"Darrell" wrote in message
news:0xZac.33840$wl1.24837@fed1read06...
Rick Clark
MFE

Yeah we had a guy whose nickname was "Wingtip" Wright who supposedly
dinged
a wing tip of a B-58. We had both a Charles R. Wright and a John C.
Wright.

I cannot recall the gentleman's first name. He retired as an LTC,
probably
in the very early seventies; went onto a second career as a mathmatics
teacher. He was my ninth grade geometry teacher back in the 75-76
timeframe.
ISTR he said he liked flying the B-58, and I remember he was a
particularly
religious gent. Interestingly, we had a second teacher at our school who
was
also a retired SAC vet; B/N on B-47's, survived one crash (either
landing
or
T/O, can't recall which) and spent about a year convalescing--used to
laugh
about how his buddies used to collect him and wheel him out to the
flightline and cram his rearend into an aircraft periodically so he
could
still collect his flight pay while he was doing so.

I guess you don't recall the B-47 guy either? I went from instructing
T-33s in Pilot Training to the front seat of a B-47 while still a 1st Lt.
Hunter AFB at Savannah, Ga. Then to the left seat of (then) brand new
B-52Hs at Minot (ugh) ND. It was sort of a step sideways to go from the
B-52H with flight directors, terrain avoidance radar, etc to the B-58
Hustler. While very advanced in the airframe and engine areas it was
rather
primitive in cockpit devices. Pretty good autopilot/autothrottles,
though.
Plus there was only room for one pilot so you got every takeoff and
landing
plus no one could look over your shoulder. We had several TB-58s which
was
modified to have an instructor pilot position behind the pilot and did not
carry a navigator, just the pilots and a DSO.

The B-47 guy was named Dewey Johnson--he was the faculty advisor for our
high school Key Club, otherwise I would never have recalled his name. I
*think* the Wright might have been a Robert, but can't recall for sure. As
to johnson, I don't know where he served other than in Spain--I can still
remember him talking about how great a tour that was, with the US dollar
being so high against the local currency that he could afford to have a
gardener and housekeeper for his little villa. Real nice guy; I can remember
him telling us about a takeoff in a B-47 where the pilot forgot to properly
set the flaps, leading to them barely clearing the security shack at the
gate located off the end of the runway...


I retired as a LtCol also on 1-1-72. Later got on with Air California and
made Captain in Boeing 737s is just over 2 years (deregulation expansion)
and American Airlines bought Air Cal 9 years later and I flew the MD-80,
and
Boeings 757/767 for AA until I got booted out at age 60 in '93 (mandatory
retirement). Since then I've taught ground school and flight simulator in
the MD-80 at FSI/FSB/Boeing Alteon at Long Beach part time.

My Dad was a gunner on a B-29 during WWII; a few years ago I made contact
with his old AC. He had gone on to fly a long career with Delta, retiring
back in the seventies IIRC. Turned out his son had been flying CH-46's for
the USMC a year or so before my older brother flew UH-1D/H's in Vietnam, and
both flew medevac. Small world in some ways.

Brooks


B-58 Hustler History: http://members.cox.net/dschmidt1/