Dudley Henriques wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote in
:



It's the old guys like us who HAVE the stories....simply because
we've
survived most of them :-))


Actaully, I could dine out for a week on the storis I had by the time
I
was 22. I was a very poor listener.
Sometimes when I actually have the time to sit down and reflect on
some
of the absolutely wild crap I've gotten into and out of in my career
it
scares the hell out of me :-))


I figure it's mostly been a dream.

Take my "famous"... (with the family at least) story about the day I
took the horns off a cow with a P51. Now THERE'S a story!!

This story is so good that every year at Thanksgiving when I forget
everybody in the house has heard it a thousand times and trot it out
for
the whole table it's met with shouts of enthusiasm and excitement as
they anxiously await every word of it.
"Oh NO!! Not AGAIN!!!!"
"Jeeze,,Holy Cow Hon....not the damn COW story again!!"

Yup!!!....they can't WAIT to hear the cow story!


I have one with hornets...Since it ends up with me being stung and
covered in **** everone enjoys it.


Bertie


These self deprecating stories do seem to be the best received
stories.
It's funny about "stories". Take the one I've posted here about the
cow.
I kid with this one a great deal and have had some fun with it over
the
years, but there's another side to this story.

I've used it as well in safety seminars where I've been asked to speak
with war bird pilots on flight safety issues. Of course in that venue
the more serious side of the same story is emphasized and all the self
deprecation crap is put aside.
When talking to war bird pilots, the cow becomes incidental to the
fact
that the lead in a two ship formation loop has to be velvet smooth,
leave the trailer a few extra inches of manifold pressure and positive
g
to fool with to use in maintaining position, and most of all, go
through
the high gate position on speed, on altitude, and correctly in the
float.

Stories from us "older folk" have their place in aviation. The same
story can be funny for a forum or it can be a much needed reminder
that
has the potential to save lives.
But.....I digress.........aging by the minute........remembering old
stories :-))



Well, I love them. I have a fw (that pale in comparison to most of
your's) and like telling em. But tghere's nothng like hearing a real
ripper.
I got to talk to a Flying Tiger once. Carl Spaatz's nephew, in fact. I
can't remember his name, bt he told me stories for hours and hours. Also
met a Lancaster pilot that went down in Belgium during the war and ws
missing most of the finger on his left hand as a result. A Sopwiht Camel
driver who came up to my flightdeck, An ex RAF test pilot who reagled me
with tales of flying everything from the Hampden to the Hornet, a WASP,
I worked for a Korean war ace (who is still alive and will almost
certainly humt me down for taking his name in vain) also worked for a
WW2 pilot who flew an A-20 in combat in the Pacific (he didn't say much
abvout it) a CG-4 instructor a B-50 pilot and I once met Matty Laird
though he didn;t tell me any stories, nor did Dick Rutan or Eric
hartman, but I like to imagine my life is richer for just getting to
shake their hand and say "hi". the best of all must have been Phil
Cochran who probably would have told me anything I wanted to know, but I
was only very young and too shy to ask!

As you probably know, Tony Levier hung around RAH, but died before I got
to ask him anything. I'd have loved to ask him what it was like to fly
in the Greeves or Thompson, but he's flying around somewhere else now..



Sorry for the ramble! guess the point is, treasure them while they're
here!

Bertie