2011 DUES RETURN ENVELOPE ENCLOSED HONORARY MEMBERS ALSO MUST RESPOND NOVEMBER 2010
ISSUE 99
TWA ACTIVE RETIRED PILOTS ASSOCIATION
THE TAILS TELL A TALE
Announcing San Antonio, TX for our 2011 Fall Convention!
Our 2011 convention will be held in San Antonio. Sorry if we confused anyone. We attempted to switch our convention dates to the spring for a cruise, but at the recent convention in Scottsdale the membership voted to : Continue with our typical fall convention date Select a land based convention for 2011 in San Antonio, Texas • Research an Alaska cruise in late August or early September in 2012 (More information on this will follow.) •
•
We will publish the dates, the headquarter hotel and optional tours in the spring issue of TARPA TOPICS. Stay tuned and we’ll see you in San Antonio in the fall of 2011!
Any questions contact our meeting planner: Vicki McGowen Email: vickimcgowen@charter.net Cell: 775-722-2811
TARPA TOPICS THE MAGAZINE OF THE TWA ACTIVE RETIRED PILOTS ASSOCIATION
CONTENTS
FEATURES
DEPARTMENTS
2010 TARPA CONVENTION COVERAGE…...07
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE ………….……… 3 Capt. Bill Kirschner
FROM PROPS TO JETS………………………... 15 Book review
SECRETARY/TREASURER REPORT …….. 4 Capt. Ed Madigan
MORE ON DIETER DENGLER..…………….. 19 EDITOR’S NOTE …………………………… 5 Capt. Jeff Hill, Sr. Book review 1st AROUND THE WORLD FLIGHT…….….. 20 FLOWN WEST…………………….……...… 59 Capt. John Gratz Capt. “Swede” Golien 1983 SYSTEM TIMETABLE………….……….34 GRAPEVINE ……………………………….. 69 Capt. Jeff Hill, Sr. SACRED WATERING HOLES………………...36 Capt. Mark Berry SAUDIA………...……………….………………...41 Capt. Bud Kuball
CONNIE “BELLY LANDING”, 1959………….50 MEMORIES PART III……………………….....51 Capt. Wes Ament BOARD & MEMBERSHIP MTG. MINUTES....66 Capt Dusty West
FRONT COVER: From the internet, photo by unknown. MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION……………….79 BACK COVER: We asked Jon Proctor for information on this print. Jon passed it to Mike Machat, a co-author of From Props to Jets (p.15). Mike replied: “Interesting image, but I've never seen this before. The only ID on the Copyright © 2010 The TWA Active Retired Pilots Assn. artist is the name "Cliff" seen in the shadow at lower right Material contained in TARPA TOPICS may not be used ex- (and is that a Christian fish symbol next to it-?” “ Odd cept with written permission of the Editor. All inquiries con- placement of the airplanes with North American's El Secerning this publication should be addressed to: gundo plant so close in the background. Both aircraft Jeff Hill, Sr., Editor were dead-traced from existing photos, although the taxiing Connie hasn't been corrected for telephoto compres9610 Hidden Lane, Woodstock, IL 60098 sion (which may also explain the NAA building behind Topics_Ed@sbcglobal.net it.) An odd image, overall, no?”
TARPA TOPICS is the official publication of TARPA, The TWA Active Retired Pilots Association, a not for profit corporation. The Editor bears no responsibility for accuracy or unauthorized use of contents.
EDITORIAL STAFF EDITOR Jeff Hill, Sr. 9610 Hidden Lane Woodstock, IL 60098 (815) 338-3551 topics_ed@sbcglobal.net INTERNET WEBMASTER Marc Brecy 18 Allee de la Tournelle 60128 Mortefontaine, France 33 (0) 3 44 54 34 95 webmaster@twaseniorsclub.org
EDITOR EMERITUS John P. Gratz 1646 Timberlake Manor Pkwy. Chesterfield, MO 63017-5500 (636) 532-8317 jpgratz@charter.net FLOWN WEST COORDINATOR John S. Bybee 2616 Saklan Indian Drive #1 Walnut Creek, CA 94595 (925) 938-3492 jbybee4@comcast.net OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS
PRESIDENT William A. Kirschner Box 3596 Stateline, NV 89449-3596 (775) 721-4386 wma1012@msn.com
PAST-PRESIDENT Guy A. Fortier Box 6065 Incline Village, NV 89450 (775) 831-3040 guy4ta@att.net
FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Dusty West 4700 Pinnacle Drive Bradenton, FL 34208-8497 (941) 538-0729 dustygator@tampabay.rr.com
DIRECTOR OF HOSPITALITY Robert W. Dedman 3728 Lynfield Drive Virginia Beach, VA 23452 (757) 463-2032 rwded@cox.net
SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Michael S. McFarland 4329 Wellington Dr. Fort Collins, CO 80526 (970) 223-1278 miketwa747@hotmail.com
TARPA TOPICS EDITOR Jeff Hill, Sr. 9610 Hidden Lane Woodstock, IL 60098 (815) 338-3551 topics_ed@sbcglobal.net
SECRETARY/TREASURER Ed Madigan P.O. Box3565 Incline Village, NV 89450 (775) 831-1265 edmadigan@charter.net
EDITOR EMERITUS John P. Gratz 1646 Timberlake Manor Pky., Chesterfield, MO 63017-5500 (636) 532-8317 jpgratz@charter.net
SENIOR DIRECTOR Charles L. Wilder 122 Wild Dunes Way Jackson, NJ 08527-4058 (732) 833-2205 clwilder@optonline.net
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Our thirtieth fun and successful convention came to a close in Scottsdale, AZ, and as the new incoming President I want to thank you all for giving me the responsibility for leading this great organization. Needless to say I have big shoes to fill from the outstanding leadership of all past Presidents, many of which are still on the TARPA Board of Directors in one capacity or another. One of the reasons for their successful leadership is the untiring work and dedication of several people in their positions as Directors, such as departing Senior Director, Bob Sherman. Thank you for all the years of hard work on our behalf. Captain Sherman will continue to work in the background with the Flown West and In Remembrance lists. Captain Sherman is being replaced by Past President, Charlie Wilder. Captain Wilder is also our financial advisor working with Secretary /Treasurer Ed Madigan who along with our TOPICS Editor, Jeff Hill, have the hardest jobs in the organization. Thank you, Gentlemen. One of the reasons we have so much fun at these conventions is the hard work of Hospitality Director, Bob Dedman and his very capable team of Didi Young and Leslie Locke. The hospitality suite was especially great this convention. I want to welcome Captain Mike McFarland on board as Second Vice President and am looking forward to working with him, First Vice President, Dusty West, Editor Emeritus, John Gratz and Past President, Guy Fortier during my tenure as TARPA President. I am also looking forward to working with Web Master, Marc Brecy, who is doing a wonderful job on our web site and who is working with Captain Bob Willcutts helping with the message boards. Last, but not least, working with our Convention Coordinator, Mrs. Vicki McGowen. She is now in the process of exploring all of the opportunities for our next convention in San Antonio, TX in September, 2011. More information will be on the Web site and in the spring issue of TARPA TOPICS. A special thank you and heartfelt gratitude goes to the wives of the Directors and especially you, the attendees that make our conventions possible. I can be reached by email at WMA1012@MSN.COM or better yet, my cell phone, 775-7214386. I prefer the personal touch of a live conversation. I am open to any and all constructive suggestions and criticisms, so please stay in touch and tell your TWA crew member friends about www.tarpa.com and our great conventions. Take care and again, thank you all. Bill Kirschner
SECRETARY/TREASURER REPORT August 1, 2010 As of August 1, 2010, the membership is as follows: (R) Retired: (A) Active: (E) Eagle: (H) Honorary: TOTAL:
550 18 351 181 1,100
There are also 31 subscribers to Topics and 13 who receive complimentary copies. We have added three new members since the last Topics. They are listed later in this issue. Following is the financial report for the period from December 1, 2009 thru August 1, 2010:
Opening Balance Income Convention Deposits Expenses
$72,922.21 $16,640.20 $33,803.00* $39,406.53
Balance 8/1/2010:
$83,958.88
The above ( * ) amount is the money collected and not yet disbursed for the 2010 convention in Scottsdale. As mentioned above we have three new members, but would like more. Please contact your TWA pilot friends and ask that they join us in future events. There is an application on the last page of this issue or they can contact me or go on the web site at www.tarpa.com to get an application. Hope to see you in Scottsdale.
Don’t let your TARPA Membership expire. Check your mailing label If it reads “2010”, then it’s time for you to renew. . Respectfully Submitted,
Ed Madigan
EDITOR’S NOTE Honorary members, mostly surviving spouses, may be wondering why we are requesting a response by returning the dues remittance envelope. The reason is that the Postal Service will not return nor forward “media mail” (the old “book rate”). Therefore, if an honorary member has moved or passes, we have no way of knowing and continue to send undeliverable magazines at a considerable cost to TARPA, so honorary members, let us know that you are receiving the magazine and wish to continue to do so. Swede Golien’s around the world flight report produced in this issue is a scan of the original document into a text file by an optical character reader program. I made every effort to preserve the appearance of the original, but note it is not a photographic image and there are some differences in formatting. Don’t forget to check www.tarpa.com often, Marc is doing a wonderful job with it. While there, click the “Topics Archives” link on the home page and enjoy browsing old issues of TOPICS—you will find every issue from January 1982 through November 2007. I guarantee that anything you find by Ed Betts or Bob Buck will be well worth the reading—or rereading. Several people have told me they have not been able to make my email address work: topics_ed@sbcglobal.net. The problem is that, in previous issues, the address was underlined which obliterates the underscore between “topics” and “ed”. Email addresses and URLs can not have any spaces. If you have had a problem, try it again, exactly as it appears above. All who flew up and down the Ohio River Valley in the Connie, DC-9 and/or 727 will recognize this picture of “Desi’s”, the Cross Roads of America in Vandalia (DAY). Mark Berry’s article in this issue on “Sacred Watering Holes” brought it immediately to mind. Also Bruno’s, next door with it’s “crew lounge” in the furnace room and the attic access doors in each room that would enable one to travel to any other room through the attic. Those noises you heard in the night were not rats. How about writing a paragraph or two for TOPICS on some of our favorite layover venues? Do it now! Thanks again to Bybee, Gratz and Madigan for their assistance, good counsel and moral support.—JJH
NEW MEMBERS
Elwood Crews (Carol) 3736 Alta Vista Ave. Santa Rosa, CA 95409 dedstik@att.net
Ron DuPuis (Jerrie) 436 Highland Dr. Bellingham, WA 98225
Daryl L. Peitersen 1408 N.W. 90th St. Clive, IA 50325 peit@ighsi.com
TARPA CONVENTION 2010 SCOTTSDALE, AZ ATTENDEES Last Name
First
City
St.
Atkinson Atkinson Badash Balser Blaser Blaser Breslin Buffington Chapman Clay Colling Corrigan Cushing Cushing Davis Davis Davis Davis Dedman Dedman DiRienzo DiRienzo DuFresne Escola Escola Exum Exum Fortier Fortier Fox Fox Ganse Gipple Greeley Greeley Green Green
Barb Tucson AZ Jim Tucson AZ Sandra Naples FL Bob Scottsdale AZ Don Prescott AZ Gail Prescott AZ Jim Las Vegas NV Judi Fairfield CA Mary Indialantic FL Benny Henderson NV Ed Steeple Ashton UK Diane Mesquite NV Bud Willowbrook IL Patsy Willowbrook IL Dub Stuart FL Dick San Marcos CA Marcia San Marcos CA Jamie Stuart FL Ilsa Virginia Beach VA Bob Virginia Beach VA Al Scottsdale AZ Rosemary Scottsdale AZ Norm Kansas City MO Alice Atwater CA Dick Atwater CA Jack Scottsdale AZ Susie Scottsdale AZ Joann Incline Village NV Guy Incline Village NV Ron Dewey AZ Maizie Dewey AZ Larry Kingwood TX John Medford OR Patricia Venice FL Hoarce Venice FL Jessica Dryden WA Ev Dryden WA
Arizona sunset
Grimm Grimm Handy Handy Hanlin Hanlin Heaston Heaston Hill Hill Hitzel Hitzel Hitzel, Jr Hofmeister Hofmeister Hoppe Hoppe Irwin Irwin Kidd Kiewel Kiewel Kirschner Kuball Lape Lape Leach Leach Locke Lutz Madigan Madigan Maly Maly Marinelli Marinelli Markam
Dee Phoenix AZ Martha Phoenix AZ Russ Apollo Beach FL Marge Apollo Beach FL Lynn Charleston SC Bob Charleston SC Joe Cameron MT Pattie Cameron MT Sharon Woodstock IL Jeff Woodstock IL Joe Glen Gardner NJ Georgean Glen Gardner NJ Joe Mesa AZ Colleen Elgin IL Howard Elgin IL Dinah Woodstock IL Tom Woodstock IL Jack Rancho Mirage CA Bonnie Rancho Mirage CA Rae Winter Haven FL Peter Fountain Hills AZ Ellie Fountain Hills AZ Bill Lake Tahoe NV Bud Las Vegas NV Lanna Park City UT Bruce Park City UT Roger Incline Village NV Barbara Incline Village NV Leslie Sunnyvale CA Raymond Taos NM Ed Incline Village NV Susy Incline Village NV Stan Cameron MO Cheryl Cameron MO Larry Manhattan Bea CA Joan Manhattan Bea CA Kate Scottsdale CA
Mateer Mateer McFarland McGowen McKenzie McKenzie McKenzie McKenzie McWilliams McWilliams Montemurro Mosely Mosely Mueller Nairn Nairn Nelson Nelson Nixon Paradise Paxson Pelletier Pelletier Peters Phail Phail Polk Polk Rager Rimmler Rimmler Robertson Rood Rood Salmonson-W Schemel Schemel Schmidt Schmidt Schmidt Schoneberger Scott Scott
Nancy Jack Mike Vickie Vern Gregg Helen Evy Stanley Ruby Frank Marilyn Rufus Bea Daryl Hap Stu Arlene Clyde Julie John Lou Audrey Don Dixie Lee Gordon Gale Bill Betty Phillip Ellen Phyllis Lois Klete Anita Peggy Friend Roger Joan Carl Bert Bill Mary
Goodyear Goodyear Ft. Collins Reno Scottsdale Scottsdale Scottsdale Scottsdale Los Angeles Los Angeles Naples Foley Foley Port Orange Capistrano B. Capstrano B. Rancho P. V. Rancho P. V. Mesquite Las Vegas Fairfield Garden City Garden City Westerville Stuart Stuart Grand Beach Grand Beach San Jose Scottsdale Scottsdale Scottsdale Albuquerque Albuquerque Brighton Phoenix (Pauline) Indialantic Fallbrook Fallbrook Carefree Scottsdale Scottsdale
AZ AZ CO NV AZ AZ AZ AZ CA CA FL AL AL FL CA CA CA CA NV NV CA ID ID OH FL FL MI MI CA AZ AZ AZ NM NM CO AZ FL CA CA AZ AZ AZ
Sherman Sherman Smith Smith Smith Snavely Snavely Sobel Sobel Standifur Standifur Stipek Stock Taylor Taylor Tillett Tillett Van Hoosen Van Hoosen Weitzel West West Wilder Wilder Winchester Winchester Woodruff Woodruff Young Zarcone Zudis Zudis
Alice Bob Tom Nancy Sharron Orren Marilyn Rose Martin Jeanne Tom Jean Walt Nancy Keith Katy Tom Fred Cindy Tom Lee Dusty Charlie Helen Mot Jim Woody Nancy Didi Karen Judy Dick
Ashburn Ashburn Naples Naples (Polk) Lake St. Louis Lake St. Louis Sarasota Sarasota Los Gatos Los Gatos
VA VA FL FL
Old Lyme Newbury Park Newbury Park Scottsdale Scottsdale Longview Longview Port Orange Bradenton Bradenton Jackson Jackson Fountain Hills Fountain Hills Golden Golden Los Osos Winter Haven Bobsall Bonsall
CT CA CA AZ AZ WA WA FL FL FL NJ NJ AZ AZ CO CO CA FL CA CA
The sun sets behind Pinacle Peak
MO MO FL FL CA CA
TARPA CONVENTION 2010 SCOTTSDALE, AZ All photos by Dusty West unless otherwise noted Patsy & Bud Cushing
Barb & Jim Atkinson
Ed Colling
Photo by the Ed.
Photo by the Ed.
Rufus W. ‘Dub’ Davis & Don Peters
Marcia & Dick Davis Dub Davis & daughter Jaime who assembled Dub’s collection of uniform insignia from 1942 to his retirement in 1988
Dick & Alice Escola Sharon Hill, Al DiRienzo, Georgeann Hitzel
Ilse & Bob Dedman
Rosemary DiRienzo
Photo by the Ed.
Joann & Guy Fortier
Ron & Maizie Fox
Horace & Patricia Greeley
Dee & Martha Grimm
Joe & Pattie Heaston
Photo by the Ed.
The Hitzels, Joe Sr. & Jr.
Marge & Russ Handy
Howie & Colleen Hofmeister
Jessica & Ev Green
Lynn & Bob Hanlin
Jeff & Sharon Hill
Photo by the Ed.
“Smilin’ Jack” Irwin
Dinah & Tom Hoppe
Kate Markham & Bill Kirschner
Moseley, Breslin, Kirschner, Kuball, Cushing & Nelson
Bud Kubal & Julie Paradise
Photo by the Ed.
Barbara & Roger Leach
Leslie Locke
Ray Lutz
Hoppe’s Hobby Horse Stan & Cheryl Maly
Marlyn & Rufus Mosely
Nancy & Jack Mateer
Susy & Ed Madigan
Larry & Joan Marinelli
Photo by the Ed.
Mike McFarland
Photo by John Gipple
Vickie McGowen
“Hap” & Daryl Narin
Didi Young
Stu & Arlene Nelson
Roger Schmidt
AnitaSalmonsonWalker
Clyde Nixon & Diane Corrigan
Photo by John Gipple
Dixie Lee & Gordon Phail
Phyllis Robertson & B Betty Rager
John Gipple
Photo by John Gipple
Registration, in foreground Mike McFarland, Dusty West & Larry Ganse
Photo by John Gipple
Don & Gail Blaser
Photo by John Gipple
Photo by the Ed.
Photo by the Ed.
Peggy Schemel
Klete & Lois Rood
Joan & Carl Schmidt
Benny Clay
Rose & Marty Sobel
Ellen & Phil Rimmler
Nancy & Tom Smith
Orren & Marilyn Snavely
Bob & Alice Sherman have attended every convention since the first in 1979, also held in Scottsdale.
Tom & Jeanne Standifur
Keity & Nancy Taylor
Tom & Katy Tillett
Tom Weitzel
Photo by John Gipple
Cindy & Fred Van Hoosen
Woody Woodruff
Lee & Dusty West
SEE YOU IN SAN ANTONIO!
Judy & Dick Zudis
Helen & Charlie Wilder
BOOK REVIEW From Props to Jets, 2010, Specialty Press, 39966 Grand Ave., North Branch, MN 55056. 159 pages, MANY photos (Jon Proctor quality!) both color and B&W, available at amazon.com, $19.77 + s/h (as of 7/8/10). By Jon Proctor, Mike Machat and Craig Kodera. From Props to Jets is no quick read coffee table type picture book although the pictures, both color and black and white, are plentiful and of the quality one would expect. The authors were quite fair in their balancing of the selection of airline liveries TWA historian Jon Proctor depicted, although TWA and AAL are by no means underrepresented. Jon commented about that in a recent email, “...Funny you would mention the TWA and AAL representation; Craig Kodera flew for AA before being medically retired; my dad flew for AA so you know my connection to both. We had to practice great restraint to keep the number of related pics down to what we did, as cautioned by Mike, who was also the editor of the book. Honestly, it was a matter of trying to use the best of what we had among pictures not previously published, although a few were. Another issue was getting pictures that would not present copyright issues; the publisher required written permission on every image that was not ours; what a hassle.” The big surprise in this book is the text; no fluff—it is all meat and potatoes! The scholarly approach and careful research is readily evident. One may even be a little surprised to read a few things one had never heard of, or more likely, has forgotten. Bob Serling, noted aviation writer and editor (recently flown west, see The Grapevine) wrote a lovely foreword which ended by pretty well summing it up: “...From Props to Jets takes us back to what arguably was the most dramatic and significant decade in civil aviation history: the saga of the 1952 to 1962 technological revolution that literally shrank the world by measuring distance in terms of hours rather than days and miles traveled. This brilliantly researched and written contribution to aviation history could not come at a more appropriate time, for it injects into the doom-and-gloom atmosphere of today’s air travel difficulties and complaints, a reminder of accomplishments that we now take for granted. It also accents the positive instead of the negatives, something that is rare and sorely needed in this era of adversarial journalism. For as the authors point out, this was also the decade during which the airplane itself supplanted the family automobile, bus, train and ship as the single most dominant provider of long-distance travel.” “I owe these fine writers my gratitude for producing not merely a fascinating book but an important one. The airline world that people like Jon, Mike, Craig, and I respected and loved, even when we criticized it, exists no more. This book, therefore, comes poignantly close to being a kind of requiem, a magnificent and justified tribute to an industry that has always taken ten steps forward for every step backward, and ultimately deserved a far better fate.” The following pages on TWA’s Ambassador Service, written by Jon, are a good sampling and are reprinted here with permission.—JJH
MORE ON DIETER DENGLER Thought we had pretty well covered Dieter Dengler, 19382001 (TWA 1968-1981) in the November 2007 TARPA TOPICS until we came across Hero Found by Bruce Henderson, first edition-2010, Harper-Collins, New York, NY. Hard cover, 262 pages, several b&w photos, source notes, several Dramatis Personae biographical sketches and a complete index. Available at amazon.com, $18.47. One might see this book as “The Rest Of The Story.” The previously reviewed book, documentary and film were all Dieter’s story told in the first person. Hero Found has a lot of input from the author's research and from several of the other principals involved. Anyone who knew Dieter would agree with one of his squadron mates observation that Dieter “… was about one hundred sixty seven degrees from conventional.” People from Dieter’s home village in Germany, including the blacksmith to whom he was apprenticed make interesting observations. And, it’s not hard to picture Dieter in his VW Microbus that he operated out of during his college days in the San Francisco Bay area. Being mechanically inclined, he maintained his vehicle by just parking next to a little nicer “bus” and swapping parts! “Bruce Henderson served with Dengler aboard USS Ranger. In this gripping book, he tells the complete story for the first time, drawing on personal interviews with the intrepid pilot, his squadron mates, and his friends and family, as well as military archival materials—some never before made public— and letters and journals. Henderson's riveting account demonstrates why Dengler's story of unending optimism, innate courage, loyalty, and survival against overwhelming odds remains for his fellow flyers and shipmates the best and brightest memory of their generation's war.” - bookpassage.com “ … Some 30 years after the war, Henderson was living in Sebastopol and visiting Dengler, who lived in Marin, next to the Mountain Home Inn, a German restaurant he'd owned. That was right about when he was hit with Lou Gehrig's disease. Dengler could face torture, starvation and disease in a prison camp, but he wasn't going to face this. On Feb. 7, 2001, 35 years after his plane went down, Dengler rolled his wheelchair down the Panoramic Highway to the driveway of a fire station and shot himself. He was 62.” - bookpassage.com
See Nov. 2007 on line issuu.com/tarpa_topics
Dieter’s book 1979
Werner Herzog’s documentary 1997 Available on DVD
The movie 2007 Gibralter Entertainment
TWA’S FIRST AROUND THE WORLD FLIGHT About the crew: • • • • • • • • •
Captain “Swede” Golien, 1906-1980 (TWA 1930-1966) Search the TOPICS archives - you will find dozens of hits! F/O Robert Prescott, 1913-? (TWA 1942-1944) 1st Navigator P. H. Redpath, (?) 2nd Navigator George Hart, ?-1947, was the navigator blown from the astrodome of a Connie at 19,000’ 500 miles east of Gander in 1947. See TARPA TOPICS, March 2010, P. 19. 1st F/E Albert A. Brick, 1909-1992 (TWA 1935-1969) 2nd F/E Edward J. Vreeland, 1913-1974 (TWA 1936-1973). Vreeland was the F/E on the first papal charter (for Pope Paul VI in 1965) see TARPA TOPICS March 2010, P. 33 for photo. 1st Radio Operator W. O. “Sailor” Davis, (?) well remembered by many of us as the most entertaining of all ground instructors at MKCT. See TARPA TOPICS July 2010, P. 75 for photo. 2nd Radio Operator W. R. McGrew (?) Purser E. L. Belshaw (?) See Captain Golien’s flight report beginning on the following page
The caption reads: “You are looking at an historic picture—Swede Golien and his crew have just landed in Washington after a world flight carrying former Ambassador Joseph E. Davies, center, to Russia and return. The insert shows Chief Pilot Golien, now new supervisor of operations for the intercontinental Division.” We guess the man on the right is Bill “Sailor” Davis. There is a good, brief bio of Ambassador Davies at www.wikipedia.com. You can view the rest of the June 1943 Skyliner at
http://www.umkc.edu/whmckc/TWA/TWASkyliner.htm
TRANSCONTINENTAL & WESTERN AIR, INC. Pilot's Narrative Report Flight #SA-54 96A This flight departed Washington 19:30 GMT on May 7, 1943, and proceeded to Moscow via South America, Africa and Persia. The flight arrived Moscow at 10:20 GMT on May 19, 1943. We departed Moscow at 03:25 GMT on May 29th and returned t o Washington via Siberia and Alaska. The round-the-world t r i p was completed when we landed at Washington at 21:00 GMT on June 3, 1943. The crew included: Captain: First Officer: 1st Navigator: 2nd Navigator: lst Flight Engineer: 2nd Flight Engineer: 1st Radio Operator: 2nd Radio Operator: Flight Purser:
W. R. P. G. A. E. W. W. E.
G. Golien W.Prescott H. Redpath H. Hart A. Brick J. Vreeland 0. Davis R. McGrew A. Belshaw
Russian crew members: Tehran-Moscow-Krasnoyarsk: Navigator: Radio Operator:
Major Gladkikh Lieut. Smirnov
Krasnoyarsk-Yakutsk-Nome: Navigator: Radio Operator:
Captain Peter Stepnov Lieut. Chelyshev
Tabulate d inf o rmation cover i ng the c omple t e flight is attached. The flig ht ex p erienced most l y clear weath e r condit ions between Washington and Trinidad. Take-off from Trinidad was made at 22:30, local time, during a light rain and flew through light to moderate tropical rains at 9,000 feet until in the vicinity of Zandry Field. From Zandry Field t o w i t h i n a p p r o x i mately one hundred miles from Nat al we were on top o f broken t o s c a t t e r e d c l o u d s .
-2-
Flight #SA-54 96A
On letting down for the approach to Natal, we a g a i n e n tered the clouds and flew through scattered rain showers. We were on instruments as we approached the field at 2,000 feet and expected to make a low instrument approach because we had r e ceived information that the ceiling at Natal was only 400 feet. As we arrived over the field we entered breaks in the clouds and the field was visible from our initial approach altitude. When we reported ourselves over Natal A i r p o r t w e were advised by the control tower to descend immediately to 1000 feet because a B-25 was circling at 2000 feet which was the sa me al ti tude as ours. We immed iatel y started a des c ent a n d , a s w e c i r c l e d b a c k t o w a r d s t h e field, we saw the B-25 come out of a cloud bank only two o r t h r e e m i l e s t o t h e w e s t . We had b een i n contact with Natal radi o fro m a point appr o ximately 30 minutes out and we should have been directed to c h a n g e a l t i t u d e b e f o r e a r r i v a l o v e r t h e a i r p o r t i n o r d e r n o t to make our approach at the same altitude that the other plane was holding. Very little weather was encountered on the overnight t r i p from Natal to Dakar. We departed Dakar at 21:50 GMT and flew a d i r e c t c o u r s e t o K a n o . T h e M e t e o r o l o g i s t a t D a k a r advised us th a t th e i nte r- t ropi cal fr on t was la yin g a pprox ima tel y a long the course we were to fly and that some frontal activity could be expected. He had practically no actual reports on which to base his forecast but he bel i e v e d t h a t t h e a c t i v i t y w o u l d n o t be intense and that what few clouds there were could be topped a t a l t i t u d e s o f 1 1 , 0 0 0 t o 1 3 , 0 0 0 f e e t . A p p r o x i m a t e l y 3 0 0 m i l e s out of Dakar, we encountered scattered to broken cumulus clouds an d experien ced l i ght to m odera t e turbul ence i n flying thro u gh these cloud formations. We had been cruising at 9,000 feet and, upon encountering the cloud conditions, began to climb in an effort to get on top. As we climbed, the cloudiness increased and at 15,000 feet we were on and off instruments with instrument flight increasing. During the periods when we were in the clear we could see a long line of thunderstorms stretching from east to west located approximately 30 miles to the south of our course. These thunderstorms appeared to be very intense and I believe that flight through them would have been a very rough ride. The condition suggested the need of caution in flying over that part of Africa at night because activity along the inter-tropical front appeared to be much m ore int en s e t han we h ad ant ic i pate d. Aft er appr oxi mat el y two and one half h o u r s o f f l i g h t a t a l t i t u d e s b e t w e e n 1 2 , 0 0 0 and 15,000 feet through broken cumulus clouds, we descended to 9,000 feet and
-3-
Flight #SA-54 96A
found ourselves below what few remaining c l o u d s t h e r e w e r e on the course to Kano. The rest of the flight to Kano was smooth and very comfortable. We stopped at Kano for two hours for breakfast and servicing for the airplane and took off for Khartoum. We departed Kano at 09:45 GMT and climbed to a cruising altitude of 7,000 feet. We leveled off at 7,000 feet and flew at that altitude for approximately an hour. Then we began to encounter thermal turbulence and climbed to 9,000 feet. This process was repeated during the day and we eventually reached an altitude of 20,000 feet in order to stay on top of very uncomfortable turbulence. We remained at 20,000 feet in smooth air until time to start our descent to Khartoum. Visibility from 20,000 feet was very poor which made it necessary to rely on D/R navigation and radio bearings to maintain our course. As we approached Khartoum we encountered a very active thunderstorm condition with the thunderstorms scattered along the Nile River and in the vicinity of the airport. We landed at Khartoum at 18:30 GMT which was approximately one hour after darkness had set in. At the time we landed a light rain was falling but there was no thunderstorm activity over the field. There was, however, an intense storm located approximately twenty miles north-northwest of the field. That storm moved down over the airport within a few minutes after we landed and caused quite violent thunderstorm winds for a short time. The Flight Engineers were in the cockpit at the time the storm hit and they held the controls during the storm preventing any damage to the airplane. We stayed overnight at Khartoum and left there at 07:45 GMT the following morning, May 13th. During our stay at Khartoum we received excellent co-operation from Colonel Kerr, Major Hall and Lieutenant Spalding. Mr. Riggan, Pan American Maintenance Foreman at Khartoum, handled the servicing of our airplane, including a complete change of engine oil. He was very helpful and we sincerely appreciated his willing assistance. We made a flight in clear weather from Khartoum to Luxor on the Nile. We landed there to give the Ambassador and party an opportunity to visit certain officials and to get a brief glimpse of famous Egyptian ruins that are located in that area.
parted landed by the mately
We then proceeded to Cairo, arriving there at 15:30 GMT. We deCairo at 04:25 on May 16th and flew to Baghdad, where we and remained about two hours. The field at Baghdad is operated RAF. The field has two surfaced runways. One runway, approxi5000 feet long, runs from NW/SE and the other, only 2600 feet
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long, runs N-NE/S-SW. The wind was such that we had to land on the runway that was 2600 feet long but no difficulty was experienced. We received good weather information and an accurate forecast covering, the route from Baghdad to Tehran. Except for the area along the shore of the Mediterranean and the cities of Bethelem [sic] and Jerusalem, the trip from Cairo to Baghdad was over barren desert waste, the only distinguishing feature of the country being the highway and pipeline that parallels the course. After leaving Baghdad, the course lies more to the north, and within approximately 45 minutes we arrived over the mountains of western Iran. These mountains rise to altitudes near 11,000 feet and mountain type thunderstorms are quite common through the region. However, our trip experienced no difficulty because we were able to detour the scattered storms that existed at the time of our flight. While this country is mountainous, there are many open valleys between the mountains and we did not consider the area to be a hazard. After passing these mountains, we came out over open country and in a short time we could see the high range of the Elburz Mountains which lie directly to the north of Tehran. One peak in that range rises to 18,000 feet and because it is directly beyond Tehran, is an excellent landmark to a flight coming up from Habaniya and Baghdad. We landed at Tehran at 13:00 GMT. We found an excellent airport which has three 5,000-foot runways, running approximately E-W, N-S and NE-SW. The runways cross in the center of the field and their outer ends are connected by a circular taxi strip that extends completely around the airport. The runways are surfaced with cement and are in very good condition. We understood that the field is controlled by the Russians who seemed to have adequate facilities of all kinds available. Shortly after our arrival at Tehran, two Russian officers were presented to us and we were advised through an interpreter that they were to become members of our crew on the flight into Russia. We were also requested to proceed to the office of the Russian Commandant of the airport for route briefing and weather information. During this briefing we were advised of the route we were to follow from Tehran to Kuibyshev and expected weather conditions where discussed. A departure time of 05:00 GMT the following morning was decided upon and necessary arrangements made. We were quartered in town in a hotel occupied by Army Air Forces personnel and we ate at the Army Officer's Mess. Food and lodging were very satisfactory. The flight took off the following morning at the appointed departure time.
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After take-off at Tehran, we flew on a course of approximately 290 which paralleled the Elburz Mountains. We continued on this course until we reached the town of Kazvin. At Kazvin we turned north and flew through a pass in the mountains that can be cleared at 12,000 feet when weather conditions are favorable. We encountered some cumulus clouds in the pass and the Russian Navigator indicated that we should attempt to climb above them. We did not have sufficient time to climb over them and in flying through them we encountered considerable turbulence and a v e r y r a p i d f o r m a t i o n o f i c e o n t h e a i r p l a n e . W h i l e t h e clouds were small and we were only a period of a few minutes in pa ss ing through them, the expe rienc e suggest ed to us that i t i s well to use a great deal of caution in flying through weather conditions over these mountains. The slopes of the mountains on both sides are steep and produce very rapidly rising currents that carry moist air up from the low valleys on each side to freezing levels over the mountains. T h i s i s a meteorologic al co n dition t hat c a n be exp ected to produce severe weather and dangerous icing conditions wherever it exists. o
After passing over the Elburz Mountains, we approached the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea and proceeded on a track that took us over the sea between the towns of Resht and Baku. We passed a few miles to the west of Baku and from there on flew along the shore of the sea to the city of Astrakhan located at the mouth of the Volga River. From Astrakhan we flew a direct course to Kuibyshev, landing there at 11:30 GMT. The only unusual feature noticed on the trip from Tehran to Kuibyshev was the sustained downdrafts encountered along the west shore of the Caspian above Baku. These downdrafts were apparently caused by air sliding down off the high range of the Caucasian Mountains, a few miles to the west of our course. At the time we encountered the settling air, we also encountered a very strong cross wind that created a drift at times as high as 25 to 30 degrees. The surprising thing about the condition was the lack of turbulence which ordinarily exists in winds of such high velocities. At Kuibyshev we landed at what appeared to be an auxiliary airport located approximately twenty kilometers E-NE of the city. The field has one concrete runway approximately 4500 feet long extending N-NE to S-SW. The runway is located in a sod field that has no surfaced approaches or taxiways to the runway. During the period of spring thaws, I do not believe the field would be usable for heavy equipment because an airplane would bog down in trying to get to or from the runway. We had hoped to continue the flight to Moscow that day
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but our Russian Radio Operator received information while we were still in flight that the weather between Kuibyshev and Moscow was unfavorable. We checked in with the airport officials and received information that a frontal condition existed between there and Moscow and that conditions the following day would probably not be favorable. Upon receipt of this information, the Ambassador asked the Russian officials to make arrangements to permit us to fly to Stalingrad. The officials were at first hesitant but upon insistence from the Ambassador they promptly got in touch with higher authority and within an hour and a half they advised us that all arrangements had been made and that we would be permitted to proceed to Stalingrad the following day and return to Kuibyshev. After handling all necessary items at the airport, we drove into the city of Kuibyshev, where we stayed at the American Embassy Building. We were given very comfortable quarters and kindly treated by the personnel of the Embassy staff. Our stay in Kuibyshev was pleasant except for the bone-breaking ride between the city and the airport. The roads were about the roughest it has ever been my misfortune to travel over. It was some wonder to us that they were able to keep their automobiles and truck equipment together and continue to operate it over those roads. The roads are in a condition similar to many other facilities in Russia that are not directly serving the war effort. The people seem to have let everything go except that which has a direct bearing upon their fighting at the front. We took off for Stalingrad the following morning at 05:45 GMT. A specific route had been laid out and our navigator was careful to see that we never, at any time, deviated from that route. Our procedure included circling the airport at the city of Saratov and the firing of the colors as we approached the field. Arrangements had been made for us to pick up a fighter escort and as we started our circle the fighters taxied out and took-off. Completing our circle, we straightened out on course and within a short time six fighters were in escort positions. The field there appeared to be a fairly well-equipped airport. There were two surfaced runways which I estimated to be approximately 5,000 feet long. They ran generally in ENEWSW and NW-SE direction. The flight followed the Volga from Saratov to Stalingrad. Rain showers were encountered with ceilings at times as low as 1,000 feet. Our Navigator evidenced some concern, and at one time, indicated that he thought we should turn back. However, we were able to point out lighter areas in the clouds ahead and he finally agreed that it was okay to go on. When we flew through the heavier rain showers, our fighter escorts pulled in close in fairly tight formation and held these positions i n o r d e r n o t t o l o s e u s . W h e n w e a r r i v e d i n t h e v i c i n i t y of Stalingrad, the weather cleared and we had good weather during our stay there.
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The field we used was located approximately ten miles south of the city and was a dry sod field located on top of the hills to the west of the river. There were no markings to identify the airport except a landing tee near the center of the landing area and a number of airplanes parked around the edges of the field. A wind of thirty to forty miles per hour was blowing across the field and the C-54 with a light load did not use more than half of the landing area available. After the airplane was parked and secured with First Officer R. W. Prescott left as guard, the rest of the party was taken on a tour through the ruins of the city of Stalingrad. The entire area formerly occupied by a city of approximately one-half million population was a scene of complete and utter destruction. Only one or two buildings were left standing in a condition that even closely resembled the original structure. Large sections of the city were completely flattened with nothing standing except sections of chimneys. It was interesting to note that a large grain elevator was not badly damaged. If enemy bombing and gunfire intended to leave the grain elevator standing, remarkable accuracy must have been exercised. We spent about two hours in Stalingrad and then returned to Kuibyshev over approximately the same route used coming down. On May 19th the weather between Kuibyshev and Moscow had cleared sufficiently to permit us to depart Kuibyshev at 10:20 GMT. We encountered low ceilings and moderate rain over a part of the course but arrived at Moscow without difficulty at 14:05 GMT. The airport where we landed was located in the outskirts of the city on the southwest side. The airport has two runways, running approximately E-W and NW-SE, crossing at the center of the airport. During the summer season the sod area between the runways is suitable for four-engine aircraft. The approaches to the field from all directions are over residential areas with obstructions up to a height of approximately one hundred feet on three sides of the field with construction work under way on the east side of the field extending obstructions up to approximately 150 feet. The field seemed to be well equipped with maintenance and repair shops and necessary work on our airplane was handled in a very capable manner by Russian mechanics under the supervision of a Captain Platonov. We spent ten days in Russia and during that time had an opportunity to become acquainted with the staffs of the American Army and Navy Attache Offices. These men were generous in their invaluable assistance to our flight. They were all exceptionally capable officers who are exerting every possible effort to accomplish their missions among the Russians. They are handicapped by an annoying attitude
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on the part of the Russians who are stubborn in their refusal to divulge useful or specific information about their equipment, their Army and Air Forces, or their military experiences gained in the present war. This characteristic of the Russians is difficult to understand. We experienced this reluctance to provide specific information when we began discussions concerning the Alsib Route from Moscow to Nome. Our briefing for that route involved the holding of several conferences. The Russians called in some of their high officers most familiar with the route to attend these conferences. When the officers sat down at the conference table they gave us nothing more than assurances that the route, the fields, the radio and meteorological facilities would be entirely adequate and that we would be able to complete the flight without concern. It took three conferences and considerable insistence on our part to obtain a set of maps. The Russians seemed to have very little in the way of written information available concerning their facilities. When we asked about an airport other than the one located along the main line we were advised that it would be necessary to call in another expert who is familiar with that particular field. This, of course, meant another conference a day or so later. We wondered why someone could not produce the information on the spot but I gathered it was because no one present actually had the information needed. We did find when we flew over the Alsib Route that the assurances given us were well justified because facilities at the fields where we landed proved to be entirely adequate. One of the features of the Russian airway facilities that we noted on our flights within the country was the accuracy of their weather forecasts. In every case we experienced weather conditions that agreed very closely with conditions that had been described to us in the forecast. At every airport where we landed there was a well equipped weather station prepared to provide complete weather information and forecasts for the next leg to be flown. Many of the weather stations employed women on their meteorological staffs. Except for our briefing difficulty we were treated well and courteously by the Russian people and our stay in the Capital was pleasant. We departed Moscow at 03:25 GMT on May 29, 1943, and proceeded to Novosibirsk, arriving there at 12:20 GMT. On the flight to Novosibirsk we passed over some of the new industrial areas in the Ural Mountains and flew directly over the city of Sverdlovsk. I had heard much of the Ural Mountains and expected to see a fairly rugged range. Actually the Ural Mountains are little more than a range of hills at the section where we crossed. We crossed the range at a
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cruising altitude of 5000 feet and were well above any of the hills on course. The city of Sverdlovsk is a large industrial city located just to the east of the Ural Mountains. It has a large airport with two paved runways located near the city to the southeast. After passing Sverdlovsk and when in the vicinity of Kurgan we climbed to 11,000 feet to top small cumulus clouds. From Kurgan east the course approximately paralleled the highway and the Trans-Siberian Railroad. We passed over the city of Petropavlovak, which is another fairly large city located at junctions of railroads, highways and the Ighma River. The city has a large sod field located south of the city but there are no runways-only one building and no radio on the field. The next city of any importance that we passed was the city of Omsk, located on a wide bend in the Irtysh River. A large airport lies just to the west of the city. The airport is equipped with two surfaced runways, weather facilities and a medium powered radio station operating on approximately 395 kcs. There is also an old airport with one runway located near the city to the east. From Omsk to Novosibirsk we cruised at 12,000 feet in clear weather with a temperature of 360o F. The terrain through this part of Russia is mostly grass covered prairie with scattered small areas of forest and numerous dry lakes. The cultivation is scattered. General altitude of the terrain is 300 to 400 feet. Few prominent land marks were noted except the railroad and highway parallel to the course. The field at Novosibirsk is located approximately fifteen kilometers west of the city and just to the north of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Except for a very rough country road the railroad furnishes the only means of transportation between the field and downtown. The field has two good runways approximately 4500 feet long. Sod portions of the field are suitable for heavy ships during summer months. Complete service equipment was available on the field and seemed to be in good condition except the fuel trucks carried tanks of only about 800 gallons capacity and it was necessary to use two or three trucks to service the airplane. Comfortable quarters and good food was provided in barracks located near the field. Guard service was fully staffed and very efficient. On May 30th we flew from Novosibirsk to Krasnoyarsk, a distance of 400 miles. Upon arrival at Krasnoyarsk we were advised that the weather to the east was unfavorable and that we should hold for a morning departure. After checking weather conditions as reported and
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forecast for the Krasnoyarsk-Yakutsk sector we agreed to hold for a 3:00 AM LCT take-off. The Krasnoyarsk airport is located approxi mately fifteen miles northeast of the city between a bend in the Yenisir River and a low range of hills. The low hills lie to the west and southwest of the airport and extend to a height of 200 to 300 feet above the field elevation. An airplane taking off to the southwest must climb over those hills and partial loss of power would probably result in a forced landing. The runways on the airport formed the more or less standard open ’V’, typical of many Russian airports. Runways are paved and approximately 5000 feet long. They extend north to south and northeast to southwest. There were few buildings on the field although service equipment seemed to be adequate. Quarters were provided in a small hotel nearby. Large numbers of A-20's were parked on the field. We departed Krasnoyarsk at 21:10 GMT on May 30th. 21:10 GMT at Krasnoyarsk is 3:00 AM local time. At Krasnoyarsk we changed Russian crew members. Our Navigator was Captain Peter Stepnov and our Radio Operator was Lieutenant Chelyshev. Shortly after take-off we climbed up through an overcast and leveled off in cruising flight at 7000 feet. Just after breaking through the top of the overcast we observed the sun rising in the direction of almost due north. As we proceeded the top of the overcast extended to higher elevations and since that leg of the route was over mountainous terrain we climbed to higher altitudes to stay on top. About 300 miles out of Krasnoyarsk we encountered weather conditions associated with frontal activity that extended to extremely high altitudes. We climbed to 15,000 feet where the temperature was 5 above zero and icing was very light. We held that altitude and flew on and off instruments for another 600 or 700 miles where we broke out in clear weather and continued on to Yakutsk. The most noticeable feature of this flight was that our flight procedure east of Krasnoyarsk was radically changed from the procedures employed throughout all of our previous flying in Russia. Out of Krasnoyarsk we were permitted to go on top or on instruments while prior to that point we were restricted to ground contact flying at all times. I believe that security reasons in relation to antiaircraft defense works was the cause of holding us to contact flying along certain planned channels. East of Krasnoyarsk the defense was apparently not as critical and restrictions were therefore lifted. Prior to arrival over Yakutsk we requested and received radio clearance to pass over Yakutsk and proceed to Semchan, another airport 800 miles farther to the east. we arrived over Yakutsk at 10,000 feet and then received orders instructing us to land. We asked for the reason and were told that weather conditions ahead were unfavor
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able. We spiraled down and landed. The field has two sod runways, a north-south runway 5000 feet long and a northeast-southwest runway approximately 4200 feet long. Runways were smooth except for shallow swales. These swales make it advisable to hold the nose up on landing with aircraft equipped with a tricycle type gear. Upon landing at Yakutsk we immediately inquired into conditions ahead and received conflicting information. One party advised us that the field at Semchan was not satisfactory and another party advised us that weather conditions ahead were unfavorable. Upon checking weather with the meteorologist we found that weather conditions were satisfactory at that time but conditions were developing that would produce poor weather conditions the next six to seven hours. The Russian authorities at the field did not seem to be in favor of authorizing our immediate departure. We were experiencing some difficulty in arriving at a decision when a Russian Colonel came to our assistance. This officer was Colonel Morosov (phonetic spelling). After discussing the matter with the Colonel, the decision was made to release the flight as soon as servicing was completed. After several rounds of discussions I gathered that the main reason for our landing at Yakutsk was to give the local authorities an opportunity to entertain our party at a dinner that had been prepared. They seemed quite disappointed when we decided not to stay. Colonel Morosov who helped us to obtain a clearance had previously attended our briefing meetings in Moscow. He is one of Russia's authorities on flight operations through Siberia and holds the honored title of "Hero of the Soviet Union". We learned through our interpreter that he had departed Moscow in a C-47 two hours ahead of us. He flew the 3700 mile trip from Moscow to Yakutsk and landed at every regular and intermediate field to check services and facilities to make sure they were in a state of readiness to serve our flight. We took off from Yakutsk at 15:55 GMT on May 30th and climbed to cruising altitude of 11,000 feet. About 300 miles out of Yakutsk we encountered weather conditions lying over the Siberian Mountains and climbed to 15,000 feet for several hundred miles and during that time were on and off instruments through cloud formations and snow storms. Occasional breaks through the clouds revealed mountain tops extended to heights of approximately 12,000 feet. We considered 14,000 feet to be the minimum safe instrument altitude over that stretch between Yakutsk and Semchan. East of Semchan the mountains are lower with tops not over 9,000 feet. On this leg of the flight we experienced some uncertainty as to our actual elevation above sea level. The Russians set their altimeters to read zero at the field to which they are proceeding. While in flight the Radio Operator received a pressure reading for the field at Semchan and the Navigator, who was riding in the First Officers seat, re-set the altimeter to
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that reading which was 27.46. I had the other altimeter set at zero on the field at Yakutsk and had been keeping the First Officer's al timeter at 29.92. When the Navigator changed his altimeter to 27.46 we had a difference of approximately 1500 feet in altimeter readings. This altitude situation was for a time somewhat confusing and could have become an element of danger. We decided the safest procedure was to return one altimeter to 29.92 and fly according to standard sea level altitude. When we passed Semchan broken clouds lay over the area and we did not get to see the airport. Information we received at briefing sessions concerning the Semchan airport described it as a field adequate for B-24 operation and that it is equipped with a radio range operating on 327 kcs. We tuned the DF equipment to the range frequency and obtained a fair bearing. However, the needle fluctuated in wide arcs at frequent intervals. East of Semchan weather conditions cleared and we flew through practically clear weather the rest of the way to Nome. We landed at Nome at 15:55 GMT on May 31st. We stopped at Nome approximately two hours for breakfast and servicing and took off for Fairbanks. Upon arrival at Fairbanks we learned that unfavorable weather conditions existed over the Fairbanks-Edmonton route and if we desired to continue our flight that day it would be necessary to route us down the coast to Seattle. We checked weather conditions on that route and decided to take off for Seattle as soon as possible. We departed Fairbanks at 23:25 GMT and flew a course lying through the Copper River pass to the coast at a point just east of Cordova. The flight down the coast was made through clear weather until we arrived approximately opposite Victoria, British Colombia, where we encountered a frontal condition with low ceilings and light to moderate rain. Upon entering the area of precipitation, the temperature dropped to between freezing and 34o and ice would at times form on the airplane. Heavy static existed in the clouds and precipitation which made reception of radio signals impossible. We had no means of making certain of our track parallel to the coast line and neither had we any means of checking to determine whether or not there had been a change in the wind. Our cruising altitude of 4000 feet was lower than the terrain along the coastline lying approximately 15 miles to our left. This situation made it necessary to change our course to seaward and fly a heading that we were certain would keep us well away from the coastline until weather conditions cleared. Mr. Redpath and Mr. Hart held us on the new course until we reached a D/R position approximately opposite the entrance to Puget Sound and south of the west leg of the Neah Bay radio range. We then took up a course toward land. Soon after changing to the landward course the weather began to break and we were able to receive sufficient signal from
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the radio range station to establish our position relative to the range leg. The rest of the flight to Boeing Field at Seattle was completed without incident except for light icing conditions that we encountered in cumulus clouds over the Sound. We arrived Seattle at 09:45 GMT on May 31st and held over in Seattle until 14:00 GMT on June 2nd when we took off for Minneapolis. Most of the flight from Seattle to Minneapolis was made through varying types of weather conditions from mountain snow storms to moderate rains over eastern Montana and North Dakota and a moderate cold front approximately twenty minutes out of Minneapolis. We arrived at Minneapolis at 22:45 GMT on June 2nd. We set up a departure of 14:00 GMT from Minneapolis on the following morning. We experienced a mechanical delay which was due to the loosening of an intake pipe on #2 engine. Northwest Airlines maintenance personnel turned to in a very cooperative manner and corrected the difficulty in a period of time much less than would ordinarily have been required. We departed Minneapolis at 15:00 GMT for Washington. While flying in the vicinity of Waukegan, Illinois, the de-icer boot on the leading edge of the wing between #1 and #2 engine pulled loose at one and began to balloon and beat in the airstream to such an extent that we immediately decided to land at Chicago. On landing at Chicago, Flight Engineers Brick and Vreeland removed the rest of that section of the de-icer and plugged the ends of the de-icer lines. This repair required forty minutes and we took off for Washington at 18:05 GMT. The flight from Chicago to Washington was made via Fort Wayne and Pittsburgh through clear weather conditions and we arrived at Washington 21:00 GMT on June 3, 1943.
WGG:VEH
W. G. Golien Captain
Air Transport Command (ATC) later Military Air Transport Services (MATS) C-54/DC-4
INTRODUCING CAPTAIN MARK L. BERRY Mark started with TWA as a B-727 F/E in 1988, went to AAL when it purchased TWA’s assets in 2001 and is currently a STL based MD80 captain. Mark is one of our few members under the age of sixty and we welcome the new blood. Mark has turned to writing in recent years and has written his first book, a novel titled Pushing Leaves Towards the Sun. You can read the first four chapters and/or purchase the book on Mark’s web site: www.pushingleavestowardsthesun.com/ .
Mark L. Berry, 1988
Mark has written two great articles published in the August and September 2010 issues of AIRWAYS magazine—see www.airwaysmag.com. If you do not subscribe, you may find it at Barnes and Noble or Borders. The first article, in the August issue, is “Pigship Probation.” It is a light hearted account of Mark’s experiences while on TDY based in Berlin. The story includes some neat pictures, a poem “Long Live The Pigship” and a list of all the porcine names for Ms. Piggy. You can even listen to a song about her at http:// bit.ly/pigship . The second article, in the September issue, is quite a bit heavier and might just break your heart. It is about Mark losing his fiancée on our TWA Flight 800 tragedy. Ironically, she was not a TWA employee but was a full fare first class passenger on a business trip. In a note to Mark, former TOPICS editor John Gratz summed up my feelings perfectly: “Mark, I just read your story in AIRWAYS and cannot adequately describe my feelings about the pain you have suffered and so movingly described. I knew you were a kind and caring person reading your remembrance of your friend Ken Cook, but now you have shared what has to be one of the most painful chapters in any person’s life with a wisdom and love that is so rare in our world today. Moreover, your skill as a keen observer and true commentator on the human condition is awesome….” The full story in AIRWAYS is on Mark’s web site in abbreviated form along with more pictures, a poem and another song. As we go to press, the October AIRWAYS just arrived containing a humorous piece by Mark about his “commuter days” flying the Short Bros. “Irish Concorde” and mixing it up in the pattern with the real Concorde! The following article, “Sacred Watering Holes” is Mark’s first (but we hope not his last) submission to TARPA TOPICS. It is accompanied by a song, lyrics by Mark; music and vocal by Billy Sea. You will find a link to it on the TARPA web site’s home page, www.tarpa.com. - JJH
SACRED WATERING HOLES by Mark L Berry “I’ll meet you at the office,” I tell Jennifer, my blonde-haired Scandinavian-featured first officer, as we check into the hotel. Be it a Double Tree, Holiday Inn Express, or the Courtyard Corporate Comfort Inn Select Suites on steroids, or wherever we are tonight, it’s always just the hotel. I’m not sure which sleep chain I’m in at the moment, but I know where I’ll be after a quick change of clothes. Decades of pilots have called the favorite pit-stop pub at every layover city The Office. It’s where we decompress, and over time these places start to feel familiar in a multi-generational kind of way. I can almost feel my predecessors and mentors when I enter these hallowed grounds. In a world full of stuffy rooms with unreliable ventilation and beds still warm from the last occupant, albeit with a set of over-washed sheets freshly installed, a little reliable comfort food and drink go a long way for a constant traveler. A recent trip to Seattle got me thinking about these sacred watering holes—greasy spoon and frosty mug oases, timeless places that weather countless economic storms when most upstarts never last long enough to earn the term establishment. Every few seasons the wind blows, and the names on the buildings of culinary hopefuls change like they were shaken clean in an Etch-A-Sketch. Yet every city I’m dumped in for layovers has its staple that is much the same as the days when I was a new-hire. These same mythic places where captains bought me beers during my initial 5-year B-scale salary, I now introduce to my own crews. While descending into the northern west coast after a three and a half hour flight, our last of several legs that day, I’d promised my first officer Jennifer some onion rings the size of gaudy bangles, seafood chowder worth licking the bowl clean, and an African-style beer she’d never heard of but I knew she’d love. But when Roasters, the promised pub across from our hotel, closed early for the 4th of July weekend and denied us our fix of Mac and Jack Amber, she and I were stuck just outside the Sea-Tac Airport in search of a place to unwind. That’s when my cloudy memory recalled a spot that served food and drinks around the clock. Linda, our server at 13 Coins Restaurant, welcomed us and revealed that it’s been open since 1976—their downtown location got its start in 1967. My life only goes back to 1965, so that’s one hell of a run for a 24-hour bistro. Both their bruschetta and the meatball sliders pack a powerful punch. It felt imperative that we wash them down with an Alaskan Amber, our substitute for the previously promised Mac and Jack. Imperative, only as long as the layover is long enough, which this time it is. On the east coast where I’m from, the average Manhattan pub’s half-life is six months. That’s not a lot of time to pay off the renovations, much less make a profit. The cycle of grand openings and shortlythereafter shuttered businesses makes me wonder if every new establishment is a front for the mob or a just some kind of clever tax write-off. I can still get a slice of Famous Ray’s Pizza just about anywhere on the island of 8 million people, even if some franchises are knock-offs using the Ray name in a slightly different way. I’m told it’s the water piped down from the Catskills that makes the pizza dough so delicious, so it’s hard to get a bad slice in New York. But how do other restaurants and bars anywhere stay alive? Another of my favorites is the Wheat & Rye, just down the road from Detroit’s Metro Wayne Int’l. It’s still there with over a 20-year run, although cleaned up or rebuilt since my career’s early days in the three-pilot 727. Sure we nicknamed it the Eat and Die back then, but we really loved it and their sandwiches are still feed-the-nation unreal. They’re the size of a four-slice toaster. Seriously, the proprietors
brag that their stacked ham weighs 2 lbs. The bread they use has the thickness of a James Michener hardcover. One sandwich will feed the entire crew and then some. This place has attitude, staying power, and undoubtedly a staggering grocery bill. While we’re on the subject of sammies, I don’t even have to leave the airport in Miami to get an authentic Cuban at La Carreta. I do have to re-clear security if I’m just grabbing a bite between flights when I’m just passing through—a hassle well worth the effort. Good God those little feasts are good. Smothered in butter and hand-pressed by employees that don’t even admit to speaking English, it’s worth the finger-pointing and sign language to get one. I can fake my way through Spanish, but I’d make the effort to stop there even if I couldn’t. Look for the crowd in the D Concourse around a shop that smells like ham, chicken, and cheese melting on a griddle plus the nasal-bite of strong coffee. Sometimes all I need is a 12-ounce draw from the tap to shake off the edge from a long day of battling thunderstorms and mechanical problems. Or worse, there’s the dreaded mid-sequence, non-routine, rescheduled flight to some place inappropriate for the clothing I packed (only shorts in my roll-aboard suitcase for a winter Minneapolis layover, or having to drag my insulated leather jacket through summertime in Phoenix—but hey, it’s a dry heat, right?). This time it’s Salt Lake City. Thankfully there’s Squatters Pub with Polygamy Porter that screams, “Hell yeah.” You’ll want to buy the t-shirt after sampling this microbrew that boasts the slogan, “Why just have one?” and they have ’em. I just typed that nectar’s name into my Facebook status and the replies came flooding in to give a big hello to Utah. The secret is out on this location with all of the feel of a ski lodge, a view of the mountains, and walking distance from anywhere downtown. The Slippery Noodle in Indiana-no-place (sorry local residents), with sawdust floors and a labyrinth of rooms that can host more than one band at a time, is a nine-iron away from the aircrew-friendly Omni Hotel. The Slippery Noodle was established in 1850 as the Tremont House and it somehow survived even before slaves-to-aviationcareers came around to support it, but we discovered it as soon as we could—probably about the time that smudge pots lit the Federal Airmail routes. With a late night menu until 2am, hook me up with their house specialty Nachos Grande and a chilled shot of Blue Island Schnapps. Sometimes I’m lucky and get to leave the country. The Flying Beaver Bar in Vancouver has a view of the seaplane dock in addition to the mountains and waterways. I have a special fondness for Canadian green or brown-bottled beers even if Blue is in the title. And of course those healthy outdoor-loving servers are easy on the eyes—natural beauties against natural beauty. I don’t know what I enjoy more, watching white and yellow Harbour Air float planes take-off, land, and dock, or the University of British Columbia co-eds circle around the bar. I’ll take a Wild B.C. Salmon Salad with crumbled blue cheese and a vinaigrette while I think it over. While stationed in West Berlin, Georges Restaurant und Bierkonter wasn’t just the Office, it was the center of our Germany-based existence. Punctuated with intricate wood carvings, it was a place to relax, meet other crews, or listen to the piano bar. By some high German authority, every kleine bier had to have the appropriate doily around it’s stem announcing what brand was being consumed. While it
Our office in Berlin: Mark is in the middle. “On the left is Chris Terry [TWA/AAL 1986—present]. Both Chris and I were 727 F/E's at the time. Both of us are MD80 Captains at AAL now. On the right is the late Ken Cook [TWA 1966—1992] who I wrote about in my story "Pigship Probation" in Airways Magazine [Aug. 2010]. At the time he was a 727 Captain and also the Inter-European [Flight] Manager….” - MLB
was cool to learn German by saying Bitte ein Bit for another Bitberger Pils, we really drank Warsteiner and ordered them four at a time—Vier beir—which rhymes, “fear beer.” We didn’t fear the große full liter Warsteiner mugs either. We conquered them. No trip to Istanbul is complete without seeing the Kapali Carsi (Grand Bazaar), Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, then unwinding at the Sultan Pub. I really just love the name. It’s a great place to down a Turkish Efes Pilsner while shucking pistachios after a day on my feet snapping pictures. Don’t get me wrong, I love to try new things and places. But in a world where foreclosures and chaos are currently the rule, it’s nice to step back into old welcoming establishments. They may not know who I am, but I remember them with fondness from my early days as a professional domestic traveler—piloto nuevo. Maybe I’m forgetting your favorite haunt, or maybe it’s no longer there, but I’m making sure a new generation of aviators is slowly discovering the ones that have thrived. Even though the eight hour bottle to throttle regulation has been updated to include “no residual effects and a Blood Alcohol Content of less than .04%” and my current airline requires 12 hours of dry time, there’s usually one layover on every 3 or 4-day trip that’s long enough to allow a crew to consume a cold one.
Pilots I know and work with take keeping alcohol out of the cockpit very seriously, but a few isolated incidents have made the drunken pilot into a staple parody. Dean Martin and Foster Brooks made a comedy skit that was widely popular. Because of this stigma, old-timers drinking responsibly on long layovers taught me to tell inquiring patrons, “We’re high speed aluminum tubers,” in response to their questions about what we do for a living. I just finished reading Flying Drunk by Joseph Balzer and nobody wants to go through what his Northwest Airlines crew went through—specifically, hard time in the federal lock-up. In the twenty-five years I’ve been a commercial jet-jockey, I’ve only known one pilot with visible signs of a drinking problem. Although I’m no psychologist, it appeared to stem from his depression over his impending mandatory ejection from the flight deck at the turn-into-a-pumpkin age of 60 (since raised to 65 with the same result just displaced 5 years later). So attached to his career as a professional aviator, he couldn’t cope with losing his identity. What other job inspires such commitment from its members that federally dictated retirement causes so much stress? For you, my nameless friend, I’m still out here moving metal, passing down stories, sampling local delicacies, and on occasion imbibing local brews with those who are journeying with me through this seniority-driven cockpit progression. Although it might seem that the fun-sponge has soaked up the remaining benefits of touring our nation and the far parts of the world for a living, moderation is a good thing. Like gambling, chocolate, fresh seafood, and any other pleasure that tickles our brain, sampling the best of each region when appropriate is still an enticing perk for a job that the traveling public sometimes looks at as a glorified bus driver. Not many other profession’s successes and failures are idolized (think Captain Sully in the Hudson River) or vilified (Colgan Air crash in Buffalo or just about every other aviation mishap in the news) the way ours are. And even if the layover is too short to enjoy an adult beverage, there’s still steaming New England clam chowder in Boston at Legal Sea Foods, or Wahoo’s crunchy fish tacos in San Diego, to be had with whomever I’m sharing the throttles with during the day. Those who no longer venture out to explore their journey’s destinations and local flavor are called slam clickers by the way they slam their hotel room door and then click the lock as soon as they arrive. As for me, my wanderlust must be fed. I’ll see you at The Office after a quick-change into casual clothes. *** When Mark isn’t busy flying the line, he is also a Creative Writing MFA Grad Student at Fairfield University working on his memoir I Still Have to Fly—a life behind the cockpit door as his third book to follow two novels. He can be reached through his website: www.pushingleavestowardsthesun.com As mentioned in Mark’s introduction, there is a song to go along with the above article available through a link on the home page of our web site, www.tarpa.com. Mark wrote the lyrics and the music was composed and sung by Billy Sea, who said in an email, “I retired from the Navy in 2000 after 27 years enlisted service. I started writing songs around 1973, shortly after enlisting in the Navy and over the years have written over 1000 songs (a few of which are available for listening at http://billysea.com). I write songs in many different genre's but mostly in country/folk. I only perform occasionally and so far it has all been around the Southern California area.” Billy Sea
SAUDIA The Life, Times (& Loves?) of a Saudi Arabian Airlines Pilot by Bud Kuball,with special thanks to Ms. Carol Ann Hawley Exactly 20 years (October 1956-October 1976) after being forced out of Egypt because of the closure of the Cairo domicile due to the war over the Suez Canal, I found myself getting off a Saudia (Saudi Arabian Airlines, IATA SVA) L-1011 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and wondering what I had gotten myself into. What was I doing here? I had heard stories of a pilot being transferred here who got off the airplane, took one look around, and then took the first flight back to London, but I never could confirm this. I didn't expect Palm Springs. However, after having lived in Egypt and laying over in Bombay (Mumbai), India for several days on our flights to and from the Philippines in the 50’s, plus flying the Aramco [Arab American Oil Company] Charters to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in the early 70's, I felt I was mentally qualified for this operation. After deplaning, I was greeted by Saudia personnel and transported to my hotel in a little Nissan pickup truck. This hotel would be my home until I could find permanent housing for my family. I intended to bring over my wife and 13 year old son who would be attending the American school here. My two oldest sons were attending the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and my daughter was a senior at Clark High School also in Las Vegas. They would live at home and take care of it and our German Shepherd, Lobo, until our return from Saudia two years later. Most of the Americans who transferred to Saudi Arabia sold their homes, which I think was a mistake because even with their higher wages in Saudi Arabia, the home prices here in America appreciated even more. At this point in time the country of Saudi Arabia was, basically, a male chauvinist society. Saudi women were not allowed to drive and a Saudi woman could not be in a vehicle with another man, or men, unless he, or they, were immediate members of the family. The expatriate women who were in Saudi Arabia were also not allowed to drive and were encouraged not to take a taxi unless there were two or more going. Also, it was customary to see two men walking down the street hand-in-hand but not ethical for a man and a woman to do the same thing. The older women still wore the Burka, a garment, usually black, that covered them from head to toe except for the eyes. However, many of the younger generation boys and girls were trying to go "Western" and wore the International Favoriteblue jeans. I was a Johnny-come-lately to this operation, as TWA has been associated with Saudi Arabia ever since the mid 1940’s when a DC-3 was presented to Saudi King Abbulaziz Bin Saud as a gift from the late president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and TWA Captain Joe Grant was his personal pilot. [See the November 2009 TARPA TOPICS, page 54.] I guess one could say that was the beginning of the present Saudi Arabian Airlines, now Saudia. Now, 31 years later, Saudia has progressed into a first class world wide airline, flying the latest equipment. TWA had personnel on the B747, L-1011, B707 and B737. The B747 crews made the most money, but I think the B737 crews had the most fun as they flew into a lot of the unimproved airports in the Kingdom. They even had a deflector on the aft side of the nose gear to help prevent debris from being sucked into the engines. I was flying left seat on the B707 operation. Most of the first officers and engineers were non-TWA contract personnel and were paid considerably less than the TWA personnel. Some of them were just building up time and waiting for a chance to be hired by a major airline in the U.S. We also had a few Saudi F/Os who were working their way up to Captain status. Also, it was common for British pilots,
who are forced to retire at age 55 in the U.K., to take positions with the various Emirate Airlines to supplement their retirement income. Speaking of pay, our salary for this tour was New York International rates for the equipment you were flying plus a 25% override. However, the applicable percentage of the 25% override was not placed in our "B" plan retirement fund. Also, we were on a flat 85 hour per month guarantee. You were paid the same whether you flew or not. Although this sounds like a great deal, it can be a double-edge sword. With no financial incentive to fly, it may be convenient to be sick when you are scheduled (or on reserve) for a "dog" flight in the wee hours of the night and then someone else, who plays the game fairly, has to cover the flight. All in all, the left seat B747 Captains were making about 100 grand per year. The L-1011, B707 and B737 pilots somewhat less. TWA payroll deposited your salary in your U.S. Bank account and Saudia reimbursed TWA. Trip expenses were paid monthly in Saudi Arabian Riyals. At the Jeddah airport, I heard one pilot say, "We're finally getting paid what we are worth." Included in the package was free housing and utilities. Vacation time was same as stateside. (TWA had a separate office where one could obtain our passes and reduced rate tickets on OALs.) I had only been in Saudi Arabia about two weeks (mid-November 1976) when I received word that my father had passed away in Las Vegas. Saudia gave me a temporary release and I was off for the funeral in Las Vegas and afterwards, my 75 year old mother and I accompanied the remains to North Dakota for final internment. (TWA gave me a special discount for this.) Then I was off for Saudi Google images Arabia and my mother returned to Las Vegas. SVA B-707 Back again in Saudi Arabia, the person in charge of housing would take those in need of a place on a tour of the available choices. These were scattered all over town (Jeddah). I remember one place that had a big Caterpillar powered generator in the front yard, making a lot of noise and running 24/7. Needless to say, nobody elected to stay there. However, Saudia was building a compound on the edge of town called "Saudia City" and composed mostly of one-story California style ranch homes. These were mostly for personnel with no children and were quite popular. Along about the first part of December, 1976, I lucked out and found a two-story apartment with three bedrooms upstairs, a livingdining room plus kitchen downstairs. Each room had a window air conditioner and were for families with children only. By the way, our TWA mechanics, who were working for Saudia, maintained the air conditioners and also would provide Freon for your car's air conditioner. Except for the major thoroughfares, there were no street signs in Jeddah. The buildings were named for the owner who had them built. In my case, it was a Mr. Amawi. So if you caught a taxi, you would tell the driver to take you to the "Amawi Compound" and hope he knew where it was. The best way to get around town was to jump in the back of a little Nissan pickup truck that had a bench seat on each side and was heading in the direction you wanted to go and then hand the driver one Riyal (about 33 cents) when you hopped off. Since I now had housing, I called my wife in Las Vegas (from the Central Telephone Station) and told her to come on down and she and my 13 year old son, Jeff, did just that during the Christmas break. I met them getting off the 747 from London, and, after the look of astonishment had somewhat subsided from their faces, I took them to their new home in the back of a little Nissan pickup truck taxi. I might add that there was no phone service to individual homes. If Saudia wanted you for a flight, they would send a man to your place and if you were not there, leave a note on your door. While I was waiting for my family to arrive, I picked up an old Honda motorcycle to tool around Jed-
dah in. It was great for those narrow back streets where cars were unable to go. Later, when my family arrived, I bought a used four-door Toyota Corolla with air conditioning from an expatriate whose tour of duty was over. It seems as if the Japanese had the car market sewed up here. Nissan was the most seen brand. However, the more well-to-do Saudis preferred the American brands, particularly the four wheel drive Chevrolet and GMC Suburban station wagon SUVs. As for shopping, they had American style supermarkets here only on a smaller scale. Food was expensive, as it was mostly imported from Europe. Fruits and vegetables came from North Africa and Turkey. I drank a lot of milk that came in 1 liter cartons and did not have to be refrigerated. I also liked their bread which was baked in the bakery of the supermarket. One could buy a loaf of French style bread right out of the oven for one Riyal (33 cents). Now, for the working part of this operation, my first flight was an annual proficiency check on 21 November, 1976 in a B720 from Jeddah to Taif and back. TWA Capt. Dick Nickerson was the check pilot. Taif is a short way from Jeddah and is sometimes called, "The summer capital of Saudi Arabia", because of its higher (cooler) elevation. Saudia used the airport there for training flights. The next month was spent line checking with check pilots. TWA Capt. J.D. Rideout (who was based in San Francisco with me in the early 70t), Saudia Capt. Fahad Assaid, and, again, TWA Capt. Dick Nickerson, Saudia Capt. A. Kari and my final line check on 11 January, 1977 with Saudia Capt. Mohammed Eid. We went to such exotic places as Medina (Saudia Arabia), Mohammed's burial place, Cairo (think pyramids), Dhahran (think oil), Riyadh (the Capital), Rome, Paris, Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Bombay (Mumbai)), Karachi (Pakistan), Sanaa (Democratic Yemen), Baghdad (before it became famous), Kuwait, Damascus (Syria), Amman (Jordan). Other places I flew into on my almost two-year tour were Khartoum (Sudan); Tripoli (Libya), Tunis (Tunisia), Algiers (Algeria), Casablanca (Morocco), Muscat (Oman), Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Amsterdam, Istanbul, London (Heathrow), Geneva, Frankfort, Athens and a military field at Tabuk in Northern Saudi Arabia near the Jordanian border. Also, Aden (Communist Yemen) on the Gulf of Aden. For the 707 operation our layovers were as follows: In Saudi, Arabawyadh and Dhahran, Karachi (Pakistan), Casablanca (Morocco), Tunis (Tunisia), London, Frankfort, Amsterdam, Geneva, Cairo and Paris. My last flight on Saudia was on 12 July 1978 from Jeddah to Medina (Saudi Arabia), on to Cairo and back to Jeddah. We had some long days, as most of the flights in the Middle East were of the "Pogo Stick" variety with a lot of stops and ground time. It was not unusual to have anywhere from two to four hours ground time between flights. Also, there was a lack of crew rooms, so your only choice was to go in the terminal or stay on the airplane. In the hot summer we used to take newspapers and place them on the windows of the 707 to keep the heat down in the cockpit. The flight attendants were mostly from Pakistan and Egypt with a few from various countries in Europe. They were well qualified and efficient. I thought the quality of the food served to the crew members was quite good. The fleet was well maintained by our TWA mechanics. In the short one year and nine months that I was there, according to my logbook, I only had three incidents. Once we had a hydraulic failure (loss of fluid) and had to crank the gear down and use emergency flaps. Another time there was a fire warning on #4 engine just prior to landing at Jeddah and the engine was shut down. The last (and funniest) inci-
dent happened at Dhahran. I was parked, waiting to start the engines, when a commissary truck ran into my left wing tip and the airport officials were trying to blame me for the incident. Needless to say, their argument didn't fly! The mail service was quite good. We had mail boxes at the airport. Once a month, I would mail a check to my kids in Las Vegas so they could buy their groceries and pay the bills. It wasn't all work and no play on this operation. We had some fun too. Once, someone (who???) was able to obtain one of my spare pictures from my passport and posted it on the bulletin board along with the members of a flight attendant graduation class, mostly Pakistani and Egyptian girls. I wondered why I was getting those strange looks and heard a lot of giggling when I would pass them in the hallway. (Maybe the chief pilot was trying to tell me something.) I never did find out who put my picture up there. Time wise, one was usually able to get a six-day spread every month free of all duty. This was just enough time for a fast trip to the States if you had some business to attend to. I did that a couple of times. Once back, I noticed that one's body loosened up due to the soft foods. In Saudi Arabia there was more fiber content in the food we ate. I had brought my camping gear with me to Saudi Arabia, so on one of those six day off periods, I loaded up the Toyota Corolla with the wife, son and one of his school mates and we were off, north to Medina. There is an armed guard there and "infidels" are not allowed to enter because it is a holy city, the burial place of the Prophet Mohammed. So, one has to go around the city on a perimeter road. We slept on the desert floor in our sleeping bags. They have some beautiful desert here. So quiet you could almost hear a pin drop. It is said that the Bedouins (people who live in the desert) have much better hearing than we do and can hear the footsteps of someone walking in the sand several times farther than we can. This is due to the lack of noise that so-called civilized places have. We then worked our way eastward to Riyadh (the capital) where we booked a hotel room, showered, and had a sit-down meal. After that, we drove southeast to Ta’if (Saudi Arabia's summer capital) and then bypassed Mecca, another holy place, the prophet Mohammed's birthplace. Like Medina, "infidels" are not allowed to enter and armed guards enforce that. From there, it was a short drive back to Jeddah. All in all, a very interesting trip. Another time, I took my son, Jeff, on a ski trip to Africa. That's right, Africa. I've seen posters to "Ski Poland" but never to "Ski Africa." Anyway, we
SAA headquarters
hopped on Saudia's North African Flight stopping at Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers and ending up in Casablanca, Morocco, where we rented a car and drove south to Marrakech, a very interesting city. They have a Club Med there. We [spent the night] at a Holiday Inn and the next morning we drove about 50 miles southeast to a ski area called Okmaidan in the Atlas Mountains. The Atlas Mountain range runs SW to NE, from Morocco into Algeria. There are some 13,000’ peaks in this range and they block the moisture coming in land from the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, which is the main reason the Sahara Desert is where it is. (If A1 Gore could find a way to remove this range, he may be able to solve the so-called global warming problem in one fell swoop.) Anyway, the ski area was vintage 30's with only rope tows and no grooming. However, from a skier's standpoint, skiing is better than no skiing.
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On one break, Jeff and I flew Saudia to Rome and then took Air France to Nice, France, where we rented a car and drove about two hours north to a ski area called Isola 2000. This is an ultra-modem ski resort with high rises and high prices, unlike the typical European ski village. Anyway, the snow was great on those wide open, go anywhere slopes, that are so common in Europe. These monthly breaks were a welcome change of pace for my family, especially the one to Karachi, Pakistan, which is a Muslim country. We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel, a crew hotel, which has a special bar for foreign guests. The Pakistanis, like the Egyptians, are great craftsmen and particularly good at working with wood. My wife ordered a coffee table, which I picked up later on one of my flights to Karachi. One evening we had dinner on an old wooden fishing boat in the harbor. Using a makeshift wood fired grill on deck, a freshly caught fish dinner was presented and enjoyed by all. During the 1977 summer school break, I took some of my vacation time and accompanied my wife and Jeff back to Las Vegas. My daughter, Cynthia, who had just graduated from high school wanted to see Saudi Arabia before she went to college, so she was going to go back with us. While I was in Saudi Arabia, she decided to change her religion from Catholic to Mormon, so, I would be sending her to BYU (Brigham Young University), the Mormon college, in Provo, Utah. After a short stay in Vegas, we decided to return to Saudi Arabia, only this time the long way around. All four of us left LAS on TWA Flight 148, the non-stop L-1011 Flight to JFK. After an RON we departed JFK on Varig (Brazilian) airlines non-stop to Rio de Janeiro. We spent a few days there doing all the tourist things; The Corcovado, Sugar Loaf Mt., evening shows, checking out the beaches. (Never did find the girl from Ipanema!) Then it was on to Jo-berg (Johannesburg), South Africa via Varig. South Africa was great, almost like being in the States, great food and clean accommodations. (I had visited there in 1966 when I was on TWA's Congo operation.) Apartheid was still going strong, but
we had no problems. We visited some friends in Pretoria (the capital) that my wife and I had met—now get this—in our booth while watching a stage production in one of the casinos in Las Vegas. After that, I rented a Dolphin mini-motor home (on a Toyota chassis) and we were off for Hager National Park. This is a great park, the animals roam free, you stay in your vehicle and enjoy the action; lions, giraffes, elephants, baboons who would jump right up on your hood. The campgrounds, "rondavels" they call them, were nice with showers and centralized cooking areas. Sleeping accommodations were also available, if needed. This is a big park-about 200 miles long, so we enjoyed several days there. The northern end of the park is at the point where three countries meet; South Africa, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and Mozambique. We stood on the bank of the Limpopo River, which separates these countries, and we could see all three. I also visited my old British white hunter friend, Dan Shaw and his wife and two young daughters. I had hunted with him in Kenya in 1970 while it was still run by the British. After the natives took over, he moved to Australia but couldn't find suitable employment there, so he left for South Africa. He had a camp out in the boonies and was back to running hunting safaris again. We spent a night there. After the park, we journeyed down to the seaside resort of Durban and then it was back to Jo-berg and a non-stop flight on UTA (French Airline) to Nairobi, Kenya, transferring there to a non-stop flight to Jeddah. (Africa is a continent. Flying from Capetown to Cairo is like flying from NY to LAX and back.) One has to have a good sense of humor and be flexible when living in Saudi Arabia, almost every day you feel like smacking someone. For instance: My daughter had some interesting experiences while visiting. She was shopping in the crowded bazaar, got pinched on her derriere (and other places) which was embarrassing for her. Another time, she was reading a book on the upstairs porch overlooking the Red Sea when two men came walking by, saw her, lifted their galibiyas, and urinated. If you are at the airport in line at the ticket counter, Saudis will cut in right in front of you. It got so bad that Saudi Arabian Airlines would run full page ads in the local newspaper on how to queue properly. In Turkey, I found the average person to be much more civilized. Later in the summer, my #2 son, Glen, flew in from Las Vegas, stayed a few days and then he and his sister left together for Vegas. They had some problems getting out of LHR on a pass but finally made in okay. Other trips we made on our monthly spread were to Istanbul, Turkey, where we stayed at the Sheraton Hotel and visited the Blue Mosque and the humongous bazaar, to Amman, Jordon, staying at the Intercontinental Hotel and driving down to the Dead Sea for a swim. For some reason, we missed visiting Petra, which I regret. We did go to Cairo, Egypt where we stayed at the beautiful Nile Hilton, a crew hotel along the Nile River. I rented a car there and we drove down (south) to Maadi to see our old villa (Villa 10 Road 11) where we had lived 20 years earlier when based here. Jeffrey also had a chance to ride a camel at the pyramids. I thought surely he would fall off when that camel came running back on the home stretch. As for religion, Islam is the religion of Saudi Arabia. If you do not believe in Islam, you are an infidel. Conversely, the Muslims in the U.S. are also infidels because they do not believe in Christianity. Web-
ster defines "infidel" as any person who does not accept the prevailing religion of the country that he or she is in. So, since we were infidels, we were not allowed to have church services. (I find that rather strange since Muslims in the U.S. are allowed to practice their religion without any problems. Therefore, we should be allowed to practice our religion in their country. Anyhow, we got around this by holding non-denominational church services in the U.S. Embassy and calling it a "meeting." This seemed to satisfy everybody. (My personal opinion is that we should take all the clerics in the U.S. who preach and foster against our country, throw them all in jail (along with the Rev. Wright) and throw away the key.) Another thorn in the side of the expatriates was the fact that Islam does not allow Muslims to drink alcohol and therefore we shall not either. Well, we managed to get around that one, too. There were several contractors in Saudi Arabia (Saudis don't like doing manual labor) besides TWA, and one (or more) of them had several persons who were particularly proficient in the art of distilling alcohol. So good, in fact, that they would have made the prohibition-era moonshiners from West Virginia and Kentucky proud of them. The "stuff' was so good you could hardly tell it from the real thing. All you had to do was tell the contact person what you needed; gin, vodka, scotch, bourbon or whatever and in a few days it would be on your doorstep at a reasonable price. I'm sure the authorities knew about this, but they turned a blind eye to it. I used to take a few baby bottles on my trips and when I came across a duty-free shop, I would buy a bottle of gin or vodka (since they are clear) and fill up the baby bottles and take them back to Saudi Arabia. I got away with this for quite some time, but then my luck ran out and the game was over. I had to sign a document (in Arabic) that said (I think) that I was a "bad boy" and shouldn't do this anymore, which I didn't! We also had cargo flights to Khartoum, Sudan, Africa, which brought back mutton for the Saudis. During the day flight, I would wander downtown while they were loading the aircraft and have lunch at the Khartoum Hilton, which was located near the junction of the White Nile and Blue Nile Rivers thus forming the Nile River. Flying the night flights was a little different. It was like flying “Black 13�, the nickname for the route from Grand Junction, Colorado to SFO. First, you had to cross the Red Sea and then there were few lights over Eastern Sudan. The airport had minimal landing aids, so the approaches were always "interesting". We usually took a couple of mechanics with us from Jeddah to help with the loading. There was also a great duty-free shop at the airport, so we could buy our "stuff' and give it to the mechanics who would stash it away in the bowels of the aircraft. A week or so after our return to Jeddah, you would find your "stuff' delivered to your doorstep. Some of our Cairo flights had one or two night layovers. The Saudia crew hotel was the Sheraton which was right across the Nile River from the Nile Hilton where the TWA crews stayed. For some unknown reason the Sheraton always held the same crew rooms for us, so what we would do was stash all our "de-briefing" supplies in the toilet tank in your room. This procedure kept everything nice and cool and we always had refreshments waiting for us. (Unless they changed rooms, of course, then some lucky, nosy chambermaid could have a party!) Quite a few foreign carriers had layovers in Jeddah. Their crew hotel had an outdoor swimming pool and during the day, their flight attendants would be lounging around in their skimpy bikinis and the chain link fence around the pool area would be three deep with Saudis ogling them. The only time a Saudi male gets to see more than the ankles of a woman is when he gets married and then it's too late if he doesn't like what he sees!
There was an outdoor theater at the American School and movies were quite reasonable but usually quite ancient. I also bought Jeff a small motorcycle to play around with. He promptly took off the fenders, lights, etc. and made a desert bike out of it. Some of the crew members were SCUBA qualified and would dive in the Red Sea, as there was a good reef just a short ways from shore. I always liked Saudia's paint job, especially the tail with the two crossed swords and a palm tree. Too bad they couldn't get some Las Vegas style casino billboard expertise and make that palm tree appear to wave back and forth when the aircraft was on the ground. I don't remember eating out too often, although there were a few restaurants around, mostly in the hotels. There were a lot of little stands around that sold "Sharmas", a sandwich using a pita type bread and filled with mutton and some veggies, similar to the "Falafel" in Israel. I kept a commodity brokerage account in London but that didn't work too well. The only way for me to communicate was to go to the Central Telephone Office in Jeddah, give the clerk the telephone number to call, and when it went through, he would assign me to a booth to handle the call. This didn't work too well in the fast moving futures markets. Of course, all calls were on a cash basis. Speaking of money, Saudi Arabia was basically a cash-based economy. Well off Saudi men carried their money around in attachĂŠ cases, they didn't worry about it being stolen, as the perpetrator would have his hand chopped off. However, credit cards were beginning to appear, mostly in the major hotels. Saudi aircrew members could buy Saudi Riyals from a money changer at the airport who would accept their personal checks. I remember him showing me a bunch of "rubber" checks and asking if I knew any of them. It wouldn't pay to get on his wrong side! During the Hajj (the Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim is expected to make at least once in his lifetime) Jeddah would be jammed with pilgrims from all over the world on their way to Mecca, which is just a short way from Jeddah. Muslims pray five times a day and when the "call to prayer" blares out from the minaret at the mosque, one is supposed to drop everything and go to the mosque. If you don't, the "prayer policeman" comes around and zaps you on the back side of your legs with a switch. They didn't bother the expatriates, though, since they were all "infidels." Also, if you needed a ride to your aircraft at prayer time and all the drivers were on their knees, facing Mecca and praying, you would have to wait until they were finished. Despite this, we usually managed an on time departure. The air traffic control was pretty good. However, I remember one time returning to Jeddah during heavy traffic, the tower became overloaded and all the operators just walked away from their microphones leaving the inbound flights with no communications. So, we all made blind calls giving our position and altitude and telling what we were about to do. Everybody managed to land safely. Of course, luckily, this all took place in VFR conditions. We flew into a lot of interesting airports: Medina (Saudi Arabia) and Saana (Democratic Yemen) were similar to Las Vegas, situated in a valley and surrounded by mountains. Tehran (Iran) was also quite mountainous. On a day flight, I wandered into town and the Intercontinental Hotel had a life size portrait of the Shah on the wall and a couple of security police wandering about. Damascus (Syria) was rather ancient. We were usually the only flight there. No tourist boom here. Several army men with rifles on their shoulders would be watching the activity. Baghdad (Iraq) was similar.
Dubai (Emirates) had an ultra modern terminal and a booth, where for $100.00, you could buy a [lottery] ticket on a new Mercedes Benz automobile and if you won, they would ship it anywhere in the world. Muscat (Oman) was a peaceful little place with the airport along the Gulf of Oman. The Amman (Jordan) airport was on an incline in a narrow valley mostly surrounded by homes. Saudia had a flight that went Jeddah-Amman-IstanbulAmman-Jeddah all in one day. This Cap’n Bud goes native made for a long day, usually around 8 to 9 flight hours. The North Africa Flight to Casablanca (Morocco) was also a long day if you made all the stops-Tripoli (Libya), Tunis (Tunisia) and Algiers (Algeria). Outside of Casablanca we never had a RON at any of the above mentioned places, just passing through. Also, some of the TWA crew members would rent beach houses in places like Greece or Italy for the summer so as to move their families out of the hot Jeddah environment and visit them on their time off. I accepted an invitation from a local Saudi pilot to have dinner with him and his friends. This was an all male get together; no women or children. Upon arrival, I was escorted to a carpeted room and everybody (about 6) sat cross-legged in a circle. Shortly thereafter, the chef brought in a large bowl of meat (mutton) and we all dipped in our fingers and took what we wanted no utensils were provided. Arabic coffee was served, no alcohol, but I often wonder what the Saudis really drank in the privacy of their homes. FINALE Finally, comparing the "Saudi experience" with living in Egypt is a "no-brainer." In Egypt one may have a cocktail before dinner, order your favorite bottle of wine with dinner and worship to whomever and whenever you wish. Women can drive (if crazy enough) and (usually) take a taxi alone without any hassle. None of this will fly in Saudi Arabia. One just has to chalk it up, as Jim Jaillet, the navigator on our year-long motorhome trip to Panama in 2004 would say, to another "cultural experience."
The twenty years between Cairo (1956) and Saudi Arabia (1976) were actually quite dull, just flying from point “A” to point "B" (occasionally point "C") and return. However, in February, 1970, I jerked my kids out of school and took my family of six (I now had four children) on a six-week aroundthe-world (Eastbound) vacation on TWA. The kids brought their homework with them. We had 17 pieces of checked luggage, not good for non-revs, including two Weatherby big game hunting rifles, a shotgun and a lot of ammunition as we were going on a two-week hunting safari in Kenya, Africa. (This caused me some trouble with Nairobi customs.) The safari was followed by a hike up Mt. Kilimanjaro—the highest mountain in Africa. I had invited Romebased flight attendant, Barbara Poehler, to join the hunting safari, but she was unable because of wedding plans. Barbara, an avid hunter for many years, had gone bear hunting with me in Canada. Later, I sent her a zebra skin (I shot two) as a wedding present. I left my wife, daughter and youngest son with a friend, Barbara Holle, in Madrid, Spain, while me and my two older sons did the hunting and Kilimanjaro thing. They later joined us in Nairobi, flying down from Rome with one of my favorite Paris-based flight attendants, very British Elizabeth Ann Lewis. The British were still running Kenya and the Nairobi customs were going to throw me in the slammer for bringing along ammunition, which was prohibited, but my white hunter, Dan Shaw, saved me from that ordeal. After Africa, it was Israel, Thailand, Hong Kong, Guam, Hawaii and home; all in all a very nice trip.
NAS OLATHE, KS—17 JANUARY 1959
Doesn’t this sound like the plot for a ‘50s suspense film! I couldn’t find an “M. E. Schafer” so I asked John Gratz if it could have been “N. E. Schaffer”. John wrote back: “The Captain’s name was indeed Norm Schaeffer. [1920-1989, TWA 1944-1980] The copilot was "Rip" Van Winkle. [1925-2006, TWA 1953-1985] I was home at KC that day and the news really played up the deal as they circled around for a looong time before the ‘belly landing’. Some said they went there [Olathe] because a naval surgeon was available!” NAS Olathe, later Johnson County Industrial and now New Century Air Center (IXD) has an interesting history. John Glen soloed there in 1942. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Century_AirCenter
EXCERPTS FROM MEMORIES—PART III By Captain Wes Ament In the March 2010 TOPICS, Wes told of his growing up in pre-war Los Angeles and his experiences as an Army Air Corps pilot in WW II, which included flying the “hump” in the CBI theater. In Part II, in the July issue, he told of his years with TWA along with his adventures in manufacturing and marketing a successful line of fishing gear. Also, about his general aviation involvement which was a mixture of business and pleasure. Now in Part III Wes gives an account to a very unusual trip to the high arctic in 1976—Ed. Chapter 10: The High Arctic On July 23, 1976, I left Calaveras and headed northeast. I landed at Kalispel, Montana and filed for Calgary, Alberta to clear Canadian customs. I then flew on to Edmonton and found a room. I encountered some difficulty since it was in the middle of their annual Klondike Days. I picked up a few items of arctic gear from Sears, had dinner at the motel and turned in for the night. John Cesnik, his fiancé, and his friend Boris Popov arrived at 1420 the next day. John flew from St. Cloud in his dad's C-185. Boris is a hang glider buff and wanted to be the first to fly a hang glider north of the Arctic Circle. His hang glider had been shipped by commercial airlines. Boris later went on to develop a ballistically deployed parachute to let aircraft down gently in case of emergency and established, BRS Inc.[Ballistic Recovery Systems] John and I were both on the board of directors and helped walk the system through FAA certification. We had to virtually write the regulation in the process. The system is now standard equipment on the largest selling single engine general aviation aircraft in the world. The "Cirrus" has recorded three saves to date that would otherwise have resulted in loss of aircraft and lives. Boris is credited with saving more than 200 lives since inventing the BRS system. Our destination in the High Arctic was Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island. Resolute is located just 70 miles east of the north magnetic pole which meant the compass would be useless. John had borrowed a set of tables from an old arctic Bush Pilot named Don Braun. These tables made it possible for us to compute the exact azimuth of the sun at any given time. The sun, of course, was up twenty-four hours a day at these latitudes. I had installed a vertical post made from a bolt on top of the left engine nacelle, and marked the four cardinal compass points with strips of tape. By computing the azimuth of the sun on the horizon for a given time, I could line up the shadow with one of the cardinal points, add or subtract the 90 or 180 degrees and set the directional gyro to the proper heading. We did this every half hour. Our crude sun compass proved to be amazingly accurate. We used it to traverse hundreds of miles over the ice cap without a glitch. We got so we could do the math in our heads. John made arrangements to put the 185 in a hangar while we were gone and we departed Edmonton at 1830 for Yellow Knife in the Northwest Territories at 10,000' with a flight plan of three and a half hours. The trip was routine except for a few rain showers in the vicinity of Peace River. We landed at Yellow Knife at 2230, actual time en route 3:45.The sun was still high in the sky. The reflection
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Bear and seals sculpture, Yellowknife Terminal
of the clouds on Great Slave Lake was not a faithful image, even though the water was perfectly calm. It had a curtained appearance similar to the Aurora Borealis (Fata Morgana mirages, see Scientific American January 1976). We were offered a ride to town by a lovely family that had come over to admire the airplane. They had a Piper Apache they kept at the airport. We booked a couple of rooms at the Yellow Knife Inn and started to look for a restaurant. The only place open was a KFC. We took the chicken to our rooms and the sun finally set at 2245 to rise again shortly after midnight. We planned an early start the next morning for Resolute. We took a cab to the airport the next morning stopping to photograph a Bristol displayed on a pedestal at the entrance to the airport. It was of special interest to John as it was the aircraft that had been landed at the North Pole by Don Braun (his friend that had lent us the sun tables) in 1967. John, by the way, was the youngest man ever to land at the North Pole. We departed Yellow Knife at 0958 on the 25th. The weather was quite Google Images hazy for the first hour or so but steadily improved as we approached Bathurst on Victoria Island. For the last hour it was beautiful. We could see the horizon in all directions and could pick up the Arctic Sea on the horizon. The trees became scarcer as we proceeded northward until they completely disappeared as we approached Bathurst. We landed at 1404. We were fueled by a pretty young lady of about twenty. The fuel was $1.76/gal. [$6.56 in 2009 dollars] Not much by today’s standards, but at the time it was the most I had ever paid for fuel. We departed for Resolute at 1446, climbed to 10,000' and set a direct course for Resolute, ETE 1:45. Our handy dandy sun compass continued to give us perfect gyro settings. It was becoming necessary to reset the gyro more often due to the convergence of the meridians which we were crossing more often. We crossed Victoria Island and the McClintock Channel. This waterway is perpetually clogged with ice and was responsible for the downfall of the Franklin expedition in 1844. We crossed McClintock channel and Prince of Wales Island, dropped to twenty five to fifty feet over the ice to look for polar bears and seals. We saw many seals but no bears. We approached a lead of open water and climbed to about 800' to look for whales. We spotted two. We landed at Resolute at 1745, ATE 2:49. We are now at 75 N, 900 miles from the North Pole. John reconnected with some old friends here and they treated us like royalty. We had roast turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy and apple pie a-la- mode for desert. Really roughing it. We decided to fly up to Tanqueray Fjord near the northern tip of Ellesmere Island on the 26th. We arose at 0730, had breakfast of OJ, pancakes and sausage with coffee. Our breakfast was prepared by a charming young lady named Dodie Connors. Dodie will be leaving in a few days for her home in Ottawa where she will start her last year in High School. We fueled up and departed for Eureka on Ellesmere Island, ETE 3:00. We were airborne at 1220 with John flying. We flew at low level across Cornwallis Is. and dropped to 50' over the pack ice as we left the north shore. Resuming our search for polar bears we flew across the 50 miles between Cornwallis and the northern tip of Devon and saw many seals. Finally, about ten miles out from Devon we spotted a large polar bear. He was feeding on a seal he had just killed and was less than hospitable at being disturbed during his lunch. We circled him for about ten minutes taking pictures, then flew on across Devon, down again over the ice and headed for Graham Island. We went around Graham to the west and climbed to 3000', reset our gyro and took up a heading across the Massey Sound for Axel Heiberg Islands. Before long we were able to pick up the snow-covered peaks of Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere Islands on the horizon. As we crossed the shore of Axel Heiberg at the mouth of Surprise Fjord we could see the Bjorn peninsula to our right. We flew across Axel
Heiberg, crossing the Wolf Fjord, and then flew up Spaar Fjord, up the valley to Mokka Fjord and down to the pack ice of Eureka Sound. Here we were treated to some of the most spectacular scenery ever beheld by human eyes, with vast ice and snow fields topping the mountains with majestic glaciers creeping down the valleys and fjords as far as the eye could see. We landed at Eureka at 1512, ATE 2:52. We were met by a personable young school teacher by the name of Bob Mueller and his charming wife Willie. Both work as teachers at Frobisher Bay and during the summer they served as caretakers at Bradley Station. Willie set out the makings and we created our own sandwiches. After lunch we went outside to investigate the long-tailed Jaeger Birds. We found to our delight that they would feed from our hands if we held the offerings at arms length. We got some great pictures. We were also greeted by some beautiful dogs. They were huge brutes; John believes they were sired by his old St. Bernard mascot at Atlas named Brutus and a husky bitch named Brownie. We had plenty of fuel for the round trip to Tanqueray and we wanted the bird as light as possible for the landing at Tanqueray. We weren't sure of the condition of the strip and departed with the intent of looking it over carefully from the air to ascertain whether it was safe for landing. We departed Eureka at 1754 and flew up the south side of Fosheim peninsula to look for musk oxen. We spotted four about ten minutes out and took some pictures. We then crossed the peninsula and headed for Tanqueray climbing to 6000' and savoring the beautiful scenery. About half way up the Fjord we had a call from a Twin Otter that had heard us talking to Eureka. I asked who the pilot was. It turned out to be Lee Christensen, nephew of Ray Thorsteinsson and a friend of John's. John had given him his first ride in a Super Cub six years before. I told him John was sitting right next to me and he said, "Well, I'll be goddamned.� Lee said he had come out of Tanqueray and the strip was in good shape. We still made a downwind pass to look at it and sure enough it looked great, so I made a whifferdill turn and landed to the south at 1800 CDT. We really should have been on Eastern Time as we were on the same meridian as Goose Bay Labrador, but on the other hand we could have flown fifty miles to the west and been on the meridian of Chicago. They are quite close together here. We are about fifty miles from the northern tip of Greenland, less than 500 miles from the North Pole and less than fifty miles from the northernmost land on the planet. We could see Greenland across the mountains as we approached Tanqueray. When we climbed out of the bird, we spotted four musk oxen on the side of the hill. We started carefully hoofing our way toward them and managed to get within twenty yards of them. We got some great pictures. The musk ox is a fascinating animal. The scientific name Oribos Maschatus classes him as both an ox and a goat. He has a cloven hoof. He weighs eight or nine hundred pounds and subsists on approximately one ninth of what it takes to keep a cow going. He has some protozoa in his stomach which multiplies on a sparse diet of lichens and subsidizes the nourishment of the fodder. Musk oxen remains have been found following the glaciers as far south as Kansas and up to two million years old. He still exists today in his ancient form, an exact copy of his ancestors. Google Images
The musk oxen have been protected since 1917, when they were nearly wiped out by white men in the name of exploration. Whites introduced modern firearms. Only as agents to the likes of Robert E. Peary, did the Eskimos deal with the musk oxen of the Lake Hazen Region, a fatal slaughtering. The Eskimos cannot be blamed for using the rifles they now possessed on the more plentiful seal and whale, which were, after all, the staples of their eons of culture. The musk oxen have gradually been making a comeback and now number an estimated 17,000, 15,000 of which are on Ellesmere Island. …A man by the name of Teal tried to raise musk ox in captivity in Maine. Unfortunately, they could not tolerate the parasites which attack our own livestock, and they died out. First, however, Teal found out some interesting things about them. One was that he could not devise a lock on the pen that they could not open. Another interesting facet of their behavior, when approached by a potential enemy, they will form a protective circle. One day while Teal was in the pen with them, a dog entered the corral and started barking. He was a wolf to the musk oxen and they formed a protective circle, around Teal. Others now are having some success raising them on islands off the north coast of Alaska, which shows that they will thrive in captivity under the right conditions. In their normal habitat they will have a calf only every other year. In their controlled environment they frequently have twins each year. The Twin Otter landed shortly after we did with 21 tourists from Vancouver Aquarium. Some of them had been trying for days to photograph some musk oxen, but in vain. After they landed, I could see why. They started up the hill toward us almost at a dead run flushing the musk oxen we had been photographing for half an hour like a covey of quail. We got pictures of them running away. In about an hour, the tourists who had paid no less then $3,000.00 apiece for a week in the Arctic, loaded up and left leaving us again in the total solitude of the north. The quiet was interrupted occasionally by the cracking off of a glacier echoing off the Fjord walls like an artillery piece. The tundra is covered with a variety of lichens and wild flowers and I found heather growing everywhere. Well, I don't really mean everywhere, compared to temperate climates, there is almost no vegetation. I haven't seen a single plant more than four inches high growing anywhere. From where I was sitting writing in my journal I could see five glaciers and the Fjord is choked with ice. It seemed paradoxical that I was sitting there at midnight in my shirt sleeves.
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Heather
We prepared a very tasty dinner of dried food on the Coleman stove. And the fresh clear cold water from the melting glacier provided as good a drink as you could find anywhere. After dinner, Boris and I hiked back up the mountain to try photographing some arctic hares, which average 22 pounds in weight. We were unable to find any, but instead, found a small lake up in the canyon with a beautiful family of eider ducks on it. We were tempted to go back and get the fishing gear but decided the pond was too shallow. It has been July 26th for quite a while now. I can still see John picking his way up to the musk oxen. I think I will turn in now while the sun makes its sweep across the eastern half of the sky, only 7.5 degrees higher at noon than at midnight. John spent nearly the whole “night” on his quest. He finally got down off the mountain at about 0500. He was unsuccessful getting movies of the oxen but did get some footage of some arctic hares. We wallowed around in our sleeping bags until about 0900, got up and prepared some porridge for breakfast which we ate with butter and honey. We cleaned up the cabin, burned the garbage and packed our gear in the bird. I made a short flight around the patch to get some movies of the plane in the air. We loaded up and departed for Eureka at 1143, climbed to 6000', again with John at the controls. As we flew down the Fjord toward Eureka we could again see the coast of Greenland across the Kane Basin to our left. We landed at Eureka at 1238, visited with Bob and Willie again and pumped a drum
of gas into the T- Bird, this time at $3.50/gal [$13.04 in 2009 dollars]! Bob took us down to the weather station to file a flight plan and check the weather. It was about three miles which is the sum total of the highway system at Eureka. About half a mile down the road, was a sign saying, "Musk Oxen Crossing, Eureka three miles". I was let down when we got to the weather station when they di not have a sign saying "You are now entering Eureka, Banana Belt of the Arctic, Population 5�. The fellows at the weather station were quite interested as to just what the hell we were doing buzzing around the arctic in our little Travelair. As was true for most of our trip, the weather was lovely. We filed for Resolute, wheels up at 1458. We flew at 8000' across Axel Heiberg and again dropped down on the deck to look for polar bears. We didn't see any and pulled up across Cornwallis Landing at Resolute at 1710. Our average groundspeed was a little over 200mph. After dinner of steak and lots of other goodies, we found that another friend of John’s, Ken Lee, was going down to Prince of Wales Island to drop off a government employed geologist, Ray Thorensteinsson, who was doing a study of arctic geology. Ken Lee went to work for Weldy Phipps at age 18, in 1966. He was one of the first Twin Otter Co-jo's in Canada. He flew the Plaisted North Pole expeditions in 1967 and 1968, but DOT wouldn't issue him a communication license because of a hearing problem. He finally got a waiver in 1970. He is now 29 and also an A&P mechanic. Ray Thorensteinsson first traveled by dog team until he flew with Phipps in 1958 in a Super Cub. Ray was going to a location on the southeast portion of the island, and had his camping gear with him. It included a three wheeler Honda. John and I went with Ken in the Twin Otter. I was interested in the Omega VLF "Global Nav" system it had. It appeared to be just about as good as the INS Systems we used in our 747s at less than half the price. GPS was still many years in the future. We were to stop and pick up a load of gear from a former camp on the way back. We landed in the tundra about a million miles from nowhere and let Ray off. On takeoff we saw a herd of caribou and I got some pictures through the cockpit side window. We found the cache about fifty miles to the northwest and landed to pick it up. We found that we had landed at the wrong cache so we walked to another cache we had seen about a half mile away and it proved to be the stuff we were looking for. Lee flew the airplane over and we loaded up. By the time we got it all loaded the airplane was nearly bulging at the sides. We had to climb in through the cockpit door. We got some great pictures of the Twin taking off and landing in the boonies. We landed at Resolute about 2300, just in time for the midnight meal, so we ate again. John and I took showers and turned in at the early hour of 0030, a busy day. We slept until 0930 on the 28th so we missed breakfast. We had been eating too much anyway. We got a chance to ride over to Pond Inlet on Baffin Is. in one of the DC-3's. The pilot was an old timer, about my age, by the name of Jack McDonald. We had a very enjoyable trip. The DC-3 pictured [next page] is the last one I ever flew. It took about two and a half hours each way. We spent an hour visiting the Eskimo village. The Canadian Government is pouring megabucks into the arctic territories. The Eskimos have attractive pre-fab houses to live in, a nice school and a ski-doo snowmobile in most front yards. Most of the supplying is done by air. During our trip we saw a pod of narwhals in an open lead. It is heart rending to watch the Eskimos slaughtering them for their tusks which they sell to the tourists for $300.00 per tusk. I hope something is done to protect them before it is too late. A strong wind was blowing and we were experiencing some strong up and down drafts and holding about twenty five degrees drift correction. Jack insisted that I fly the bird on the way back. It had been nearly twenty-five years since I had flown a goony bird but I felt right at home. The mountains and glaciers on Bylot Island were even more spectacular than those on Ellesmere, if that is possible. I got some fine shots through the open cockpit window.
We arrived back at Resolute at about 2000. Boris' hang glider had arrived while we were gone so after supper we borrowed a truck and drove out to the southwest corner of the island so Boris and John could try some hang gliding. We hiked to the top of a hill and I got some pictures of Boris and John setting up. Also, some pictures of the midnight sun. The wind was about ten knots and Boris took off after waiting about fifteen minutes for the wind to pick up. He flew down the face of the hill yelling back that it was pretty rough. He landed near the truck. He was not able to find much lift but said he could have stayed up longer. This was the first hang glider flight in the high arctic. Boris and John wanted to fly to Grise Fjord on Ellesmere to fly the hang glider but we couldn't figure a safe way to tie the hang glider onto the Travelair. I was sitting in the back seat of the Travelair writing in the journal. The others had all turned in, I soon followed suit. We slept in again on the 29th and missed breakfast. We did have some OJ and Coffee. Boris and I played a game of chess and I barely beat him. After lunch we decided to make another attempt to get some polar bear pictures. We flew around the southeast tip of Cornwallis and north to the edge of the ice pack. We had flown only a few miles along the edge when we spotted a bear off to our left. We circled him and got some great pictures and movies. We flew on eastward along the flow and spotted two more bears. As we started to circle them, the startled bears ran toward each other as fast as they could run. They collided and nearly knocked each other down. We flew on toward Devon Island and saw two more. It proved to be a female and two half-grown cubs. A little further on we saw a large herd of walruses, and they didn't seem to mind us photographing them. We spotted more walruses and seals before we got to Devon. We flew the coast of Devon down to Beechy Island and took pictures of the graves of some members of the Franklin expedition buried there in 1845. We then flew around the bird cliffs of Beechy Island about midway up the cliffs and about 100 yards away, great pictures. On our way back to Resolute we flew over open water looking for whales. We saw many. This whole trip with all the wildlife and scenery we saw was only one hour and twenty six minutes. John had agreed to give one of the new pilots, Doug McCloud, some instruction in a De Havilland Beaver on off airport landings. We decided to combine it with hang glider flying along the cliffs about ten miles east of Resolute. Jeanie stayed behind this trip as we didn't have enough seats. John and his student were going to drop Boris and me off, and then go back after Jeanie. We landed on top of the hill and Boris and I started setting up the hang glider. Shortly after the others had departed in the Beaver the top of the hill fogged in and they were
unable to land. John flew down and finally managed a landing on the beach. He hiked up to me and took pictures as I launched Boris. He again failed to find lift and yelled back that it was rough as hell. He flew down and landed on the beach. John and I lugged all the gear down the cliff to the beach among ‌[including] a radiosonde balloon I had found lying in the tundra. When I took it back to the weather office they told me it had been launched from the States in 1946 and had lain in the tundra for thirty years. The fog bank was moving in fast as we reached the beach, so we hurriedly helped Boris tie the hang glider bag on the Beaver and took off just as the beach went [zero - zero]. We had to take off downwind because of the terrain. We climbed on top of the fog and headed for Resolute. The airport was still clear when we arrived and since we were just in time for the midnight meal we ate again. Boris and John packed the hang glider for shipment home. The time is 0030 of the thirtieth. We have an appointment for weather briefing for the trip south at 0500 and plan to takeoff for Cambridge Bay, Yellow Knife and Edmonton. We were up at 0450 on the thirtieth. John and I went to the weather office to get our briefing for the trip home. Fog was lying just off the end of the runway. We decided to take off as soon as we could get loaded as it looked like the field was going to close in. We could takeoff in the fog but I preferred not to. The weather was clear and unlimited for the rest of the way until south of Yellow Knife. A few showers were forecast between Yellow Knife and Edmonton. I loaded the airplane with Boris' help and taxied it over to Bradley. John returned the vehicle we had been using. We loaded ourselves and the rest of the gear and took off at 0554, with John flying. We could see the fog spread over the water to the southeast. As it turned out, the airport never did fog in. We could see Somerset and Prince of Wales Island clearly as we climbed to 10000' for cruise. Very little wind and clear skies. We landed at Cambridge Bay at 0826, ATE, 2:32. We put on 22 gals of fuel and picked up a camera case we had left there on the way up. We filed for Yellow Knife and took off at 0855 with me flying, once again flying at 10000'. Again, the skies were clear and the winds light and variable. As we progressed south of the Arctic Circle we began to see a few trees in the low places. We landed at Yellow knife at 1245, ATE 2:50. We filled the tanks on the bird, had a bite of lunch, and then went up to check the weather. It looked like we were going to have more weather than they had forecast at Resolute, so we decided to go IFR ... on the airway at 11000'. We took off from Yellow Knife at 1314 again with John flying. The clouds started to thicken as we passed Ft. Smith and we were in and out of the tops. We started picking up a little ice but not enough to be a problem so we stayed at 11000'. As we approached Ft. McMurray, we requested 8000' as we were now getting a pretty good snoot full of ice. At 8000' we were below the freezing level and the ice soon went away. We were mostly on and off instruments until about 30 miles north of Edmonton which was relatively clear and we were able to cancel our IFR flight plan. We landed at 1710, ATE 3:56. We were all dead tired and decided to spend the night in Edmonton to get a fresh start in the morning. We got rooms at the Kingsway Inn and John called an old friend from the arctic, Ray Cox. Ray was starting a business there in Edmonton converting single engine Otter's to turboprop configuration. This will make an ideal airplane for arctic operations. Ray already had contracts to convert 40 aircraft. The mod cost, about $190,000 a copy. We spent a couple of hours visiting and looking around his shop. He then took us to our hotel. We cleaned up and went down to dinner, a couple of beers, first in a week, and off to bed. I don't recall even lying down‌. I woke up and looked at my watch, it said 0630. I woke Boris and called John and Jeanie. I went down to check out and found that I had forgotten to set my watch back to Mountain Time so it was only six instead of seven. We took a cab to the airport and found the restaurant closed. John brought the 185
over and we loaded the airplanes. It had rained most of the night due to an upslope flow similar to that common in Denver and the east slope of the Rockies. John was able to depart visually to the east but I had to file IFR due to the clouds piled up against the east slope of the Rockies. I filed 11000' to Calgary, 14000' to Cranbrook and 12000' to Spokane. I took off at 0740 headed south. John took off right behind me and headed southeastward. I was on top most of the time only occasionally in and out of the tops. I climbed to 14,000 over the mountains where I ran into strong headwinds making me ten minutes late over Cranbrook . I requested 12000' after passing Cranbrook, descended and changed over to Seattle Center, back in the USA after one of the most interesting weeks I have ever spent. The clouds dissipated as I proceeded southwest and I canceled my IFR flight plan and started my descent into Spokane. I landed at Spokane at 1046, ATE 3:06, on a beautiful summer morning. After clearing customs I had a bite of breakfast and took off at 1106 PDT for the last leg home. I was in the clear until well south of Pendleton, OR where I encountered a few rain showers. The bases were high and I was well underneath at 10,500'. I was flying in steady rain and light turbulence but with good forward visibility. The rain continued until I was well into California, here it quit and I started my descent for Calaveras as soon as I could see Bear Mountain. I landed at Calaveras at 1508, ATE 4:02. Total time had been 40:49 in the Travelair, 4:45 in the Twin Otter and about 5:30 in the DC-3. Total mileage covered about 6,000 miles. I took some 250 pictures with the 35mm and combined we took about two hours of movies. This will probably edit down to about an hour. Actually it was thirty minutes after editing. The world of the Arctic Circle is a world apart from the people world we are used to; stunning beauty and a vastness beyond imagination. Wildlife abounds above and below the ice, with all creatures strangely adapted to the harsh environment that ranges from rather pleasant temperatures during the short summer to the unbelievable deep freeze during six months of night and winter. The islands range from flat gravel piles to mountains of unbelievable majesty, with caps of glacial ice forever creeping their way toward the frozen sea. Man has just begun to scratch the surface of this world, and I find myself hoping that it will remain so. As a closing note on this trip, they had an early fall, the weather got rough after we left and they had a four-inch snow on August 16 that stayed until spring.
NEXT ISSUE; PART IV—THE CONCLUSION
FLOWN WEST
IN MEMORY OF MACK L. JOHNSTON SEPTEMBER 3, 1939—JUNE 19, 2010 TWA 1964—1992
Born in June 3, 1939 in Nampa Idaho, Mack lived in Burley and Caldwell, Idaho during his elementary school years. He lived in Kalispell, Montana during his high school years, with his stepmother and father, an instructor in the ferry command during WWII, who introduced him to aviation. He then enlisted in the Navy, and made two Mediterranean cruises as a Radio tech; one on the USS Forrestal, and one on the USS Randolph. After leaving the Navy, he lived in Manhattan Beach, California, working for Nortronics, a division of Northrop. In 1963, Mack moved to Long Beach, to get his rating, in preparation for a career in aviation. He met his wife Sue in December of 1963, and they were married July 10, 1964 in Whittier, California. He was hired on by TWA, and left 9 days later for training in Kansas City. For the first three years, they moved around from Olathe, Kansas, Long Beach New York, Flemington, New Jersey, and Torrance, California, before purchasing their first home in Mission Viejo, California. It was there that their first two children, Bonnie and Michael, were born. In 1972, they moved to Sebastopol, California, about 60 miles north of San Francisco. They bought a house built in the 1860's, which turned out to be a 25+ year remodeling project. It was there that they had their third child, Scott. During his career with TWA, Mack flew four domiciles: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. Retiring in October, 1992, Mack took a job flying for the Saudi royal family, which he did as Captain and Manager of Flight Operations until December of 1993. In retirement, he remodeled and sold the house in California, to relocate to a house on an airstrip in Chewelah, Washington. He then pursued aerobatics in his Christen Eagle II, and loved to fly the back-country of Idaho in his Citabria and Glastar. He would fly this area, into primitive forestry
strips, at least twice a year, and take aerial photos. He was a prolific picture taker and leaves a prodigious portfolio of memories. Mack took great pride in sharing his joy of aviation with others. As a flight instructor and professional pilot, his knowledge and love for aviation made better pilots of all that had the pleasure to fly with him. His persistent pursuit of perfectionism and knowledge in all of his endeavors will be greatly missed. by Sue, Michael and Scott Johnston
IN MEMORY OF JOSEPH W. “JOSÉ” GRANT MARCH 24, 1908—APRIL 27, 2010 TWA 1942—1968 José in the King’s DC-3, Riyadh, 2006
Joe Grant got a lot of ink in TOPICS in the past few years. See the November 2006 issue, (P.48) for a reprint of an article about his early days flying Saudi King Abdulaziz’s DC-3. This was the beginning of Saudi Arabian Airlines, later Saudia. Joe revisited this plane in a Riyadh museum in that year. The July 2007 issue (P.71) has an item and photo of Joe receiving the 2007 Friends of Saudi Arabia’s Hart award. Joe on his 100th birthday in 2008
The July 2008 TOPICS (P.104) covers his one hundredth birthday celebration and includes three photos.
The November 2009 issue (P.54) has a story and photos of Joe at AirVenture 2009 where he unveiled his new book, King Abdulaziz...his plane and his pilot. The March 2010 issue (P.80) has more on his book with a photo of Joe and the book’s dust jacket.—Ed.
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN ROWLAND P. POWELL NOVEMBER 5, 1921—AUGUST 6, 2010 TWA 1947—1979
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN RICHARD G. FORRISTALL SEPTEMBER 28, 1923—MAY 1, 2010 TWA 1947—1983
Captain Forristall was known as Dick to many, but he called himself Pete. Pete was born to Fred B. and Amy Kelly Forristall in Saugus, Massachusetts. He was raised in Peabody and graduated from Peabody High School in 1941. After high school, he spent several months with GE as an apprentice engineer in their training program. On November 10, 1942 he joined the US Navy as an Aviation Cadet. He completed their flight training program August 1, 1943 and was commissioned as an Ensign USNR. After receiving his Wings of Gold, he was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and flew the PBM Martin Mariner on anti-submarine patrols. Pete was discharged from active duty in 1946, but remained active in the Naval Reserve at NAS Squantum, Massachusetts, and later at South Weymouth. He was recalled during the Korean War and served with Air Transport Squadron 1 at Patuxent NAS until September 1953. He retired with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. His Navy flight training gave him the background to launch a career in flying that was the dream of his youth. Five years to the day after joining the Navy, he claims the second, or maybe the third best thing in his life happened. He was hired as pilot by Trans World Airlines. Putting things in perspective, Pete claims that his marriage to Phyllis Dalton his 1941 classmate at Peabody High takes precedence. Their marriage lasted happily for 64 years. Pete's career spanned many of the years of fantastic growth in aviation. He always said that he enjoyed every minute of it, and there wasn't a single day that he would have wanted to miss. He flew most of the planes that were in TWA's fleet, but he said that the Boeing 747 was his favorite, the biggest and the best. Pete qualified on it in December,1969 and was one of the first airline pilots to fly it. One of his quotes was, “Its sure is a big airplane for a little guy like me to fly!” The highlight of his career occurred on October 7, 1979 when he was chosen to be Captain of a flight designated as Shepherd One from Washington DC to Rome. The number one passenger on board was Pope John Paul II. After retirement, Pete spent time with history, golf, tennis and Grandkids. His goal was to shoot his age in a round of golf. He also served as Editor of the TWA Seniors Club newsletter for a period of time. He was highly respected and well liked by his fellow pilots, TWA employees and all who knew him. Captain Forristall is survived by three children; daughters Linda, Lisa and son Stephen. By Pete Forristall submitted by Lisa Tuell
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN JOSEPH A. MONTANARO DECEMBER 14, 1938—JUNE 18, 2010 TWA 1967—1997
Joseph A. Montanaro, former TWA captain and retired United States Naval Reserve Captain passed away peacefully June 18, 2010. Joe was instrumental in the creation of the TWA Pilot's 401 (k) Plan and the selection of the plan's investment strategy. He assumed primary responsibility for creating and structuring the Directed Account Plan (DAP). Joe was Executive Director of the DAP until his retirement in 2006. He remained a voting member of the Board of Directors until his death. Born December 14, 1938 in Ashtabula, Ohio, Joe graduated from Ohio State University in 1960 with a B.S. in Business Administration. He was commissioned into the Navy and earned his flight wings at Pensacola Naval Air Station in 1961. Joe served in the Pacific from 19621965. While serving on the USS Kcarsarge, he had the honor of participating in the recovery of Astronaut Gordon Cooper upon his return to earth aboard the space capsule "Faith 7." Joe, a helicopter pilot, flew Cooper from the Kearsarge to Hickman Field in Hawaii. Following his tour of duty in the Pacific, Joe served active duty as a Navy ROTC instructor at the University of Oklahoma. Joe's last active duty assignment was as the commanding officer of Fleet Logistic Support Squadron 53 at Naval Air Station Memphis. During the course of his military career, Joe was awarded the National Defense Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, Vietnam Service Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service. He retired from the United States Naval Reserve in 1994. Joe was hired by TWA as a pilot in 1967. He was qualified to fly the Boeing 707, 727, 767, as well as the Lockheed 1011, and served as a flight instructor. Joe flew both International and Domestic routes until his retirement from the cockpit in 1996 to manage the DAP full time. For 22 years, Joe was an active and loyal member of Lake Forest Country Club at Lake St. Louis where he served as President of the Board of Directors from 2003-2005. He loved traveling, playing golf with his friends and spending his winters in Florida. Joe is survived by his wife, Irene, a former TWA flight attendant, and his sons Joseph Jr. and Jon, three grandchildren, and his brothers and sister. Memorial masses were held in St. Louis and his hometown of Ashtabula, Ohio. Joe was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. by Irene Montanaro
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN CHARLES R. LANCASTER AUGUST 19, 1929—JULY 1, 2010 TWA 1955—1989
Born and raised in Kansas City, Chuck attended Troost Elementary and Paseo High Schools. As a boy he built flying model airplanes and used to ride his bike to the bluffs overlooking MKC to watch those big TWA DC-3’s take off and land. Never in his wildest imaginations did he envision himself as a pilot of a plane such as the B-707 Intercontinental making the circling approach “ between the fields” and over the Rudy-Patrick Seed Company to land north at MKC! After high school Chuck attended University of Missouri at Columbia where he studied mechanical engineering. He was on the track team and a champion in the 440 and 880 yard runs. In 1949 Chuck enlisted in the Naval Aviation Cadet program and had his flight training at Pensacola, and Corpus Christi. He flew the Martin P4M-1Q aircraft on electronic surveillance (spy) patrols during the Korean War in the Far East. Upon release from active duty with the Navy, he attended the University of Utah to finish his education and graduated with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering. He was a member of Kappa Sigma Social Fraternity. After a short stint “flying a desk” at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Chuck’s desire to return to a full-time flying job brought him to Trans World Airlines (TWA) in October 1955. He spent 34 years with the airline, finishing his flying career in 1989. He loved TWA and loved his life as an airline pilot. He was a long time member of Incline Village Community Presbyterian Church, serving as deacon and elder, and after moving to Reno was a member of Reno First United Methodist Church. He also belonged to the North Tahoe Lions Club, the Incliners, the Decliners (Incline residents who moved to Reno), the Tahoe Trampers hiking club and the Reno Newcomers. He was an avid hiker, skier and tennis player, and together with his wife, Sharon Ainsworth Lancaster, who predeceased him in 2003, the two passed along their love of travel, nature, fitness and community to their family. Surviving are sons Kenneth Lancaster of Reno, Nevada, Roger Lancaster of Tahoe City, California, daughters Karen Lancaster Ghent of Edwards, Colorado, and Gretchen Lancaster Sproehnle of Tahoe City, California, and nine grandchildren. by Gretchen Sproehnle
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN ROYLEE MILLER JULY 10, 1921—APRIL 15, 2010 TWA 1944—1981
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN RUSSELL C. YOUNCE JUNE 30, 1020—MAY 13, 2010 TWA 1945—1980
IN MEMORY OF DONALD T. DORMAN MARCH 19, 1920—MAY 17, 2010 TWA 1951—1980
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN RAY O. ROTGE SEPTEMBER 12, 1943—JUNE 19, 2010 TWA 1966—1998
IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN EDWARD P. O’MALLEY JANUARY 5, 1925—JULY 2, 2010 TWA 1953—1985
IMPORTANT FLOWN WEST NOTICE The procedure for reporting a TARPA Members’ death has reverted to the original plan used when we were first acquired by American Airlines. That is, in this sad event, survivors of a Member should again call American Airlines Survivor Support: 1-800-447-2000. The primary purpose of that notification is to determine eligibility for receiving insurance benefits. Also, American Airlines and TARPA maintain these records for future reference. TARPA uses the information for the Flown West section of TOPICS and for the In Remembrance section in our Directory. All TARPA Members should save this notice and provide it to their family members. Family members and friends may send Memorials for TARPA Members who have Flown West to TOPICS Editor Emeritus John P. Gratz; Memorials can be sent online or by mail to: John P. Gratz, 1646 Timberlake Manor Parkway, Chesterfield, MO. 63017 636-532-8317 jpgratz@charter.net
TARPA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 5, 2010 SCOTTSDALE COTTONWOODS RESORT The meeting was called to order at 1504, local time, by President Guy Fortier. Members present: Bob Dedman, Guy Fortier, Bill Kirschner, Ed Madigan, Mike McFarland, Bob Sherman, Dusty West, Charlie Wilder, and Tour Director/Coordinator Vickie McGowen. Members Absent (excused - Travel conflicts): John Gratz and Jeff Hill, Sr. PRESIDENT’S REPORT: Guy Fortier said convention has 148 attendees so far; should add a few “late shows” - maybe. This is more evidence of our shrinking member base and the current economy, too. Also mentioned, we may want to consider shorter conventions, with optional pre or post tours and/or cruises. We should poll membership on preference of fall versus spring conventions. FIRST VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT: Bill Kirschner, said we all can appreciate the hard work preformed by Web Master Marc Bracey, noting that many hours were, and still are, poured into making it workable. It is well worth the one hundred dollars per month fee for operating, servicing and maintaining the website. He also mentioned that Bob Willcutts could be a very capable webmaster backup. SECOND VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT Capt. Dusty West, again mentioned the need to “get out the word” (on how good our TARPA Conventions are, for both pilots and wives) to all our old TWA pilots buddies when we have contact with them. Dusty also mentioned that all airlines groups, like Grey Eagles, Silver Wings, Ozarks Swallows, etc., seem to have the same declining attendance and shrinking member base, could be a sign of the times and the economy, too. We need to redouble our efforts to keep this great TWA TARPA group viable. SECRETARY/TREASURER’S REPORT: Capt. Ed Madigan reported that we are still financially sound. He said that we changed to a new Bank for our checking accounts and that we have approx. $84,000. After expenses for the convention and the November TARPA TOPICS we should still be in good shape with about a $45,000 balance at year’s end. Ed said we have $28,000 in Community America Credit Union short term CDs. SENIOR DIRECTOR’S REPORT: Capt. Bob Sherman said that he would not be accepting the position of Senior Director again. All Board Members thanked Bob for his tireless work and help for the last 26 years. A large round of applause followed. With this news, a motion was made by Dusty West with second by Mike McFarland, that Charlie Wilder become the new Senior Director pending voting for officers and directors at this weeks general meeting on September 9. Motion passed unanimously. HOSPITALITY DIRECTOR’S REPORT: Bob Dedman mentioned how Didi Young, Leslie Locke, and Ilse Dedman will be serving up fine “spirits and cheer”, as they always have, at the “La Hacienda” every day, hours to be posted. Bob mentioned that Vickie had also obtained a DAILY 1 Hour “Open Bar” from the Cottonwoods Resort in addition to our own daily TARPA Hospitality Suite, it should be a “fine time” for all and kudos to Vickie, Leslie, Didi, Ilse and any and all who helped to make this a great Convention. SECOND VICE PRESIDENT NOMINEE: Capt. Mike McFarland looks forward to serving on the board. He mentioned considering Kansas City as a possible site for a future convention. Discussion by several members followed. Motion to adjourn, Bob Dedman / Charlie Wilder, Passed unanimously. Adjourned at 1622.
TARPA GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 9, 2010 SCOTTSDALE COTTONWOODS RESORT President Captain Guy Fortier called the meeting to order at 0835 local time. All board members, excepting John Gratz, were present. He asked attendees to please rise and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. A motion to approve the minutes of the 2009 General Membership Meeting was made by Howard Hofmeister and seconded by Charlie Wilder; Passed by a unanimous show of hands.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT: Guy thanked all the people who worked so tirelessly to make this another great convention, mentioning hospitality staff Leslie Locke, Didi Young, Ilse and Bob Dedman. Also,Vickie McGowen, Ed and Susy Madigan, Lee and Dusty West, and, for hard work on the Registration & Signing in of TARPA attendees, Mike McFarland, Lee West, Susy Madigan and Joann Fortier. He thanked all the others who helped, including the fine Hotel Staff.
FIRST VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT: Bill Kirschner thanked Marc Brecy for the wonderful job he has done getting the TARPA Website up to speed and that the improvements are working well. He also mentioned that Bob Willcutts would be an able back up for Marc. Bill called for a discussion on future convention sites, first, whether to hold it in the spring or fall (fall won) then several cities were mentioned. After much discussion, and with Vickie McGowen’s help, the members voted by a show of hands, for a fall 2011 TARPA Convention in San Antonio, Texas. After more discussion, Vickie suggested an Alaska cruise at the end of August or the beginning September would make a good 2012 convention event!
SECOND VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT: Dusty West mentioned again the need for all of us to try to get as many of our TWA Pilot buddies as possible to join TARPA and attend our conventions. After some at the meeting had questions about widows not knowing about the term life Insurance due them at their TWA pilot husband’s death, Dusty said that it is listed on www.jetnet.aa.com, under “Retiree Benefits”. A $20,000 benefit (for most TWA Pilots) may quite likely be available. Guy showed the group that in each TARPA TOPICS magazine, at the end of the “flown west” section, there is information on this subject and how to contact the survivor support group at AAL. This notification will also result in the deceased being listed in the “flown west” sections of TOPICS and ALPA’s AIRLINE PILOT.
SECRETARY/TREASURER’S REPORT: Ed Madigan said that he and Jeff Hill will check to see if widows who are still getting TARPA TOPICS wish to continue receiving it. He reported that we have changed our checking accounts to a new bank and that we are in good shape. We presently have approximately $84,000 in cash ($28,000 of which is in Community America Credit Union short term CDs). Ed expects to spend about $35,000 for convention expenses and the November TOPICS and should end the year with a cash balance of around $45,000. Ed also mentioned the difference in cost between the printed versus the Adobe PDF version of the magazine.
SENIOR DIRECTOR’S REPORT: Bob Sherman, after twenty six plus years of TARPA service, resigned his seat on the TARPA board of directors. We all appreciate all that Bob has done for TARPA. Bob read the names of sixty two of our fellow TWA pilots who have “flown west” since our last meeting. A moment of silent prayer was offered followed by Bill Kirschner whistling Taps.
TARPA TOPICS EDITOR’S REPORT: Jeff Hill, Sr. stated that the cost of the magazine is now about ten dollars per copy, it varies with the number of pages and the amount of color used and "media rate" postage is over a dollar per copy. TOPICS is now also available in an "electronic" (Adobe PDF) version, suitable for emailing. It is in full color, you can zoom in and out, the links are active and the text is searchable. Most of our foreign subscribers are receiving it to avoid the twenty plus dollar per issue postage that it now costs to send a print copy to Europe. The Board has yet to address the charge for subscriptions to the electronic edition only. It is evident, however, that the vast majority of our members elect to continue receiving the print copy. The TARPA TOPICS Archives (1982 through 2007) are now available on line in Adobe PDF format which is fully searchable. You can access them by way of the link on the www.tarpa.com home page labeled "Topics Archives" or by going directly to www.issuu.com/tarpa_topics. Jeff plans to attend both the "TWA Day" at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome September 25 and the St. Louis Check Airmen reunion in October to cover the events for TOPICS and will “talk up” TARPA membership at both.
HOSPITALITY DIRECTOR’S REPORT: Bob Dedman thanked Didi Young, Leslie Locke, Ilse Dedman and all the others whose fine work at the hospitality suites, both this year and in years past, is so much appreciated. All present agreed with a round of applause! Bob mentioned the Virginia Beach Aviation Museum’s WWI Biplane and Zeppelins Airshow September 24 through 26. See details at: www.militaryaviationmuseum.org Past President Charlie Wilder got up and called on all of us to help support and donate to the “TWA Flt. 800 Memorial Fund” - County and Township support, as well as corporate support, is down. Please help!
NOMINATIONS FOR TARPA OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OFFERED BY NOMINATION COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN CARL SCHMIDT: PRESIDENT: Capt. Bill Kirschner FIRST VICE PRESIDENT: Capt. Dusty West SECOND VICE PRESIDENT: Capt. Mike McFarland SECRETARY/TREASURER: Capt. Ed Madigan SENIOR DIRECTOR: Capt Charlie Wilder PAST PRESIDENT: Capt. Guy Fortier HOSPITALITY CHAIRMAN: Capt. Bob Dedman TARPA TOPICS EDITOR: Capt. Jeff Hill, Sr. EDITOR EMERITUS: Capt. John Gratz Carl asked if there were any more nominations from the floor, there were none. Roger Leach moved to to elect the nominees, this was seconded by Dick Escola, a show of hands vote was held all nominees were elected unanimously. Newly elected president, Bill Kirschner, asked if any one had any further comments and Capt. “OZ” Snavely rose to say a few words about one of our flown west pilot brothers, Capt. Joe Montanero, the man who almost single handedly led & guided us to the great TWA DAP/401(k) plan. A loud and long round of applause followed as we all appreciated Joe’s tireless work and help. He will be missed, not only by his wife & family but his TWA family too. New President Bill Kirschner asked for motion to adjourn—Charlie Wilder so moved and Carl Schmidt seconded.. Adjourned at 0930 local time. Respectfully submitted, Dusty West
the
Grapevine •
ROBERT J. SERLING, 1918—2010
Those of you who attended the 1994 50th anniversary of the “Connie” celebration at the old MKC terminal will recall fond memories of Bob Serling, the guest speaker at that event. Serling’s history of TWA (Howard Hughes’ Airline) is one of the best and probably the most readable; it reads like a novel. For more on Bob Serling, see the Mar 2007 TARPA TOPICS, P. 87. •
THE BLUE AND THE GRAY
Unless you hired on before 1957, the only uniform you wore as a TWA pilot was the “charcoal blue” one with the jetstream hat badge and futuristic wings. Former TOPICS editor John Gratz recalls the change from the gray (Transcontinental & Western) to the blue in 1957, “I remember it well. I flew MKC-STL the first day. A bunch of us were milling around the ramp office in new STL terminal, when one old guy, Virgil Elliott [1912-1982, TWA 1942-1972] said, ‘Do you guys feel as dumb as I do in this uniform?’ We all exploded in laughter!”
Pre-World War II, Captain Bob Buck, 1914-2007, TWA 1937-1974 on the July 2007 back cover.
Captain Otis F. Bryan, 1908-1989, TWA 1929-1948, Chief Pilot Intercontinental Division in the 1940s. He flew FDR to Yalta. March 2002 cover.
Captain Bob Sherman, TWA 19521982 still an active TARPA member and director. Bob keeps the ‘in remembrance’ and ‘flown west’ records. November 1999 cover.
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FROM DON SNYDER
Dear Ed [Madigan] Thanks for your email. After my first wife died in 2000 I rather lost track of TARPA. In 2005 I remarried, this time to a lovely French lady, and we have been living here in Chartres ever since. It would be good to hear from TARPA/TWA [people] again. Our permanent address is : 13 rue des Fileurs, 28000 Chartres, France … with warm regards, especially to any of the old BOS group, Don Snyder—dbsnvd@aol.com. •
FROM DICK GUILLAN BY TELEPHONE 6/27/10
The item in the July Grapevine with the picture of the eight MKCT ground school instructors asked if anyone could identify the third person from the right. Today (former Grapvine editor) Dick Guillan (TWA 1945-1982) called to say that that person is Jack Koughran. Jack started on the ICD as a navigator in 1945 and migrated to the training center when that position was eliminated. Dick said Jack had been living in the ABQ area and helped a great deal with the ABQ TARPA convention in 1997. Dick said that Jack passed away in 2003. •
FROM NOEL DEASY TWA SNN: MORE ON THE ABOVE PHOTO
Have received the latest PDF issue and ... notice a query on page 75 re picture face recognition. Third on right is Jack Koughan, ex navigator and ground instructor after the navigator position ceased in late 1963. Had recently read the August 1994 issue, page 16 with story "The Retired Professional Navigator", also, pictures of Jack & wife in August 1992, page 35-36 taken during TARPA’s Trans-Canal Cruise that year and an earlier one of him in November 1988 issue, page 23. Goldy Goldthorpe also had an interesting article about 'Sailor' Davis in the November 1993 issue, page 112. Great to have access to past issues - thanks again. •
AND FROM KLETE ROOD VIA EMAIL
On page 75, the third man from the right is John (Jack) Koughan. His retirement took him and Jean to ABQ and then to CA, where they lived near their daughter. He died about 4 or 5 years ago. •
ONE LAST FROM BOB KEHOE VIA EMAIL
I believe he is Jack Koughan. Jack taught several different subjects and I remember his Navigation INS refresher class at Bldg. 95 at JFK. While going over the common entry and exit points for North Atlantic crossings, Irish [green] Jack would always note that SNN and CRK were in "FREE" Ireland while [BEL] was in "Occupied" Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. Jack's classes were always interesting, informative and full of good humor. Thanks for the good work at Topics
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FROM RAY GENTILE REGARDING “A PILOT, ONE OF THE TRUSTED”
Reference the article on page 79 of the July issue of TARPA TOPICS. The article was written by Mr. Gill Robb Wilson, in a book titled "The Airman's World", published by Random House, New York in 1957. Mr. Wilson had an extensive background in aviation starting as a pilot during World War I. He was involved in numerous aviation organizations over the years including president of the USAF Association. At the time the book was written, he had been editor of Flying magazine for many years. Google his name for more information. I have a copy of the book, copies of which may be found on EBAY or through used bookstores or through your local library interlibrary loan. [Amazon.com has several copies.] It is probably one of the best books ever written on various phases of flying covering 33 different types of aviation experience as seen through the eyes of a pilot. Check it out. [Gill Robb Wilson, 1892-1966, was an aviation enthusiast, writer, and Founder of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and founder of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP). He was the publisher and editor of FLYING magazine from 1952 to 1962. During his tenure with FLYING Mr. Wilson wrote several essays, a selection of which are found in The Airman’s World.—Ed.] •
FROM JOHN GRATZ RE: PILOT WHO PLAYED JEW’S HARP ON RADIO (JULY 2010 TOPICS, P. 72)
For what its worth, the Captain in John Power's Shannon story who played the Jew’s harp when he changed frequencies was Herb Broderick, [1921-1980, TWA 1948-1979]. A great guy, a jazz music aficionado and drummer… [The Jew’s harp is one of the oldest musical instruments in the world, dating to at least the fourth century BC. Google “jew’s harp” Ed.]
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FROM BUD KUBAL A QUESTION ABOUT PLANE #1019 My daughter, the family custodian, was looking at my log book and noticed that my last flight on TWA was Flt. 901, 19 January 1984, scheduled Barcelona—Lisbon—JFK. I noticed the tail number was (oh my god) 21019. That is the same plane on the cover of the July 2010 TOPICS. … It was a ‘domestic’ model and should not be used on international as became evident when we approached JFK. The active runway was temporarily closed due to an accident. We did not have enough fuel to hang around so we went to BDL (Hartford) to pick up some fuel and wait for the runway to reopen. The F/O was John Chituk, [1939-1996 (TWA 1965-1996)] and the F/E was Dan Hartman [TWA 1988-2001]. My question is: when did TWA convert N21019 to N31019 [L1011-50 to L1011–100]? budkuball@gmail.com
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FROM BOB SHERMAN
Alice and I want to sincerely and profusely thank each of you for your efforts in making the Scottsdale Convention a special one that we will fondly remember. We really appreciated your words and gifts. It was our 27th. Convention - and the best one ever. Hopefully, we will see all of you again next year. All the best to each of you ... RC & Alice
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FROM THE IFALPA DAILY NEWS BULLETIN JULY 8, 2010
Piece of Aviation History for July 8
1940 - The first airliner with a pressurised cabin, the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, entered service with TWA on the transcontinental New York to Burbank service. Originally it combined the wings, tail, undercarriage and engines of the B-17C, with a new circular section fuselage designed to allow pressurization. It could carry 33 passengers and five crew. The first order, for two (soon increased to six), had been placed by Pan American in 1937, shortly followed by one for six from TWA. However only 10 were built, three being delivered to Pan-Am and five to TWA, together with the one aircraft for Howard Hughes. The other example was the prototype which crashed while on a demonstration flight. TWA’s Stratoliners were eventually transferred to regional services, until withdrawn in 1951. They were sold to Aigle Azur, who operated them on scheduled flights from France to North and Central Africa. The aircraft were later transferred to Aigle Azur's Vietnamese subsidiary, and subsequently used by a number of airlines in South East Asia, at least one of the aircraft was believed to be still in commercial use until 1974. Pan-Am disposed of its Stratoliners earlier than TWA, being sold to a number of small operators. One example was purchased by the Haitian Air Force, being fitted out as Papa Doc Duvalier’s presidential transport. This aircraft was later returned to the United States and purchased by the Smithsonian Museum, where it currently resides. •
MORE FROM IFALPA DAILY NEWS BULLITIN, AUGUST 17, 2010 Piece of Aviation History for August 17 1910 - The first English Channel crossing by an aeroplane with a passenger is made by John Moisant using a two-seater Blériot for the flight from Calais to Dover. His passenger was his mechanic, Albert Fileux. In fact he took two passengers, the other being his cat called Mademoiselle Fifi The international airport of New Orleans, Louisiana was originally named Moisant Field in his honour, though it has since been renamed Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. The airport retains its "MSY" identifier, derived from the airport's origins as "Moisant Stock Yards" the name given to the land where Moisant's fatal airplane crash occurred in December 1910, and upon which the airport was later built. [For more on the Blériot see “The second oldest flying airplane in the world” by Hugh Schoelzel in the November 2009 TARPA TOPICS, page 9.—Ed.]
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SEATTLE AIR MUSEUM’S DC-2 ATTRACTS CROWDS AT AIRVENTURE 2010 Torrential downpours just days before the opening of “Oshkosh 2010” caused major headaches. Much of the turf was unusable by vehicles, particularly motor homes in the campground. John Rohlfing said EAA sent him seventeen miles away to camp in a rented parking lot, but furnished daily shuttle bus transportation. Port-a-pot service trucks were sucking up standing water and hauling it off site!
Besides the DC-2, another crowd pleaser DC-2 Drawing used in a TWA ad was the recently restored DC-7 in EAL livery. They did a beautiful job, it was open for touring. Google “eastern dc-7b”you will find a ton of stuff on it. For AirVenture coverage and many pix, go to www.airventure.org and while you are there, you will find all necessary for planning for AirVenture 2011—It’s not too early.
TWA photo dated 6-21-37
Ran into retired CMH A&P Walt Thompson and his son
Seattle Air Museum plane’s interior
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FROM BOB SHERMAN VIA EMAIL
Nothing beats careful research ... RE: My mention at [the Scottsdale convention] of some oddities of age creating a record, such as Edgar (Ted) Hereford being hired at 21 (in 1930) and being a Captain for 38 of his 39 years of service. Mike McFarland collared me later saying that a number of pilots had been hired at 21 and Some earlier. Ted was not a lone exception. Because my Excel 'Age Column' was a formula (‘date of hire’- ‘date born’) I could not sort it. Fortunately I have a granddaughter [who helped me out]. Sorting the Age of Hire column revealed 115, or so, hired prior to age 21; 15 at age 18, including Bill Dixon who retired as Chief Pilot, International. But there are caveats: Bill was hired as a clerk. Most ... were hired in other positions, moving to Pilot later. Maureen Mikalonis hired as a pilot at 18-yrs. 7-mos. in early 1985 (and left 7-months later). 32 were hired at 19, but like most of the 18 year olds did not become a pilot immediately. 70 were hired at age 20, and 150 hired at age 21. As the age at hire reached 21 almost all were hired as pilots. Another oddity was hiring at older ages. Ernie Smith, an Air Corps instructor, before WW-1 was hired in 1929 at age 54, we needed an instructor pilot, I guess. At the other end we hired more than 350 pilots age 40 & over. Then, just before the turn of the century, two at age 55! When I goof, it's big. Thanks, Mike ... also one of my granddaughters. [Lou Burns, the “baby” in class 64-4 (Feb. 3) turned 21 on Feb. 5 and was properly initiated at Gigi’s after class that day. Bob Dedman was the “old man” at 321/2—32 was the max age at that time. There were also height and weight requirements that I do not recall—Ed.] •
FROM BERND KLOPFER VIA EMAIL
[After receiving a video clip sent to the “TARPA TOPICS Readers” email list showing great footage of B-747s in the ‘70s and ‘80s in the liveries of that era, many of which no longer exist. The airports are identified which makes it even more interesting. Most of the second half of the ten minute video is of TWA aircraft with great shots of some of our destinations, including JFK terminal 5; other airline’s, terminals as well. You can see the clip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuLEhBo5eyU—Ed.] “Thanks for sending this. I must have had the volume up too high because there was a tear or two in my eyes. Besides the TWA destinations, I recognized a few others from going on my wife's [a UAL captain] trips to South America. The JFK Pan Am Worldport is now Delta's Terminal 3. It will be completely gone in two years. The space will be used for aircraft parking and Terminals 2 and 4 will be expanded somewhat. Right now Terminal 3 is a nightmare. The small street side space in front of the counters is always jammed full of people trying to check in at the kiosks or trying to get through security. If you haven't been to JFK for a while, you wouldn't recognize it. You can't see the terminals driving on the roads because the elevated train tracks and elevated roads block the views. You have to just follow the signs to get to your airline terminal. I still find it strange to see all the Delta departures to places like Cairo, Tel Aviv, Moscow, Kiev, Berlin, Zurich, Johannesburg, Bombay, London, Milan, Barcelona etc. etc.” Piece of Aviation History for August 31 IFALPA Daily News Bulletin 1968 - The first bench test of the Rolls-Royce RB211 high-bypass turbofan engine is carried out. The RB in the name stands for Rolls Barnoldswick. Rolls being one of the famous company founders and Barnoldswick being the location of the design for this engine. Rolls-Royce still operate a medium-sized facility on this site today.
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TWA FLT. 847, 14 JUNE 1985—25 YEARS LATER—AN UPDATE Two years after the TWA Flight 847 attack, Ali Hammadi was arrested in Frankfurt, West Germany in 1987 while attempting to smuggle liquid explosives. In addition to the charges in West Germany of illegal importation of explosives, he was charged with the 1985 hijacking and hostage taking; tried and convicted of Stethem's 1985 murder, he was sentenced to life in prison.
The first opportunity for parole to be granted on a life sentence in Germany is ordinarily after 15 years. However Hammadi's life sentence included a provision that due to an exceptional grave degree of guilt the first parole review was to be later. The Landgericht (regional court) Kleve decided on November 30, 2005, to grant Hammadi's application for parole, after his having served 19 years of his term. The US government has sought his extradition from Lebanon.
Robert D. Stetham
His indicted accomplices in the TWA Flight 847 attack, Hassan Izz-Al-Din, and Ali Atwa continue to elude arrest and currently remain at large, having been placed among the original 22 fugitives on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list on October 10, 2001, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Another accomplice, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed on February 12, 2008 in a car-bombing attack in Damascus, Syria. Those responsible for this attack remain unknown as of February 13, 2008. On February 14, 2006 the United States federal government, through the ambassador to Lebanon, had formally asked the Lebanese government to extradite Mohammed Ali Hammadi for the murder of Robert Stethem during the 1985 hijacking. On February 24, 2006, he joined his accomplices on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list, under the name Mohammed Ali Hamadei. Several news outlets reported the announcement by Hezbollah of the death of Imad Mugniyah by explosion in Syria on February 13, 2008. The remaining three fugitives from TWA Flight 847 remain on the list, and at large. On September 12, 2006, a "Bush administration official" indicated that Hammadi had rejoined Hezbollah upon his release from German prison. On February 12, 2007, the FBI announced a new $5 million reward for information leading to the recapture of Hammadi. On June 18, 2010, Pakistani Intelligence reported that a US Drone struck and killed 16 terrorists along the border with Afghanistan. In addition to 10 other foreigners, Hammadi was reportedly killed in the attack.—Wikipedia
Captain John L. Testrake, 1927-1996, TWA 1953-1987 F/O Philip G Maresca, TWA 1967-2002 F/E Benjamin C. Zimmerman, TWA 1968-1995 Mohammed Ali Hamadei, 2004
BROWSE THE TARPA TOPICS ARCHIVES ON LINE
Click the “Topics Archives” button on the www.tarpa.com home page •
or go to www.issuu.com/tarpa_topics All issues from Jan. 1982 through Nov. 2007
HAVING PROBLEMS WITH AA JETNET? - www.jetnet.aa.com
Many of us do, probably because most don’t use it all that often. Here are a couple of tips. Start with your browser. Jetnet apparently does not support Firefox; use Internet Explorer. You must change your password every ninety days and the new one you choose cannot be (or closely resemble) one you previously used. When you enter Jetnet the first page you see is “System Access”. Your user ID is the six digit number on your “AA retiree space available travel card”. If it will not accept the password you have entered, click on “Forgot your password?” and follow the instructions. If you are still having trouble, you can chat with on line assistance or call the 800 number given.
ITEMS FOR THE FFA IMPROVED FEB 3 1964
NORMAL
EDITOR
TOPICS
______________ AFTER
CHECK LIST
READING _________________
1. RESUME NORMAL BREATHING 2. SEND ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING TO THE GRAPEVINE ED.: ¾ ANY AVIATION RELATED ITEMS YOU COME ACROSS (ESP. AIRLINE, ESP. TWA) – INCLUDING PHOTOS & GRAPHICS! ¾ ANY INTERESTING WEB SITES YOU COME ACROSS ¾ A PARAGRAPH OR TWO ON YOUR BEST TRIP, YOUR WORST TRIP, YOUR FIRST TRIP, YOUR LAST TRIP, YOUR MOST MEMORABLE TRIP, JUST LOOK AT YOUR OLD LOG BOOKS, THEY’LL GIVE YOU IDEAS! ¾ ANY NEWS ABOUT OUR OLD BUDDIES. ¾ WHAT YOU’RE DOING – HOBBIES, ORGANIZATIONS, ANY THING… ¾ RECOLLECTIONS OF UNUSUAL AND INTERESTING CREWMEMBERS. ¾ ANYTHING THAT YOU THINK WOULD FIT WELL INTO THE GRAPEVINE. INCLUDE YOUR WHOLE NAME, NICK NAME, YEARS AT TWA AND WHERE YOU’RE LOCATED – AND IF YOU HAVE AN INTERESTING IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE, BY ALL MEANS, WRITE ONE, OR AT LEAST PASS ON YOUR IDEA. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________add as many pp as you like
Topics_Ed@sbcglobal.net – or : Jeff Hill 9610 Hidden Ln Woodstock, IL 60098
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION All former TWA cockpit crewmembers are eligible for membership in TARPA. Annual dues are $50.00. EAGLE’S (75 and older) dues are $40.00. If you wish to have two addresses listed for Directory and TOPICS mailings, please provide months of the year at each location along with the appropriate phone number. Name _____________________________________________________ Spouse/Guest ______________ Last
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Street _______________________________________________________________________________ City _______________________________ State _______ Zip ______________ Telephone ( ___ ) ____ ______ E-Mail ______________________________________
Address 2 (From __________ to __________) Month
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Street ________________________________________________________________________________ City _______________________________ State ________ Zip _____________ Telephone ( ___ ) ____ ______ E-Mail ______________________________________ Capt. F/O F/E Other ________________________________ Retirement date _____________ Mo./Year
Signature ____________________________________ Date _ _ /_ _/_ _ _ _ Mo
Day
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TARPA TOPICS SUBSCRIPTION ONLY For our friends who do not meet our membership requirements, TARPA offers regular subscriptions to our magazine, TARPA TOPICS. Simply fill out the application above, indicate “subscriber”, and make your check out for $40.00.
Make checks payable to TARPA Return form to:
Ed Madigan TARPA Secretary/Treasurer P. O. Box 3565 Incline Village, NV 89450
edmadigan@charter.net rev.11/2009
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