I love talking to older folks who were in aviation way back when. My Mom's neighbor at her assisted living facility was a F/A back in the 50's and 60's. She started on DC-3's. When she married a Captain she had to quit as F/A's weren't allowed to be married back then.
WW2 Ace Robert Johnson lived near me in CLT, we shared a housekeeper. I got to talk to him some. And at a convention I met "Gabby" Gabreski and Franz Stiegler who was a Luftwaffe Ace with 28 victories, mostly again US Bombers. He was shot down 17 times! His parachute was made of silk which was extremely hard to get and very much in demand by the Frauliens. He said somehow he always "Lost" his parachute
Stiegler was best known after the war for an incident where he allowed a shot up B-17 flown by Charles Brown to get home. Charles Brown was also at the convention:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charli...igler_incident
In High School speech class I was giving a speech about learning to fly. We had a teacher in her 70's who had come back from retirement to teach. I mentioned "ailerons" in my speech then thought I'd better clarify what I was talking about. The teacher said "Son, I built B-25's in WW2, I know what an aileron is"
Originally Posted by
Jedimaster
What a great experience!! I have a very similar memory. Back in about 1982, I was flying night checks in Chieftains and BE-99s, lived near GEG and there was this little airport in Athol, ID, were a classy lady in her late 70's taught in gliders...
Her name was Gladys, cant decipher her last name from my logbook endorsement. Her story was same as above, taught pilots in WWII. She was a great lady, very "grandmotherly", but technically very capable. Had something like 28000 hours.
This story is more about her than me, no hilarious or extravagant punch line. Showed up there one Saturday, because I was interested in gliders, she said: "lets Go!" Took me up in a Blahnik (sp) two seater once around the patch, said OK...and soloed me. Then she said:"this endorsement is only good if you go right back up ... while she pointed at a Schweitzer single seater ... Anyway, I did and returned for many pleasurable weekend experiences.
Then they built the Silverwood amusement park over the airport ... Never did get a rating... but really regret not keeping in touch with Gladys.
Fast forward 30+ years and I'm looking at my CFIIME that expired in 84, thinking about adding a glider CFI, as I understand it would "reactivate" all my CFI ratings?? Maybe give me something to do in retirement??