Chuck Yeager’s book was a good read:
Yeager’s career began in World War II as a private in the United States Army Air Forces.[1] After serving as an aircraft mechanic, in September 1942 he entered enlisted pilot training and upon graduation was promoted to the rank of flight officer (the World War II USAAF equivalent to warrant officer) and became a P-51 fighter pilot.
According to Yeager there was not much love lost between him and academy aviators.
I read that book when I was twelve and it was indeed amazing and formative in my view on life. Helped my salty language skills along as well.
I applied to Emory Riddle and got in but my father refused to pay for any school in Florida because “the weather results in bikinis and parties”. There is another similiar school somewhere in norther latitudes of the modwest which I refused to attend because of the totaly lack of those things dad wanted me to avoid. Fort Schuyler with private pilot lessons at McGuire AFB on the weekends became the compromise until I decided the sea was a better route and left flying (mostly to so that I wouldn’t have to work a ton of part time jobs to pay for lessons).
That was one of my favorites while I was still flying. I also loved The Right Stuff, or at least the parts before they go into space ( for some reason I’ve always had the same reaction to space as I’ve had for ship engine rooms… the nerd in me thinks both are really cool and interesting but neither are places I ever want to work in full time). The other book I loved was Catch Me If You Can… which had little about flying itself but lots on the commercial side of aviation suring its glory days.
Your father did you a favor. By the time I jumped through all the hoops and expense of getting an ATP, the airlines were handing out more furlough notices than welcome aboard letters. Some of the guys I flew with managed to get on with the majors and had good careers but many of us moved on to greener pastures. Today, a manager at McDonalds makes more than a regional captain.
Wikipedia says this vessel is “riding at sea anchor”. Maybe there is hawsepiper hanging on there somewhere.
I know nothing about aviation but this PBY is one intriguing looking machine.
That’s a mighty small hawsepipe.
It was designed to make life difficult for aeronautical hawsepipers.
