Good stuff Doug - on the money, as always.

Good morning all...

Hi Larry...

When I was still flying several of my children would go through my Log Books and pick out something interesting that I had written down in the Remarks Column.

We would then sit around the fireplace and I would tell them the story about that flight. 
The story had to be factual, no hollywood inputs... and sometimes I think they were a little disappointed how boring some of my flights really were.
It did not stop all of them from becoming aviators themselves though.

I remember my grandfather doing the same thing along with my father.  It was hard to get them to tell the story in the Remarks Column during the War Years of 1914 to 1918 and 1939 to 1945.  We soon learned to leave those dates alone.

When alone with my grandfather or father sometimes I would get an explanation from them about a certain flight during their war years but I learned rather quickly that....

"It is not the uniform that makes the man"
But
"The man that makes the uniform"

Some of the stories at the bugsmasher flying club told by those old retired rocking chair flying geezers are really tall tales with a little truth behind them...
I love hearing them all though and it is fun to watch all the winks going around the club "Bullshit Table"....

Hi Doug...

Glad you found the above information interesting, I sure would like to come across a book with old old aviation slang and sayings in it.
I think that would be interesting to read...

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

By gosh Larry you might have something there....

Now Larry you mentioned the Cessna 337...this is all your fault you know getting me started.

The Vietnam War was going strong.

The Cessna 337 was in United States Military Service.

Pilots were in demand here in Canada.

I was young and in university and the company I flew for during the summer months required a Cessna 337 pilot for Forestry Patrol.

Being a Provincial Government Contract the requirements were for the pilot and insurance company were somewhere around this:
Age of pilot...25 years old
Hours on type...1000
Commercial Pilot Licence

Well after the first week the hired pilot found another flying position...corporate flying a light twin and living in Toronto and not a trailer somewhere in northern Canada...

I had about fifty hours on type, around eighteen years old and available as I was flying the Cessna 180 and Norseman on floats for the company, camp checks, food and booze delivery to camps, garbage pick-up and ice delivery amongst other things.

I loved having my own camping trailer supplied by the company with food and the use of a company half ton truck...

The company needed a pilot right away to keep the contract and when asked if I was qualified by another pilot I just kept my big mouth shut and nodded. 
I started doing the flights and they kept going until almost the end of the summer when head office caught up to things....the Chief Pilot was not amused but the owners and Operations Manager was...

They liked me so much they sent a letter to the company asking for me the next year.

Oh...by the way...the drinking age to go into a public hotel then was twenty-one...the lads would take me in and I was never asked for identification...

At the end of the summer I never did take home much money, maybe a thousand dollars, my dad took me out to the barn and I had a lot of explaining to do...he just nodded, smiled and said don't tell your mother.  He carried me all through university, I was not the oldest or youngest son...but my brothers and sisters all agreed I was the dumbest....

One of the things I remember about the Cessna 337 Larry was the Landing Gear in the early models.  One carried a Johnson Bar or Crow Bar.

Sometimes the gear did not come down and you had to open the pilots door, lean out between the door and fuselage and use the metal Crow Bar to pry the gear down...

Cessna soon fixed that...

But what a time I had....

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

patchz wrote on Sep 29^th, 2010 at 9:13pm:
I second that motion.  On the age versus hours, I think 'Specter 177', or whatever he's calling himself now, falls into this category.  If you want to go backwards, when I quit, at sixty, fifty two hundred.

Good morning...

Here is some info Larry....
 
Student Pilot Permit  14 years old                              Private Pilot Licence - Aeroplane 17 years old
Pilot Permit Ultra-light Aeroplane  16 years old                 Private Pilot Licence - Helicopter  17 years old
Pilot Permit Gyroplane  17 years old                   Commercial Pilot Licence - Aeroplane  18 years old 
Pilot Permit Recreational Aeroplane  16 years old  Commercial Pilot Licence - Helicopter  18 years old 
Pilot Licence - Glider  16 years old                               Airline Transport Pilot Licence - Aeroplane  21 years old 
Pilot Licence - Balloon  17 years old                              Airline Transport Pilot Licence - Helicopter  21 years old

My grandfather and father always had aircraft around, sometimes two or three at a time, growing up none of us paid for flying time or rented an aircraft.  Gas was cheap and there was always a variety of aircraft to fly sometimes. 

They were both retired military and commercial aviators and made money buying and selling aircraft as a side line.

We were flying, into contact sports, hunting and fishing almost as soon as we could walk.   

I was the only son who never went on to the Royal Military College or made a career out of the military, the years I was in was enough as the political leaders and I did not see eye to eye and I was very out spoken.           

I was bush flying for many of my dad's and grandfathers friends when I had my Private Licence which I got at seventeen, I did my solo at fourteen and got my Commercial at eighteen.

My older brothers and sisters obtained their Glider and Private Pilot's Licence through Air Cadets just like our children have done and some of our grandchildren are doing.

We stopped at a small bugsmasher field this summer where the Air Cadets were doing the Glider Training and I am sure some of them could not even be teenagers yet.... ...gosh they were young looking...

Some young folks have set records here by obtaining their Aviation Licences on their birthdays, afraid the only record I have set is staying alive this long and not going to jail....

Here is something to think about and makes me laugh about some of our silly rules and regulations today.

How many nineteen and twenty year olds were flying four engine bombers during World War Two.  The responsibility and combat flying according to my parents was more than what many of us can imagine.  They did it and got the job done....
I have had the pleasure and honour to fly and get to know a good many of them, some were even family members and relatives.   

Write a book, no not me.  There are a few good books by better Bush, Commercial and Military Aviators than me out there now well worth reading.   
Just to put things into perspective when I flew Commercial the aircraft like the Douglas DC3, 4 and 6 along with the Consolidated Canso/PBY 5A were ninety percent of the time on scheduled runs which were done daily, seven days a week.
The majority of landings were on paved, gravel or past war time strips.  The Canso was used because there were no runways after the ice melted at some locations which were on Hudson Bay and several other spots which now have some sort of land strip.
However they were all scheduled trips with some Government Contracts.

We did fly non-scheduled trips into remote lake with both the DC3 on wheel/skis or the Canso to set up caches for various civilian organisations and universities a good many times but these were gravy trips for me.

When I flew the Norseman and Otter these were also gravy trips, just extra money which always came in handy when one had a champagne taste but a beer pocket book...

Going to university (thanks to mom and dad) I flew the Cessna 180, 185, 337 and Norseman during the summer holidays and the odd weekend.
What I made was hardly enough to put me through university but damit I had a great time.       

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug


       

Good afternoon all...

Well thanks Larry but really I do not consider any of my accomplishments spectacular considering what some of our children have accomplished thus far.   

There is also an old gentleman I just got to know from the Royal Canadian Legion who flew Lancaster and Halifax Bombers during World War Two and almost every prop airliner that flew after the war.
I saw several of his Logbooks...

We compared Log Books several weeks ago and it is surprising how much he does remember about check Lists...puts me all too shame...

He comes into the Royal Canadian Legion once a day for his shot of Scotch Whisky and glass of on tap beer.   

You are right about the Veterans.

Larry I bet if you go into one of your American Legions or are they called "Posts", anyways I bet you will find several chaps who flew the B17 or B24 and a lot more heavy metal after the war who would be glad to share a story or two.   

Oh and if you get a chance Larry watch the television program  "Ice Pilots".
Now there is a bunch of young lads still flying the old prop jobs like the C46 and DC3 and in real life in the north of Canada.   
I think they are on the Internet as well.

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug