Surprise Encounter

[MountainMan]

Tracker,
Don't worry about taking a thread in a different direction.  It is a common thing and what makes this an interesting forum and group of people.  

Maybe I missed it - what did you fly?

[tracker]

Good qustion---two cruises in S-2s[200 landings] on
the Hornet--CVS-12 and one cruise in A-4s on the
Saratoga-CVA-60[100 landings]. 200 of these were daytime
and 100 at night. Timeframe 1963-1967.

[theirishguard]

Hey Tracker, Good to see your comments. How are the pups?
After doing all those carrier landings, how do go about landing a"block long" 747?
Most ex navy pilots soak up the landing gear when they land.
Regards, Tom

[tracker]

Not a problem, Tom. The 747 is one of the easiest planes to
land. It can be done on the radio altimeter; At 35' just raise
the nose to 4 1/2 to 5 degrees, ease the throttles to idle and
you can barely tell you're on the ground--at least in theory.
Coming from the carrier to commercial the hardest thing was
trying to remember not to go to full power after touchdown.

[Michigunner]

I remember when the Hornet picked up the Apolo 11 astronauts.

That was a real honor!

Bill

[Michigunner]

Dave,  I went to a Cabela's store in southern Michigan today.

They had a grizzly bear displayed among other animals.

The bear was a great giant, towering over everything else, except maybe the polar bears.

Choosing between my kayak in a hurricane, and meeting that bear, would be a difficult task.

I guess it depends on whether you want to drown first.

[MountainMan]

Tracker,
Nice service history.  I toured the Saratoga in the early 80s - a nice old girl.  Flying a 747 must have been rather tame and a little boring.  Ever have an uge to see if that big baby could do a roll.  I know a number of USAirways employees.  Feel sorry for the way things worked out for them.  The pilots took a big hit in retirement.

Bill,
I'm planing to make a vist to a Cabela store this fall.  Don't know how much that grizzly weighed - didn't have a scale.  The costal brown bears, that they say now is a member of the grizzly family, can easy get to 1200 plus pounds.  That is from all the salmon they eat and abundance of other food sources.

[tracker]

Dave,
That is an affirmative on the urge to roll the jumbo except that would
have been a short jump to an early retirement; as you said the
airline industry is beleagured enough on its own without
scratching the scab on your own. We did , however, have one or two
adventurous pilots who pulled the throttles to idle at FL 300 and
made a perfect landing without ever touching the power again.
I wasn't that good or that stupid.

[Michigunner]

tracker, you probably already know the following story.

I was watching an aviation documentary about the 747 development from the very beginning.

One of the test pilots did roll the airplane during one of the earliest flights.  He got reamed out pretty good.

At least, that was the story reported on the program.

Bill

[tracker]

I was aware of that on the 707 but have no doubt it is
possible on the 747. To answer an earlier comment about it being
a tame airplane, it is always a thrill to take-off with 750,000 lbs.
behind you. It is also a joy to fly being very responsive with
a lot of available power.

[Rocnerd]

Those grizzly shots were impressive.  I just got back from a working trip to the Bahamas, so to keep with the scary animal encounters;

[Rocnerd]

Another

[Aglifter]

Any suggestions on a sidearm for critters?  One of my buddies is from Zambia, and keeps trying to convince my brother and I to go there -- suppossedly to look into raising cattle there, but we really want to go bird hunting -- anyone have any thoughts?

[MountainMan]

Rocnerd,

Nice shark pics - looks like a nice way to lose a finger or two,

[theirishguard]

Aglifter, There is good bird hunting in both Zambia and South Africa.     Tom