Springer

Had I remarried earlier in life I would have done the airpark thing. Big regret after owning an RV-4 for 20 years and an RV-8 for 10. Lot of wasted $$$ on hangars. Thousands of landings w/o a ground loop BUT when it comes to tail draggers, gotta know your limits. Here I am at Red Wing AP, WI waiting out the x-winds at my home airport in MN:

Thanks for the -135 write up...I can see it was a handful especially after it was reengined. Ha, let me know if you are flying a squirrely tail dragger at 76. Fighter (RF-4C) was easy to fly/formate/land after the lightweight -38 in UPT. Employing it was a different matter. Have a lot of time in the B-727 (same cockpit as -135). Still one of my favorites to have flown. How did you get 3 flights in the U-2? I applied to the SR-71 and the most I got was a ride in the chase car during a launch. At least Huggy let me peek in the cockpit of the U-2 at OSH. WRT UPT we had a class of approx 50 with not that many SIE's or washouts. We were one of the first classes that implemented the bottom 10% rule with a mix of a/c because of SAC complaints. Hard to believe we can't come up with a better training a/c after 50+ years with the -38.

Curious, what is the most difficult plane to fly in the AF? Was the -135 difficult (landing) because of the low hung engines?

Great shot Huggy....ahhhhh the memories but....... Can't believe you left with an empty seat. Good Capt never leaves a "jump seater" behind.

Cry me a river. If you are working for an airline you have been making good coin in your last 17-22 years.

Glad the tradition carried on Huggy. The first one was '85 just as I was leaving the AF.

Gen. Fogleman is a first class act. I had just left the AF out of DMAFB when he came in as the new 1 star ADO. Moral was bad. First thing he did was to host Crud tournaments at the O'Club.

Locher & Stovall story is one of the great ones. Never met B/G Stovall but many years later found out he married a lady that was in my small high school senior class. Six degrees of separation. Stovall went on to fly for FedEx.

I used my entire GI Bill (back in the day) for FE and ATP ratings plus a Citation type. Used the remainder for a Master's degree. Like to think it helped as I was hired by two major airlines.

Two WSO's in my class finished #1 & #2. #1, Roger Locher, had 3 Mig kills as a WSO. Couple classes after me DeBellevue, the WSO MIG Ace after washing out of UPT initially, came back to UPT and ended up flying fighters. After flying LL missions with any extra fuel I usually gave the stick to the WSO. On a 10 hr deployment from TX to Germany my WSO flew at least a quarter of the flight.

As I recall, gave rides in the A-37 to deserving Airmen when the Wg/CC and I would fly out to Bergstrom from DMAFB. No supporting unit cept Transit Alert. I gave the brief, strapped them in, and off we went.

A lot of good advice on this thread wikz. I went to the U of H (majored in sailing 😁) and received my private at KHNL through the 2 yr AFROTC program. Is that not offered any more? Thought about trying out for the 199th when they had Phantoms after my AF commitment but livable job opportunities as you know in the Islands are scarce.

Out of curiosity where are you learning to fly? Hawaii?

Why spend $$$ on the Game Bird when Van's RV-4's are much less expensive:

Try 4 ocean crossings in 6 days, 2 pilots + FE. Then add a 1200 mile commute home.

He was on my (and others) No Fly list BEFORE the incident but for other reasons.

Met Huggy for the first time at Oshkosh today. Here he is enthusiastically holding court and patiently answering all questions from the audience in the dreadful heat. Came back an hour later and was still at it. Great rep for the retiring U-2 program.

The real Iran? Biff, don't get excited, it's not about the woman in the picture.

Been in CD's last couple of years cept my play $$$ account. Preservation of cash.

Sold

This Iranian living in Great Britian does a pretty good job of reporting:

Those going to Oshkosh planeless stop off in Minneapolis, pick up my RV-8 and fly there in style. I'll even throw in a full tank of 100LL with the sale.

Having flown it, that is impressive and obviously flown clean.

I'd say most of us airline types and probably ALPA Safety never knew this marginal separation was going on until now. Only landed on Rwy 33 once in the Bus due to x-winds on Rwy 01. Currently fly out of South St Paul airport VFR to the south and pass thru MSP Rwy 30L&R final with 1,000' separation which seems close under the Class B shelf.