives but his life still fills our hearts. The gregarious and humorous JJ had the uncanny ability to relate to people of all ages. He loved to laugh and joke with subtle teasing being his favorite. He could guarantee at least a smile out of anyone if he wanted. He will be missed.
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN JAMES F. MEAGHER APRIL 10, 1921 - MAY 30, 2004 Jim was the finest person I have ever known. His gentle nature never wavered and his capabilities were many. He loved to laugh and told many a good story. He adored TWA and flew 38 years as Captain and five more as Flight Engineer. Retirement was a hot and cold subject with him and he reached it in 1986. I flew with him on almost all his trips from 1973 on, and we had a wonderful time. Since he was flying International, I really got to see the world. He flew 747 International at the time of retirement, and oh how he loved that airplane! He joined TWA in 1948 after service in the US Air Force. He was a member of the US Marines and the New York Air National Guard and the US Navy, instructing in all. He delighted in piloting his own airplanes, a Cessna 195 and a Cessna 180. We lived in Rosarito Beach, Mexico for five years and commuted to his domicile JFK in New York. Later we moved to La Jolla, California. Jim is survived by his wife of 30 years, Patricia, three children; sons Timothy and Marty, and daughter Jamie, 3 granddaughters; Kimberly, Keli and Stephanie. and six great grandsons. by Patricia Meagher PA GE 48 ... TA RPA TOPICS
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN THEODORE SAMUEL "SPIKE" POQUETTE JULY 24, 1905 - JULY 17, 2004 My father, "Spike" Poquette, was born in Medford, WI, the oldest boy among a family of 9 children. He graduated in Journalism from the Univ. of WI but it was a ride with a barnstormer in high school that resulted in a primary career of flying. That first airplane ride was with "Speed" Holman, one of Northwest Airlines pioneer pilots, and they remained friends until "Speed" was killed in an airshow in which they were both flying. After a brief career in pro ice hockey in Kansas City and hoping to write for the Kansas City Star, he nonetheless couldn't give up the idea of flying. He traded flying lessons for teaching meteorology in a flying school at the old Municipal Airport in Kansas City and he was on his way. He barnstormed, did airshows and finally landed his first commercial airline job in 1929 for S. A. F. E. Way Airlines (owned by Earl Halliburton and later merged with a new American Airlines) out of Tulsa. With them, he flew Ford Tri-motors (always one of his favorite airplanes) around the Southwest. In those days, co pilots were also flight attendants so one of the aspects of his job was passing out sandwiches! After the demise of S.A.F.E Way, one of his flying buddies, Cliff Abbott, convinced him that his future lay with Transcontinental and Western Air. Several years after his marriage in 1931 to his beloved wife, Fauna Mary Jackson, a St. Luke's Hospital nurse, he signed up. He was also a longstanding member of the Army Air Corps/USAF Reserve, receiving his commission as Second Lieutenant in 1931 and retiring as a Captain in the late 1950's. As I understand it from reliable sources, be raised quite a bit of cain in the Army's airplanes. As a captain for TWA, he flew mostly DC-2's and DC-3's in which he logged thousands of hours. Then came the Boeings and the Constellation—he was in the first class of "Connie" pilots, I believe. He was based in Kansas City, with a brief stint in Newark. The names that I remember, as a child in that era, were some real TWA old timers—Cliff Abbott, Howard Hall, Earl Fleet, John Harrington, Bill Campbell, Tommie Tomlinson, Jack LeClaire, Busch Voights, "Doc" Mesker. All were friends, some were neighbors. Spike quit flying for TWA in 1948 for medical reasons but eventually returned
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to flying as head of the corporate fleet for Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Co. My dad was a real aviation pioneer. Spike was a man who just loved to fly, embraced each new aviation technology as it came along. He was a check pilot and also was a tireless fighter for pilots' rights, health, and safety—he spent many. hours on arbitration panels as the TWA pilots representative. To show that his journalism degree was not a complete waste of time. I wrote a column for the TWA employee newsletter as well as for magazines and newpapers! His friends will also remember him an ace poker player and champion trapshooter. The picture above was taken when Spike was 98. He died, surrounded by family. in Overland Park, KS. My father was not one to reminisce, always looking to the future. If there are any TARPA members out there who remember any good "Spike" Poquette stories, I would love to hear about them! I will mention that several years ago, my daughter, my grandson I were fortunate enough to get a ride in a old Ford Tri-motor (with TWA Capt. Bud Fuchs in the cockpit), following in my father's footsteps—four generations of one family to have took to the skies in that grand old airplane. by Mary Louise Poquett
IN MEMORY OF JOSEPH A. "JOE" CRESWELL FEBRUARY 25, 1913 — SEPTEMBER 11. 2004 Joe was born in eastern Ohio and after a long career followed by years of retirement, he died in Huntington Beach, California. His first job was with Lockheed. During the war. Joe served with Consairways Military division in the Pacific theater. In 1948, Joe joined TWA and worked as a Flight Engineer until retirement in 1973. His first wife Rose died in 1972. In 1983 Joe married former Hostess Ellie Edman Carpenter. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1992, but since it was mild at first, Joe enjoyed they enjoyed ten more years with his family, friends and their Lazy Days motor home. Joe had no children . by Ellie Creswell PA GE 50 ... TA RPA TOPICS
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN JOHN MATEYCHAK DECEMBER 22, 1929 JUNE 22, 2004 On June 22nd 2004 my father, John Mateychak, passed away after a battle with mantle cell lymphoma, a variant of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He died having lived out his childhood dream of becoming a pilot, a dream he realized in the Air Force, flying patrols around Japan during the Korean war, and later as a pilot with TWA, where he proudly flew for 33 years. In 1956 he became a first officer on the Martin 404, progressed on equipment, becoming a captain on the 7 2 7, 7 0 7, L-1011, and finally on the 747 . While at TWA he met my mother (Joanne), a young English stewardess at the time. His years at TWA were among the best of his life. On the occasions when my brother, Paul (now a pilot for ASA), and I were with him at the airport you could feel the pleasure that he experienced being in his element, connected with the things and people that gave him meaning during the good times, and a sense of purpose and stability when times weren't so good. During Paul's eulogy he recalled a memory of my father returning from 3-day trips to Europe, always coming home with bars of Toblerone in the pockets of his uniform overcoat. On the occasions when the traffic around JFK made him late and we were already in bed, we remembered my father kneeling by our beds once he made it home, still in his uniform after a long stretch to London, Paris or Milan, checking in on us before going to bed himself. It's impossible for me to think about my Dad for any length of time and not think about TWA as well. My childhood was spent flying around the country and to Europe, soaking up the service and staring out the window, a luxury that most people never know and a tremendous gift for a father to give his son. I'll never forget the best flight of my life, traveling first class on the 747 from JFK to London, my brother and I seated in the first 2 seats, in the nose of the plane, eating filet mignon, too keyed up to sleep on the overnight flight for fear of missing out on one minute of transAtlantic luxury. In going through his papers recently we came to appreciate the meaning that my father got from his work, based on the volume of awards, certificates and photos taken of him in the line of duty. One of the more touching things that we came across was a card signed by the crew that he flew with on his final flight home, praising him as the finest pilot they had flown with. The fact that he
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kept it all these years tells me that he didn't take this praise lightly. I think it affected him deeply and was a source of pride. Paul and I went to his retirement party. For us, it was great to see him one last time in his element. It was impossible not to notice the respect that my Dad had for those he was leaving behind, and the respect that they had for him. I can't remember him smiling quite as widely as he did that night, telling stories about past flights and introducing us to everybody in the room. About a week before his death we pulled out one of his pilot log books, which he meticulously maintained. We rattled off the names of pilots that he flew with back in the 70's and he had a story about each one. Had he not been forced to retire at the age of 6o, he'd have been flying right up until the day that cancer entered, and ended, his life. This much I know is true. Thank you to all of the retired TWA folk out there who made my Dad's life that much better. We welcome anyone who might have a memory of my father to send us an email and share their experiences of him with us. mateychak@verizon.net;pmateychak@Comcast.net;joeymaxr@ aol.com by W arren Mateychak
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN JOHN W. NIVEN NOVEMBER 1, 1914 — SEPTEMBER 9, 2001 Our Father, John Wiley Niven, was born on November 1 , 1914 in College Park, Georgia. His family moved to Memphis, Tennessee when he was a small boy. His family (parents and two older sisters) was very business minded but after seeing his first airplane at age two, he chose to go a different direction. His Mother told me he was absolutely amazed when he saw the aircraft go over their home. He set his sights on flight and never looked back. In 1936 our parents married. After graduating from the University of Arkansas in 1937, with a degree in mechanical engineering, he took flying lessons with two other gentlemen. They pooled their resources and bought an old airplane. After receiving his pilot's license, my parents moved to New Orleans, Louisiana where our Father took a job teaching aeronautical engineering at Tulane University. He was also a flight 'instructor while in New Orleans.
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In 1942 he joined TWA Airlines as a First officer and moved his wife to Chicago, Illinois. In 1 943, after the birth of their daughter, my parents moved to Kansas City, Kansas where after some fifteen years, he joined TWA's International Division. He holds the distinction of being the first commercial Captain to fly the Polar Route. A son was welcomed to our family in 1949. In 1956 Captain Niven moved his family back to Memphis, which was the hometown of both he and his wife. Captain Niven commuted to New York flying the 707, 727 and finally the 747 out of Kennedy Airport until his retirement in 1 974 . After retiring, he moved with his wife to Phoenix, Arizona where he lived until his passing on September 9, 2001. He leaves four grandchildren, Edward H. Crump IV, Gwendolyn Crump Merryman, Shelby Crump-Jetton and John W. Niven III and six great-grandchildren. We, his family, miss this wonderful Christian gentleman with all our hearts. Submitted with deepest love and respect by Mrs. John W. Niven, Ms. Gwendolyn N. Crump and Mr. John W. Niven Jr.
IN MEMORY OF JOHN A. ELDER SEPTEMBER 5, 1917 — DECEMBER 31, 2003 IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN JAMES L. COCHRAN MAY 13, 1928 — APRIL 21, 2004 IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN JOHN A. CARLSON JUNE 25, 1914 — APRIL 28, 2004 IN MEMORY OF KENNETH R. TEASDALE NOVEMBER 18, 1922 — MAY 15, 2004 IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN ERMON W SMITH OCTOBER 13, 1928 - MAY 28, 2004 IN MEMORY OF OSBORNE H. HANSON JUNE 15, 1912 — JUNE 10, 2004 PA GE 53 ... TA RPA TOPICS
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN WARREN CANTRELL JANUARY 3, 1921 - JUNE 24, 2004 IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN CLARENCE "CLANCY" HALL NOVEMBER 10, 1939 - MAY 15, 2004 IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN ROBERT E. MABREY OCTOBER 23, 1917 JUNE 24, 2004 IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN MELVIN J. MANNING DECEMBER 18, 1914 - JULY 26, 2004 IN MEMORY OF CHARLES F. LAWSON JULY 15, 1916 - AUGUST 4, 2004 IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN KENNETH G. HIPPE JANUARY 2, 1918 - SEPTEMBER 23, 2004
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"GANDER, GANDER, GANDER, ...." By Jeff Hill Sr. On a wintry day early in 1964, a bus arrived at 1307 Baltimore St. and boarded TWA's new hire Class 64-4 for a field trip to Olathe, KS. The purpose was to visit the Kansas City Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) for an introduction and orientation to the, then new, radar environment in which we were soon to operate. It was dark in there! Clean-shaven controllers wore white shirts and ties and I don't recall seeing any women peering into the dim monochrome CRTs. The radar's sweep would revive the fading blips with each slow revolution. The facility computer was the size of a boxcar and had to be air conditioned to cool its many vacuum tubes and mechanical relays. It likely wasn't superior to (or even equal to) the bargain basement desktop PC that I am typing this on! Until this summer, I hadn't been to an ARTC since. Any TWA pilot that flew international out of JFK spent many hours over the Canadian Maritimes and exchanged many messages with Gander Center/Radio. I used to look down on that lovely wilderness and I would promise myself that someday I would visit there and this past August I finally made good on that promise. Sharon and I boarded an AA MD-80 at ORD bound for Toronto, then an Air Canada A-320 non-stop flight to St. John's, NL. (NL is for Newfoundland & Labrador, a single Province since 1949.) St. John's is nice. We arrived the day before the "Royal St. John's Regatta," their big summer festival held on the first fine W ednesday in A ugust. It would take at least a major earthquake to make the first Wednesday in August anything other than "fine" in a city with an average annual rainfall of 58". St John's, one of the oldest (and easternmost) communities in North America, is a city with a metropolitan area of around 175,000. It's the seat of the Provincial Government and its largest city. Its importance as a shipping center has waned due to modern technology. Alas, cod fishing is a thing of the past – the cod having been over fished nearly to extinction. After an enjoyable couple of days in St. John's, we drove a rental car to Gander. (Gander is a hard place to get to as a "non-rev".) The Trans Canada Highway begins in St. John's and five-hours of easy driving got us to Gander. We had called the Center a couple of days before to make sure we would be expected. Mr. Don O'Brien, a supervisor on duty greeted us. Don and the shift manager, Mr. Harold O'Rielly, turned out to be most gracious hosts – we had planned to visit for about an hour but wound up spending most of the afternoon! This building (right) houses the entire facility. The first thing I noticed was, in contrast to my visit to Kansas City Center 40 years earlier, the rooms were spacious and brightly lit, like offices or classrooms (notice the Provincial flag in the background, left). The dress code now is extremely casual and the female gender is well represented. The radarscopes are gone, replaced with large, 2' X 2' flat screen LCD color monitors. The facility is divided into three sections: Gander ARTCC works the radar environment from its western boundaries with Moncton and Montreal Centers, eastward to Fifty Degrees West. Gander Oceanic Control owns the
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airspace from Fifty Degrees West to Thirty Degrees West where it abuts Shanwick Oceanic Control. The southern boundary is at Forty Five Degrees North where New York and Santa Maria take over. The third section is the Gander International Flight Service Station, or "Gander Radio". You will recall that when we spoke with Gander Radio we were not talking to the controllers. but rather to radio operators who relayed messages to the controllers. This is still the case, although the data link (ACARS) is rapidly replacing voice communications . Currently, about one third of flights are reporting and receiving clearances via data links. The radio operator's positions will be phased out within the next ten years. Does anyone remember the nights when the HF was virtually unusable? (W hen that happened. the Loran A usually wasn't much better.) There was plenty of yelling, "Gander, Gander, Gander, TW A soand-so, over." W e usually found someone to relay for us, another aircraft, or maybe Shanwick or New Y ork – forget Santa Maria. Once I got Houston to relay a message, and believe it or not, another time, Karachi! Such are the mysteries of radio wave propagation. W hen the 747 brought us INS and upper side band it was a much welcome improvement over HF Radio ' and Doppler/Loran Navigation.
The controller above is working an oceanic sector. The large monitor in front of him shows the "big picture". Upper center is Greenland and upper right is Iceland. On the left side are Labrador, Newfoundland and the oceanic entry and exit fixes. Notice that the tracks (westbound. as we were there in the early afternoon) are pretty far north...three are over Greenland. This was due to a strong West to East jet stream between 50 0 -55 0 North. This monitor does everything: the controller can zoom in or out, show the past, present or project the future. He can have a 'picture(s) within a picture' as can be seen in the lower center – just like the new big flat screen TVs. He can call up text such as the procedures manual, communications data, etc., on other screens. Although this is a non-radar environment, the monitor looks like a radar screen because the computer moves the "targets" according to flight plan information that is confirmed or corrected with each position report. And there are plenty of targets – 300 to 400 flights a day in each direction, nowadays! Notice the stack of "strips" to the controller's right...one strip for each flight he is working. The strips are organized according to flight levels. If the "gee whiz" electronics poop out, it's back to pre-radar ATC. A demonstration of this convinced me that a great effort is required to look at these strips and visualize the actual situation, kind of like flying a back course approach on needle, ball and airspeed. Can A ir India have FL 380? The answer to that question requires the kind of analytical thought, visualization and "thinking ahead" used by good chess players. Oh, and by the way, FL 380 could be available these days, as they are now using 1000' vertical separation above FL 290 in MNPS airspace. PAGE 56 ... TARPA TOPICS I
After the tour, Don drove us over to the terminal and there we went up to see the tower. One young fellow was manning all positions. Not much action at YQX these days. The only planes on the ramp were a "plain wrapper" 747-cargo plane with no company markings and a transient flight of Indian Air Force Jaguars with their Russian-made tanker escorts. Gander is a nice little town with a population of about 10,000. There are two topics of conversation that will inevitably come up in Gander: the crash of the Arrow Air DC-8 in 1985 (Canada's worst air disaster with 256 dead – U.S. soldiers returning from the Middle East) and 9/11 when Gander became the surprised host of forty some international flights ordered to hold short of the U.S. Thousands of bewildered travelers were put up in churches, gyms, public buildings, etc. Not only that, but flights on the North Atlantic that hadn't yet reached 30° West were ordered to reverse course and return to Europe. Can you imagine? Do you remember the diversion procedure; ninety degrees off track for 30 NM then parallel track with a 30 NM offset. What a circus that must have been! Back in St. John's, we had trouble getting on a Toronto flight with our ID90s, so we decided to get on the first available westbound, which happened to be going to Halifax. Never having been there, we decided to spend a couple of nights. Halifax, another pretty port city, is a good-sized town; the metropolitan area has about half a million residents. We loved the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. It has a neat exhibit on Sable Island. Being right in the middle of the shipping lanes, Sable Island has had two hundred forty some ships wrecked on it, the last in 1947. It used to have manned lighthouses and life-saving stations, but the lighthouses are now automated and the lifesavers, which rescued many, are no longer needed thanks to the certainty (?) of modern navigation. Like Gander, Halifax has two tales to tell: the well-known story of the recovery of the Titanic victims and the lesser-known one of the great Halifax explosion. The explosion, Canada's worst disaster, happened on the morning of Dec. 6, 1917, during WW I. One of the ships gathering in the harbor to form a convoy to England was the French vessel Mount Blanc, which carried 240 tons of TNT and other explosives. It collided with the Imo, which ironically, was loaded with relief supplies destined for Belgium. The Mount Blanc caught fire. Dockworkers, children on their way to school and area residents, unaware of their peril, crowded the waterfront to watch. When Mount Blanc finally blew, it killed 1,650 outright and seriously wounded over 9,000. It created a tidal wave that sank seven ships in the harbor. The "earthquake" that followed the explosion upset coal stoves in kitchens and halls and when the fires started in those damaged structures reached the winter stores of coal and coke in their basements they burned for a week. The day after the explosion, a blizzard brought sixteen inches of snow, adding further to the chaos. It is a real horror story, the biggest manmade explosion until the atomic age. Halifax's role in the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic is the other story. The nearby Carpathia nicked up the livin g survivors from Titanic within hours and sailed on to New York. Three ships were dispatched from Halifax to make a further search of the area. Passengers and crew from the Titanic that did not make it to lifeboats, but entered those icy waters in life jackets probably died within an hour in the near freezing water, but they did remain afloat. Over 300 bodies were recovered and brought to Halifax, some as much as a month after the fact. Many of these dead were not claimed for one reason or another and are buried in three different Halifax cemeteries. The graves of victims of the great explosion are scattered throughout all the city's cemeteries. We spent two days in Montreal on the way home from Halifax. It was another new city to us, rich in history and surely the most "European " of all large North American cities. Maybe we'll call there again when we fly up the St. Lawrence with the "70 Knotters" in '05. This memorial (right) marks the grave of the only recovered victim to go unidentified. It reads, ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF AN UNKNOWN CHILD WHOSE REMAINS WERE
RECOVERED AFTER THE DISASTER TO THE "TITANIC"APRIL 15 TH 1912"
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Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you can find a really big rock.
From Russ Day Dear Gene, Been meaning to write for some time. I hate to prove Larry Fauci wrong, but in the last TARPA TOPICS he states he was with Russ Derickson on a sailboat in the Caribbean and that Russ worked as a "go-fer" in a local Long Island store. I'm afraid Larry has his "Russ's" confused. Me, Russ Day, was the skipper of two sailboat bareboat charters in the Caribbean that he was on with his wife Judy. Check with Carl Palmer. And when I first retired (16 years ago) I worked in a local stationery store for a few years while I got used to retirement. I don't know if Russ Derickson was ever on a sailboat much less worked in a stationery store. But then all this was almost 20 years ago so Larry is forgiven for getting his Russ's mixed up. As for what I'm doing now, my wife and I are fine and planning to go on the TARPA cruise in November. We just got off an Alaska " Inside Passageway " cruise to Alaska two weeks ago... Great time! Good weather! Fabulous scenery! I sold my 32' sailboat (sob sob) this year along with my Sunfish. Starting to reign in my activities. I miss boating but I still crew on a racing sailboat called an Ensign in Northport Bay every Sunday during the summer season... Been doing a lot more art (to take up not having a boat) and plan to have a show in the local Northport Library in December. So maybe my artwork will have value after all. All of you guys with my art work don't throw it away! Nothing else. I'm about the only TARPA member left up here on Long Island. No plans to move, for some strange reason I like it here. Probably the only way I'll leave is in a pine box for the nearest VA cemetery when that time eventually comes. I hope Larry doesn ' t get too upset with me for correcting his memory, but I'm pretty sure I'm the "Russ " he had in mind. If not, then Larry, accept my apologies. Regards, and see most of you guys in November. (Sorry I couldn't include the art work that Russ decorates his letters with. Gene)
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Question: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb? Answer: Two. One to hold the giraffe firmly and the other to fill the bathtub with brightly colored machine tools.
From Bob Adicks Dear Gene, The enclosed may be a funny read for our fellow TARPA members, if you wish to reprint in one of your future issues. Those of us who fly military aircraft will certainly be amused at some of these admonitions. You are to be commended for your selfless efforts and I (for one) appreciate your contributions. And I thank you for your nice comments. Gene The only three things a wingman should ever say are: 1. Two's up. 2. Lead, you're on fire. 3. Ill take the ugly chick. And in a multi-place aircraft, there are only three things the copilot should ever say: 1. Nice landing, Sir. 2. Ill buy the first round. 3. Ill take the ugly chick. New copilots on bomber crews were told to say these three things and to otherwise keep their mouth shut and not touch anything: 1.Clear on the right. 2. Outer marker Sir, runway in sight. 3. I'll eat the chicken. There's more. Wait for a later issue.
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No sense in being pessimistic because it probably wouldn't work anyway.
From Ken Slaten Hi Gene, I just sent in my paperwork for the TARPA convention 2004. Hope to see you there. After 3 years of "widowhood", I'm getting married in October and we plan on the cruise for a honeymoon. Things are going pretty well here in ABQ. Still play a little golf (badly I might add). Saw Stu Gilbert over in Prescott. Still going strong but has to be on Oxygen part of the time. Best Regards and thanks for the job you do. Congratulations Kenny, sorry I can't be there to celebrate. From Jim Aylward I've
Thanks for keeping me up to date on what's going on with our dwindling members. been kept busy by my children who have been having children who always need a babysitter, and who better than granpa to do the job. A couple of months ago my tennis partner, who doesn't fly, suggested that we rent an airplane and go visit our respective grandchildren. Since I hadn't moved an aileron in almost sixteen years, my reaction was one of laughter. Our next tennis session I told him that it sounded like a good idea, but first I would have to find out if there was anybody out there soft enough to rent an airplane to a seventy five year old man who last flew in 1988. A few days later we went to the local airport and spoke to the guy who ran a flying school. He never blinked. He asked for my license, and I presented him with a frayed piece of paper with barely legible printing that reinforced my decrepit state. He had no problem, so off I went, got my physical, and the next week my trusting tennis partner got in the back of a Cessna 172 and I tried
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Wine a bit you'll feel better
my best not to scare the guy in the right seat.. I couldn't believe how much fun I had. The biggest change that I noticed was that the runway was about twenty feet lower than when I last landed. Last month we left Beverly and headed west. We had a Loran that was nothing like the Loran we had in the fifties. It had every airport in North America programmed so that all I had to do was to select the code and lo and behold I had the course and distance to destination. We were out for nine days and went to Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and back to Beverly. We never passed a bathroom without a visit, so we made no unscheduled landings. Next month I'm going to write all my friends, and if either one of them is going to be home in the fall, I'll make another trip. VREY MPTORANT: Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? It's also the reason I can't spel. Gene From Harry Mokler
Hi Gene, Just a line to say thank you to you guys for all the work that goes into the Topics. I enjoy it and look forward to each issue. I' m copying John to let him know that the binding on my copy of the November Topics started to come unglued as soon as I received it. No problem if just a single anomaly but maybe he has heard from others. Cheers
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Marriage is finding someone you want to annoy the rest of your life
From Larry Fauci As usual it is with deep regret I recognize so many great people I shared my working days and layovers with. I was quite saddened to see Joe Bitars name on an email recently. Even though I don't think he was a TARPA member, I was recently thinking of calling to see if he and Gloria could joint us on the TARPA cruise. We were neighbors many moons ago in Brooklyn and then again when they moved to Marco Island. Gloria, if you get this, Judy and I send our heart felt regrets. Another great guy we will all miss is Arky Ainsworth. In 1956 two crews of us were sitting on the veranda of the old Heliopolis Palace Hotel in Cairo, having our usual Stella's and peanuts, when I made the mistake of saying "Gee, its the 4th of July and no fireworks." Arky got that usual grin on his face and said," I got ` em if you'll light em." Well what was Ito do? First I went to the desk and asked if it was okay to shoot some fireworks because it was our holiday, the desk clerk said yes. I bravely went out to Arky and said bring on your fireworks. Well, he brought down these 1 1/2 inchers that had an unusual fuse on them, rolled paper about a half inch long. Never having fired one of these I laid it on the stone railing of the veranda and tried to light it with my cigarette. (Remember most of us had them in the 50s') Well it wouldn't seem to light until I turned and said "it won't light!", then it started to sputter and I tried to flip it off the railing but it spun around and landed our side instead of onto the outside ground. What a big bang for such a little firecracker.
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Words are as vital to life as food, drink and sex, but on the whole we don't show as much interest in language as we do in the other pastimes.
The police running up, in a fez, put a stop to that abruptly.
Remembering the great trips and layovers with Gene Exum and Harold Lieding, also the many days in new equipment/ recurrent training with Bob Riethner and Cony Metcalf. Sure is hell getting old—but it beats the alternative.
Congrats to Lou Burns on the Nostalgia trip for many of us. I can still taste those great hot sandwiches at Soakies and the trying to stay awake in class the rest of the afternoon.
From Barney Garriott The super G pictured here is on the side of a corn crib on my farm in Washington Co. Indiana located about 90 miles south of Indianapolis. I grew up here on the farm, which Garriott's homesteaded in 1818 and have lived on since. Indiana has many interesting barns, with farm animals pictured on the side or woven into pictures by using different colored asphalt shingles. The idea occurred to me that I should have a Constellation on my corn crib. It was scaled up from a 24-inch model I have displayed on a bookcase in my house along with other memorabilia including my old flight engineer and pilot wings, TWA service pins, and a plaque of sky-lab astronauts Bean-Lousma and Owen Garriott [a distant relative]. My TWA career started in 1942 after graduating from Lincoln Aeronautical Institute and receiving my A/P. I hired in at Washington National Airport TWA-ICD division as a junior mechanic. An amusing incident took place at my hiring interview. My cousin went to school with Otis Bryan who lived about 13 miles from my home. When she heard I was going to DCA she suggested that I look up her friend, Otis, who was a pilot and would be glad to meet a "home town boy".
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Live well love much laugh often
After acceptance into ICDI asked if there was a way to find out about some pilot by the name of Otis Bryan. The personnel man gave me a peculiar look and asked if I had more information. I replied, "He's from my home area and is a pilot with TWA." A couple of days later I found a note in my mailbox, inviting me to meet with Otis. However, to my consternation, I had learned in the meantime that Otis was head of the whole ICD division! I refused to meet with him at this time. Much later I did meet him, but never did fly with him. At this point I would like to give facts that will relate to the Connie at a later time in the story. I worked as a mechanic under John Beck and later as a line mechanic under John Cooper, who later became a V.P. at MCI. A few old timers will remember these names, as we were a small family in those days. Howard Hughes' Lockheed was often parked in our hanger, but we never saw him. Stories were common that he might even have been wandering among us "incognito". We had five Boeing 307-B-l's with Indian names - Apache, Cherokee, Zuni, Navaho and Comanche — but now dressed in olive drab colors. There were 20 some C-54's, and a couple of C-87's. We also had a DC 2 1/2, Cessna Bobcat trainer and a Boeing 247. The DC 2 1/2/, in case you're curious was a hybrid DC 2-DC 3. All this was a beautiful combination for a green-horn to learn on. My favorites were the Stratoliners [Boeing 307's], and the C-54's. We worked at varied times on A/C, gears, brakes, general interior and exterior maintenance, but at other times doing engine work or engine changes. I made regular trips to see Al Brick to urge him to put me in flight engineer school; Al's standard reply -"too young". It seemed logical since I had learned much of the in-hanger-end of work that it would be expeditious to learn "line work" - running and adjusting engines, towing planes in and out of the hanger, etc. One day the idle mixture needed to be reset on a C-54-R 2000 engine. Standard procedure was to have a cockpit man run the engine, a man on a ladder by the nacelle to do the adjustment, and a guard man on the ground for safety reasons. I was on the ladder
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I love cooking with wine sometimes I even put it in the food.
doing the adjusting and I called for a "dean out". The cockpit man accelerated the engine too much and blew the ladder from under me. I could feel the ladder going, so I grabbed the engine mounts and hung on, with my feet dangling in the prop blast, like a flag blowing in the breeze ground man to the rescue! More trips to see Al Brick finally wore him down to the point of putting me in flight engineers school. Flight engineers in those years' had to be AP mechanics and did in fact change cylinders or engines and do emergency maintenance in some parts of the world. I was well equipped for most eventualities from my two-year's experience. Luckily, I never had one of the unpleasant jobs in some forsaken place. Some of my best lessons came from senior captains like C. O. Miller, Bob Day. Bob called me "junior", which made a big hit with me at age 22! At the 50th anniversay of ICD in Florida I told Bob I'd be glad to be called "Junior" today. Rene Pinel, perhaps more than any other, "shaped me up". I thought I had to be one of the "big boys" and tell a dirty story. Rene leaned over, looked closely at me and said, "I just want to see what type of flight engineers we're hiring these days!" I later learned in Proverbs 17:10 that "a rebuke is more effective for a wise man than a hundred blows on a fool." Thank you, Rene, and all who have straightened my path. With the war over the Connies now were returning to TWA and civilian services. One of my biggest thrills was standing on the ramp at DCA and seeing Howard Hughes and Jack Frye buzz the tower on the Connie's first record-breaking flight coast to coast. A little while later I found myself in 049 school at Reading, PA. I have several pictures from there, one of them with Lloyd Stahl's and Ed Carneals's Aeronca chief parked underneath the wing of the ill-fated Connie. The picture I have included here depicts that fateful flight. The event was to be my final check-out on the 049. I did a very early preflight and the dispatcher said, "You might as well go back to bed, as the fog won't clear until much later. If we eliminate one flight segment the other segments can go as scheduled, so your flight is cancelled. I went back to bed and later on was driving to breakfast when the radio announcer
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excitedly talked about a big airplane down near the airport. I immediately turned around and headed to the airport. The Connie had developed a problem from aluminum wiring - smoke filled the cabin, then the cockpit. Captain Brown was reported having opened the sliding window and putting has head partially out the window so he could see enough to attempt a landing. They almost made it back to the AP falling only approximately a 1/2 mile short of the runway. The plane slid along the ground several hundred feet, went through small trees coming to rest and was consumed by fire. The picture shows the landing gear and engines. Other gruesome pictures in my possession are not suitable for printing. I have often thanked God for sparing my life, but then the question is raised - if He spared your life, why didn't he spare the others? Theologians through the ages have pondered that issue, "Why me?" Time passed and now I was domiciled in K. C. Joe Creswell and I noticed that many Constellation log write-ups were repeated and improper fixes entered as the sign-off. We took a number of these to Al Brink and he suggested we show them to the general foreman at MKC, which we did. Joe moved to LAX and a few months later Al Brick assigned me to the K.C. line maintenance crew to help "tune up" the 049*8 and 749 series airplanes. John Morelli had been transferred from LAX to form an engine-improvement team at MCI engineering. For several weeks I worked with the line crew at MKC meeting incoming terminating flights and reviewing the log remarks. Morelli had developed a manual of troubleshooting procedures, some of which we used to pin-point troubles. Most of the problems were spark-plug leads or bad spark plugs, small injection line leaks, worn injection pump plungers, bad or improper adjustment of injection pumps. There were 9 plungers per pump with the right pump feeding the front bank of cylinders, and the left pump feeding the rear bank of cylinders. The two pumps were connected by a bar with a sync adjustment block on the ends which was set to a .001 clearance under each adjusting block as measured by a feeler gauge. Shortening or lengthening the bars would allow even distribution of fuel to each
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Adam's Rib: The original bone of contention
bank of cylinders. Even distribution could be determined by doing a "magic wand" check. The magic wand was invented by F/E Chester Edwards. It consisted of a long stick or shaft to which was attached a meter reading gauge. The end of the wand had probes which were stuck between the fins on a cylinder, then the temperature read on the meter. The engine was run to governed RPM of 2100 and throttle advanced to 130 BMEP [150 on the turbo compound engines]. The mixture control was leaned to the point of roughness, or 120 BMEP [140 on compound], whichever came first; run for 2 minutes or CHT cockpit reading 190 degrees C, at which point the engine was cut and the wand man then probed the cylinders, calling out the readings for recording and analysis. The BA [049 fleet] and BD [749-749A] fleet were considerably improved so that now the compound could be concentrated on. An amusing incident happened about this time. I approached a Martin 202 [or 404] that had an engine, which backfired repeatedly. The mechanics were on the engine stand listening to the cylinders with a stethoscope, but were unable to find anything. After climbing up on the stand I inspected the engine closely and observed a green stain on one intake pipe, indicating a leak resulting in a lean fuel mixture to that cylinder. The opinion was rendered that if they could throw away the darn stethoscope and fix the intake leak, they'd eliminate the backfire. Loud guffaws greeted this announcement along with "You're a Connie man, not a Martin man, go away and don't bother us!" A few days later we asked foreman Andy Anderson what ever happened to the backfiring R2800 on the Martin. He laughed and said, "Those mechanics were hoping you'd never find out -the backfiring stopped after they put a new packing on the leaking intake pipe." I never at any time had a problem of cooperation from the maintenance crew at MKC. John Cooper, general foreman at MKC, gave me a heavy-hooded coat for slogging around the ramp on cold days. It's a prize possession even today, though well worn by now. Since some success was achieved on BA and BD engines, Al Brink said, "why don't you go up to the engineering at MCI, and see if you can help John Morelli?" Little did I realize I'd be there for years, and end up as Flight Operations Coordinator, plus 4 years in Flight Test.
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Some refer to the countryside as where uncooked animals live
Since neither Morelli nor Brick gave me any hints of what I was to do, I arranged for the pink log sheets of hundreds of Connies to be sent to me for examination. Files were started of problems we recognized, and of problems we didn't know about but were of an unusual nature. From line flying I knew that there were instances where the altimeter hung up around 10,000 ft, but no one believed there was a problem except the ALPA safety committee - "tests ok" was the standard answer. Knowing engineering, thinking that's all those "prima donnas" have to do is look for something to howl about, I started a file on "hung up" altimeters. After building a sufficient file I approached a director of the department and announced that we had a problem with altimeters. "We have no problem or proof', he said. "Well here's AC - on flight - that reports it. Here's another on a different flight, and a third, and a fourth". Thus the yellow dot altimeter came into being! I started a file on unknown engine analyzer patterns, which led to developing five patterns, which were added to the flight crew manual. Wright Engineers said these didn't exist, so our reply was, "Maybe you don't know these patterns, but hundreds of TWA flight engineers know them." From data now coming into engineering Morella dreamed up the idea of installing a peg board along one wall. Into the thousands of holes in the peg board golf tees could be inserted. The golf tees were painted and coded for each trouble; thus a series of golf tees aligned on the peg board made it easy to concentrate on a fix. At the end of each month the entire board was photographed and checked to see what progress had been made. Other airline personnel came to see what TWA was doing and the peg board was proudly pointed out and explained.
TAMING THE "TERRIBLE" COMPOUND! The compound engines started giving us a terrible headache - from my memory, we had 14 failures in 13 days and aircraft were grounded, with engines robbed from a sick airplane to install on another aircraft to get it back in the air. Overhaul couldn't keep turning out engines fast enough and the Airline was in dire straits. One problem was detonation and another preignition. A clever F/E log entry gave us
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To be totally understanding makes one very indulgent
the clue as to what was happening. The write up was fifteen lines of fine print too lengthy to reproduce here, but was incorporated in 04:06:01 May 14, 1964 of Connie OP manual so all could be aware of the symptoms and take corrective action. I had instructions taped to the F/E desk on all planes. Morelli formed a power plant group of foreman at LAX and IDL. They were issued a pickup truck and necessary tooling and test equipment. They were called into MCI, where I was given the task of training them on analyzer pattern interpretation and log analysis of preignition / detonation symptoms. Wright [WAD] engineers were brought in to check overhaul procedures. Flight engineers Joe Hunt and D. G. Valazza came in and were interrogated. Joe Hunt, you will recall, converted aircraft magnetos for race car usage at Indianapolis, and one year 28 of 33 cars were Joe Hunt magneto equipped. Joe went through our magneto overhaul procedures and visited with Ray Dunn, V.P. engineering and overhaul. [Ray Dunn and Al Jordan later V.P. TWA were former flight engineers.] Valazza almost lived inside the engine analyzers. He gave valuable input to new antifouling Procedures we had adopted. Other Flight Engineers visited from time to time. I was given the task of getting F/E 's for a team made up of the power plant foreman, Wright engine experts and flight engineers. When a flight terminated at a major station each aircraft was met by this team, to interview the crew and examine the logbook items. The aircraft could be grounded if a problem was found. I wandered the ramp at LAX checking parked aircraft, personally examining the log items, and was successful in locating a few engines in trouble thereby getting immediate fixes. Needless to say I was not the most popular man with production foremen and flight schedulers. I was careful to have the general foreman personally see the cylinder in trouble, and examine the piston or valve damage. The inspections were done by removing the spark plugs and inserting a borescope into the spark plug hole. A borescope is several inches long and has a light and a magnifying glass on the end. By turning the prop slowly until the valves were open, the valve, valve seats and piston could be inspected. I also spent 6 weeks at , IDL [Kennedy] working with the team and roaming the
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hungered A/C for log analysis. Detonation is of many varieties. All we had learned was incorporated into the FCOM-04 section, maintenance service letters, and the maintenance manual. When detonation, or incipient detonation, occurs it leaves marks on the piston head that look like pictures of bomb craters of WW n taken from high altitude. Since we required all check C's to include borescoping the cylinders, the inspectors would write up problem cylinders for cylinder change if they observed "pock marks" on the piston. Cylinder changes are a very time consuming process. It became a matter of determining "how bad is bad". Guess who had to make the judgment as to the severity of damage? Since we desperately needed every aircraft, I allowed some lightly pock-marked cylinders to bypass an immediate change, and put the AC number, engine number, and cyl number in my little black book, for change as soon as the aircraft arrived back at IDL. I never guessed wrong, and no pock marked piston failed that I had signed off, but I did not sleep well during this critical period. Ray Terry was one of the several IDL flight engineers working with the power plant team and he noted the need for diversion from the stress; so he put us all on his boat and we went tinker mackerel fishing for a rest from the grind. Thank you, Ray. Back at MCI F/E Milo Maurel and I were assigned jobs to make recommended corrections for engines at check C ' s. This resulted in long teletype messages of suggested fixes. Milo was a "clown" and had a nickname for everything. He promptly dubbed me "master genii of the cylinders". WE called him the Green Hornet as he wore a strap type hat [no crown] with a green plastic bill. During perusal of log sheets I came across a pattern of write-up that spelled big trouble. We had experienced two instances of cylinders literally coming apart and severing from the case. To add to that, it was a cylinder in proximity to the propeller feathering line, with potential of a calamity. The failures had occurred with 40 hours from being in trouble, and had failed on take-off during high power operation. After quickly checking with time control I found this cylinder and engine had 38 hours since the pre-ignition incident. The aircraft was located on the ground at LAX. By PLF [we had 26 private line phones] I got hold of the foreman in charge and apprised him of the problem, and
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It's like magic. When you live by yourself, all your annoying habits are gone!
grounded the aircraft. He promptly told me, "this aircraft is being loaded right and has full load, and it's going to fly." Our reply was, "O.K., it's your airplane, your responsibility, and the monkey is full on your back, since we've given you the facts and potential." Put that way, he grounded the plane, while I sweated out the findings. Sure enough, the borescope revealed a crack in the exhaust valve face. Wow! What a relief - my behind safe again - temporarily. I had my neck stuck out too many times during all this period. Morelli wanted a new log book to help diagnose engine problems. I was the one selected to incorporate all the department had learned into a workable product for the flight crew. The final product had complete troubleshooting procedures [in flight] for the F/E to consult when squawking an engine. Small blocks called for recording run-up figures for each engine, including RPM, BMEP, F/F, throttle position, so the F/E could cross check the previous run-up figures to see if a cylinder was inoperative. Guidelines for 17-cylinder operation vs. 18-cylinder operation were given, as amazingly small differences could indicate an inoperative cylinder. Naturally, details were given for interpretation in the 04 section of the FCOM. Again on T.O. the F/E was to record some of the figures on scrap paper and when time allowed, transcribe the figures into the log book blocks. In cruise lean the figures were logged again along with MAP rise. After leaning, mixture control, position, throttle position, high vs. low blower, were also logged. BMEP figures were very important and BMEP error plaques were included for each engine, as BMEP transmitters were sometimes in error, and had to be calibrated frequently by an instrument mechanic with precision equipment. Four BMEP might be a low reading instrument, or might be an engine problem, and all the cross-checking log data would help diagnose the problem We received loud howls of protest for the new log - excess work! Too tedious! One man said, "Boy, I don't' know where we are going, but I can sure tell where we have been!" Another loudly proclaimed that this book was designed for right-handed people - he was right -1 never once thought how a "lefty" would enter the figures. The log was a great
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A credit card is a laminated loan shark
success and absolutely valuable. A jet log was later added. Jim Obertino, chief F/E, said we should go on a "road show" to all the domiciles, and lecture on all we had learned and incorporated into the 04 section of the FCOM. Consequently, we made dozens of slides for overhead projection; we also procured junk parts, cracked valves, etc and spent two or three hours at each show, lecturing on all the problems, trouble shooting. I photographed actual log sheets obliterating the flight number and names. We showed how this was a good sheet and how another was less than perfect This produced interesting comment as a person could recognize his own writing while no one else could. These road shows became so in demand that they carried over into Jet operation later on. Spark plugs gave lots of problems. A/C spark plugs caused several engine failures. Lodge plugs were excellent from anti-fouling standpoint but caused other problems. Champion plugs were overall the best plug, but tended to foul easily at idle and during taxi. Anti-fouling procedures were developed and all this detailed information was disseminated by Flite Facts, and incorporated later into 04 section of the FCOM. Included were pictures depicting copper runout of the center electrode on Champion plugs which had been exposed to 1900 to 2100 degrees F heat, due to pre-ignition and nose ceramic breakage with resultant pre-ignition, requiring a cylinder change. Small stations might not recognize a real problem from plug analysis, but the F/E had pictures and data in the FCOM to insure proper action. I now have a better understanding of how our government is lobbied. After we removed the AC spark plugs from the entire Connie fleet, the spark plug manufacturer representative would come by and take us down to the "Golden Ox" for a steak dinner - "I have more money", he said. It was a waste of time, for he couldn't influence me to install and AC plug in even a lawn mower. How must a politician feel, who has received thousands of dollars for his election campaign? What does all this add up to - what ' s the punch line? FROM 14 FAILURES IN 13 DAYS, AND AFTER SEVERAL WEEKS EFFORT, WE NOW HAD ONE FAILURE IN 28 DAYS! WOW! Flight Crews cooperated very well. Captains stayed out of the "cross hatch" operation
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Good judgment comes from the experiences created by bad judgment ,
area. Low blower was used unless weather dictated higher altitudes. Flight engineers became more proficient, partly due to new information we put in the FCOM, and also due to photographing hundreds of log sheets and sending them back to the crew involved, revealing what the ultimate findings were or what analyzer patterns meant to engine operation. Maintenance cleaned up their act and became more proficient. The FAA immediately noted TWA had the most reliable record of all airlines, and descended on IDL personnel to find out why. The power plant foreman and others related all the procedures and work herein told, and additional material not told. The other airlines came to see Morelli and find the "secret". One of my great satisfactions came from instructing the great German airline, Lufthansa, how TWA did it! The military also came for help on their AWAC Connies. They were experiencing failures galore, but T.O. CHT ' s were running 50-6o degrees C higher than our max allowable temps. We had to let them depart with no real help. Why their head temps were so high, I don't know. I have since wished TWA would have given us the job to try to find out. Fix one problem, and another pops up. The Martin pilots complained of low T.O BMEP on the R 2800 engines. I brought up these facts on the long black table briefing in front of the V.P. and directors. The briefing also included PLF hook-ups to all maintenance stations. The V.P. got downright hostile to the director and shook his finger in the director's face and demanded "why". Guess who the "goat" became to find out the answers? I now reply to questions with a long "ba-a-a-ah". Test call figures showed factory rated horse power was being produced, yet when the engine was installed on a plane at MKC, it had lost up to 100 H.P. on the truck trip from MCI to MKC. Red Crownheart the power plant foreman at MKC revealed to me that he could sometimes pick up a few BMEP by changing the auto feathering valve on the nose case of the engine. The auto feathering valve sensed oil pressure read out in the cockpit as BMEP. By changing the AF valve several BMEP could sometimes be recovered. This info led to the AF
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Inanimate objects can be classified into three major categories : those that don't work, those that break down, and those that get lost.
valve as a likely suspect. I determined to bleed off oil pressure going to the AF valve and see how many CCs leakage were critical before a loss of BMEP occurred. To do this required standing behind a test club [prop] with an R-2800 running at T.O. power and try to bleed off oil into a calibrated cup. How to do this? Get a helmet and goggles like open cockpit pilots wear and stand in the prop blast — not as dangerous as it sounds - since if you fell you would be blown away from the prop. So here we are standing in the prop blast from an R2800 running at full bore! If I had been able to scrounge a scarf, I would have looked like Snoopy sitting on his dog house, flying his plane with the scarf streaming out behind! Morelli finally put an end to all this foolishness by announcing there had been a soulsearching confession to him as a result of my tests. The department that overhauled the AF valves had deviated from an 8 CC maximum leakage prescribed by the factory to a whopping 35 CC overhaul leakage limit - worn out parts! - end of story - Martin pilots happy. I did get right fond of that helmet and goggles and in fact used it again, as you'll presently see. It seems that by now I had inherited Connie problems. A Constellation was repeatedly squawked for vibration, and had arrived at the overhaul base for correction. WE test flew the plane, feathered and unfeathered one engine at a time, looked all over for control flutter, operated at different powers, and finally put vibration equipment aboard and ran tests of various sorts -vibration still present. A director said he'd fix the "imaginary" problem by hiding the old logbook, and put a new log book aboard, and the flight crew would never again squawk it. Naturally we resisted that approach but were overridden, and the plane was delivered to KC for line service. First flight, guess what? Right, vibration still there! Back to overhaul base. By changing engine cowling and other items [40 years later I don't recall all we did] we finally got rid of the problem. Still another Connie problem fell in our lap. Several crews squawked severe buffeting occurring somewhere near the first power reduction point. The whole AC shook severely. A test flight was set up with me and my trusty snoopy helmet, and goggles to go along. Our
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Always remember 49.9% of your friends are below average
plan was for the crew to do a normal take-off, go through the various normal climb procedures, and try to reproduce the buffeting. I was to climb down through the cabin floor hatch into the front cargo and look under the AC belly by sticking by head out into the slipstream while the landing gear was still down/ and try to see the source of buffet. Not wishing to take chances, it seemed expeditious to tie a ditching rope around seats with the other end tied around my waist. The view wasn't too bad! I can testify that the belly of a Connie from this perspective is not unlike Jonah's view of the whale just prior to being gobbled up! After a normal smooth T.O., then came "up gear", and first power reduction - still normal. A few seconds later with the nose gear up and locked, the nose wheels still spinning down, the severe buffet began. The wheels had been spinning smoothly, but as the speed of rotation decreased they went out of balance at a critical RPM and shook the whole A/C. Very peculiar, and most unusual! To confirm our findings, I asked the crew to do a go around without letting the landing gear touch the runway, but go through all other normal T.O. and climb procedures - no buffet. I had the F/E write up to change both nose wheels and bearings - exit buffeting problem! THE JET AGE TWA is very adept when challenged. American Airlines had launched into Jet operations before we finally got the first jet. We proceeded to launch an eastbound and a westbound flight with only one airplane. TWA carefully studied other people's problems and put fixes to some of them on this first airplane. Also, engineers were sent to each coast to give expert advice to maintenance personnel. With only one airplane we operated two flights for several days, with no major problems. It was determined that we should install AVM [aircraft vibrations monitors] on our jets. Jack Evans and I were sent to AAL to see what their AVM experience had been. We found that even with AVM equipment they had operated one jet for almost a week with a failed turbine. Obviously, we must do better. Since their AVM was a metered instrument looking similar to an ammeter on your car I opted for a meter with bar graph read-outs, no such luck — ammeter type meters were cheaper.
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When a woman is really listening to you, ask yourself "What does she want ?" When a man is really listening to you, ask yourself "What has he done ?"
From the start we stressed the fact that AVM wasn't to be used alone as a criteria for trouble, but used only in conjunction with other instrumentation, to verify or diagnose a problem. Road shows to all domiciles showed flight engineers pictures of turbine damage, as seen during pre-flight walk around, and shining a flashlight up the exhaust. No TWA jet, 707 [all series] or 880 ever operated beyond flight termination with a failed turbine! The power plant group was sent to Hartford to study in detail the fuel control on jet engines. We received about 8o hours of instruction over a two-week period on JFC ' s. My inspection of log sheets now included jet logs for problems, as had been done for the Connies. A big item caught my attention. As the engines were started on a 707, one of the engines went into violent compressor stalls. The instrument panel was shaking so badly that instrumentation couldn't be read. The F/E guessed it must be the last engine to start, so he cut that one off - the pylon was damaged with rivets shaken loose. I impounded the JFC and sent it to Hartford for testing. Subsequently, I got a call from the test lab engineer, stating that they had found no problem. I asked questions as to how it was tested. The answer was that they tested it in a cold lab all the way down to 0 degrees C! I couldn't believe what I was hearing! My next question was did they realize we were operating in -60 to -70 degree C environment? Silence. Sometime later a group from Hartford came to TWA engineering, bypassed me completely and went straight to the top echelon and announced - YOU HAVE A JFC PROBLEM! Indeed! To my knowledge, only one airplane in all the years of flying has been known to have been lost from a lightening strike on the wing fuel vent system. A suppresser canister was available for installation in the fuel tanks, to prevent this remote possibility. I strongly urged adoption of this safety device. The unit was about the size of a small juice can. It had a sensor that could sense flame propagation. At this point the can would instantly explode and snuff out the problem - much like Red Adair's work on oil-well fires, following Sadam's torching of the wells in Iran. Our jets had this system installed and the F/E walk around included a check of the
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The lion and the calf shall lie down together ... but the calf won't get much sleep.
small plastic red dot to see if an event had occurred and the canister needed to be replaced. I wonder if this system is used today on any airline, and if flight 800 would have been saved using this system? We have many stories in the past of great pilots. I humbly submit that flight engineers have also made a significant contribution, and I deplore the loss of the 3rd man, and the trend to 2-engine aircraft and automation. I'm certain if a complete story were told of all the flight engineers it would fill a book. I can relate only a portion of the experience of a few men. What did I gain personally from fourteen years away from regular line flying? • Personal satisfaction of knowing I did my best. • Satisfaction of knowing I had contributed to improvement of reliability and safety of our fleet aircraft. • A chance to become a pilot even though I was beyond age requirements. • Respect One person said, "You're the most respected flight engineer in TWA!" Another said, "You're the best thing to ever come out of engineering." I replied, " But not necessarily the most popular. " His reply was, " popularity you can buy, respect you have to earn. " • I suggest that there were hundreds who turned in stellar performances. • There are many, many Captains who have contributed in one way or another to my career. I would like to name a special few. Bill Townsend - helped get military status and honorable discharge with VA benefits for some of us in ICD service. Tom Graybill Chief pilot MKC. Joe Schiavo and Bob Garrett - helped get my pass privileges back after TWA took it away following my open-heart surgery. Bill Dixon - Chief pilot SFO - graciously greeted and helped arrange facilities at each road show presentation at the domicile. Dave Spain - helped get me in F/O school. Lofton Crow - Chief of flight test and inspection MCI. Dr. Gullet TWA Medical - He tried very very hard to get my flight status back following open-heart surgery, but the FAA had a closed mind even though their medical examiners gave me a clean bill of health.
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From Bob Allardyce Unlike many, when I retired in 1985, as far as flying goes, I never looked back. But, then, as a flight engineer, I never was a "real" pilot. I do, however, have some great memories though - mostly of lay-overs. One still gets smiles when I tell it to dinner guests. As a San Francisco-based aircrew, we had a lay-over in STL. I can't recall the year, but maybe, 1959 or 6o. There was a great Italian restaurant we frequented. I recall it had a balcony-like upper floor. The whole crew usually went and we had an extra long table. On this particular evening we were just attacking our canolies when an impeccably dressed thin Italian man approached our table. Smiling, he introduced himself and added that he was the owner of the restaurant. He asked us if we had enjoyed our dinner. We agreed that we had. He then noticed our obviously Italian Bob Lomouri and spoke him in Italian, more correctly, in Sicilian. Uncomprehending, Bob just sat there looking at him. Frustrated, our host seemed to take offense and tried English, "You are Italian aren't you? Don't you understand Italian?"
Bob, always a guy with an easy smile and a quick wit, replied, "Yes, I'm Italian, but my family is from Florentine. We speak Florentino." Our host, a short fellow, seemed to grow a couple of inches before our eyes. Thumping himself solidly on his chest he declared, "I'm from Sicily." Not getting a reaction from Bob, he continued, "You know where Sicily is, don't you?" Bob lit up with that little boy glow he often exuded and said, "Yes, I know where Sicily is. It is that island off the coast of Africa." Our host froze midway through a sweeping gesture of his arms. I about choked on my food. I had visions of our entire crew
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Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked. The good fortune to run into the people I do like. The eyesight to tell the difference.
being found in the Mississippi wearing cement overcoats. I was sure this was to be the last day of my life. After a pregnant pause, our host broke up in laughter. The crisis had passed. I knew, however, that Bob Lomouri was the only person on this earth that could have pulled that one off. Bob just sat there smiling at him. It was that same angelic smile he had when he and Chuck Lancaster used to pick my wallet clean after a day on the golf course.
I haven't heard from or about Lamouri in years. If anybody knows how to get in touch with him, I ' d appreciate a note.
From Phil Rimmler
Gene-I joined Honeywell ' s Nav Data Base Group, linking up with Captains ' George Searle and Jack Robertson, upon returning from a 2 year contract with Air Lanka (SriLankan) in Sep. '91. They both then retired in the Spring of '93. Just completed DFSS (Design For Six SIGMA) certification, which, for my Station, (plunking away on the original 200K
B767 CDU) revolved around how one's job could be reconstituted for
greater efficiency, and thus speed. I evolved an eye catching improvement, but, the Company says that instrumenting the A380 cockpit has a higher priority. The photo of the Graf Zeppelin in the previous TARPA was spectacular. I ' m in a ' snap shot ' of the Hindenberg hovering about 2000' over my 7 or 8 year old head while standing on a Bronx Beach in the '3o's. Ellen and I always look forward to the arrival of TARPA.
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Isaac Asimov was the only author to have a book in every Dewey Decimal System category.
The Trusted One You are at cruising altitude. The western sun is pink on the disc. Your eye flicks the gauges, the engines are contented. Another day — another dollar. You look down at your hands on the wheel. They are veined and hard and brown. Tonight you notice they look a little old. And, by George, they are old. But how can this be? Only yesterday you were in flying school. Time is a thief. You have been robbed. And what have you to show for it? A pilot — twenty years a pilot— a senior pilot. But what of it — just a pilot. Then the voice of the stewardess breaks in on your reverie. The trip is running full —one hundred eighty four passengers Can she begin to serve dinner to the passengers? The passengers — oh yes, the passengers. You noticed the line of them coming aboard The businessmen, the young mothers with the children in tow. The old couple, the two priests, the four dogfaces. A thousand times you have watched them file aboard and a thousand times disembark. They always seem a little happier after the landing than before the take-off. Beyond doubt, they are always somehow apprehensive aloft. But why do they continuously come up here in the dark sky despite their apprehension? You have often wondered about that. You look down at your hands again and it suddenly comes to you. They come because they trust you— you the pilot. They turn their lives and their loved ones and their hopes and dreams to you for safekeeping. To be a pilot means to be one of the trusted. They pray in the storm that you are skillful and strong and wise. To be a pilot is to hold life in your hands -to be worthy of faith. No, you have not been robbed. You aren't "just a pilot." There is no such thing as "just a pilot." Your job is a trust. The years have been a trust. You have been one of the trusted. Who could be more?
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England and the United States are two countries separated by a common language.
From Bob Lindsey Dear Gene, I retired from T.W.A. in 1985 after being a pilot and a captain for 32 years. We really enjoy receiving TARPA and appreciate how this magazine is so well prepared. We always enjoy reading the information you share with us. I was based in L.A. for 30 years. We are sad to hear that Otto Graham passed away recently. He was a well-known a
. professional football Star. I was in the naval pilot training program with him in 1944 and 1945.
My wife and I live in Canada in the summer and in Florida in the winter and our email address is: doriceandbobPaol.com we have the same email address in both places. We moved from California to Canada to live near my wife's daughter who is also a pilot and belongs to the 99ers. She has recently flown an AT-6 and a helicopter. My wife Dorice is also a pilot and has been flying since 1951. She is still flying whenever she can. She owned a Cessna 182 for a few years and did some charter flying. She also flew B-25 bombers after the war. She flew an old Waco last week in Key West, Florida. She enjoys Aerobatics and so does her daughter Ingrid, who lives in Canada. My wife, who joined the 8th Air Force as a guest, lived in France during W.W.II. and watched the B-17s being shot down by the Germans near Paris where she lived. She flew in a B-17 last year which came to the Venice Airport in Florida. She was thrilled to have that opportunity. She watched the Germans shoot at the crew members who would parachute out of their destroyed B-17s. One crew member landed alive on an island in front of her house and was saved by the French underground. The other crew members were all killed.
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Satire is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable
My wife and I go on cruises in the Caribbean Islands, Europe or Canada. We visit some of her friends in Europe every year, since she was born and raised in France and she will be eternally thankful for the Americans and their allies who liberated them from the German occupation in
1944.
My wife's mother was a U.S. citizen who married a Frenchman who
worked for the Allies during the German occupation, was caught by the Gestapo and spent 8 months in prison in Paris and 13 months in Buchenwald concentration camp. He barely survived, weighed 8o lbs when brought home by the Allies after the liberation of the camp. He was a very sick man. The very best to you and to all of TARPA. We really enjoy reading your magazine. Contacts: 941-485-7478 in Florida, from Oct 1 to May 1 403-886-4114 in Canada, from May to Oct 1. A big part of Grapevine are the notes and comments passed to Rufus Mosely along with dues, etc. Haven't heard from Rufus this time around and my best guess is that he is fighting `Ivan the Terrible', running from 'Ivan', or both. As I understand it Foley got hit dead center. We wish you the best, Rufus.
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PROPOSED FAA REGULATION (NPRM) No pilot or pilots, or person or persons acting on the direction, or suggestion, or supervision, of any pilot or pilots, may try, attempt to try, or make or make any attempt to try, to comprehend or understand, any or all, in whole or in part, of the herein mentioned Federal Aviation Regulations, except as authorized by the Administrator or an agent appointed by, or under the supervision of, the Administrator. If any pilot, or group of associated pilots, becomes aware of, or realizes, or detects, or discovers, or finds, that he, or she, or they, are, or have been beginning to, or are about to, understand the Federal Aviation Regulations or any of its provisions, (he) (she) (they) must immediately, within three (3) days of such discovery or awareness, notify, in writing, the Administrator. Upon receipt of any such above notice of impending comprehension, the Administrator shall promptly cause said Federal Aviation Regulations to be rewritten in such a form and manner as to completely and totally eliminate any further possibility of comprehension by any pilot or pilots. The Administrator may, at his or her option, require any pilot, or pilots, who commit(s), or attempt(s) to commit, or exhibit(s) any propensity to commit, the offense of understanding or comprehending the Federal Aviation Regulations, or any part thereof, to attend courses of remedial instruction in said Regulations, until such time as said pilot, or pilots, demonstrate that they are no longer capable of exhibiting any comprehension or understanding of anything. The Administrator
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Blast from the Past by John Bybee
What a great blast from the past! I haven't thought about fender skirts in years. When I was a kid, I considered it such a funny term. Made me think of a car in a dress. Thinking about fender skirts started me thinking about other words that quietly disappear from our language with hardly a notice. Like "curb feelers" and "steering knobs." Since I'd been thinking of cars, my mind naturally went that direction first. Any kids will probably have to find some elderly person over 50 to explain some of these terms to you. Remember "Continental kits?" They were rear bumper extenders and spare tire covers that were supposed to make any car as cool as a Lincoln Continental. When did we quit calling them "emergency brakes?" At some point "parking brake" became the proper term. But I miss the hint of drama that went with "emergency brake." I'm sad, too, that almost all the old folks are gone who would call the accelerator the "foot feed." Here's a phrase I heard all the time in my youth but never anymore-"store-bought." Of course, just about everything is store-bought these days. But once it was bragging material to have a store-bought dress or a store-bought bag of candy. "Coast to coast" is a phrase that once held all sorts of excitement and now means almost nothing. Now we take the term "worldwide" for granted. This floors me. On a smaller scale, "wall-to-wall" was once a magical term in our homes. In the ' 50s, everyone covered their hardwood floors with, wow, wall-towall carpeting! Today, everyone replaces their wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwood floors. Go figure. When's the last time you heard the quaint phrase "in a family way?" It's hard to imagine that the word "pregnant" was once considered a little too graphic, a little too clinical for use in polite company. So we had all that talk about stork visits and "being in a family way" or simply expecting." Apparently "brassiere" is a word no longer in usage. I said it the other day and my daughter cracked up. I guess it's just "bra" now. "Unmentionables" probably wouldn't be understood at all. It's hard to recall that this word was once said in a whisper -"divorce." And no one is called a "divorcee" anymore. Certainly not a "gay divorcee." Come to think of it, "confirmed bachelors" and "career girls" are long gone, too. Most of these words go back to the '50s, but here's a pure-'60s word I came across the other day - "rat fink." Ooh, what a nasty put-down! Here's a word I miss - "percolator." That was just a fun word to say. And what was it replaced with? "Coffeemaker." How dull. Mr. Coffee, I blame you for this. I miss those made-up marketing words that were meant to sound so modern and now sound so retro. Words like DynaFlow" and "ElectraLuxe." Introducing the 1963 Admiral TV, now with "SpectraVision!" Food for thought - Was there a telethon that wiped out lumbago? Nobody complains of that anymore. Maybe that's what castor oil cured, because I never hear mothers threatening their kids with castor oil anymore. Some words aren't gone, but are definitely on the endangered list. The one that grieves me most - "supper." Now everybody says "dinner " . Save a great word. Invite someone to " supper. Discuss fender skirts. PAGE 85 ... TARPA TOPICS
FREEDOM TO LIVE As told by Luscombe NC 23024 Up to date 11-12-47 about Arthur about 65 hrs total time 45 hrs with me....
"Me, a Luscombe 8A ragwing tail dragger with a Continental 65 HP up stacker engine and cruise prop that gives me 105 IAS. I had a good flight from Bailey's Cross Road, VA - VFR over Baltimore to New Castle, Delaware." "He parked me near the hanger and went into the training center building to get his mail and schedules. TWA was doing " touch and goes" and air work in 4 hr periods around the clock with Constellation aircraft to check out crews for its new international routes. It's 1500 hrs and AI Brick the Chief Flight Engineer says, " you're not going back tonight are you ? " "Now this a hole comes out into the short days of winter and doesn't top me off. We have about a half a tank. He has forgotten his navigational charts at home and doesn't get the DC area forecast." "We take-off and soon find ourselves south of Baltimore - lost. He is following this highway and sees a sign on a barn roof reading "Upper Marlboro." Passing that he makes a 180 back to the barn and takes the first big road to the left. Not knowing where this goes he picks out a farm field to come back to. It's getting dark now and it's beginning to rain." "Then we break out over a lot of lights. We see the Capitol Building and Pennsylvania Ave. To stay visual he has to fly lower and on left he sees the Washington Monument and looking up he sees its red light. Then he goes over the White House around 400 - 500 feet and across the Memorial Bridge." "Now it's familiar territory but with the gas gage bouncing on empty, the lowering ceiling and only an altimeter, airspeed, compass, no landing lights, navigation lights or cockpit lighting, he has only one ace to play....to swing left into Washington National Airport....land on a taxi strip and hope to taxi to hanger #1, #2 or #5 and talk his way out of it" "But soon he sees the new white crushed rock runways forming a beautiful X and a little excited and anxious he lands hot and bounces me in. Home sweet home...." "NC 23024 over and out"
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63 Birdsong Way B 115 Hilton Head Island, South Carolina 29926
October 7, 2004 Dear Fellow Travelers: Aren't you glad to get a letter that isn't asking for your vote? Or your contribution to a party? Please forgive this generic letter. I wanted to get the enclosed flier to you. It's about a trip that I think will be terrific. Tim Reynolds is an old friend (actually a young friend) with whom I have made 3 trips. He is an excellent travel agent and the director of the Hilton Head Choral Society and a wonderful musician. When he told me about this trip I thought it might be a good fit for the TARPA travelers and their friends. I will take these fliers with me to New Orleans to the TARPA meeting even though their bulk will probably mean leaving the ball gown at home. Tim says that Princess only makes this trip once a year. It sounds like a leisurely trip. The ship is in most of the ports all day. If, like me, all you've seen of Ireland is the airport you will enjoy Dublin and Belfast. My previous trip to Scotland left me impressed by the beauty of Edinburgh and wanting to go back to Glasgow where my ancestors lived. So, I've sent in my deposit and hope you will join me. You are free to copy the flier for anyone you think might be interested. Please notice that the cost does NOT include airfare. I plan to use some frequent flier miles. Some of you can use your AA pass or other alternatives to keep the cost down. I will see some of you in New Orleans next month. If you have questions you can email me at jetslandin@adelphia.net, write to the above address or call 843 681-6451. To communicate with Tim Reynolds check the back of the flier. I hope you'll join me next June. Happy landings, Jean E. Thompson
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DISCOVER EUROPE WITH THE LEADER—PRINCESS Join TARPA Tours Committee Chair Jean Thompson and friends on a 10-day cruise of the British Isles aboard the beautiful Golden Princess. With her impressive onboard amenities and head-turning design this magnificent ship features everything you'd want in a floating resort – four sparkling swimming pools, a world-class art collection, three state-of-the-art show lounges and 12 dining options.
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION TWA cockpit crewmembers, past and present, 50 years of age and over, active or retired, become eligible for membership in TARPA. Annual dues stand at $40.00. Whether still flying or retired and within the above parameters, you are cordially invited to join. I you wish to have two addresses listed for Directory or mailing, please provide months of the year at each location along with the appropriate phone number.
TARPA TOPICS SUBSCRIPTION For our friends who do not meet our membership requirements, TARPA offers regular subscription to our magazine, TARPA TOPICS. Simply fill out the application above, indication subscriber, and check for $30.00. Make checks payable to TARPA Return form to: Ed Madigan TARPA Secretary/Treasurer P.O. Box 3565 Incline Village, NV 89450
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UPDATE CHANGE OF ADDRESS
Please use this form to advise change of status, address or phone number or change of marital status. If you haven't completed the UPDATE form in several years, prepare one to allow X-check of file.
If a move is planned, use this form to advise the new address and phone number prior to pulling up the gear.
Return form to:
Ed Madigan TARPA Secretary/Treasurer P.O. Box 3565 Incline Village, NV 89450
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INFORMATION FOR GRAPEVINE EDITOR