A Bitter Sweet Ride
All of the Commanding Officers of the units at Otis AFB met weekly on Friday to resolve the many issues arising at this now-orphaned facility. Among them was COL John Olson, Commander of the 101st FIW, 103rd FIW, ANG, flying F-106s. We became friends and I helped him as much as possible (I had almost a dozen CG civilian employees as members of the Fire and Crash Crew; so too with Base Ops.) He arranged for my oldest son Gary to enlist in the ANG and go off to Colorado for radar school. He also arranged for me to fly with him in the two-place TF-106B. Before we could consummate that flight, we received word that the CO of CGAS Brooklyn, a CGA classmate of mine, had collapsed on the handball courts, was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and needed transportation via one of our HH-3Fs directly to Bethesda Naval Hospital. CCGD1 approved and we honored their request.
Col Olson had a TF-106B ready for me in minutes, and we literally blasted off for Andrews AFB. After a burner climb to FL410, a slow roll to level flight, and a landing at Andrews in 44 minutes, I rented a car and drove to Bethesda. There was little I could do at this point other than offer support.
On the night flight home to Otis, again at FL410, one could see all of the glittering lights of almost the whole northeast coast. Somehow they had lost a lot of their glory, once again reminding me of what a thin thread our lives hang on. We can plan, but God decides.

Beechcraft SNB

The SNB (Secret Navy Bomber, or Bugsmasher) was the multi-engine instrument trainer at NAAS Foley Field AL and NAS Corpus Christi TX. Who can forget the infamous "Charlie" pattern and then do it again partial panel? Few today remember RADFACs with the LF colored airways (Green 1, Blue 5, etc.), Fade 90 orientation, cone of silence, ADF non-precision approaches with full procedure turns, GCAs, introduction(!) to a localizer, "coffee grinder" VOR receivers, No radar following with only PTA position reporting, estimate to next station, name only of next.

Douglas C-47D

When I received orders to AF AMO school at Chanute AF in Rantoul IL, I had visions of flying the TB-25 as my EO at Elizabeth City had done. But when I arrived there with George Roy, they were gone and we transitioned to the "Gooney Bird". It was a real trip. No boosted controls, antiquated cockpit wit controls in every conceivable location. But she was a dowager queen from another era and we learned to love the smooth leisurely pace of flying her. Our instructor  laughed as he heard of Viet Nam flaring up stating that the fighter jocks would go. Turned out they needed C-47 drivers and he was in the "Dirty Thirty" of first AF types to go. 

Beech Super King Air

The 1985 Super King Air 300 shown in the Home Page has undergone a transformation at Stephens Aviation, the King Air experts. New engines, new five-bladed propellers, wing tip fins, paint job, and most importantly, a Garmin three-MFD instrument panel. The situational awareness with this panel is nothing short of amazing. Even the standby attitude indicator and Altimeter are better than most primary instruments I have used. Having flown the C-130, I can compare this bird to it in performance - obviously, payload pales in comparison, but going from point A to point B at 1,500 miles or less with eight people makes this bird shine, and it does so with complete aplomb.