REPOST Enlisted Stories - Parade Ground - Lackland AFB Feb 2006 [01/11] IDX_ES01.jpg (0/1) 95 K

Originally Posted by kcchambers

My father was a combat L4 artillary spotter pilot through out the European campaign, one of only of two of his original squadron to survive the war. He taught me to fly as a teenager in a Cessna, and the trick he would pull on me when I was flying was to cut the mixture and tell me I just had engine failure. This would cut the engine noise almost completely and the prop would just windmill. I suspect this is same trick used in the story above - it can be reasonably quiet. My task was to find a landing field over whatever territory we were, usually nothing remotely flat. Once I decided and was lined up for a landing, he would restore the mixture and because the prop was windmilling you wouldn't have needed a starter, even though a Cessna had one. The engine would come back to life and I wouldn't have to actually land. Scared the hell out of me because I was never sure how long he would wait, or if the engine would catch. But I did a lot of low altitude approaches over rough terrain.

and by the way, his name was "Bill"....