Quote from: Denni on May 17, 2018, 09:02:57 AMSpent three years in USMC aviation, former member of EAA, many ventures to the fly in at Oshkosh, highlight being able to take a trip in their B-17, "Aluminum Overcast" and sitting in the left seat and flying her for 5 minutes.
OMG, USMC aviation means helicopters, transport, or my absolute favorite modern warbird, the A-10 Warthog. Knowing I could fly an A-10 would be the only thing that would possibly motivate me through Marines boot camp. I doubt even that would have let me survive it...
Aluminum Overcast! When EAA first got it flying I met up with it in Kalamazoo, MI, closed my eyes and handed them my credit card. Back then they'd take six people up and each would get 10 minutes in the left seat with a CFI riding shotgun. I was flying ultralights then, so I didn't have a formal logbook, but if I had I would have had multi-engine Boeing time logged. It wasn't too long after that that FAA said, hey, you're not actually training, this is a joyride, no more tourists in the left seat. Now you can ride, but not fly.
Roll with that big old yoke was easy (tipping up that huge wing with those radials on it was awesome!), pitch was easy, but I had to stand all of my 145 lbs (back then) on the rudder pedals to make it yaw. I thought back to those 20-somethings who flew them in the war, and how exhausting that must have been on 10, 12, 14 hour flights in the freezing cold on oxygen at 25,000 feet - with people shooting at them!
Part of the deal was a flight jacket with the plane embroidered on the back. They were cut on the original patterns. I'm 5'5" and 150 lbs. My jacket is just a little big on me, and it's originally an XXL. People were smaller back then.
That jacket is one of the few things from my previous wardrobe I refuse to get rid of. It's not very feminine, but some day when I get to the point of male-fail, I'll get a new name tag for it and start wearing it again.
- Stephanie
