Anyways, I'm rambling, please by all means, screw the OP and the topic, tell me more about your experiences and flying in general.
One of these days I'll start work on a book. I could certainly write one right now, but it would be a bit of a rambling thing too 'cause my mind is always going, until its not. I never flew in the military but had lost no less than seven close friends and aquainances in accidents by the time I was 24, one of which was a very close friend, and none of them were being shot at. (however, one fellow I worked with had a close call when he happened to be on the right side of a two hole sh*tter in Black Lake SK but on the wrong side of an angry significant other of someone he had been "seeing", who let loose with a 12 gauge into the left side of the biffy. Sh*thouse luck I'd say.)
In case you've ever seen "Iron Eagle", I bought the original Walkman, I had to spend extra for earbuds that would fit under my Dave Clark headset and would listen to Laura Brannigan while I was on fire patrol. I loved that job. But where the movie is obviously a bit "Hollywood", (It was kind of a make believe teen movie anyway and came out long after I gave up firefighting),I couldn't listen to music while actually bombong fires because it interferes with your timing. I did that in a Single Otter, about the worst thing was getting to the coffee pot after 2 in the afternoon, there was nothing left but about 3 gallons of grounds, yuck, but otherwise almost the most fun you can have with your clothes on.
The other most fun thing was the beast in my avitar. Steam driven as we called it, there were no computers, no flight management systems, Rolls Royce's strapped to the arse of a grain truck, and after years on it you just flew it by, I dunno, you just knew. You learned to calculate fuel burn on the run, we actually had to navigate, you worked on instinct and experience. We took it from the mud strips of the North to Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York in the South. Nothin' says "Canadian" than a jet airplane covered in red mud.:canada:
It is an extremely versatile airplane, and I think Royal Jordanian still uses them to fly into Baghdad because it is the only passenger airplane that can go from 25,000' to landing in under 5 minutes, and do it 10 miles or less, which makes targeting them with SAM's really difficult. I've been able at climb at barber pole, (340 kts+-) at max take off weight at between 5000 - 6000 feet per minute, and descend at over 7000fpm with no excessive deck angles, or even passenger complaints. The Dutch built good stuff. I wonder if Jordanian is hiring, hmmm.
