Pilots afraid of their planes?

Most pilots I have ever flown with were skilled and comfortable in the air and
their planes. But every now and again you would run into a pilot who was
clearly afraid of their plane. This may have been truer in Marauders than most
other planes. The old saying was, "show me a pilot afraid of his plane and I'll
show you a dead pilot" was sadly all too true. Pity the crew who had such a
pilot and couldn't get out of flying with him.




Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

"ArtKramr" wrote

Most pilots I have ever flown with were skilled and comfortable in the air and
their planes. But every now and again you would run into a pilot who was
clearly afraid of their plane. This may have been truer in Marauders than most
other planes. The old saying was, "show me a pilot afraid of his plane and I'll
show you a dead pilot" was sadly all too true. Pity the crew who had such a
pilot and couldn't get out of flying with him.

Depending on how many back-up systems the B-26 had, would determine how
comfortable you would get with it. I know in my case it was probably 100 hours
before everything clicked, and I had flown enough to see a lot of different
emergency problems, or practiced them to boredom.

Did you guys have a lot of maintenance problems, or equipment failures in flight?

Since you are bringing this up, it would seem you had a lot of aircrew problems
in your outfit. or, was this just one incident in your tour? Sound's like a real
****-up squadron to me. I can't imagine you guys getting a pilot that wasn't
qualified, as he also had to be a commander of a crew. The whole premise
sounds pretty fishy there Kramer. I think you're pulling our leg just to make
bombardiers look better than pilots. Fess up paleoliberal!

Subject: fearful bombardiers, was Pilots afraid of their planes?
From: "Bob Coe"
Date: 9/12/2004 9:15 AM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id: wC_0d.24203$ni.23456@okepread01

"ArtKramr" wrote

Most pilots I have ever flown with were skilled and comfortable in the air
and
their planes. But every now and again you would run into a pilot who was
clearly afraid of their plane. This may have been truer in Marauders than
most
other planes. The old saying was, "show me a pilot afraid of his plane and
I'll
show you a dead pilot" was sadly all too true. Pity the crew who had such a
pilot and couldn't get out of flying with him.

Depending on how many back-up systems the B-26 had, would determine how
comfortable you would get with it. I know in my case it was probably 100
hours
before everything clicked, and I had flown enough to see a lot of different
emergency problems, or practiced them to boredom.

Did you guys have a lot of maintenance problems, or equipment failures in
flight?

Since you are bringing this up, it would seem you had a lot of aircrew
problems
in your outfit. or, was this just one incident in your tour? Sound's like a
real
****-up squadron to me. I can't imagine you guys getting a pilot that wasn't
qualified, as he also had to be a commander of a crew. The whole premise
sounds pretty fishy there Kramer. I think you're pulling our leg just to
make
bombardiers look better than pilots. Fess up paleoliberal!


Your mixing politics into a thread that was purely aviation shows you up for
the neocon bull****er you are. Go away.


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

"ArtKramr" wrote

Your mixing politics into a thread that was purely aviation shows you up for
the neocon bull****er you are. Go away.

You didn't answer any of the questions, and your one sentence replies all
contain the term neocon. How can I be a neocon if I subscribe to the
American Conservative?? I think you spent too much time back east...

Your piece had nothing to do with aviation. It was how Kramer was better
than pilots, because some of them were not up to your God-like abilities.

Most pilots I have ever flown with were skilled and comfortable in the air
and
their planes. But every now and again you would run into a pilot who was
clearly afraid of their plane.

Were there any bombardiers afraid of their planes? Gunners? Navigators?
Radio Operators?

John Dupre'