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| All my life I have been intrigued by airplanes flying through the skies. I always wanted to get into a plane such as this and zoom all over the sky. I finally got my chance when in 1963 I got my first Pilot's license. |
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| I finally achieved what I had always wanted, a commercial license with multi-engine and instrument ratings. I really got to fly! This photo was taken on Grand Bahama Island after I had just discharged one load of passengers who were to stay at GBI for a week, and I was waiting for the people who had been to our condo that previous week, to fly them back to Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. On these days I got to fly for 11 - 12 hours in all kinds of weather, finally getting to do what I had always wanted to do. Our group owned two airplanes and a condo on GBI. |
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The flying bug was really activated in me when I took the job with the Naval Missile Center at Point Mugu, and my job required that I qualify and participate in flights associated with the testing of missile systems. I wouldn't be the one flying the airplanes, but I would be there watching and feeling and being thrilled at the process of flight. We had our own airplanes in the Electronic Warfare Division. We had high speed jet fighters, and everything in between them and transport aircraft, and we even had one of those, an R4Y.
Shortly after joining the staff, I was sent to San Diego North Island Naval Air Station to become qualified to fly in Navy aircraft. The training consisted of knowing all the safety rules, the procedures, escape mechanisms including getting out of a seat underwater, and ejecting and parachuting to the ground. High and low pressure chambers assured us that we could handle the flight parameters. I had to do them all, and loved it!!
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| Our very own A3D Light Bombers that we used as a platform for testing the various air-to-air and air-to-ground missile systems. This was an impossible aircraft to exit in an emergency, thus it got the name from the designated letters A3D of "All Three Dead", meaning that all three crewmen were going to be killed if there was an accident. What a thrill that was!! |
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| F4 Attack Bomber/Fighter which we used a lot for our testing. This aircraft had two seats, the one in the back was for the electronic equipment operator that controlled the missile testing electronics |
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This was the workhorse aircraft for the Electronic Warfare Division, the Navy R4Y or more commonly known as the Convair 440 in its civilian designation. We did much of our work in this aircraft, sometimes spending many hours in flight testing instruments and the operation of those at different alititudes. I got to spend a lot of time sitting in the right seat next to the pilots and learning how to fly this aircraft. I loved it, and it turned me on to getting my own license to fly.
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This was our "commuter", the Beechcraft RC-45J, that we used for going to meetings, getting and delivering parts all over the West Coast, to Naval Installations and to civilian locations. Our Chief Test Pilot was a Marine Colonel who became a good friend, and he took on the task of teaching me how to fly this airplane whenever we took a trip together. I got in a lot of hours doing this during a long period in the Electronic Warfare program. I became very comfortable at the controls.
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More coming on my civilian flight time and the thrill of flying
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