Good Airshow Questions/Stories

JPilot9

JPilot9

Well-Known Member
I know these pop up at every airshow, but I thought I'd share a funny one from today.

Out and about in uniform, a guy comes up to us and addresses us as lieutenants, starts talking about how he was in the Air Force, did a tour in Korea, then Luke. He has about 3 minutes worth of good info that sounds pretty normal ("my family loved it, we got to live in a few cool places, Korea was really fun but we loved Arizona", etc.

Us: "So were you an F-16 pilot, or what did you do?"

Him: "No, I was an A-10 navigator."

Us: ". . . . . . "

Consider yourself lucky to know this yet-to-be-declassified info.

I know some of the other guys on here have to have much better stories than this. Anyone care to share?
 
Culled from a thread 10 months ago

MikeD said:
Am at the DMA airshow in '05 with my F-117 as the display pilot. Am parked next to a F-15C and am talking with that pilot....actually, mostly listening to him talk about himself, his sexual conquests, and his squadron, but still........he's your standard pressed and tailored flightsuit with zipper 2 inches below the neck, the rectangle-lens AF issue sunglasses, Eagle Driver patch on the shoulder, and NAPAG tab on his pen pocket. I'm my standard garbage bag looking, 2 sizes too big (but comfortable) flightsuit, zipper 1/3 of the way down and sleeves slid up....looking like someone who actually works. I figured he was only talking to me because there wasn't some other Eagle guy there, so he had to reduce himself to comingling with anyone in a flightsuit.....at least I was AF and not some other service. Anyhow as we're talking, he's constantly pointing out good looking women walking around the flightline area and pretty soon, a group of nubile coeds from U of A come walking up to where he and I are standing (between our respective aircraft displays.....he says "I got dibs on all of them" as they approach) and proceed to talk with us, as they're talking amongst themselves. One of the girls begins "Hi guys.....mind if we ask you guys a question?" Of course he gives the Steve Canyon-esqe "go ahead ladies, what would you like to know...?" The one speaking asks "So we were wondering, how much better of a pilot do you have to be to fly THAT plane (pointing to the Stealth), than say.....oh...that one (pointing to the Eagle)?" Thoroughly amused at my chance to toss one back in this guy's court (and seeing the "I can't believe she said that" look in the Eagle guy's face), I proceed to explain how for every 500 fighter pilots that apply to our program, only one gets selected. To which he, shocked at that, replies "that's a load of bull....". And I was able to retort with, "as you can see ladies, this here was obviously one of our non-selectees." I start immediately receiving all sorts of colorful expletives about my POS airplane, none of this helping the Eagle guy's cause with the ladies. The coeds invite me to a party they're having that night at their on-campus house, but I politely decline and shift them over to my maintenance guys who were over at the jet, explaining to the coeds that while I'm only the public face of the plane, it's those guys over there that make this thing work....in fact, I only borrow it for my 2.0 per sortie. They're the ones you really want to spend the time with.

I heard they had a great time.
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Justin172 said:
Him: "No, I was an A-10 navigator."
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There were two two-seat Hogs built.

Unless he flew test on the A-10B and the Night/Adverse Weather program......

Cool fact about the A-10B, is that unlike most two-cockpit fighters, the A-10B had everything duplicate for flying the aircraft, including landing gear control, flaps and speedbrake.

The USAF F-4, for example, the rear cockpit could only emergency drop the gear, had no throttle cut-off capability, nor ability to drop the tailhook or speedbrakes. And Navy aircraft have nothing to fly with in the rear.

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/AWA1/301-400/walk369_NAW_A-10/walk369.htm
 
Our sponsor is the Disabled American Veterans. At every airshow local DAV members come out to the airplane and volunteer their time giving out stickers, talking about the DAV, the airplane, ect. I had been with this one volunteer for four days when I noticed he had a prosthetic leg. I had been with him and other DAV members for four days and it never even dawned on me these guys were a part of the DAV because of injuries they had substained. It turned out this little old man was a special forces memeber who spent most of his tour crawling through North Vietnamese tunnels. I don't know why but that memory has always stuck out to me. I guess it was because he was so humble about it.

There is only one other airshow story I like. I was standing infront of the airplane when an even smaller, even older man walked up to me. He look very brittle and you could tell he was not going to alive much longer. On his chest were three medals, a purple heart, and two I did not reconize. He walked up to me shook my hand and the first thing he did thanked me for volunteering my time. We started talking and I asked him about his medals.

The first one was a POW medal from the Japanese Theatre. The other was the Navy Cross (I think). We talked for about half an hour and he talked about the day he was shot down and the way he was treated as a POW and everything else I could squeeze out of him in the short time we had together. Even as we parted ways he continued to thank me for my time. I very rarely tear up, but as I watched him walk away I could feel my eyes start to water.

I think that is the coolest part about the airshow scene. The flying is awesome and free beer at the after parties is always nice, but the people you meet and the (true) stories you hear are what really makes it great. The only bad part is it makes me realize how unmanly I am compared to these people!

Alex.
 
Justin172 said:
I know these pop up at every airshow, but I thought I'd share a funny one from today.

Out and about in uniform, a guy comes up to us and addresses us as lieutenants, starts talking about how he was in the Air Force, did a tour in Korea, then Luke. He has about 3 minutes worth of good info that sounds pretty normal ("my family loved it, we got to live in a few cool places, Korea was really fun but we loved Arizona", etc.

Us: "So were you an F-16 pilot, or what did you do?"

Him: "No, I was an A-10 navigator."

Us: ". . . . . . "

Consider yourself lucky to know this yet-to-be-declassified info.

I know some of the other guys on here have to have much better stories than this. Anyone care to share?
Click to expand...

Sure he didn't say KC-10? Then again, not sure if they have navigators. With that said, I was at an airshow with the mighty COD. Most folks don't now what it is or what it does. So this guy walks up to me and asks me what it did and I tell him, logistics of the aircraft carrier. He says no way it lands on the carrier and I show him the tailhook. He persists and claims there is no way it fly's off the carrier as he has never seen it on JAG. I think a year later, it finally was on JAG so he must have become a believer.

I've had people argue with me at airshows about landing on carriers, number of people on a carrier, etc. Not normal but there is always one or two people who know more than you yet have never flown a military aircraft, let alone the one you fly.
 
bunk22 said:
Sure he didn't say KC-10? Then again, not sure if they have navigators. With that said, I was at an airshow with the mighty COD. Most folks don't now what it is or what it does. So this guy walks up to me and asks me what it did and I tell him, logistics of the aircraft carrier. He says no way it lands on the carrier and I show him the tailhook. He persists and claims there is no way it fly's off the carrier as he has never seen it on JAG. I think a year later, it finally was on JAG so he must have become a believer.
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Nah, no Nav on an KC-10; just an FE.

Check out the Oriskany vid I posted in the YouTube vids portion of the site. The A-3 whale ops are pretty cool, especially off a smaller Essex-class deck.
 
CK said:
Our sponsor is the Disabled American Veterans. At every airshow local DAV members come out to the airplane and volunteer their time giving out stickers, talking about the DAV, the airplane, ect. I had been with this one volunteer for four days when I noticed he had a prosthetic leg. I had been with him and other DAV members for four days and it never even dawned on me these guys were a part of the DAV because of injuries they had substained. It turned out this little old man was a special forces memeber who spent most of his tour crawling through North Vietnamese tunnels. I don't know why but that memory has always stuck out to me. I guess it was because he was so humble about it.

There is only one other airshow story I like. I was standing infront of the airplane when an even smaller, even older man walked up to me. He look very brittle and you could tell he was not going to alive much longer. On his chest were three medals, a purple heart, and two I did not reconize. He walked up to me shook my hand and the first thing he did thanked me for volunteering my time. We started talking and I asked him about his medals.

The first one was a POW medal from the Japanese Theatre. The other was the Navy Cross (I think). We talked for about half an hour and he talked about the day he was shot down and the way he was treated as a POW and everything else I could squeeze out of him in the short time we had together. Even as we parted ways he continued to thank me for my time. I very rarely tear up, but as I watched him walk away I could feel my eyes start to water.

I think that is the coolest part about the airshow scene. The flying is awesome and free beer at the after parties is always nice, but the people you meet and the (true) stories you hear are what really makes it great. The only bad part is it makes me realize how unmanly I am compared to these people!

Alex.
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Had a similar experience when driving a 5-ton for the WWII POW Survivors in a Veteran's Day parade back in my enlisted days. One of the vets, Ralph, had to sit in the cab due to skin cancer issues. One of the friendliest and just genuinely great people I've ever met. We're just starting the parade route and he starts talking about how he couldn't walk in any of the parades for years after he came home from the war, and hasn't been able to walk in any for the last few due to myriad health problems. I ask, "Where did you serve?" He looks at me with a grin and says, "In the Pacific...at least for a little while." I ask him what he means and he says, "Oh, I got captured at Corregidor. Got to sit the rest of it out." I actually payed attention in history class, so I instantly realize I'm sitting next to a survivor of the Bataan Death March. I think he could tell I wanted to ask him a million questions but didn't want be a pest. Without a word from me he talked about the march, the work camps, and the endless bouts of tropical diseases and maltreatment he and his comrades endured and many died from. Definitely my most memorable Veteran's Day.
 
The Fez said:
Had a similar experience when driving a 5-ton for the WWII POW Survivors in a Veteran's Day parade back in my enlisted days. One of the vets, Ralph, had to sit in the cab due to skin cancer issues. One of the friendliest and just genuinely great people I've ever met. We're just starting the parade route and he starts talking about how he couldn't walk in any of the parades for years after he came home from the war, and hasn't been able to walk in any for the last few due to myriad health problems. I ask, "Where did you serve?" He looks at me with a grin and says, "In the Pacific...at least for a little while." I ask him what he means and he says, "Oh, I got captured at Corregidor. Got to sit the rest of it out." I actually payed attention in history class, so I instantly realize I'm sitting next to a survivor of the Bataan Death March. I think he could tell I wanted to ask him a million questions but didn't want be a pest. Without a word from me he talked about the march, the work camps, and the endless bouts of tropical diseases and maltreatment he and his comrades endured and many died from. Definitely my most memorable Veteran's Day.
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Back when the 107th had a full-up motorpool!
 
Justin172 said:
I know these pop up at every airshow, but I thought I'd share a funny one from today.

Out and about in uniform, a guy comes up to us and addresses us as lieutenants, starts talking about how he was in the Air Force, did a tour in Korea, then Luke. He has about 3 minutes worth of good info that sounds pretty normal ("my family loved it, we got to live in a few cool places, Korea was really fun but we loved Arizona", etc.

Us: "So were you an F-16 pilot, or what did you do?"

Him: "No, I was an A-10 navigator."

Us: ". . . . . . "

Consider yourself lucky to know this yet-to-be-declassified info.
Click to expand...

How old was this gentleman?

The fact of the matter is that there used to be an A-10 that had a navigator on it: The PBY.

USAFCatalina.jpg


"OA-10A" and "OA-10B" were the USAAF designations of the Consolidated PBY.
 
He was probably around 50-55. I had heard of the two-seat A-10s, but wondered about his story since they were test beds. Guys who test flew the YF-23 wouldn't necessarily call themselves F-23 pilots; when he said A-10 navigator I wasn't assuming he flew in the 2-seater a few times.

As far as the picture above, I'm guessing he was too young. What years was it operational?
 
Justin172 said:
He was probably around 50-55. I had heard of the two-seat A-10s, but wondered about his story since they were test beds. Guys who test flew the YF-23 wouldn't necessarily call themselves F-23 pilots; when he said A-10 navigator I wasn't assuming he flew in the 2-seater a few times.

As far as the picture above, I'm guessing he was too young. What years was it operational?
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It was a WWII rescue plane.
 
I was at the Reading, PA airshow with the mighty S-3 War Hoover. A nice little lady came up and asked what we did. When I mention that we hunt subs, she pointed to the ECS inlet at the base of the tail and asked with a straight face if that's how we got our air while underwater, presumably looking for those subs! I couldn't dissuade her from this belief and after doing a head check to imply that I was sharing a secret, I confirmed her suspicions!

I also enjoy the kids that have read soooo friggin' much on the aircraft that they can ask fairly informed, if naive, questions. Remind me of myself as a young'n.

Now when I go to airshows I spend most of my time correcting people on my agency's name. No it's *not* border patrol...
 
MikeD said:
The USAF F-4, for example, the rear cockpit could only emergency drop the gear, had no throttle cut-off capability, nor ability to drop the tailhook or speedbrakes. And Navy aircraft have nothing to fly with in the rear.
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Didn't the AF require new Phantom pilots to do a tour in the backseat before moving up front (talking Vietnam era)? Man, that would have sucked!

I have yet to do an airshow sadly, but my dad had a good story he told me recently. He flew a P-2V down to the airshow when NAS Lemoore was opened, and was minding the airplane when some little old lady walks up to him. She looks at the odd assortment of engines (2 recips, 2 outboard turbojets), looks back to her husband, then asks my dad, "Lieutenant, just how fast does this thing go?" Without missing a beat, my old man's co-pilot whispers to the lady "Ma'am, I can't tell you any classified information, but I will say that it is subsonic". Lady turns to her husband and proudly pronounces "See! I told you it was fast!!" :)
 
One guy told me he would take T-38s to airshows. They'd have the cargo pod underneath, and people would invariably ask what it was. His standard reply was "I can neither confirm nor deny that this aircraft is carrying nuclear weapons."
 
The most fun I ever had at an airshow was this little tiny one in Cape Girardeaux (or however they spell it). I took in a Tweet (T-37), and because the runway was so small most of the airplanes that are normally the ones the crowd REALLY wants to see (F-15, F-16, F-117, B2, etc.) were not able to land there. This show had 172's, 182's, a british bulldog and such on display. So part of it was cool because people did not just walk past our aircraft looking for the fighters.

The other reason it was cool was because about 2 hours before show opening, when all the crews were supposed to show up, this guy flies in and parks his little 2 seat ultralight. I've got nothing better to do so I walk up and take a look. I guess he was either impressed by an AF flight suit, or just into giving joyrides, but he asked if I wanted to take it up before the show opened. That has got to be the most fun I have EVER had flying. We flew the entire flight at below 100 ft, at around 20-30 knots (of course, no airspeed indicator or instruments of any kind, so I'm just guessing). At one point we skimmed over a small lake low enough that I could (and did) take my foot off of one of the rudder pedals and dip it barely in the water. I have no idea if any of it was legal, I'm pretty sure none of it was safe... but boy was it FUN.
 
At least three times I've had this same question about the C-2 as it sat there with its wings foldes...."how does it fly like that?" Yeah, maybe not so dumb from the non-aviation types but kind of funny. My answer is always, it doesn't.
 
///AMG said:
Didn't the AF require new Phantom pilots to do a tour in the backseat before moving up front (talking Vietnam era)? Man, that would have sucked!
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Back before 1969-ish, yes. At that time, there were 2 pilots in the aircraft, the back-seat guy officially called a PSO, or Pilot-Sensor Operator, and informally a GIB or Guy In Back. You started out in the back seat, generally did a tour in Vietnam, and could shift to the front seat thereafter (though I don't know how long it was for guys who didn't do a VN tour.....went to USAFE or such). Post 1969, the AF decided it was better to have dedicated Weapon System Operators in the back, rather than someone just doing a "touch and go" in the backseat, especially as mission sets became more and more. And so WSO Navigators in the F-4 were born, many having transitioned from heavy aircraft or bombers, over to the F-4. Keep in mind that this was new to the F-4 and (IIRC) the F-111 only, as Nav-rated guys were already serving in F-105Gs as EWO or Electronic Warfare Officers; and had been long serving in aircraft such as the F-101B and F-89s in Aerospace Defense Command as Radar Operator backseaters.
 
MikeD said:
And so WSO Navigators in the F-4 were born, many having transitioned from heavy aircraft or bombers, over to the F-4.
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In '73 I received an Recce F-4 out of UPT. After about 6 or so flts with an IP I was crewed with a student WSO that came from tankers and we were sent on our way flying unsupervised single ship low level sorties.
 
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