Well, close:
Posted on 07/11/2002 3:37:40 AM PDT by 2Trievers
FLORENCE - An investigation into the aerial antics of two unidentified pilots during the Spirit of Freedom Celebration at McFarland Park is being conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The planes, described as a vintage military plane and a small red sport plane, treated the crowd to an impromptu air show July 4.
The only problem was that airplanes were not an official part of the day's entertainment of music, food and fireworks.
The planes flew over Pickwick Lake from the Sandy Beach area to Wilson Dam.
Deputy Police Chief Tony Logan said a report of the incident was sent to the FAA.
"I didn't see them down on the water, but several people said they got awfully close to boats and the water," Logan said.
There were even unconfirmed reports that one of the plans flew underneath O'Neal Bridge.
Logan said he and other law enforcement officials at the event were especially concerned after learning of a plane that crashed at a Fourth of July celebration in Los Angeles.
Two people in the twin-engine Cessna and two people on the ground were killed in that incident.
Logan said the first report of the flights came in about 5 p.m. He said they flew around the McFarland Park area for about two hours.
"I do know we had way over 10,000 people in the park and that our only concern was the safety of the public," Logan said.
He said all local law enforcement could do was turn over the information to the proper authority, which in this case was the FAA.
FAA spokesman Christopher White said the agency does not comment on ongoing investigations.
"We are investigating the incident that occurred in the vicinity of O'Neal Bridge on July 4," White said.
He said the agency's Flight Standards Division would determine if the pilots violated any FAA regulations. "There is a standard flight restriction nationwide that prohibits aircraft from flying over large, open-air assemblies of people," White said.
Park and Recreation Director Regina Gresham said the military plane flew mainly up and down the river. The small red plane, however, was flying close to the water and near the numerous boats that dotted the river.
Logan said on one occasion, the red plane flew over the crowd in the park.
"We will want to pursue what we can to ensure that doesn't happen in a future event," Gresham said.
White said he could not say how long the investigation would take.
"Each investigation is different and has its own timeline," he said. "We're really investigating to see if any federal aviation regulations had been broken."
Gresham said the plane's flights were videotaped.
"We have a tape of it to keep for evidence if we need it," Gresham said. "We froze some frames."
She said the videotape reveals that the pilot of the red plane was a white male. Gresham said there were no clear shots of the military style plane's pilot.
White said pilots who violate temporary flight restrictions might be subject to disciplinary action by the FAA.
"Generally, the FAA would have a range of options," White said. "If we did learn that federal aviation regulations were broken, the penalties could range from a letter of correction to revoking their pilot's certification."
The planes were reportedly escorted from the area by a trio of military jets.
Logan and Gresham said they would not have granted the pilots permission to participate in the July 4 event. "It would have been an easy call," Gresham said. "Absolutely not."
Russ Corey can be reached at 740-5738 or russ.corey@timesdaily.com.
Well, close:
He always pulled the breaker on all the warnings, like the gear up and the stall warning, because they would go off during some maneuvers and "rattle his brains".
I am sure he just forgot to turn them back on, and instead of paying attention, he was daydreaming out the window, talkin' about "buying some tamales for my lady, because she likes them, and she likes me when I buy them!"
He talked like no one else I have ever met. Thanks for letting me remember him today!
Tex Johnston. He was a living legend.
You know who he had along as a passenger?
Unarguably the most famous of Tex Johnston's maneuvers, indeed one of the most well-known feats in all of aviation history, was executed at a demonstration flight at which over 200,000 spectators were present. Of the audience who was fortunate enough to see Tex's unprecedented and unauthorized Boeing 707 barrel roll, he comments, "The collective number of aircraft industry attendees was probably a first in aviation history and presented a historic opportunity to promote the Dash 80." In his typically matter-of-fact narrative style, he simply comments, "I pulled the nose up and executed a leisurely climbing left barrel roll, and then began the descent to Lake Washington." If you've ever heard this anecdote, you now know that it was accomplished by a Spartan graduate!During the certification program for the Boeing 707-120, Johnston enjoyed jogging the memory of Director Alcorn of the F.A.A., who flew in the copilot's seat while Tex flew the plane. It turned out that Alcorn had given a very young Johnston his pilot's license back in 1933 at Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa.
Common in the test pilot's career was the opportunity to meet famous personalities. When another of the planes that Tex helped test and promote, the KC-135, was being introduced, Arthur Godfrey was engaged to film a prime-time program to feature the aircraft. After numerous takes and the final wrapping of the project, Tex took Godfrey on a test flight, of which the pilot relates, "While inverted after several consecutive climbing barrel rolls, I felt a small tremor and glanced at the altimeter. We were at 31,000 feet. For years after, Art told the story of being on his back at 31,000 feet in a KC-135." Tex had a chance to meet up with Arthur Godfrey as part of major arrangements to deliver the first Boeing 707 to India. A tiger shoot was even slated to take place after the ceremonies, and Johnston enticed Godfrey with the invitation, "We shall reside in the fifty-five-room guest house and hunt from the back of the maharajah's elephants. How does that grab you?"
Having spent much time testing jets and offering recommendations for improvement, Tex naturally put a lot of effort into selling the aircraft to various airlines, domestic and international. This, along with helping to retrain crews who had flown a variety of mulitengine planes but were new to jets, made Tex Johnston's face, experience, and wisdom familiar fixtures in the transitional time his career spanned in the world of aviation.
Tex changed focus a bit as he left his job and accepted the position of assistant project manager for the Dyna Soar vehicle, a hypersonic plane for which Boeing had won the design contest. Once again Johnston met a significant name in the field, Wernher von Braun. Tex briefed von Braun on the Dyna Soar, and thus began a relationship rooted in mutual professional experience. The Dyna Soar program was scrapped due to estimates that its capability of collecting data was not cost effective.
Johnston had the opportunity to work on the Apollo lunar landing project when NASA named Boeing the contractor for production of part of the Saturn booster. Tex and his team represented Boeing in a professional a competent manner (after Johnston cracked the whip a bit to tighten up the leisure dress code and other matters he felt were not befitting one of the most advanced scientific projects to date) in working with NASA. The day before the historic July 16, 1969, blastoff, the Spartan grad was invited by Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin to join them for dinner. He was happy for those who were chosen to actually make the flight, although those among us who have become familiar with Tex's sense of adventure have no doubts that he would have accompanied Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins in a heartbeat if given the chance.
As the reader can see from a short summary of this heroic test pilot's life, Alvin Merril Johnston was a professional above all else. Highly skilled and precise, yet always relying on his instinct to help lock in his understanding of a problem facing a particular aircraft or component, he took his young boy's dreams and used them to help hone his piloting abilities into a resource that the jet-age inventors depended upon. Just as strong as his confidence in his own abilities, is the amusing color in his personality; whether sharing a cockpit with a lion or riding a half-wild horse in the desert, Tex's enjoyment of life was evident on land or 30,000 feet in the air.
Do you think he knew it would work? - had he practiced it before? Do you know?
My guess, having never met him? I don't think he had practiced it beforehand, but he had a lot of experience, in small planes and multiengine. My guess is he thought about it, probably quite a bit, and figured out what the indicators would be if the plane began to complain about being forced into a flight condition beyond what physics would allow. He watched for that condition, ready to back off if it came along, and when it didn't, he pushed the big new bird to the limits to which it had been designed, and maybe a fudge more. I doubt he even crossed his fingers. He had about as good an idea of what he was doing as anyone in that position ever can have.
-archy-/-
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In 1974-75 I was attending a Airframe & Powerplant mechanics' course as a preliminary to getting an aviation flight engineer's cert for a cargo airline that was paying the chunk of my tuition not covered by the GI Bill. Our chief instructor was a retired Maintenance Director for Braniff, who went back quite a ways with the company, holding Braniff Airlines Company ID card #4. There were photos of him as a young mechanic working on biplanes on a dirtstrip field, I figured out one of the pics showed a Curtis Jenny, and the lanky pilot in the leather overcoat seemed kind of familiar, so I asked, and was told, *Oh, that's Charlie Lindbergh, back when he was flying mail...*
Braniff had put the first 747 into revenue service; nicknamed Fat Albert [also *the great pumpkin*- it was orange] by Braniff flight and maint crews, and we got to talking about the things one day. It turns out they're not that much of a bear to handle, being fitted with yaw dampeners and a few other goodies that made even that huge an aircraft a reasonable enough task. So, I asked, can you roll one?
They had a longer-range version called the 747SP, flying transoceanic flights to South Africa from New York and to Australia from LAX. I don't think Braniff was running one, but Quantas and SAA had a couple. I was told one of them had been rolled during their acceptance flight, but I've never seen it done. But I wouldn't be surprised; not a bit. Fat Albert was sitting in an airplane dead storage yard in New Mexico a decade or so back, probably to never fly again. The 747SPs aren't economical to run any more [MUCH shorter than a 747-400] but I think a couple dozen of them are still up and flying.
HotD watch out for him ... he sneaks up behind you kinda quiet like, and before you know it, you've been ambushed by his Southern charm! &;-)
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