Aviation Story

A friend from Texas who worked for the railroad and liked to fly his
supercub along the tracks decided to have a little fun one night. He flew
just off the ground down the tracks and just before he got in sight of a
freight train roaring down the tracks, he turned on his landing light and
proceeded head-on at full speed, headlight to headlight. A hundred yards
or so before the inevitable collision he pulled up and climbed away, behind
the peppy O-235. But by that time the horrified engineer had locked down
the brakes on the train. You should not be bothered with the details,
which were quite messy.

The next day he awoke to find headlines in the local newspaper, "Train
Almost Collides with UFO; Cars Derailed."

Statute of limitations has run, he says, and, "Don't you be gettin' no
ideas."

On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 09:49:42 -0500, " jls"
wrote:

A friend from Texas who worked for the railroad and liked to fly his
supercub along the tracks decided to have a little fun one night. He flew
just off the ground down the tracks and just before he got in sight of a
freight train roaring down the tracks, he turned on his landing light and
proceeded head-on at full speed, headlight to headlight. A hundred yards
or so before the inevitable collision he pulled up and climbed away, behind
the peppy O-235. But by that time the horrified engineer had locked down
the brakes on the train. You should not be bothered with the details,
which were quite messy.

The next day he awoke to find headlines in the local newspaper, "Train
Almost Collides with UFO; Cars Derailed."

Statute of limitations has run, he says, and, "Don't you be gettin' no
ideas."

I'm sure it's older than this, but the first time I heard of that
story it was in a fiction book by Daniel V. Gallery written in the
early '60s, IIRC.

In his story it was a young Navy fighter pilot who was owed money by
the railroad and decided to take drastic measures when they wouldn't
pay up.

Mike

Mike Patterson
Please remove the spamtrap to email me.

Even older. Virtually every book about the early days of flying the mail (ie,
1920 on ) includes such an account.

-R.S.Hoover

I have a friend that did just that. Thought it was real fun until he tried
the stunt on a Mississippi River tow. He damn near went blind and crashed
when they turned their powerful search light on him and followed him as he
tried to sneak away. GRIN
--
Cy Galley, TC - Chair, Emergency Aircraft Repair, Oshkosh
Editor, EAA Safety Programs
or

Always looking for articles for the Experimenter soon to be Sport Pilot

"Veeduber" wrote in message
...
Even older. Virtually every book about the early days of flying the mail
(ie,
1920 on ) includes such an account.

-R.S.Hoover

On 24 Jan 2004 15:33:05 GMT, (Veeduber) wrote:

Even older. Virtually every book about the early days of flying the mail (ie,
1920 on ) includes such an account.

Ernie Gann's "Blaze of Noon," for example....but Gallery tells it better
(in "Stand By-y-y-y to Start Engines").

Closest I ever came to it was to buzz a convoy of CAP cadets (in my trusty
CAP Citabria) with the backseater flicking the landing light switch up and
down like a machine gun.

Ron Wanttaja

Reminds me of a story told by a local retired Bird Colonel.

He had been flying as a fighter pilot in California and was
re-stationed in Texas. It was 1956 or so and he was on the road in
his '50' Chevy going through a small town in New Mexico. The cops had
a speed trap set outside of town and they got him good. They dragged
him right into the kangaroo court room instead of writing him a ticket
and letting him go. Evidently in those days many people didn't pay if
you let them go.

So, he's in front of the judge and gets fined a hearty amount, more
than he had on hand. The judge told him he was going to put him in
jail for two days. The young Major couldn't afford to be locked up
because he had to make it to Lackland AFB or Shepard, can't remember
which. The Judge locked him up anyway.

Two days later he reported to the flight line in Texas and was given
grace for being AWOL. He was assigned an F-86. He told me he asked
his crew chief to strip it down and make it clean. They topped it
with all the gas they could get in it. He got in and went to
something like 35,000 feet over that little ass-wipe city in New
Mexico. He put the F-86 in a 90 degree dive over the courthouse. By
about the time he got to 15,000 feet he was just supersonic. He said
that he started his pull out at 10,000 feet and just barely made it
back to horizontal before he hit the ground (his story).

That weekend he got a newspaper from the little ass-wipe city and it
said that all the windows in the courthouse had been broken and many
in the automobiles parked around the building, plus many of the houses
in town. The locals were conducting some survey to try and find out
who did it, but they never got him. He said he flew away on the deck
and landed back in Texas a few hundred miles away. The city town-folk
never had a clue who did it.

BWB

Prior to departing for Vietnam a shipmate had to go through the E&E course they
were running south of Warner Springs in the hills behind Sandy Eggo.

Second night of the course, when everyone had been without food for 24 hours
and the instructors were just about to round them all up and begin their
bull**** 'interrogations' an idiot driving C-120 made a low pass over a
particular place and kicked out a seabag filled with Big Macs & fries.

Or so I heard :-)

-R.S.Hoover

PS -- The trick is not to pack them too tightly. Duct tape the burgers & fries
in individual packs wrapped with foam or whatever then pack them into a nylon
net laundry bag, but not too tightly, then put the laundry bag int othe seabag
with lots of crushables around it and on either end.

Takes two to tango -- pilot & a kicker. And it helps if you pull the pax-side
seat.

I understand you should make the drop just as you add power and be ready for
the yaw when the kicker forces the door outboard. You might want to practice
this a few times. Just above a stall, wheels in the weeds, the groceries are
still going to travel about a hundred feet before they hit the ground. I
understand the glider strip at Otay Lakes is good spot for that sort of
practice. Also a handy spot to leave the seat, dress the kicker in a body
harness, etc.

Or was. 1969 or thereabouts. Probably just another of those sea-stories you
hear.

I understand you should make the drop just as you add power and be ready for
the yaw when the kicker forces the door outboard. You might want to practice
this a few times. Just above a stall, wheels in the weeds, the groceries are
still going to travel about a hundred feet before they hit the ground. I
understand the glider strip at Otay Lakes is good spot for that sort of
practice. Also a handy spot to leave the seat, dress the kicker in a body
harness, etc.

Or was. 1969 or thereabouts. Probably just another of those sea-stories you
hear.

Laughed my ass off. Thanks. I was seeing the kicker in a winter
survival suit in my mind's eye, lest he froze to death...but maybe not
in Sandy Eggo.

BWB

I was at the "Crash Boat" beach near Ramey AFB in Puerto Rico when a small
group of what turned out to be B-36 crew was making arrangements with a
local to bring food, booze and broads out to "Goat" Island where they were
scheduled,(of course they were not supposed to know when) to be taken out to
the island for a survival practice. You were normally just told upon
landing that you had just crashed on "Goat" island and what ever gear you
had with you was what you got to take. These guys were ahead of the game
for sure.
Stu Fields ex SAC:
"Badwater Bill" wrote in message
...

I understand you should make the drop just as you add power and be ready
for
the yaw when the kicker forces the door outboard. You might want to
practice
this a few times. Just above a stall, wheels in the weeds, the groceries
are
still going to travel about a hundred feet before they hit the ground. I
understand the glider strip at Otay Lakes is good spot for that sort of
practice. Also a handy spot to leave the seat, dress the kicker in a
body
harness, etc.

Or was. 1969 or thereabouts. Probably just another of those sea-stories
you
hear.

Laughed my ass off. Thanks. I was seeing the kicker in a winter
survival suit in my mind's eye, lest he froze to death...but maybe not
in Sandy Eggo.

BWB

I was seeing the kicker in a winter
survival suit in my mind's eye,

Weather was nice. Body harness was for the kicker's peace of mind; he wasn't
an aviation type (at first).

Practice proved useful: Milkshakes are a no-go but Colorado Kool-ade did okay.
And the flight crew should wear goggles. Ash tray emptied itself as soon as we
opened the door and thirty years of trash suddenly reappeared :-)

Only real problem was to get the burgers there while they were still warm.
Trick was to start packing enroute to Brown Field. Had plenty of volunteers.