Tag: airplanes

My Uncle’s Contribution To WWII – The Final Chapter

This if the final chapter of what he wrote. These are the links to the first part of the story. It is all firsthand from a kid who had to grow up as soon as he graduated from high school to commanding men and learning to fly what was then the most complex plane ever built, and very similar to the ones that dropped the Atomic Bombs on Japan.

My Uncle’s Contribution To WWII – A B-29 Pilot

My Uncle’s Contribution To WWII – A B29 Pilot – Part 2, Pearl Harbor To Tokyo

We flew three Prisoner of War missions wherein we dropped food, clothing, and medical supplies to our prisoners in their prison camps. One of the conditions stipulated in the Japanese surrender was that they must clearly mark all of the Prisoners of War camps with a large red cross on the roof, or in the yard, so it could be seen by aircraft flying over. We flew to camps located in Formosa (now called Taiwan), Shikoku and Tokyo. After dropping the POW supplies in Tokyo, we flew at approximately 500 feet over the remains of the city at our leisure, as did several other B-29 crews. The devastation of the city was unbelievable.

On October 2, 1945, our crew was assigned to be in the first group of airplanes to start home in Sunset Project #5. I flew airplane numbered A Square 47 named “Sweat’erOut” to Kwajalein, Oahu, and Fairfield-Suisun Field at Sacramento, California, landing October 5, 1945. Approximately two hours out, we had to feather a prop because an engine was running out of oil. Accordingly, my last landing in a B-29 was a three-engine landing. That was my last flight in a United States Army B-29.

The entire military establishment was in a state of extreme confusion after the War ended. It had millions of men in uniform, and most wanted to get out, but not all. I elected to remain in the U.S.Army because I was married and had no skill other than knowing how to fly. I was given 45 days of Rest, Relaxation and Recuperation leave and told to report to my unit, the 73rd Bomb Wing (VH) at March Field, Riverside, California, on December 4, 1945. That date was extended to January 10, 1946. Orders were changed while I was on leave, and we were now told to report to McDill Field, Tampa, Florida on January 10, 1946…but I didn’t get the change notice. Margaret and I bought our first car, a used one, from Holler Chevrolet on West Central Boulevard in Orlando. It was a 1942 black two-door Chevrolet Cabriolet. We drove it from home on leave in Orlando to Riverside, California, carrying my brother John as far as White Sands, New Mexico, where he was to be stationed. We rented a bedroom living accommodation with an Indian family in Riverside, Calif. before I got the word that we should be in Tampa, Florida. We hopped in our car and drove rapidly back across the United States to Tampa.

While I was based at McDill Field in Tampa, there was a surplus of officers with nothing to do, and I elected to attend an officer’s maintenance-training course across the field. I also got a part-time job ferrying new Luscombe Silvaires from their factory in Garland, Texas, near Dallas, to a privately owned Fixed Base Operator at Clearwater, Florida, for $100.00 each ferry trip. I made four or five ferry flights for him. On one flight, I landed in Orlando to spend the night, and the next day I took Margaret and my sister Mary for a ride in the brand new Luscombe Silvaire. Because it was a two-seat airplane, I had to make a second flight to take my sister up. It was the first time either of them had ever flown. It was while I was ferrying these airplanes that I became aware that Eastern Air Lines was hiring pilots in Miami.

My last flight in a U.S. Army airplane was a four-hour ride (required to be eligible for flight pay) in a B-25 on July 9, 1946.

July 18, 1946, I was transferred to Ft Bragg, North Carolina, to be separated from the U.S. Army Air Corps. My date of discharge was effective September 30, 1946.

I had served in the Army for a total period of four years and six months. First, I was an enlisted man for six months, an Aviation Cadet for nine months, and an officer for three years, six months, and six days. I was 23 years old when my military career ended.

The three Medals and decorations I was awarded were for what I consider rather modest accomplishments:
I was awarded the Air Medal with one oak leaf cluster (in lieu of a second Air Medal)
I was awarded the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two stars (for two different battles in which I participated)
I was awarded the American Campaign Medal for having been in a branch of the military service.

To be employed by any airline, a pilot must have a Flight Instrument Rating endorsement on his civilian flying certificate. On July 24, 1946, I started flight training for my instrument rating in a Fairchild 24 light airplane at the Cannon-Mills airport located in east Orlando. It was located approximately where the 100 block of South Semoran Boulevard runs today. I obtained the instrument rating on September 19, 1946. I was hired as a pilot by Eastern Air Lines on October 6, 1946, six days after my military terminal leave ended. At Eastern, I flew for 38 years until I reached the mandatory retirement age of 60 on my birthday, January 14, 1983.

P S I was recalled to Active Duty with the newly created United States Air Force on June 1, 1951 during the Korean War. Because my civilian employment was with an airline, I was assigned to the military airline, called Military Air Transport Service, based in Mobile, Alabama, at the Brookley Air Force Base. MATS was the acronym of the military’s airline. I flew the huge unpressurized C-74 Globemaster (equipped with the R-4360 engine) airplanes across the Atlantic Ocean usually to Tripoli, Lybia but occasionally to England or Germany. I was released from Active Duty one year and four months later on September 12, 195,2 and returned to our home in Coral Gables, Florida, to resume my civilian career as a pilot with Eastern Air Lines, for whom I flew the next 38 years.

Interestingly enough, in May of 2001, I was qualified to fly as co-pilot of the only existing B-29 that still flies, owned by the Commemorative Air Force of Midland, Texas. It was 56 years since I last flew in that type of airplane.

Things Airline Pilots Won’t Tell You

A collection of stories written by pilots
I’m an airline pilot flying domestically under the banner of a major airline.  Most people are unaware of how much of their flying is done by a “regional” airline.  Regional airlines today fly a huge percentage of the actual seat miles flown for their Major airline partner (Delta, United, US Air, etc.).  However we are paid a fraction of what the major airline pilots are paid, and even these major airline pilots are paid significantly less than their counterparts several years ago.
Many regional airline first officers make the same as your friendly pizza delivery driver.  (It is typical for most of them to make no more than 16K/year the first year.)Here are a few things we won’t tell you:-Don’t drink the coffee.  The potable water the aircraft is serviced with is absolutely disgusting.  Chemicals are inserted into the water tanks to prevent bad things from growing, but the bad taste of the coffee isn’t the coffee–its the chemicals…

-We don’t know where we are most of the time…  (kidding for the most part)  In all actuality there are much more sophisticated avionics units on most small general aviation aircraft.  Those units display many aspects of geographic awareness where most of ours simply display the route that we programmed in the flight management computer before departure.  We can tell you how far away we are from the next navigation facility and where we are in general terms, but aside from that and what we can see out the window, we typically only have a general idea of where we are when at cruise altitude.  Of course we all carry maps, but not too many of us will open the map and follow our progress on a 3 hour flight.  (That all changes as we begin descending toward the airport.  Situational Awareness is extremely important then.)

-We forget about the fasten seatbelt sign all the time.  When you look up at the sign (and disregard it typically) and it has been illuminated for the last 45 minutes in smooth air, we simply forgot.  Lots of guys will leave it on all the time.  However, sometimes we do have reports of choppy air ahead and will leave it on until we either experience it or take a wild guess that the air ahead will be smooth.

Some of us carry guns.  This is certainly public knowledge, but Federal Flight Deck Officers can carry a firearm in the cockpit.  Lots of protocol exists to ensure that the training, concealment, and utilization is standardized.

They never announce, “That was close !!” As in, a near mid-air encounter with other air traffic.Only from personal experience and asking the pilot as I disembarked from the aircraft, can I relate this story.Landing at Newark airport in 1986, I was sitting in a window seat about mid section, left side of the plane. I was looking out of the window for a good view of NYC. After seeing that, I was watching the area around the airport as we came in to land. We were about 300′ altitude, or less, and all of a sudden I was stunned to see another plane taking off. It was very close as it took off, nearly underneath our plane as it was climbing out. I don’t know how close we were, just that I could see the passengers in the windows of the other plane close enough to see if they were male or female. My view only lasted about 5 seconds, but I thought they were my last! When I got to the front of the plane and the pilot was standing there I said, “That was close…?” He said, “No, not really.” Very calmly.

I wonder how often that happens, and I bet they NEVER tell the passengers that piece of news!

Most pilots won’t tell you that “air traffic control delays” aren’t really ATC’s “fault”; these delays would be better termed “overscheduling delays”.The vast majority of what the airlines and system term “ATC delays” are actually from a pretty simple supply-and-demand situation.  There’s too many airplanes (demand) trying to land in a limited number of arrival slots (supply) at a given airport over a given time period.Airports have what are known as “arrival rates”.  A standard, one-runway airport with well-designed taxiways (including “high speed” taxiways) can safely handle, in good weather, around 60 operations an hour- one per minute.

This can be 60 landings in an hour, or 60 takeoffs in an hour, or 30 of each, or whatever combination you want to come up with, but that’s about the limit.

(This is a bit of an oversimplification with really good design, you can usually depart faster than arrive, but bear with me for now.)

So say you’ve got this airport, and say it’s got more than enough gates for all the airlines and planes that want to use it.  The only limiting factor is that 60/hour number, right?

Yeah- until crappy weather shows up.  Now they can only land 30 planes per hour.

Unfortunately, the ATC system- run by the FAA- does not regulate how many flights can be scheduled into an airport.  (That’s what deregulation gave us.)  So the airlines that operate in there all schedule as many as they think they can get passengers for.

So during this hour, the airlines have scheduled 60 arrivals, but only 30 planes can land because it’s a cloudy, rainy day.

What happens to the other 30 flights?  They get delayed.

And who delays them?  ATC.

And what do the airlines call these delays?  “Supply and demand delays”?  “Weather delays?”  Nope.

“ATC delays.”

But the reality is that they’re overscheduling delays.  If the airlines and/or the airports would limit the number of flights to the BAD weather limits, the number of delays in the system would be massively shrunk.

That the Airbus A320 is known to have routine cockpit power outtages.  And that this plane that you are on right now, which is among the most popular in the world, might not be fixed!

Such as United Flight 731 which “had no way to communicate with air traffic controllers or detect other planes around them in the New York City area’s crowded airspace.” [1]That “France-based Airbus told NTSB investigators in 2008 that 49 electrical failures similar to the Newark emergency happened on its planes in the U.S. and abroad before that episode. Nearly half involved the loss of at least five of six cockpit displays.” [1]And…that a mere 46 hours and $6,000 is the only thing holding back every single plane in the air from this crucial upgrade due to “economics”

The Airbus A320 family includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321 models — passenger jets with 100 to 220 seats.

And you wonder why I take trains and boats????

Note: these came from other people and I don’t guarantee 100% accuracy