Chuck Yeager

[skreamer 1]

I've always held Chuck Yeager in high esteem (probably partly due to seeing 'The Right Stuff' at an impressionable age). I read an excellent interview with him (available here). Here is his description of his first 'skydive' :

Interviewer : "All right, lets go back to that March 5, 1944. Describe exactly what happened."
Chuck Yeager : "I was in a dog-fight with three 190s and I got hit head-on with a 20 mm cannon, and the prop came off the airplane, part of the wing, the canopy, and it caught on fire. So me and the airplane parted company. That's the way it happens. You bail out, you free fall in your parachute, and then when you get down to within three or four thousand feet of the ground, you pull the ripcord, the parachute pops and you land. That's about the way it happens."

This was four years before he broke the speed of sound. We get so carried away with how 'radical' and 'extreme' we think we are today - unassuming guys like him were doing it all a long long time ago.
Will

[Spy38W 0]

Yah, very cool guy. His autobiography is a pretty interesting read "Yeager: An Autobiography"

--
Hook high, flare on time

[steve1 5]

I read his book. I think it was called "The Right Stuff". What a guy! I wish I had guts like that. Steve1

[quade 4]

Tom Wolfe wrote "The Right Stuff".

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Jessica 0]

I have a copy of "The Right Stuff" signed by Chuck Yeager. Great book, and quite a departure from style for Tom Wolfe.

Skydiving is for cool people only

[pilotdave 0]

I met chuck yeager a few years ago. It's amazing how he views his own career. That's how he views it... a career. Someone asked him what it was like to break the sound barrier for the first time. He said his job was to break the sound barrier, and he did it, and that was it. He didn't think of it as anything very special at the time. He had broken a couple of ribs the day before so he used a broomstick to help him into the X-1 and get the door closed. Someone asked him what ever happened to that broomstick. He said he had no idea, it was just a broomstick. He said he wished he had kept it since it kind of became a legend, but at the time it was just a makeshift tool. Really nice guy. Hard to believe he just gave up flying F-15s recently.

Dave

[lawrocket 3]

Actually, that would be his second skydive.

If memory serves me correctly, he had to bail out of a burning P-39 while training to fly fighter airplanes before goign to Europe for WWII. I believe it was while he was in Tonopah.

I do remember his quote: "My back was broken, and it hurt like hell." He probably couldn't blame it on a hard opening, either.

-

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[quatorze 1]

Quote

If memory serves me correctly, he had to bail out of a burning P-39 while training to fly fighter airplanes before goign to Europe for WWII. I believe it was while he was in Tonopah.

yup, but the P-39 Airacobra was inreallity a fighter, on of the earlier pursuit planes

I'm not afriad of dying, I'm afraid of never really living- Erin Engle

[kallend 2,026]

Quote

Quote

If memory serves me correctly, he had to bail out of a burning P-39 while training to fly fighter airplanes before goign to Europe for WWII. I believe it was while he was in Tonopah.

yup, but the P-39 Airacobra was inreallity a fighter, on of the earlier pursuit planes

????? I don't understand your comment. He would hardly bail out of a B17 while training to fly fighters.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[screwbag 0]

I find it interested to look up the lesser known names in the same arena...

I met an old fly buddy of chucks, by the name of Bill Meenach...they worked together on the old Y-12 project (later called the SR-71) He has some really great stories to tell...

so be sure not to forget the lesser known folks...

[quatorze 1]

I just meant that the P-39 was not a USArmy Air Corp trainer, the post I was replying to implied that it may have been used much the same as the stearman biplanes were used for training only

I'm not afriad of dying, I'm afraid of never really living- Erin Engle

[kallend 2,026]

Quote

I just meant that the P-39 was not a USArmy Air Corp trainer, the post I was replying to implied that it may have been used much the same as the stearman biplanes were used for training only

Ummm - they had to fly a bunch of hours in the fighter before being let loose on the enemy in one. All part of the training.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[quatorze 1]

Quote

Quote

I just meant that the P-39 was not a USArmy Air Corp trainer, the post I was replying to implied that it may have been used much the same as the stearman biplanes were used for training only

Ummm - they had to fly a bunch of hours in the fighter before being let loose on the enemy in one. All part of the training.

Sure, I know this, I was just trying to clear up the fact that it was a pursuit/fighter ac and not a trainer

I'm not afriad of dying, I'm afraid of never really living- Erin Engle

[airtwardo 7]

I met him a few times...
neat guy!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[smooth 0]

I see you had to give him a few beers and hold a gun to his head to get the picture.

[airtwardo 7]

Quote

I see you had to give him a few beers and hold a gun to his head to get the picture.

No actually he wanted a Miller, all they had was bud-lite...he handed me his water gun...and said
"Tell me you're gonna shoot me if I don't drink this!"

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[skreamer 1]

Good story, but why was he carrying a water-gun?

[airtwardo 7]

Quote

Good story, but why was he carrying a water-gun?

You've never been to a performer party after an airshow???
As bad or worse than ANY skydiver party...
The waterguns were supplied as an answer to the townies hitting us with nerf guns!

Actually I've met and drank with Gen. Yeager on several occasions...I get him to sign off a jump or two everytime I see him....I have both he and Scott Crossfield ( first to go mach2 ) on the same page in my log.
I've been performing in U.S. airshows for just over 20 years now...gotten some remarkable signatures along the way

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[screwbag 0]

To Add to my earlier post about Bill Meenach...

I was just informed that he passed away lastnight in his nome in Susanville, CA

He'll be missed...A good friend, and mentor. He always pushed me to go higher and faster than i ever thought possible in all aspects of my life.

Blue Skies Forever Bill....

[Beerlight 0]

And to add additional info for some of you historians. This came out today on AOPA.org

Legendary test pilot Pete Knight dies at 74
May 13 — Pete Knight, a pilot with astronaut wings earned during his high-altitude flights in a North American Aviation X-15 rocket plane that reached a scorching 4,520 mph (the 1967 record still stands), died of leukemia on May 7. He was 74. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for an X-15 flight earlier in 1967 when he landed safely after suffering an electrical failure at 173,000 feet while doing Mach 4.17 that shut down all on-board systems. The Vietnam combat pilot and former Palmdale, California, mayor was a state senator at the time of his death, known for his defense of conservative values. Most recently he was fighting to restore the Pledge of Allegiance to schools. See the profile on the Web site.

[nitrochute 2]

they buried him yesterday in palmdale.story in the antelope valley press(www.avpress.com)also of note,rutans spaceship one entry in the xprize contest made its first foray into space,also yesterday.

[cloudseeker2001 0]

I've been performing in U.S. airshows for just over 20 years now...gotten some remarkable signatures along the way

[airtwardo 7]

Quote

thats really cool!

***


Thanks!



Here's a few of my favorites...

Smitty The Jumper...

Chuck Yeager....(1st at Mach 1)

That's "Pappy" Boyington & the Japanese fighter pilot
that shot him down!!

Bob Hover...(Mach 1 chase plane)

Scott Crossfield....(First at Mach 2)

Larry Neiman...(balloons across the Atlanitc)

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[Beerlight 0]

And this from today on AOPA.org

'MEMPHIS BELLE' COMMANDER DIES
Col. Robert Morgan, pilot of the famous Memphis Belle Boeing B-17 bomber, died last Saturday. He was 85. The aircraft was the first to complete 25 missions in Europe and return to the United States. The aircraft toured the country to sell war bonds. Morgan later flew 25 missions in a Boeing B-29 bomber over Japan. A documentary was made in 1944 about the aircraft, and it was featured in a Hollywood movie.

[VoodooFreeFly 0]

Skydivers cant forget to mention Joe Kittinger.