(ArtKramr) wrote in message ...
Subject: Bomber Pilots Never Look Down
From: (buf3)
Date: 8/13/2004 3:48 AM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

(ArtKramr) wrote in message
...
Bomber Pilots Never Look Down

Big snip.

Interesting post. Got any more? Love
to hear 'em.


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

Well, I might lose my membership in the pilot's union if I tell too
many. There was the crew that was returning from Thule, Greenland to
Kincheloe, AFB, Michigan who got so far west of course that they
didn't have enough fuel to get home and had to land at Grand Forks,
ND. The RN was asleep (it was a 24 hour mission and the crew was not
augmented) and the young navigator didn't detect a bad heading error
in his equipment by cross checking other indicators. Of course, it
was a clear day and the pilots did not notice that they were on the
wrong side of Hudson Bay or over the wrong end of Lake Superior. The
poor navigator was called "Magellen" by his squadron mates for a long
time after.

Then there was the bomb/nav team that forgot to change convergance
angles when they changed maps as they turned west near the north pole.
They almost got over the USSR with six nuclear weapons (four internal
and two Hound Dogs). They had to land in Alaska because they were too
late for their second air refueling. That crew was disbanded and the
members were individually dispersed to other crews as soon as they
landed back at Kincheloe.

Gene Myers