RTB FLYING EXPERIENCES
click to list of some RTB Air Craft Flown
- Loaded with Snake and Nape on alert at Bien Hoa with troops in contact.
- Formation take offs and landings in the rain ... or snow.
- Flying close finger tip formation in a flight of four.
- Pulling 9 "G" and not blacking out. Pulling 3 negative "G" and after removing your boots and socks, seeing the redness
- of your feet from burst blood vessels.
- Being scrambled for take off from Alert ... from a sound sleep ... at night in the weather ... with hot guns and missiles.
Flying in a ballet around clouds, through the holes, along the valleys, up the vertical cliffs ...
- Full afterburner take off in a clean fighter in below zero temperatures at night. Being #2 in this take off.
Somehow, all the jet-lag and other problems had some compensating balance!
Doing formation join-ups around big beautiful columns of Cumulus out of every fighter base.
Multiple sunsets as you climb and descend in a large after burner loop.
- Sunrises seen from the high flight levels that make the heart soar.
The arcing red lines of AAA tracers approaching your aircraft ... and missing!
- The patchwork quilt of the great plains of the USA from 40,000' + on a day when you can see forever.
Cruising mere feet above a billiard-table-flat cloud deck at Mach .95, with your chin on the glare shield and your- face as close as you can get to the windshield.
Knowing you got to land a fighter on a seven-thousand foot runway, that is covered with hard packed snow, and no drag chute.
Punching out the top of a low overcast while climbing 30,000 feet per minute in Afterburner.
The majesty and grandeur of towering cumulus.
Rotating at VR and feeling 400,000 plus pounds of Airplane come "alive" as she lifts off.
The delicate threads of St. Elmo's Fire dancing on the windshield at night.
The twinkle of lights on the Japanese fishing fleet far below, on a night crossing of the North Pacific.
Cloud formations that are beautiful beyond description.
'Ice fog' in Europe on a cold winter morning.
Seeing the approach strobes appear through the fog on a 'Must do' zero, zero approach when there is no other place to go.
Seeing geologic formations that no ground-pounder will ever see.
The chaotic, non-stop babble of radio transmissions in combat, or at O'Hare during the afternoon rush.
- The quietness of center frequency at night during a "Transcontinental flight", over the Atlantic, the Pacific, ... or over the Amazon at any time.
The welcome view of approach lights appearing out of the mist just as you reach minimums.
Finding yourself in a thunderstorm with 12 x 750# bombs still hanging on your wings.
Lightning storms at night over the Midwest ... or Europe ... or Korea ... or Viet Nam
Picking your way through a line of huge Thunderstorms that seemed to go all the way from Chicago to New Orleans.
The soft, glow of the instrument panel in a dark cockpit. Drinking numerous cups of bad coffee on international flights.
The dancing curtains of colored light of the "Aurora Borealis" on a winter-night "North Atlantic" crossing.
Passing 30 west . . .
The taxiway names at O Hare before they were renamed: 'The Bridge', 'Lakeshore Drive', 'Old Scenic', 'New Scenic',- 'Outer', 'The Bypass', 'Inner', 'Cargo', 'North-South', 'The Stub', and 'Hangar Alley' !
The majestic panorama of an entire mountain range stretched out beneath you from horizon to horizon.
Lenticular clouds over the Sierras.
The brief, sad, yet tempting, glimpse of runway lights after you've already committed to the missed approach.
The Alps in winter on a clear day.
The South China Sea so smooth that you leave waves in the water from 75 feet above the sea as you fly over it.
Watching a fellow pilot do an engine out flameout approach and making it
Seeing a "dumb" bomb you drop hit a target and knowing you had all the parameters right.
- Watching 20 millimeter HEI cannon rounds sparkle around the target before it explodes
- The lights of London or Paris or Munich or Buenas Aires or Quito at night from FL 350.
- Landing at La Paz, Bolivia ... 13,300' elevation
- Squall lines that run as far left and right as you can see.
Exotic lands with exotic food ... and exotic women
Seeing Tokyo lights at night from thirty five thousand feet stretching from horizon to horizon.
Maneuvering the airplane through day lit canyons between towering Cumulus Clouds.
The deep blue-gray of the sky at FL 470. The deep black of the sky at noon at 70,000'
The hustle and bustle of Hong Kong Harbor.
The softness of a touchdown on a snow-covered runway.
Hearing the nose wheel spin down against the snubber in the wheel well after takeoff. A delightful sound- signaling that you were on your way!
Old Chinatown in Singapore before it was torn down, modernized, and sterilized.
Watching the lightning show while dodging thunder storms at night.
Long-tail boats speeding along the klongs in Thailand .
The quietly turning paddle fans in the lobby of the "Raffles Hotel" in Singapore .
Dodging colored splotches of red and yellow light on the radar screen at night.
The sound of foreign accents on the radio.
- Luxury hotels and royal service ... flea bag hotels and abusive service.
To paraphrase the eloquent aviation writer, Ernie Gann, "The allure of the slit in a China girl's skirt."
Sunsets of every color imaginable. The "Green Flash" the instant the sun melts below the horizon.
The tantalizing glow of the flashing strobe lights just before you break out of the clouds on the approach.
Yosemite Valley from above. The Grand Canyon flying below the rim.
The almost blindingly-brilliant-white of a towering cumulus cloud.
A cold San Miguel in Angeles City after a long day's flying.
The Diamond Horseshoe at Itazuke.
Ocean crossings and in-flight refueling.
Hearing every sound a single engine fighter makes at night over the open ocean.
The taxiway sentry (with his flag & machine gun) at the old Taipei (downtown) airport. The bullet holes in the- walls of buildings at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin
Eighty-thousand-foot + -high thunderstorm clouds in the tropics.
Sipping Pina Coladas in a luxury hotel bar, while a Typhoon rages outside.
Chinese Junks bobbing in Aberdeen harbor.
The smell of spring kimchee in Korea.
Watching the latitude count down to zero on the INS, and seeing it switch from "N" to "S" as you cross the equator.
"Wake Island" at Sunrise.
Oslo Harbor at dusk.
Icebergs in the North Atlantic.
Contrails.
Pago Harbor, framed by puffy cumulus clouds in the late afternoon.
Doing a tail slide in a fighter at zero airspeed from a vertical climb and watching the fuel vent around the aircraft
- The camaraderie of a good crew ... and good squadron
Ferryboat races in Sydney Harbor. Samlar races in Viet Nam or Thailand.
- Experiencing all the lines from the old Jo Stafford tune:
- "See the pyramids along the Nile . See the sunrise on a tropic isle. See the market place in old Algiers
- Send home photographs and souvenirs. Fly the ocean in a silver plane. See the jungle when it's wet with rain."
White picket fences in Auckland.
Trade winds.
White sandy beaches lined with swaying palms.
Double-decker buses in London.
The endless expanse of white on a Polar Crossing.
The "Star Ferry" in Hong Kong,
Bangkok after a tropical rain. A boat tour on the Chao Phya River
Mono Lake and the steep wall of the Sierra Nevada range when approached from the east.
The bus ride to Stanley ... on the upper deck front seat of the double-decker bus.
The "Long Bar" at the Raffles.
Heavy takeoffs from the "Cliff" runway at Guam.
Landings in the B-767 when the only way you knew you had touched down was the movement of the spoiler handle.
Orsini's in Aviano, Italy
The deafening sound of tropical raindrops slamming angrily against the windshield, accompanied by the hurried slap,
slap, slap of the windshield wipers while landing in a torrential downpour in Manila ..
Endless ripples of sand dunes across the trackless miles of the Sahara desert.
Miller's Pub in Chicago.
German beer. Oktoberfest.
The white cliffs of Dover.
Oom-pa-pa music at Meyer Gustels in 'Frankfurt'!
Fjords in Norway.
The aimless compass, not knowing where to point as you near the top of the world on a polar crossing.
- The whiskey compass on a steep bank.
The old Charlie-Charlie NDB approach into Kai Tak.
Brain bags crammed with charts to exotic places.
The Peak tram in Hong Kong.
Breaking out of the clouds on the IGS approach to runway 13 at Kai Tak, and seeing a windshield full of checkerboard.
An empty weight, max power takeoff in a B-757.
The bustle of Nathan Road on a summer day.
Sliding in over Crystal Springs reservoir for a visual approach and landing on 1R in SFO.
The smell of tropical blooms when you step off the plane in Fiji.
The rush of a full-speed-brakes descent at barber pole in a B-727.
Deadheading in First Class. Deadheading in the jump seat.
The Canarsie approach into JFK. The Bridge approach into SFO. Any instrument approach at minimums at Hahn AB
The Eiffel Tower lit up at night
Max Gross Weight Takeoffs in an airliner ... or with 18 x 500# bombs on a hot asian afternoon
Cross-wind landings at 30 Kts/90 degrees ... or an landing with RCR of <10.
Good Co-pilots. Bad captains. Good wingmen. Bad Flight leads.
Man-sized rudder pedals as big as pie plates.
- Leak-checking your eyelids on a long night flight ... Drinking your now melted frozen water bottle on the
- return of a night combat mission.
And, as one friend so perceptively pointed out, "Payday" !
Making an aural null range approach.........
- Venus coming up before the sun in the Eastern sky, giving the horizon a light show like no other!
- Being able to turn a dull event into an exciting story for everyone's enjoyment.
- Never envying any earth bound person.
- Finally, the reality of knowing that ONLY TWO bad things can happen to a pilot:
- 1. you walk out to your aircraft knowing it is your last flight
- 2. you walk out to your aircraft not knowing it is your last flight
