That is so true. I love all the aircraft I worked on. When I see one on a static display, I cannot help but run my hand gently over the skin. I see the anti-smash lights and the wing tip lens glazed over with age, which makes me sad. Sometimes, I can poke my head in the wheel well and still smell that JP-5 exhaust mixed with grease and naugahyde odor (pilots and maintenance people know the odor I speak of) that is so common on military aircraft. Then, just for a moment, it is 1981, and I am on the flight line with my tool kit.
CH-47s, AH-1s, UH-60s, CH-53s, and a few fixed-wings along the way...
“Sometimes, I can poke my head in the wheel well and still smell that JP-5 exhaust mixed with grease and naugahyde odor...Then, just for a moment, it is 1981, and I am on the flight line with my tool kit.”
The F-4 Phantom, AKA “Double Ugly”. The 1980s. Flying with guy who had flown in Vietnam.
Sigh.
In some fields, love doesn’t matter. But in flying?
And thanks for the memories. I sometimes had issues with my senior officers, but the guys on the flightline were awesome!