Scudrunners

I am not picking on Mike Hughes. I am only saying he has not been able to build a rocket that can get him a view of the curvature of the earth. Depending on his physical capabilities he could have gone higher by climbing a mountain.

Definately he could have gone higher in many available commercial flights.

One of the sweetest flying airplanes I have ever flown, was designed by a
guy who [i]wasn't even an engineer[/i].

Curtis Pitts.  Airline pilots might think he's shit compared to them, but boy,
he sure knew what he was doing, even if he didn't have a degree like those
smart guys.

I love those airplanes so much, I have three of them, and have spent thousands
of pleasurable hours and decades flying them. 

[img width=500 height=337][/img]

This makes me a BAD PERSONâ„¢, and I'm cool with that.



Power all the way off on downwind abeam the runway threshold, and it stays
there until a perfect three point landing.

[img width=500 height=321][/img]

From left to right:  An F-104 nuclear weapons test pilot, Curtis Pitts, and
yours truly.  None of us know very much about aviation compared to a
Canadian, but we had fun.

Curtis liked how we flew.  His opinion is worth a million Canadian
airline pilots, thank you very much.

[quote author=Colonel Sanders link=topic=9705.msg27737#msg27737 date=1556169553]
One of the sweetest flying airplanes I have ever flown, was designed by a
guy who [i]wasn't even an engineer[/i].
[/quote]
And just think, from what I understand it all started with [i]repurposing bits of a wrecked Taylorcraft![/i]

A whole lotta pilots learned to fly, and flew aerobatics
on the wonderful old Stearman in WWII.  Curtis
thought he could build something that would do aerobatics
better than a Stearman.  Having flown both, I think he
succeeded.  Even without a degree.

I hasten to note that I am not disparaging the Stearman.
It is a flying tank, and you can crash it and live.

Some years ago, working at Caterpillar- or was it GE? -
I met a Greg Stearman, and I asked him if he was familiar
with biplanes.

Turns out Lloyd was his great-uncle.  I know that wouldn’t
be worth shit to a Canadian airline or TC pilot, but I
trembled in the presence of greatness.

[quote author=Colonel Sanders link=topic=9705.msg27710#msg27710 date=1556026964]
[quote]My 7 years at Buffalo taught me more than anything I've learned in school.[/quote]

I'm sure it did.  The fact that they didn't issue you a certificate when you left,
does not somehow diminish the skills and knowledge you acquired.

I was explaining to a non-pilot the other day, that you could determine
a pilot's history, merely by glancing at his type ratings on his ATPL.
[/quote]

Well I do have a 2 page letter of recommendation from Joe - now that 'Ice Pilots' has been broadcast globally it's probably as good as any certificate from a University.

I doubt very many people have something like that as part of their CV.

You should see the reactions I get when I tell people where I've worked. It's impressive how many people in the Industry are familiar with Buffalo - even ATC at Heathrow!

I never planned it - it just happened.

I always got along great with those guys

[img width=500 height=332][/img]

though I don't think Mikey ever quite figured out the paddle shifters on the Ferrari!

People say plenty of bad stuff about Joe, but when TC yanked their paper, he
continued to pay his employees, didn't he?