What is Silver Wings Over Washington?

THERE WERE NO GERMAN SPIES IN BRITAIN IN WW II – NONE! HISTORY VIDEO!

2011-11-19T14:24:00.001-05:00

THERE WERE NO GERMAN SPIES IN BRITAIN IN WW II – NONE! HISTORY VIDEO!

Here is an interesting little video, please comment to me. - Ron rondavid@gmail.com

THERE WERE NO GERMAN SPIES IN BRITAIN IN WW II – NONE! HISTORY VIDEO!

2011-11-19T14:24:00.000-05:00

THERE WERE NO GERMAN SPIES IN BRITAIN IN WW II – NONE! HISTORY VIDEO!

Here is an interesting little video, please comment to me. - Ron rondavid@gmail.com

Maj.Gen. Bob Steel to speak on Sept. 22

2011-09-18T10:20:00.000-05:00

Join us on Thursday, September 22nd for our Silver Wings Speakers Luncheon Featuring

Major General Robert P. Steel (USAF)

Robert Steel has done it all, a seasoned F-16 pilot, father of a flying Air Force family, and a man with more than his share of leadership commands will take our dais next Thursday to share his wit, wisdom and his view of the future. Don't miss his address.

Maj. Gen. Robert P. Steel retired on January 1, 2011. He was the Commandant, National War College, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C. The National War College is the senior service school in the study of national security affairs. It is composed of departmental influences to include Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, Department of Defense, Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and other executive agencies.

General Steel was born in Riverside, Calif., and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science degree in astronautical engineering. He has commanded at the squadron, group and wing levels. The general has served on the Joint Staff as Chief, Major Theater War Section, and later as the Chief, Warfighting Analysis Division. He went on to serve as the Director of Staff and senior U.S. representative for Headquarters Allied Air Forces North of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and subsequently commanded the U.S. Air Forces in Europe Theater Air and Space Operations Center, Headquarters USAFE. General Steel has also served as Director, Air Component Coordination Element, Multi-National Force-Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq, where he was the Combined Forces Air Component Commander's primary adviser and personal representative to the MNF-I Commander. Prior to his current assignment, he commanded the 48th Fighter Wing, Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England.

General Steel is a command pilot with more than 3,100 flying hours in a variety of aircraft, including the F-4E, F-16A/B/C/D, F-16CG, F-16CJ, F-15D, F-15E and HH-60.

At these Speakers Luncheons you have the opportunity of meeting and networking with a unique group of remarkable individuals who have pioneered, excelled and contributed to the world of aviation. We encourage members to bring friends, guests, and introduce young people to the exploits and achievements of our distinguished members and speakers.

Agenda for Thursday, September 22, 2011, Speakers Luncheon at the ANCC

Site:     Army Navy Country Club, 703.521.6800
Cost:   $30.00, paid at the entrance
Date:   Thursday, September 22, 2011
1100:   Doors Open, Networking Time
1200:   Salute to the Flag
1210: Luncheon:served hot gourmet entree, fresh garden salad with dressing, rolls, freshly brewed coffee, or hot tea, complemented by a delicious dessert
1250: Ken Peppard will introduce Maj. Gen. Robert P. Steel
1300: Speaker: Maj. Gen. Robert P. Steel
1345: Q & A
1400: Conclusion of Speakers Luncheon

RSVP now with Treasurer Joan Stalk at 703.451.4181 or with me  at 202.333.8707. We need a firm count by the 19th of September, Noon, for the ANCC.   Walk-ins are welcome, however the country club adds an additional fee of $ 3.00 per person, save the fee and RSVP now.
Happy Landings,

Ron
Ron David
SWOW President
(202) 333-8707; (202) 907-3241 Cell
(202) 470-0053 Skype
http://rondavid.com

About Silver Wings Over Washington

2011-09-18T06:36:00.000-05:00

President: Ron David, 202.333.8707, Vice President: Admiral "Whitey" Feightner; Treasurer: Mrs. Joan Stalk; Secretary: Mrs. Carole Sue Coupland

Members of the Board: Randy Brandt, Gil Coshland, Steve Craven, Debbie Gallaway, Charles Stallworth.

Silver Wings Over Washington was established by Ron David and Colonel Harry Zink in 1999 as an "off-shoot" of a larger, national aviation fraternity. SWOW meets six times each year for a "Speakers Luncheon" at the Army Navy Country Club (www.ancc.org) in Arlington at 1700 Army Navy Drive, Arlington, VA, (703) 521-6800.

SWOW members include general aviation pilots, combat pilots, air aces, airshow flyers, record setters, airline captains, air traffic controllers, test pilots, and even an astronaut or two. In short, we represent a microcosm of aviation and aviators.

Please mark your calendar for upcoming Speakers Luncheon events: September 22, 2011; November 17, 2011; January 26th, 2012.

Blakey Calls for new FAA Infrstructure (9/12/11)

2011-09-14T10:56:00.000-05:00

Blakey: Skies need 21st century technology

Published: September 12, 2011 8:18 PM
By MARION C. BLAKEY

Photo credit: NEWSDAY/Jim Baird | Air traffic controllersat work in the JFK airport control tower in 1969. Too little has changed since those days.

Marion Blakey, president and chief executive of the Aerospace Industries Association trade group, served as the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration between 2002 and 2007.

In the 1950s, American cars had no seat belts; drunken driving got you a small fine; and many state highways were dirt or gravel. It's hard to imagine now that we have air bags, anti-lock brakes and a national highway system. Yet, incredibly, another crucial area of transportation still uses 1950s-era infrastructure: the air traffic control system.

U.S. air traffic controllers still use basically the same radar-and-radio system developed some 60 years ago, with equipment in some cases decades old. If a controller from 1980 could time-travel to today, he could start working again with little problem. And while the solid design of these systems has kept air traffic safely aloft for a very long time, it's time for Congress to back a much-needed transformation.

The imprecision of radar and radio wasn't a problem when air traffic was relatively sparse. But our skies are growing more crowded: American airplanes carried 712 million passengers in 2010; that number is projected to rise to a billion by early next decade. More passengers mean more planes in the air at the same time, especially in highly traveled corridors like the New York City area. And more congestion means more passenger delays, more wasted time and fuel, and less margin for error.

As a result, air travel experts say the system could start to collapse, as ever-rising traffic causes gridlock in the skies and runways. And while air fatalities thankfully have come down in recent years, near-misses have not.

The Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen, is a technological solution painstakingly created by the Federal Aviation Administration in cooperation with aviation experts and industry representatives. Adopting it nationwide would bring a long overdue upgrade of our air travel surveillance, communications, navigation, weather and data technologies and equipment.

This will take several years of steady, stable funding by Congress -- a challenge in the current budget climate, but one that will reap great rewards. Full implementation is expected to cost up to $25 billion of federal money over two decades, as well as a significant contribution from the airlines.President Barack Obama included some NextGen funding in the infrastructure component of the jobs bill he announced last week.

At NextGen's heart is a better way of measuring every aircraft's location: using satellites rather than radar. Right now, the GPS system in your car or smartphone is far more precise than the radar systems tracking airplanes. NextGen would convert almost every U.S. cockpit and control tower to GPS, allowing aircraft to operate closer to each other while actually increasing safety over the current system.

This will have three main benefits. Today, air travel is like driving with red lights at every intersection. Because planes move fast and radar is imprecise, air traffic controllers have to keep aircraft miles apart -- even in crowded airspace -- to avoid collisions. Flying with NextGen will be like driving through synchronized traffic lights. The system would make flying more reliable and efficient, reducing delays by at least 25 percent.

NextGen would also significantly reduce aviation's environmental footprint. By cutting delays and making flight paths more precise, fuel usage would drop by nearly 1.4 billion gallons annually by the time NextGen is fully implemented in 2025 -- even as traffic increases by almost 50 percent. One airline recently estimated the savings at 10 percent of its yearly fuel usage. And aircraft greenhouse-gas emissions will be down by 12 percent.

Most important, NextGen will enhance safety by giving pilots and controllers access to the same real-time information and vastly upgrading their ability to communicate. It's hard to think of a workplace relationship in which accurate information and communication are more crucial. But pilots communicate primarily with controllers, not with each other, by radio technology first developed in 1905. They can't share text and data -- as a backup to verify a flight-course correction, for example -- and they don't see the air traffic display controllers see. In crowded airspace, pilots sometimes have to wait precious minutes to make critical radio calls because of all the chatter. NextGen would fix these problems.

Since the Wright brothers rose above the sands of Kitty Hawk, America has been second to none in the skies thanks to our national commitment to innovation and excellence. It's time to renew that commitment.

Silver Wingers Dodge Army-Navy C.C. Construction

2011-07-30T15:13:00.006-05:00

We have declared the summer of 2011 a "no club zone" while construction of the new ANCC-Arlington Club House continues. Read article.

Our bi-monthly meetings are scheduled to resume in September. Meanwhile, click here to view Yasmin's photos of our May meeting featuring Walter Boyne.

Another Silver Wings update will follow in August. Source: Ron David, President SWOW

Silver Wings was proud to present acclaimed aviation historian Walter Boyne to our podium again this Summer..

2011-07-10T10:59:00.000-05:00

Colonel Walter Boyne, best-selling author, retired USAF command pilot, past director of the National Air and Space Museum, founder of the Wingspan Television Channel, and former director of the NAA graced our podium this summer to share highlights of his most recent history: How The Helicopter Changed Modern Warfare.

Budd Davisson, editor-in-chief of Flight Journal Magazine, calls it "a history that reads like a thriller ... packed with an immense amount of information and sometimes alarming, but illuminating, insights."

Walter was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2007, and awarded the Lifetime Achievement Medal by the Air Force Association in 2010. He lives on a quiet street in suburban Maryland with his lovely wife Terri, a retired artist and designer whom he met when they were both busy creating the National Air and Space Museum on Independence Avenue which opened to the World on July fourth, 1976.

Walter has dedicated his book to the military members of the vertical flight community who have served as "the point of the modern military sword, sometimes bursting into enemy positions with courage and panache, sometimes acting as angels of compassion, rescuing the wounded under fire. There is no way to measure their selfless bravery, and one can only admire what they have done with so demanding an instrument as the helicopter."

Always entertaining and filled with stories, it was a treat to hear Walter at our podium again. - RD

How the Helicopter Changed Modern Warfare

2011-05-05T10:44:00.000-05:00

Colonel Walter Boyne, best-selling author, retired USAF command pilot, past director of the National Air and Space Museum, founder of the Wingspan Television Channel, and former director of the NAA graced our podium on May 26th to share highlights of his most recent history: How The Helicopter Changed Modern Warfare.

Budd Davisson, editor-in-chief of Flight Journal Magazine, calls it "a history that reads like a thriller ... packed with an immense amount of information and sometimes alarming, but illuminating, insights."

Click here to view Yasmin's photos of this event.

Walter was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2007, and awarded the Lifetime Achievement Medal by the Air Force Association in 2010. He lives on a quiet street in suburban Maryland with his lovely wife Terri, a retired artist and designer whom he met when they were both busy creating the National Air and Space Museum on Independence Avenue which opened to the World on July fourth, 1976.

Always entertaining and filled with stories, it was a treat to hear what this highly respected man of letters and experiences had to say about the future of military flight.

Watch for news of our upcoming September meeting. - RD

Remembering NASM Artist Robert McCall

2011-04-19T07:04:00.000-05:00

Artist Robert McCall, who helped illustrate the Space Age for America, passed away on February 26th of a heart attack. He was born in Ohio in 1919.

Every single member of our Silver Wings Fraternity has viewed McCall's captivating perception of space as he or she entered the NASM museum on Independence Avenue. It was completed and waiting to be seen when the great museum first opened on July 4th, 1976. I was working on the premises at the time and watched McCall paint his wonderful larger-than-life mural.It has remained right on the same wall ever since.

Raised on a diet of science fiction, McCall knew he wanted to be an artist when he was 8 years old, but he was also passionately interested in science and technology, especially aviation. After high school, he won a scholarship to the Columbus Fine Art School. While attending school, he worked for a local sign shop, making posters and advertising billboards. He joined the Army Air Corps during World War II, but the war ended before he was sent overseas.

McCall and his new wife, Louise Harrup, moved to Chicago, where he worked as an advertising artist, while aiming "to become a first-rank illustrator, like Norman Rockwell or N.C. Wyeth." They moved to New York in 1949, and he continued to work in advertising art, but also began painting magazine illustrations for the likes of Life, The Saturday Evening Post, and Popular Science.

With the coming of the space program in the 1950s, McCall writes, as aviation moved from planes to rockets, so did he. "It was visually dramatic. All of the buildup to a manned launch, so theatrical and dramatic. It really inspired me." In the middle of the decade, the Air Force started inviting artists to visit their facilities and paint about the experience; McCall jumped at the chance. "I got to fly in all the aircraft. I'd go to great lengths to get permission to fly in the backseat of a jet fighter." When NASA instituted a similar program, again, McCall was at the front of the line. He also created several mission patches for NASA, including those of Apollo 17 (the last manned mission to the Moon) and the first and third Space Shuttle missions. Many of his paintings have been donated to the Pentagon, the Air Force Academy, air bases, and NASA. - Ron David

On approach to Narita

2011-04-13T09:54:00.001-05:00

I'm currently still in one piece, writing from my room in the Narita crew hotel. It's 8am. This is my inaugural trans-pacific trip as a brand new, recently checked out, international 767 Captain and it has been interesting, to say the least, so far. I've crossed the Atlantic three times so far so the oceancrossing procedures were familiar.

By the way, stunning scenery flying over the Aleutian Islands. Everything was going fine until 100 miles out from Tokyo and in the descent for arrival. The first indication of any trouble was that Japan air traffic control started putting everyone into holding patterns. At first we thought it was usual congestion on arrival. Then we got a company data link message advising about the earthquake, followed by another stating Narita airport was temporarily closed for inspection and expected to open shortly (the company is always so positive).

From our perspective things were obviously looking a little different. The Japanese controller's anxiety level seemed quite high and he said expect "indefinite" holding time. No one would commit to a time frame on that so I got my copilot and relief pilot busy looking at divert stations and our fuel situation, which, after an ocean crossing is typically low.

It wasn't long, maybe ten minutes, before the first pilots started requesting diversions to other airports. Air Canada, American, United, etc. all reporting minimal fuel situations. I still had enough fuel for 1.5 to 2.0 hours of holding. Needless to say, the diverts started complicating the situation.

Japan air traffic control then announced Narita was closed indefinitely due to damage. Planes immediately started requesting arrivals into Haneada, near Tokyo, a half dozen JAL and western planes got clearance in that direction but then ATC announced Haenada had just closed. Uh oh! Now instead of just holding, we all had to start looking at more distant alternatives like Osaka, or Nagoya.

One bad thing about a large airliner is that you can't just be-pop into any little airport. We generally need lots of runway. With more planes piling in from both east and west, all needing a place to land and several now fuel critical ATC was getting over-whelmed. In the scramble, and without waiting for my fuel to get critical, I got my flight a clearance to head for Nagoya, fuel situation still okay. So far so good. A few minutes into heading that way, I was "ordered" by ATC to reverse course. Nagoya was saturated with traffic and unable to handle more planes (read- airport full). Ditto for Osaka.

With that statement, my situation went instantly from fuel okay, to fuel minimal considering we might have to divert a much farther distance. Multiply my situation by a dozen other aircraft all in the same boat, all making demands requests and threats to ATC for clearances somewhere. Air Canada and then someone else went to "emergency" fuel situation. Planes started to heading for air force bases. The nearest to Tokyo was Yokoda AFB. I threw my hat in the ring for that initially. The answer - Yokoda closed! no more space.

By now it was a three ring circus in the cockpit, my copilot on the radios, me flying and making decisions and the relief copilot buried in the air charts trying to figure out where to go that was within range while data link messages were flying back and forth between us and company dispatch in Atlanta. I picked Misawa AFB at the north end of Honshu island. We could get there with minimal fuel remaining. ATC was happy to get rid of us so we cleared out of themaelstrom of the Tokyo region. We heard ATC try to send planes toward Sendai, a small regional airport on the coast which was later the one I think that got flooded by a tsunami.

Atlanta dispatch then sent us a message asking if we could continue to Chitose airport on the Island of Hokkaido, north of Honshu. Other Delta planes were heading that way. More scrambling in the cockpit - check weather, check charts, check fuel, okay. We could still make it and not be going into a fuel critical situation ... if we had no other fuel delays. As we approached Misawa we got clearance to continue to Chitose. Critical decision thought process. Let's see - trying to help company - plane overflies perfectly good divert airport for one farther away...wonder how that will look in the safety report, if anything goes wrong.

Suddenly ATC comes up and gives us a vector to a fix well short of Chitose and tells us to standby for holding instructions. Nightmare realized. Situation rapidly deteriorating. After initially holding near Tokyo, starting a divert to Nagoya, reversing course back to Tokyo then to re-diverting north toward Misawa, all that happy fuel reserve that I had was vaporizing fast. My subsequent conversation, paraphrased of course...., went something like this:

"Sapporo Control - Delta XX requesting immediate clearance direct to Chitose, minimum fuel, unable hold."

"Negative Ghost-Rider, the Pattern is full" -Top Gun quote

"Sapporo Control - make that - Delta XX declaring emergency, low fuel, proceeding direct Chitose"

"Roger Delta XX, understood, you are cleared direct to Chitose, contact Chitose approach....etc...."

Enough was enough, I had decided to preempt actually running critically low on fuel while in another indefinite holding pattern, especially after bypassing Misawa, and played my last ace...declaring an emergency. The problem with that is now I have a bit of company paperwork to do but what the heck.

As it was - landed Chitose, safe, with at least 30 minutes of fuel remaining before reaching a "true" fuel emergency situation. That's always a good feeling, being safe. They taxied us off to some remote parking area where we shut down and watched a half dozen or more other airplanes come streaming in. In the end, Delta had two 747s, my 767 and another 767 and a 777 all on the ramp at Chitose. We saw two American airlines planes, a United and two Air Canada as well. Not to mention several extra Al Nippon and Japan Air Lines planes.

Post-script - 9 hours later, Japan air lines finally got around to getting a boarding ladder to the plane where we were able to get off and clear customs. - that however, is another interesting story.

By the way - while writing this - I have felt four additional tremors that shook the hotel slightly - all in 45 minutes.

Cheers,

(name withheld)

NEXTGEN Will Impact everyone of us who flies

2011-04-08T19:40:00.000-05:00

One of our most popular Luncheon Speakers, Mr. Jack Kies, rejoined us in 2010 to walk us through the most complex remake to date of America's National Air traffic System. This rendition is being called "Nextgen", and Jack knows it better than almost anyone else because he helped parent it.

We first met Jack when he was head of the FAA's universal system command Center. Now he is TOPGUN at Metro Corporation and lives in the crosshairs of the National Airspace System everyday. In this writer's humble opinion, no one is better suited for the job.

What Is NextGen?

FAA literature describes NextGen as an umbrella term for the ongoing, wide-ranging transformation of the United States’ national airspace system (NAS).

At its most basic level, NextGen represents an evolution from a ground-based system of air traffic control to a satellite-based system of air traffic management. This evolution is vital to meeting future demand, and avoid to gridlock in the sky and at our nation’s airports.

NextGen opens America’s skies to continued growth and increased safety while reducing aviation’s environmental impact.

These goals will be realized through the development of aviation-specific applications for existing, widely-used technologies such as Global Positioning Satellite (GPS). They will also be realized through the fostering of technological innovation in areas such as weather forecasting, data networking, and digital communications. Hand in hand with state-of-the-art technology will be new airport infrastructure and new procedures, including the shifting of certain decision-making responsibility from the ground to the cockpit.

When fully implemented, NextGen will safely allow more aircraft to fly more closely together on more direct routes, reducing delays, and providing unprecedented benefits for the environment and the economy through reductions in carbon emissions, fuel consumption, and noise.

--
Posted By Ron David to Silver Wings Over Washington at 3/08/2010 17:23:00 PM

What IS "Silver Wings?"

2011-03-14T12:44:00.007-05:00

SWOW members, friends, and guests meet every other month at the Army Navy Country Club near the Pentagon in South Arlington to enjoy a guest speaker, an excellent luncheon, and great camaraderie. Please make your reservations at least four days in advance.

The President of SWOW is Ron David, a documentary writer and narrator, and former air show flyer. Our Vice President is World War Two Fighter Ace Admiral Whitey Feightner.

SWOW meets every other month at the Army Navy Country Club near Washington National Airport to share camaraderie, great stories, and a good luncheon. SWOW meets every other month at the Army Navy Country Club near Washington National Airport to share camaraderie, great stories, and an excellent luncheon.

The SWOW Board is chaired by Ron David and includes Adm. Whitey Feightner (VP), Joan Stalk (Treasurer), Carole Sue Coupland (Secretary). Board: Randy Brandt, Gil Coshland, Steve Craven, Debbie Gallaway, Charles Stallworth. Your Blog Editor is rondavid@gmail.com.

Our Oldest Living Member

2009-10-31T07:10:00.002-05:00

Happy birthday to Tuskegee "Redtail" Johnny Suggs, a long time member of SWOW.

Colonel Suggs was born October 8th 1911. We all miss his late wife Alice, who was also a regular attendee at our meetings.

This photo was taken by Nour shortly after the commemoration of the 9-11 memorial at Arlington National Cemetery . It lists the names of all those who perished there that day and contains the small, unidentifiable remains of those victims.

When he was active with SWOW, Nour, John and I often drove through Arlington following our luncheons at Spates Hall. He now resides at Knollwood, the beautiful Army retirement facility located at the North end of Rock Creek Park in N.W. Washington, DC.

World War Two Aircraft Visit Warrenton, Va. Airport

2009-10-31T07:04:00.001-05:00

Two American Bombers that served during World War Two visited Warrenton Airport (W66) last week.

Once they numbered in the thousands, but today, only a handful of B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators still exist that can fly ... but fly they do. Their crews are made up of the sons and grandsons and daughters of the World War Two Veterans who originally manned these planes. And to see them in action, to hear their massive radial engines roar, can still excite those lucky enough to share the experience.

SWOW's David Fields persuaded the non-profit Collins Foundation to bring the two rare flying antiques to the Warrenton Airport West of Dulles to share the sights and sounds of yesteryear with scores of local residents who drove out to see the planes and meet at least two dozen WWII vets who actually crewed aboard these bombers in combat.

For a modest donation to the Foundation, visitors were permitted to take guided tours through the flying museum pieces. a few flights were also arranged ... for hefty donations.

Dave Fields knows how to stage an event, so when a good rain shut down operations at the Midland, VA airport twice, but no one seemed to mind, they just sat down for lunch in a heated hangar and listened to stories told by the vets. Jim Davis and Scotty Cameron were among the Silver Wingers who helped Fields with the event.

HUMOR - from the Editor's Desk

2009-10-29T10:33:00.002-05:00

Want to be sure your next flight is safe? Now you can get rid of those nervous travel jitters FOREVER. Call 1-800-cool-n-calm and we will send you two ATP pilots equipped with personal laptops who will guarantee your next safe arrival. Your flight may land an hour late, but, what the heck, most flights aren't on-time anyway.

How do we do it? Simple. Most pilots anguish too much about the next safe arrival, By focusing on next month's schedule instead, our cool-n-calm crews eliminate the need for nerve-wracking communication with ATC, and having to notify the flight attendants to prepare passengers for the next landing. We won't even tell the pilots they'll never fly again until everyone else has de-boarded.

What is the secret to our success? It is a trade secret that goes back to the time-honored tradition established by our founder, Captain Johnny "Sky-Rocket" Morgan whose last words were, "When I die, I want to die peacefully ... in my sleep ... not screaming like my passengers in the back of the plane."

Call 1-800-cool-n-calm today.

-Ed

Defense Secretary Commends Mercy Medical Airlift.

2009-07-14T13:17:00.001-05:00

Click here to read the photo-story from Mercy Medical Airlift showing Defense Secretary Robert Gates thanking Silver Winger Steve Craven (Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic) for his service to the Air Compassion for Veterans Program. (It is the third story in the MMA Newsletter.)

We are proud of Steve and his wonderful team of volunteers for his service to those who sometimes need quick aerial transport and may not be able to afford the fare.

"The older I get" Received this from Scotty Cameron who always tells it like it is.

2009-07-14T12:22:00.003-05:00

Recollections of Dehavilands by John Kay

2009-05-18T09:05:00.002-05:00

On one occasion in France, I had been flying at Toussus-le-Noble, the club flying field just out-side Versailles, and gave a pilot a ride into Paris who had just landed from Algeria., where he had been helping to explore for oil in what was certainly a DH89 with two engines. He gave a hair-raising story of landing straight-in at Algiers with empty tanks, having come from the desert, where the oil was.

The DH 89, carrying only eight passengers, would not have been big enough for Gatwick-Le Bourget even in the 1930s.

John Kay

To complete the saga of the Kay family flying in biplanes as passengers:

1) In the 1930s an aunt (mother's sister) married a wealthy man and flew quite a lot.
One day she decided to go to Paris from London and was in a HP 45 of Imperial Airways.
These were large.comfortable planes where food was served. Unfortunately, on this occasion there was so much headwind that the aircraft did not reach Le Bourget (Paris), but was forced to make an emergency landing at Etretapes on the French Channel coast for lack of fuel. The top speed of the planes was about 90 mph.My aunt did not seem to be any the worse for wear. Apparently, the passengers were picked up later by another Imperial Airways plane.

2) Equally in the 1930s my father, who was still keen on flying despite his 1915 experience*, had to go to Cologne, Germany on the same day that he had tickets for the Royal Tournament at Olympia, London. Olympia was a large amphitheatre for public displays. My father flew to Cologne in the morning and back in the afternoon with Imperial Atrways. He was in time for the show at Olympia. He talked often of this flight as being quite unusual in those days. Best wishes, John Kay.

* John's father was shot down and hld as a POW of the German's until the war ended. Interestingly, he was badly injured in the crash and cared for by German medical teams so that in 1918, he was sent home almost as good as new.

80 H.P. Bleriot Two-Seater a Hit at Hendon After Returning from Cologne

The christening of this marvelous flying machine was all the rage when it arrived at Hendon (U.K.) in the Spring of 1913. Click here and read the wonderful article from The Aeroplane submitted by John Kay.

'08 Flyer Desktop Screensaver

2008-09-16T13:42:00.002-05:00

This screensaver has quickly become quite popular and is yours for the asking.

I took the photograph with a Canon SD500 camera balanced on a wooden partition using a three second exposure. Email me at rondavid@gmail.com and I'll gladly send you the full sized file.

Don't be startled by the enormous size of the picture when you receive it, because when you save it as a screensaver, or desktop image, your computer should automatically resize it appropriately. - Ron

From '08 Flyer Desktop Screensaver from Ron David

A Heart Pounding Salute to old Kai Tak

2008-06-02T05:50:00.011-05:00

Special thanks to Steele Lipe (SW) for sending this video with an introduction from veteran airline pilot Jim Morehead.

Jim Morehead's Letter About Flying In and Out of Kai Tak:
"Ah...what a wonderful experience. I did it many times in a 767 from Delhi in the early morning. We often didn't have to do the loop or follow anyone and were #1 coming from China. I recall being at 16,000 feet ( + or - as they used meters) and then landing straight in with the airport about 25 miles away with the gear out and the speed brakes out. We'd sail in and out of the valleys looking up at apartment buildings and ladies' underwear on the clothes lines.

"On Landing and parking, every so often, we would get a gate! Otherwise, it was remote parking with a bus to the terminal. Then the airplane would sit there until 9:00pm and go back to Delhi.

"I was junior in the operation and I got stuck with a line, where the senior guys bid reserve and never went anywhere.

"Back in the day..

"I recall hitting the second soccer field at low altitude after leaving the checkerboard.

"The worst was with an approaching typhoon giving us a strong gusty crosswind from the right. Some good memories here."

Jim Morehead
============
Here is an additional note from Pete Sofman with information about the person who created the video and a brief history of Kai Tak:

24 November 2007

First of all, this is a collection from YouTube...

I would like to thank all the enthusiasts from YouTube especially Mr. Boyd Kelly (airboyd of YouTube) which I used their best fragments to make this special Kai Tak video.

Kai Tak Airport VHHH (1925 - 1998) VHHX (since 1998) was the world's busiest international airport.

The growth of Hong Kong put a strain on the airport's capacity. The airport was designed to handle 24 million passengers per year but in 1996, Kai Tak had already handled 29.5 million passengers, plus 1.56 million tonnes of freight, making it the third busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, and first in terms of cargo.

However extremely busy Kai Tak was located in the city center, the Kowloon City (The city of nine dragons "city surrounded by nine mountains"), around by high density buildings, numerous skyscrapers and rugged mountains reaching an altitude of 2000 ft. with single narrow runway close to taxiway jutting out into Victoria Harbour, and further less than 10 Km is Hong Kong Island, another densely populated area with hills up to 2100 ft., the airport was infamously difficult to land at. However, due to the same reason, only experience pilots were chosen for the challenging approach and air crash incidents rarely occur.

The low altitude manoeuvre was so spectacular that crowded streets of people, multi-storey buildings, vehicles and pavements can easily be "touched", you can hear "WOW" or "My God" from passengers when they see the flickering of televisions even children say "Hi" to them through apartment windows as their aircraft approached the airport's landing strip. In this video, you can find the most extreme landings, but these happened several hundred times per day, and were just the real daily life of Hong Kong people.

Thanks to Admiral Whitey Feightner, Everyone Who Attended Our Meeting Last March Is Now Ready To Fly The Quirky Corsair

2007-03-14T23:29:00.000-05:00

Why does Whitey Feightner have only nine confirmed "kills" in the Pacific Theater during World War Two. I thought he had more? (Unofficial tally: 31)

I was asked this question again recently and offered this answer: the Armed Services want "proof" of a kill (i.e. gun camera footage), or receive reports from reliable eyewitnesses, before verify a pilot's after-action report. (Some folks have been known to exaggerate, you know.)

One of Whitey's frequent tactics was a daring but effective one, however, it was nearly impossible to verify.

After flying a captured Zero he was quick to realize its controls became very "stiff" above 300 miles an hour. Whitey would "allow" an enemy to get on his tail, then "ease" his Hellcat into a diving spiral. With tracers whizzing past his canopy, Whitey would tighten the spiral just enough to make his enemy keep missing, but continue to pursue him. Whitey would dive and spiral toward the ocean until his Grumman fighter was well above 300 miles per hour, then pull up sharply. The pilot in the pursing Zero would only then realized he was doomed.

Unlike spectator sports, there was almost never an eyewitness around who could say with certainty that he saw the dogfight, usually because everyone else was just as busy as Whitey was ... dogfighting.

This also wasn't Whitey's only tactic. In the final accounting Whitey was credited with nine planes confirmed, nine more probable and four damaged. Anyway you cut it, Whitey was one helluva Hellcat pilot who should have at least 18 planes to his credit. (Although Whitey would be the last one to care.)

Who is this "super"pilot, you ask? Well, he is the same mild-mannered Silver Winger who addressed our March luncheon.

Whitey Feightner is a legend. He soloed his first airplane in 1938 with only and hour and a half of flying time and one landing to his credit, and if that sounds incredible, you will probably fall off your stool when I tell that the airplane he soloed was a Ford Tri-Motor Transport.

In May or June Whitey and I will begin recording his whole story. It will be a treasure we will all be able to share forever.

We are grateful to Whitey for sharing stories about flying the F4U Corsair at our luncheon on March 22nd. He recalled some entertaining memories for us and presented a very detailed company film about the F4U ... the same plane that was made famous by "Pappy" Boyington in the South Pacific.

By the way, Whitey and Pappy flew together at Guadalcanal.

62 Silver-Wingers and guests attended our luncheon, the 74th luncheon since our chapter was formed by Charlie Stanton and Bernie Geier more than twelve years ago.

As usual, Yasmin was our "official" photographer. For the few who may not know, 27 year old Yasmin David was born with Down Syndrome. Had she been born without this nasty, little genetic anomaly, she would have been a wonderful pilot. As it is, she is world's greatest co-pilot. She is content to fly from the right seat, thinks all my take-offs and landings are "great", and falls asleep in flight with the next chart in her hand ready to pass it over when tapped on the shoulder. (She also laughs at all my jokes.)

Within our Silver Wings Chapter membership we have pilots who have flown almost any plane you can think of, from the Jenny, the Cub and the Ford to the Space Shuttle ... and the Zero.

Off the top of my head, I can think of members with wartime experiences in nearly every mainline fighter, bomber, transport and trainer in the the U.S. inventory, including turbine-powered aircraft, and Silver Wings is not even a military organization.

Major General Mike "Lancer" Sullivan, USMC (ret.), is a friend of Silver Wings who shared the wonderful Corsair video with us. It is a copy of a film produced by Chance Vought in 1944 that really puts YOU in the cockpit as you put the F4U through stalls, dives, and even a field carrier approach. With that sudden stall, it is no wonder quite a few Corsairs and their pilots bought the farm during landings ... especially carrier landing. "Lancer" advises that the video is now available on the web. You can click here to view it or download it.