Galaxy:

Thanks for sharing. RTU with three Mistys? How cool is that? It would be like going to UPT with Robin Olds, Dick Bong, and Bud Day!!

If you have pics, would love to see them.

When I was in Junior High School, a four-ship of Huns flew over my school at about 500-1000 ft. They were being used as "MiGs" for the movie "Skyjacked," which starred Charleton Heston. They had red stars on them, and my buddy started screaming "Holy #$%^, we're being attacked!!"

OK, segue: want to share the story of the A-10? (Sorry to hear about your back, but it must have ended reasonably well).

I met him in the VIP area at Reno this past September. He was there with P.K. Robinson, and a few more highly respected aviators. Neat guy.

I don't know if I have an RTU pics to scan, I've been on the road a bunch. I'll look, it was before I went about taking pics of everything and everybody.

It was like any RTU, but they were just so experienced and just back from Vietnam in the plane, so every "trick" they played on the range; every bombing ride they beat your scores; everytime they got on your six; was real and they made sure you got your lessons learned. They ran good GAT flights with lots of detail and challenges. They all had direct, no sh*t approach that drilled into you good.

I still remember a story Fiorelli told us about a 2Lt that had a nose gear hung up, the SOF told him to do the new-fangled approach end engagement. As you might expect one 2 Lt was KIA. It happened to be an LT he knew, it was obvious to still hurt. His point, YOU, and YOU ALONE, fly the airplane--with 10 hours or 10,000 hours.

I was almost head-on with another A-10 in a different flight when we struck at about 500'AGL. I got out with milliseconds to spare, the other guy never knew what hit him. Not that I did at the moment. The chute hung up in a tree branch, which broke as I tried to disconnect the raft and seat kit, sending me on a 25' fall to a hillside in the Adirondacks. Ground contact and one badly hurting back. The local FD managed to put me a Stokes basket and carry me out. Eight months later, back to the failing Eastern Airlines. Then on to 17 years as a C-5 IP, EP, Group CC. 3 of which were activated, so those guys back at F-100 RTU were right, I'd see a war--2 or 3 of them, in fact.

GF

Interesting. I was at Ellington that week and saw the F-100 flying around all the time. It sure looked nice, made a lot of noise and was fun to watch.

There is a retired airline pilot who imported one from Turkey and had it restored to Thunderbird-like condition. Beautiful bird.

GF

GF:

Thanks for the Hawg story.

The Collings jet used to be registered as N26AZ (I think), which was beautifully painted in T-Bird colors....is that the same jet? It was based in El Paso, I believe (last place it was shown on Flight Aware, and last flew 4 years ago).

Can't say, I don't know

GF