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From: Chuck Ross
Date: 4/3/2005
Time: 8:47:50 PM
Remote Name: 24.205.110.143
Francis I have to make some comments here. You wrote some things that are just not correct or rather questionable.
"Flying Beavers in formation was actually a pretty silly thing to do. Not to mention a little bit dangerous and against our own regulations."
Fact: There was no regulation against it. All Army pilots are taught formation flying. I'd been in a 72-ship before I even got to the 156th. We just never flew them that way on missions.
"For those of you not familiar with the craft, these were DeHavillands all made in 1944 or 45."
Fact: The earliest ones were about 1952, the latest 1956 or 57.
"The pilots were basically driving the bus for the intercept operators in the back. The pilots were officers and the ops were all E-4's and E-5's...but they were in charge of the missions.
Fact: One of the pilots was designated mission commander and held all responsibility. True enough that the operators in back knew a lot more about the mission, but the mission commander still had overall . . . On one mission I even corrected "all after DE" for the operator.
"most of the pilots were Regular Army or Reserve"
No, ALL of the pilots were Regular Army or Reserve. The only other possibility is National Guard and I don't recall any of them around.
"every once in awhile one of the pilots owuld get a wild hair up his ass. One tried to do an Ingleman turn over the airfield"
I assume you mean an "immelman" turn
"can't be done in that aircraft without crashing it")
Not an approved maneuver for the Beave, but doable.
"and another, for some reason , decided he would try and land one upside down."
Are you saying that one of the 156th Beavers landed upside down? Which one? When? I don't recall anyone else mentioning such a remarkable event.