Funny how my vision got all cloudy for a bit. Dad was an flight instructor early on, then flew one of those birds on the Hump run, India to China for the duration. What I would give for a ride in one of those. There's one hanging from the ceiling in the D-Day museum. I can just see that skinny old man sitting in the pilot's seat. GW
Yep, dusty in here... But they never forget. I heard an 87 year old at Udvar Hazy talking through the entire pre-start checklist with his son and grandson. And he hadn't been in the airplane in 60 years!!!
Got a few hours in an R4D-4 but most of my time was in the R4D-8 with the R-1820 engine and the squared off vertical Stab and wing tips. Absolutely loved that bird! SIGH
Funny how my vision got all cloudy for a bit. Dad was an flight instructor early on, then flew one of those birds on the Hump run, India to China for the duration. What I would give for a ride in one of those. There's one hanging from the ceiling in the D-Day museum. I can just see that skinny old man sitting in the pilot's seat. GW
ReplyDeleteYep, dusty in here... But they never forget. I heard an 87 year old at Udvar Hazy talking through the entire pre-start checklist with his son and grandson. And he hadn't been in the airplane in 60 years!!!
ReplyDeleteI flew as pax in one in 1962. It was Ozark AL's, and had flown in the Berlin Airlift, had ack-ack patches to prove it...
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteThe bar has been set might high for the rest of us.
I dug a little and found the obituary for Mr. Parker.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/sun-city-az/gerald-parker-7609694
Got a few hours in an R4D-4 but most of my time was in the R4D-8 with the R-1820 engine and the squared off vertical Stab and wing tips. Absolutely loved that bird! SIGH
ReplyDeleteAnyone else notice that he "suddenly" died a couple days after flying that aircraft, one he actually flew in the war?
ReplyDeleteMore video of this aircraft's history, and Gerald:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnMLLg3Q2d4