Aircraft Commander

I upgraded to aircraft commander right after the 19 day Pacific trip.  I had several memorable events in that next year or so.

The first event was my first trip as Captain of the aircraft.  Almost every trip to Washington DC provided a line of thunderstorms that you had to find your way around.  This trip was no different.  I made it through with very little problem and headed to the Northeast... Destination, Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts.

It was a cloudy and dark night and I had never been to Hanscom Field.  As we bumped along though the clouds I was a little apprehensive.  I was concentrating on my instruments as I turned onto final approach and then I looked up briefly.  I was astonished as I saw an airplane on fire... with flames shooting out hundreds of feet.  I commented; "oh no" and the airplane slipped behind the clouds.  The rest of the crew looked up and saw nothing and were now trying to find the crises.  Before I could tell them what I saw, a giant full moon appeared from behind the cloud.  I burst out laughing as I realized how mistaken I had been.  The crew was still looking for a crises as their newly minted captain was laughing himself silly, so I finally confessed to my idiocy and the moon and the wispy edge of the clouds.

It is very easy to mis-identify an object in the air when you don't know what it is.  If someone tells you to look for a 747 or a weather balloon it pretty easy to find it.  If you know how far away the object is it makes it easier also.  I figure most UFOs are the result of just this kind of experience.

The next event was on a trip returning from Washington, DC.  We had just passed the big line of thunderstorms somewhere around East Texas.  It was a dark cloudy night ... again... seems repetitive doesn't it?  Well it was just that, and the sky started getting lighter... and lighter... and lighter.  Pretty soon it was light as day and the light source seemed to be coming from the area to the right of the aircraft.  It was so bright you could see the houses and trees below us.  We were all stunned and were trying to figure out what was going on.  I thought it might be a nuclear bomb going off at the bomber base in Shreveport, Louisiana.  About then a meteor shot through the clouds over to the right of us not more than a few miles away. 

It was late at night and I thought we might be the only airplane that was flying right then.  But the radio started going crazy and everyone started reporting what they saw. That was a good thing to hear  because we then knew we weren't crazy.  

We went on to San Antonio and came close to diverting because of the dense fog.  I was becoming an experienced pilot little bit by little bit.  When I was driving home listening to the radio they were talking about the UFO sighting.  Later NASA announced it was the second stage of an Atlas Rocket re-entering the atmosphere.  They didn't think anything reached the ground but I was pretty sure it did reach the ground.  The Atlas rocket is the huge multistage rocket they used to launch the Apollo Moon Missions.

Another memory I have of flying the C-118 (DC-6) was at night again.  We had just passed through the inevitable line of thunderstorms and were right over College Station, Texas.  My co-pilot was actually Colonel Nick and he had just gotten up to use the restroom after we got passed the weather.  My Crew Chief was telling me about one of the engine readings on his panel and my head was turned around and looking to the right, at the gauge.  My Crew Chief turned around as we continued to talk and I saw his eyes get real big, his mouth dropped open (he wasn't able to talk) and he raised his finger to point over my shoulder.  I turned around and saw a twin engine aircraft headed right for us.  It seemed to take forever for me to react, but I did... I made a hard turn to the left which raised my right wing and at the same time I was climbing.  Within a second or two I felt the turbulence from the other aircraft and I knew I had missed him.  I rolled out of my turn and looked off to the right and he was still flying along none the wiser.  He just barely missed hitting us on the nose and the only reason the right wing didn't hit him was because we were almost in 90 degrees of bank... flying sideways.  

I got on the radio and reported the incident to the air traffic controller and he didn't see any aircraft near us on radar.  I was not a happy camper but that was nothing compared to the Colonel that was trying to go to the bathroom right at that moment.  On top of that the General woke up too.  He looked out his window on the right side of the aircraft and saw the other airplane.  He came up to the cockpit to shake my hand.  The Colonel was there too and we all laughed hard and were glad to be in one piece.  The offending aircraft was at the wrong altitude and not talking to air traffic control.  

When I landed in San Antonio late that night it was foggy again and the visibility was right at our minimums.  I noticed I was shaking from the incident and the combination of the foggy approach... but nobody else noticed in the dark... Later I reasoned it was just the Cokes I drank for caffeine...

One of my day time events happened in Montgomery, Alabama at Maxwell AFB.  I was taking a plane load of Colonels and two generals to Air War College.  It was a clear but very windy day and the tower was reporting a 35 mph crosswind.  That just happened to be the max crosswind for the aircraft... any more than that we wouldn't have enough controls to keep the aircraft on the runway.  I was raised on crosswinds and really enjoy the challenge... I was ready.  On final approach I was watching a C-7 (two engine cargo plane) attempt a takeoff.  I was really enjoying it... he was veering from one side of the runway to the other and was barely keeping it on the runway.  More than once I laughed and commented "did you see that".

Yep... I was cocky... maybe overconfident...  but I had always been good in crosswinds.  I brought the airplane in for a perfect landing right in the center of the runway.  They crew was almost cheering for me.

But... in that airplane you would hand control of the steering wheel (yoke) to the pilot not flying before you transitioned to the to the tiller and reverse thrust.  The tiller is a small steering wheel that controlled the nose wheel steering on the ground.  To hand control to the " other pilot you said "your yoke" and he would respond "my yoke" as he took control.  His job was to keep the aircraft from becoming airborne again.

So I handed over the control of the yoke to my copilot and then put the engines into reverse thrust.  About the same time the right wing lifted up and the aircraft pivoted on the left main landing gear and was now pointed toward the grass.  I went into a sideways skid to try to turn the airplane back on center line... it didn't work... as we neared the edge of the runway still sliding sideways... I had no more control options except differential thrust on the engines.  I couldn't figure that out and I just took all four engines out of reverse thrust... the airplane instantly went straight.  As I was taxiing in some fire trucks came by to make sure we were OK...  we were.  I parked the airplane and the wind was blowing so strong we couldn't get the door open to let the passengers off.  So I started the airplane up again and turned it in a direction so we could open the door.

Mysteriously the tower was now calling the winds 45 knots of crosswind... out of limits... sometimes they will try to help us out by calling the winds in limits so we don't have to divert...

NEVER LAUGH AT SOMEONE ELSES MISTAKES... YOU COULD BE NEXT !  I repeated phrase many times in my flying career.

Soon I found myself certified to fly Functional Check Flights in our two types of aircraft.  This meant I was certified to take an airplane fresh out of major maintenance on test flights, to make sure they put it back together right.  

It was a pretty day and I had a normal takeoff and climb out and was circling about 20 miles south of San Antonio and going through a very long complicated checklist of items.  The procedure called for shutting down the left engine and I did.  Then I was supposed to restart it and continue on with the check list.  It wouldn't start.  We tried everything and it wouldn't start.  So I declared an emergency and landed single engine.  That was my only engine failure my entire career... blessed.