Map of Flights in the T-37

Here is a PDF map of the flights I took in the T-37 aircraft during my AF flying career. I have marked each airport with a red dot. I enjoyed more than 500 hours of flight time in the T-37 and flew with some fine pilots who I still call friends. These include but are not limited to John Valvano, Dennis Smith, Tom Barralle, Mike Minahan, John Wampler, Bob Duffie, Heidi Hernandez, Bob Tardie, Greg Remaley, Jeff Hancock, Scott Schaeffer, Jeff Gogan, Al Prass, Frank Pechin, Tom Swiderick, Kevin Smith, Darrell Richardson, Clint Dawes, Rick Mathis, Phil Stevens, Mike Stocksdale, Tim Fitzgerald, Brad Ewing, and even Col Paul Guttman. Most of the pilots I've listed were LTs or Captains and were either T-37 instructor pilots assigned to Plattsburgh AFB or fellow KC-135 co-pliots assigned to the 310th or 380th Air Refueling Squadrons at Plattsburgh. Col. Guttman was one of my commanders when I was assigned to fly in the 380 Air Refueling Squadron.

Shoot Fest 2007

Well, the big gun event was held this weekend (Saturday morning) with Rhino, Cam and Big Nate taking the lead. I met them out at the farm about 8am. When I drove up they already had a big fire going and had arranged themselves around the fire and were eating donuts and drinking hot chocolate. I stopped by McDonalds to grab a couple of chicken biscuits for my breakfast. I throw one biscuit away and put two pieces of chicken on a biscuit to make a decent breakfast sandwich. I brought my SKS (AK knockoff) and about 100 rounds of ammo. I thought I had also brought another 100 rounds but ended up grabbing the wrong boxes so only had 100 rounds total. That SKS shoots through ammo rather quickly so we each took a couple of turns with the 10 round clips and then turned to shooting skeet the rest of the morning with the shotguns the other guys brought.

Here's the SKS rifle that I brought to the event. I also have the 30 round magazine that attaches to the receiver for additional firepower when needed. It is a blast to shoot and has very little kick.

After a couple of hours the rest of the big gang showed up and the "tournament" got under way. The Millers showed, the Lowerys, and the Farris' for a while and of course David T. I'd guess for the day we killed 2 pumpkins, several cold drinks, a few bushes, and a ton of clay pigeons. It was a fun day and lots of fun was had by all who attended. Ryan and Cam also brought the turkey fryer and some peanut oil as well as 2 - 12 pound turkeys. Around 11am they threw the first one in the fryer and we finished shooting as the turkeys were frying. Both of the turkeys turned out excellently and most of it disappeared before we left the farm. I got to bring home the left over turkey so I should be set for a few days now. I love left over turkey and will enjoy eating all of it. For pictures of the days events check out Ryans blog or Cams blog in a few days here. Hopefully one or both of them will have some great pictures posted soon.

Overall an excellent weekend. It was great to have Big Nate and Kara in town and getting to eat great food with friends is always fun. Thanksgiving is about my favorite time of the year and this year offered some excellent food and great fellowship. And then to top it off the new pastor at my church is starting us on the walk through Advent. I have always appreciated the Christian calendar and am excited that he will be using it to enhance our seasonal awareness as he shares the meaning and significance of the events surrounding Christmas all of the way through Easter Resurrection Sunday.

Thanksgiving

I know many people post a note of the things they are thankful for and I felt I had to as well. I am blown away by the opportunities and blessings that God has given to me over the years. First and foremost of course is the gift of salvation made available to each of us through His son Jesus Christ. Here are a few of my favorite blessings.

My family
My friends spread around the globe
My church family here at First Baptist
My job
My country
My house/home in Sparta
My home state of TN
The freedoms I enjoy as a result of my citizenship
My experiences growing up in Pakistan and Taiwan
My experiences serving in the US Air Force

I could list a thousand more, but that will do for now. As you can see God has blessed me way more than I deserve and because of that I wouldn't trade my life with anybody.

Today I was able to go to some friends house for Thanksgiving dinner and fellowship (thanks Millers). They (the women of course) made an incredible meal and we ate more than we had a right to. After lunch we played electronic monopoly. I haven't played Monopoly in years and the new electronic monopoly uses an electronic credit card type system where credits and debits are done through the bank rather than the traditional cash method as in the original. I did OK and ended up being the second one left...Caleb L beat me in the end. What a great day.

The Taiwan Years: 6th Grade

Morrison’s campus was awesome and my house was right outside the North wall of campus in another walled off section of land. There was a small walk-through gate between the compound where my house was located and the main campus and that was the way we waked to school every day. My house was a 2 story house that had 1 bedroom downstairs and 4 bedrooms upstairs. Until my oldest brother Bill left for college my bedroom was on the ground floor just off of the kitchen. It was a small bedroom but worked well since it had plenty of room for a kid and it had a connected half bath. The bad thing about the room was that since it wasn’t upstairs it didn’t ever get any of the benefit of the air conditioner that was in my parents bedroom. Since Taiwan has such hot weather it got fairly warm in there some days/evenings.

One of the cool things about the house was that it had a large flat roof on it and stairs that led up from a porch on the rear of the house. Since houses in Taiwan usually had window metal grates it was easy to climb up from the outside of the house to get to the rear porch and then from there I would just climb the stairs to the roof. Andy, a neighbor and best friend, would climb up on his roof and I would climb onto mine and we would then throw things back and forth to each other as well as just sit up there and talk and look for stars, aircraft, and/or anything else we could find in the sky. Sometime we would get some bottle rockets and shoot them off from the roof. Eventually my dad or his would hear us and realize all of the noise they were complaining about was actually coming from their own rooftop and would come looking for us.

One of the more exciting things we did was run around on the schools campus or climb the many buildings and towers on campus. With practice and increasing strength we were eventually able to climb onto every building on campus including the water tower and the upstairs gym which had a roof that was about 80 feet high and had no safe access. On one evening Andy, Jon and I decided to get some cheap bottle rockets and lay on top of the front guard shack of the school and shoot them at passing taxicabs on Shui Nan Road. We bought about 100 rockets and a few boxes of matches and climbed up on top of the shack. The roof was slanted at 2 angles. The leading edge was higher and then it slopped back towards the campus (away from the road) and then rounded out to a flat area where we could sit and organize our supply of goods. We would sit on the flat spot and had a perfect hiding place behind the higher ledge that shielded us from view from the main road. We would then lay the bottle rocket on the edge of the higher ledge and wait for a taxi to make its way towards the front of the school before we lit the bottle rocket. The slope of the roof was perfect to launch the rocket towards the road.

Well on this particular day we had already shot about 50 bottle rockets towards the road without really getting too near a taxi when Jon lit "the one". He aimed it and, as we watched, it streaked towards an approaching taxi and shot right into the drivers side rear window. It hit the door and then blew up inside the back seat of the taxi. The driver screeched to a halt in the middle of the road and threw open the driver’s door. He jumped out of the taxi wielding a large screwdriver in his hand screaming like a madman in Chinese. I’m not sure what he was saying, but I can guarantee it wasn’t flattering or meant to be friendly or inviting. I think he called us every name in the book and he didn’t even know who we were or where we were located. He came running towards the school’s front gate and the guard shack as the three of us jumped down off of the roof back inside the campus wall where he couldn’t see us. We took off running towards the back of campus and the safety of the soccer and baseball fields. We never found out what the guard had to do to get rid of the taxi driver but the next day at school the principal made an announcement about fireworks and firework safety. He reminded us (the student body) that at no time should anybody ever shoot firecrackers at taxis or pedestrians in front of Morrison. He also promised severe consequences to any student found disobeying this safety command. Of course as good young men looking to have fun we ignored his message and continued to shoot bottle rockets at taxis the very next week. We did decide to rotate our sniper positions and found 3 other good spots near the road to use for bottle rocket launching positions including a giant grove of bamboo trees just up from campus.

Some of my great memories include friends I made during my first few years in Taiwan at Morrison Academy. These included Jon Reeser, Jim Kassebaum, Kevin Cieply, Steve Abrams, Ron Heinsman, Andy Jackson, Tom Kosten, Clarence Moore and Mark Weida. Of course there were also a lot of girls… 6th grade was about the time when all of us guys were starting to realize that girls were pretty nice. I played basketball with many of the guys on the MS team and some of us played soccer together as well. Almost every afternoon after school we either were at sports practice or hanging out on the plaza talking and listening to music. These 3 Middle School years at Morrison were some good years.

Wedding festivities and Bob

Well since some of my family does actually come read this blog I'll try not to embarrass any of them too much or fail to recognize and appreciate any of them too much as well. I have a fairly large immediate family for today's standard of 3.5 people per family. My family consists of 7 members; a dad, a mom, oldest son, second son, oldest daughter, me and youngest daughter. Now for the past 12 years and counting son # 2 and I were the only remaining singles in the family. My older sister Becky got married first way back in 1982, my oldest brother Bill got married in 1987/1988 time-frame (forgot the exact year), and my younger sister Beth got married around 1995 or so.

Son #2, Bob, the other single Jones began dating a young lady a while back. She has been friends with my older sister for years and is a woman who loves and serves God. Anyway, to make a long story short Bob... well, he went and fell in love... and well, they are now engaged to be married in December. While this news, at first blush, might appear to put additional pressure on me to step up and get hitched it adds no measurable pressure. But, I will admit that it does kind of feel weird now that I will be the only one without a mate (not so weird that it makes me want to find one but weird nonetheless).

With Bob's upcoming marriage I got to thinking about family and specifically what they have meant to me over the years. The main thing that I am thankful for in my family is that all of us have an intimate and personal relationship with God. I'm not trying to say any of us, and certainly not me, are perfect, but just that we all love God and have submitted to His Lordship in our lives. I thank God that my parents raised us in church and lived lives that reflected Christ so that we would be drawn to Him. Their main desire was for each of us to meet God and repent of our sins and submit to His authority in our lives. What a blessing to know that each and every day they prayed that we would "make" their God our God. I realize we didn't do anything and that it was all God who did any of the saving. As Paul tells us in Romans 3:10-11 as he writes about all of us "Jews and Gentiles".

"THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;"

While I will never pretend to fully understand God's grace I am in awe that He loves me and even loves me enough to have sent His son to die for the forgiveness of my sins. What an incredible truth.

My family is pretty awesome. We are fairly spread out geographically right now but there were times when we lived together as a family. We lived together in Dhaka and Faridpur, East Pakistan; Taichung, Taiwan; Woodbury, TN (at different times); Boys Ranch, TX; Dayton, OH and probably a few places I am not even aware of. We currently live in cities spread over the entire contiguous USA (Sparta, TN, Woodbury, TN, Leesburgh, FL, Lakeport, CA, Richmond, VA and Forney, TX.) and yet are still one family. I wouldn't trade my family for any other family in the world.

Anyway, to get back to Bob and what he means to the family. He is the brother that all 4 of the other siblings call for help. He is the guy that will give and do for anybody (including those not in the family). Since my accident he and my Dad have built me a garage in Memphis, a front porch in Pittsburgh, a rear deck in Sparta among other jobs/items I can't even remember. When the terrorists attached us back on September 11, 2001 he was in Pittsburgh working on rebuilding my front porch. In fact, right now he is in FL helping my parents with their winter property. I'm sure he and dad are building or fixing something as I type this blog (well, probably not today but yesterday anyway).

Today's blog is to say thanks to my entire family but mostly to say congrats to my older brother and to tell him that I love him and that I am happy that he found a keeper. Congrats Bob -- I hope Penney realizes that she hit the jackpot.

Captain Cano and I

It was a beautiful February day in Phoenix with temperatures in the mid 70’s. I arrived on the flight-line excited about a planned out and back to Luke AFB that day. Things had been going well with my flight training and I was starting to feel very comfortable in the T-37 aircraft. Capt Cano, a guest IP from Colombia, was to be my instructor for the day since this was one of my first instrument flights in the program. Capt Cano had flown OA-37B aircraft in counter insurgency (COIN) operations for the Colombian Air Force prior to being assigned as an instructor pilot at Williams.

Our flight for the day was planned and flown under instrument flight rules (IFR) procedures even though the weather was clear and cloudless. I went to base operations (Base Ops) and began to plan the flight including altitudes to file, speeds to fly and what type of approach to shoot into Luke AFB. Luke was just across town in North West Phoenix and was a convenient place to fly for navigation and instrument practice.

I finished the flight planning and returned to the duty room to get Capt Cano and brief for the flight. We conducted a thorough pre-flight briefing and then proceeded back to Base Ops so that he could get the weather briefing with me and double check to make sure that I had planned appropriately. He also checked for any airport advisories I might have missed during my planning session. We then proceeded to life support to get our helmets and parachutes for the flight. After strapping on the helmet and testing for proper fit and testing the oxygen system and radio microphone operations we headed back towards the duty room. We signed out with the duty officer for the day and headed out towards the flight-line.

We arrived at the jet as the temperature was creeping up towards 85 degrees. We found the jet and as Capt. Cano began the exterior inspection he had me jump into the jet to start getting the cockpit organized for my first navigation flight. I jumped in and hooked up the radio and oxygen systems and started to go through all of the publications to gather together the appropriate charts and approach plates for Luke AFB and the surrounding area. Capt Cano jumped in and after we finished the pre-flight checklist for engine start and had copied our air traffic control (ATC) clearance we fired up the engines and taxied to the active runway. The instrument runway at Williams AFB was the center runway and that was where we were cleared. The take-off and climb-out were smooth and I flew the jet towards Luke AFB while Capt Cano gave me pointers and advice on instrument flight. We were scheduled for several instrument approaches as well as some basic air work on the way over.

After getting handed off to Luke tower we flew a couple of instrument approaches and when we burned our fuel down to our return to base (RTB) bingo level we obtained our clearance back towards Williams AFB. We climbed out of Luke and were passing through 2000 feet on our way to 3000 feet when a large white flash of light to my left caught my eye. I turned in time to see a fast closing jet headed our way. Without time for a warning, except a muffled yelp, I violently jammed the control stick to my right in a descending right turn to try and avoid the rapidly approaching corporate jet. I rolled inverted and dove the jet towards the desert floor below us. The abrupt maneuver allowed us to barely miss the other jet as it screamed about 50 feet off of the left wingtip of our aircraft. We had rolled to about 90 degrees of bank when we saw the jet streak over us. I then rolled the aircraft back upright just about the time Capt Cano had time to realize what had just happened and to react. He saw the jet as we were rolling back to level flight and began saying things in Spanish that I really didn’t want to understand. He was obviously shaken and after a minute or two of silent flight had me call air traffic control to advise them of the near fatal incident. In the military we call these type incidents "near misses" but in actuality they should be called near hits.

We continued on towards Williams AFB and upon arrival had to report to the squadron commander’s office and file a report both for the Air Force and its records as well as for Phoenix Approach (ATC) and their records. We never heard if the aircraft had deviated from their assigned flight clearance or if they were simply flying under visual flight rules and never even heard/saw us. Either way, they didn’t take any kind of evasive action and ATC informed us later that they were not in communication with them at that point in their flight. The funny part of the story was that from that day on, until Capt Cano returned home to Colombia, he would always try to buy my lunch and get me drinks when we were at work. He kept telling me that we had lived through a life changing situation together and survived...and he was forever thankful. I never did tell him I was really only saving my own life and he just happened to get lucky and be with me at the time.

Fantasy Football

Well, as many of you know I am in a football league with several men in my church. I have a decent team that was doing very well until this past weekend. I was 8 and 1 going into this weekend and was in first place in my league and of course my conference. I have Tom Brady and he is the main reason I have done so well this year. This weekend Brady and my star receiver were on a bye week so I ended up getting whooped. It has been fun so far since there are a couple of guys who really take it seriously and they have been getting kicked and my team (I selected many players just on the sound of their name) has been doing so well. It is always fun when somebody who doesn't care beats up on the guys who take it way to seriously.

On another note, I ended up buying the property (extra 5 acres behind my house) that I was looking at. I met with the owner on Monday and was able to negotiate a mutually beneficial price and should close this week or early next. I didn't need the extra land but it will be nice to have the extra space between me and the commercial property located on that edge of my property. I can now plant a bunch of trees up on that ridge to provide more of a buffer between where I want my house and the business located back there.

I've been working on some more stories from my growing up days in Taiwan so check back for an update to my 6th grade years at Morrison Academy in Taichung, Taiwan. I'm having to go back and look through some school yearbooks and picture albums to gather all of my memories on that period in my life.

Great Safe Escapades

A couple of weeks ago I bought a heavy industrial safe to keep in my garage. Anyway, I lined up a moving guy to come and haul it to my house. From the warehouse location to my house is about 1/4 a mile but involves about 500 feet of highway road usage. Anyway the moving guy didn't work out too well...his truck was old and about shot and the lift-gate he had couldn't lift much weight and was way too small in surface area lifting capability. So some friends decided that they would help me out by hauling the safe to my casa in a pickup truck. The safe is deceptive in appearance since it is only about 28" square and only about 42 inches high. But don't let the small size fool you...that baby weighs a ton (well actually only about 800 lbs/363KG).

So 4 guys from church (Tim, Ryan, Cameron, and David) drive to my house and we head out to the warehouse. The guy I bought the safe from met us there and David climbs onto the forklift to move the safe into position. The guys wrap chains and safety straps around the safe and successfully transfer it from the deck into the back of Ryan's red mule (the pickup trucks name). David actually loaded the safe into the back of the pickup truck with the fork-lift. We then hauled it back to the house where the fun began. The truck bed sat about 30 inches or so from the ground and the safe was way to heavy to just lift out and sit on the ground. All four of the guys climbed into the truck bed to spin the safe around so that the wheels were facing the correct way. The wheels are Little steel wheels that don't swivel at all and don't roll real well. Ryan had brought some 4-wheeler ramps so we braced them with concrete blocks at the midway point and wrapped some safety cord around the safe and Tim and Ryan eased it out of the truck down onto the ramps and onto the driveway concrete (the rest of us watched and encouraged them along at a SAFE distance). See video clip here. I just noticed David was in the middle helping the safe roll down. It took a while since we weren't sure how heavy that baby was going to be and how much force was going to be applied downward towards the guys easing it along.

At 30 degrees I think the force of the object was about 400 pounds towards Tim and Ryan pushing to keep it from flying down the ramp as they eased it down the ramp. I used zero (conservative since it was in reality slightly greater than zero) for the friction force since it had free rolling wheels zero for acceleration since it was done very slowly and simply multiplied 30 degrees X (Sin) which equals .5. I then multiplied .5 X 800 pounds to come up with the 400 pounds of force. Of course I pulled all of those formulas and figures from my derriere so I can't confirm the veracity of any numbers shown. But, Tara took some video of the event so you can find it on Ryan's blog at the link above. The good thing was that nobody was injured and I got out of it with simply owing all of them a steak dinner at Outback.

Fall/Winter is finally here

Well, it looks like the weather is finally starting to turn seasonal. Today was a beautiful Fall day with temps in the low 50s after an overnight of around 35. I’ve been looking forward to some nice cooler weather with cool evenings and clear crisp days. My only concern is that Cadbury might get too cold and die on me. In case you haven’t read any earlier posts Cadbury is the Pekin Duck (common white duck) I have that is almost 7 months old now. He lives in my yard and sleeps under my back porch/deck. He thinks I am his mom and follows me everywhere when I am outside. I think he likes the cooler weather since I’ve gone outside in the early mornings on some colder days and he is swimming around in the pool/pond quacking away.

On the property business. It looks like I will be able to buy the adjoining five acres to my 20 acre building site. The additional 5 will give me additional room/space towards the tractor equipment company and give ample space to build my garage/hanger where I need to for easy access. I want to plant a bunch of trees on the hill so that it blocks all views of any surrounding buildings and will give my house a more rural country feel. I should know for sure this week if I will be able to get the property for the price I need. Not mush else to report.

The Happening 2007

This past weekend the Happening took place here in Sparta, TN. The Happening is an annual event that happens here in Sparta and was began by the late Sandra Sparkman. Sandra got the idea from a friend and then got with some friends at our church (Jan, Sandra, Caroline, Carol...) to begin what is now in its 8th or 9th year. The dream was to provide a night of fun, food, fellowship and most importantly God to the high school aged kids here in White County.

The event usually hosts about half of the high school population (this year we had 602 of the 1250 students enrolled) here in Sparta and provides an opportunity for them to be challenged by a guest minister who shares the gospel message. The evening is broken into several parts with 2 worship services/periods and several free periods where students are able to do crafts, sing karaoke, play sports or skill events in the gymnasium, fellowship in the cafeteria or just hang out with friends. The worship periods involve a guest band (this year we had Dave Hunt) leading the music service and then a message from the speaker (Tony Nolan from the Atlanta area). During the second service there is an opportunity for the kids to respond and have somebody pray with them or share the gospel message one-on-one. This year we had about 270 decisions of some type with about 70 professions of faith.

Many of the kids just needed to have somebody pray with them and encourage them in their faith. Many do not regularly attend church and most do not have families that support them, pray for them or encourage them in their walk with God. The world shows them how to live for the moment and pursue selfish and carnal desires but obviously fails to encourage holy and righteous living. When 99% of what they (and us) see and hear is meant to lead them (us) from God it becomes impossible to stay focused on Him and to take up their (our) cross daily and follow Christ. The local churches are responsible to follow up with the kids to make sure they have contacts and are encouraged to plug into a local body of believers. My prayer is that we as local believers will be sensitive to these kids and reach out to them all year long and not just one night in November. These kids are hurting and confused and need some of us adults to step up and lead by example. Pray that we will be faithful and in so doing will have a positive impact on the lives of all in our community.

T-37: ACE Trip with Wamps

John (Wamps) and I decided that as soon as Alert was over we would load up and head South for a few days. We planned to leave January 12th and return on January 16th. We also planned to stay close to the East coast and fly through Morristown, NJ and on down through Richmond, VA Cherry Point, NC, Charleston, SC and on to Navy Cecil Field in Jacksonville, FL. From there we would turn around and head back North reversing our Southbound course to Plattsburgh AFB, New York.

Well, we left Plattsburgh and flew towards Morristown, NJ. When approaching New York city we asked for a tour of the West side of Manhattan and a visual tour of the Statue of Liberty. At times, if air traffic was light and the controller was in a good mood, you could get them to allow flights around the Statue and Ellis Island. Anyway, we hit the timing just right and he gave us clearance and an altitude down around 1500 feet. We ended up flying around a few minutes and then we were asked to climb to 3000 feet. Right as we reached 3000 we were given a heading and then traffic was called out at 2000 feet and climbing. About that time the Concord came into view right off of our nose climbing through 2000 feet on its way out of JFK towards Heathrow, England. I rolled upside down right as we flew over the top of the Concord and we could see both pilots looking at us as they climbed out on their departure path. It was awesome to see such a huge yet sleek looking jet flying so nears to us. I think they told us that at that point in their flight profile they were only doing about 300 knots indicated airspeed. After they reach altitude they fly in the range of Mach 2.

After we landed at Morristown we refueled and loaded back up for our trip to Richmond and Cherry Point. Usually on these flights the call sign we used was given to us by the ACE flight commander back at Plattsburgh. Wamps and I decided that on this trip we would change our call signs and use state appropriate call signs for each flight segment. So, as we left New York state we used a call sign of Liberty 25 and when leaving out of Richmond we used Hokie 25 (VA Tech mascot). From Cherry Point on down to Charleston we used Heel 25 (NC Tar Heels) and finally from Charleston to Navy Cecil we used Cocky 25 (USC mascot). From Navy Cecil in Fl we used Gator 25 and on the return trip we repeated call signs as we flew out of states.

Well, out of Cherry Point we also decided to do things slightly differently than planned. Usually we would file an IFR flight plan and fly strictly an instrument flight profile with clearances and air traffic control monitoring the entire flight. Wamps and I decided to check out the flight regime down near the surface and planned a flight at 1000 feet along the coast under visual flight rules (VFR). The problem with this plan was that we were at a military (Marine Corps base) and they didn’t have all of the civilian notices to airmen for the planned route of flight. Anyway, me being the idiot that I am/was on occasion never considered that we might be flying into airspace that had unique and special flight rules. We launched out of Charleston and descended back down to 500 feet or so (at times we were down flying just above the water) as we cruised down the coast towards Charleston International airport. About 10 minutes into our flight we saw a huge pelican fly up and just below us, we commented on how close it was and we better make sure we were clearing for birds carefully.

Anyway, during the flight we saw a few more birds as well as some beautiful coastal terrain. Never did it dawn on either of us “rocket scientists” that we were a couple of idiots flying through protected reserve land. Here we were entrusted to fly multimillion dollars jets for a living and couldn't pick up on the inappropriate character (plus: safety and discipline) of this flight until we landed at Charleston and started to read the official notices to airmen for the coastal area. We had just flown through protected game reserves with NO FLIGHT restrictions in place below 2000 feet and all kinds of other flight rules for any operation near or within the airspace. Thankfully we didn’t hit anything during the flight and we had flown at altitudes too low for air traffic control to track us. This was one of several “lesson learned” flights I had during my ACE days. The purpose of the program was for us to learn as we actually flew around the country gaining experience. Of course the intent was not to do something this stupid but rather to make small errors and learn from them. We fortunately made a big one and lived to fly again another day with our rear ends and wings still safe and secure.

Property Update

I met with my bulldozer guy again today to lay out the road/runway as well as how big I want the ponds dug. I am expecting this to set me back about $10-$12K to have the ponds dug out and the runway graded and flattened including the gravel work to finish it out. If I decide to have the first 500 feet of runway paved in asphalt I can add about $10-15K to that figure. Man I hate the thought of that but I really want this to be "home" since I plan to die here (not any time soon - but one never knows about these things).

After the dirt work is complete I will then start building the garage/hanger first (it will include a built in apartment on one end). That way I can move in and sell my existing home/property before I build my dome residence. I am getting pretty excited about the possibilities. I'm thinking I will build a giant Quonset hut style garage/hanger about 60 feet wide by 120 to 150 feet long. I've even spoken to the sheriff and police chief about building a shooting range in one end of the garage. I'd line the walls with sand bags and reinforce the target end with plywood and extra sand to guarantee that no bullets penetrate through.

I am also looking at having the bulldozer guy clear off a football field sized lot at the road to allow for soccer and football usage if the church ever needs it. I could install a couple of goals with nets as well as mark off lines and keep it mowed ready for use. The area towards the road is pretty flat and nice already so don't think it would be that difficult to smooth off that area. I called the gas company, electric company, phone company, water and cable company to come mark their lines to guarantee I don't dig up something valuable when we start digging the roadway and ponds. I'll keep you updated on progress as it happens. I'll also snap some pictures to show progress along the way. I'll even try to get some aerial shots as well.

T-37: Ace Trip with DJ

The great thing about ACE (Accelerated Co-Pilot Enhancement / Enrichment) was that we (one of the 2 KC-135 or B-52 co-pilots on each flight) were the pilot in command (the flight caption who made all flight decisions) and could elect what altitude, route and even to some extent which bases you visited on each cross country trip. For each of our ACE cross country flights, prior to leaving Plattsburgh, we would plan the basic route of flight. During the trip we let the guys back at ACE headquarters know if we had to significantly deviate from these plans. So, it was basically a license to have fun and learn airmanship by trying and doing (even learning from the mistakes made along the way) as we flew all over the country.

For this trip I arranged to fly with Dennis (DJ) and head towards FL. DJ and I decided we would leave Plattsburgh on March 23rd right after we got off of our week long alert tour and head South to get some sun and warmth. Since we had to be back in Plattsburgh by Sunday afternoon we decided to head down to North FL /South GA and then return. After checking out our options we decided on Wednesday to head from Plattsburgh to Harrisburg, PA for gas and then on through Yeager, WV enroute to Pope AFB, NC for an over night stay. 3 hops (flight segments) was about as far as you want to go in one day in a T-37 aircraft. The jet was fun to fly but wasn’t that fast and was un-pressurized so when you flew high you felt it the next day. We usually planned for anywhere from 300 to 400 mile hops. We got up on Thursday morning and flew to Robins AFB, GA and then on down to Moody AFB, GA.

Moody had been an undergraduate pilot training base back in the 1940s through 1975 but was now home to the 74th Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS) with their assigned F-16 Fighting Falcons.

The F-16 is still and always will be one of the best looking jets of all time.
(Side Note: The 23rd Wing now hosts 2 A/AO-10 Squadrons instead of F-16s.) Anyway, we arrived on station for a simple turn (land and refuel) as we headed back North towards Knoxville, TN. Once we arrived on station at Moody we quickly realized there were no other flight operations at the time so we decided to just have some fun in the overhead pattern practicing touch and go landings. I showed Dennis my technique of holding the plane down to about 25 feet as I accelerated to about 250 knots and then did an aggressive pull up into the inside downwind pattern for another trip back up to the perch point for a roll around the final turn for landing. It was the standard pattern for the T-37 except a little more aggressive than was typically done back at ones home base. Well, he decided to give my technique a try and about half way into our 5 G pull through vertical he started to gray out and then lost his field of view. I watched as he unloaded the jet (released back pressure) and then just flew straight upwards. We were quickly running out of airspeed and ideas and I knew he had lost his bearings. I asked him if he knew where he was and what he was doing he just said, “oh man, I can’t see, you have the jet”.

I took control of the jet and asked DJ if he could see anything yet. It wasn’t that big a deal since there were two of us on board and I hadn’t started to black out and was able to immediately take control of the jet and roll us back into level flight. I then turned us onto downwind before the tower noticed anything unusual. The only comment we got from the tower was, “man, that jet does pretty good, it must be fun to fly.” Of course with F-16s on station they knew the T-37 looked fun to fly but wasn’t in the same league as the F-16 Falcon. DJ was fairly new in the ACE program and it was exactly these type situations that the program was intended for. Each flight we learned things about ourselves and how we would handle different situations. Later after I had moved on I spoke to him and he shared stories of similar flights with younger co-pilots after he had gained additional experience in the jet. DJ had carried on the tradition as he mentored and flew with younger less experienced guys. Of course when I talk to him I still give him grief about the time I saved his bacon in GA.

We landed and refueled and then headed back North to Knoxville for the night. The next day we got up and flew to Wright Patterson AFB, OH and then on to Buffalo, NY to refuel one more time as we headed back towards Plattsburgh. The nice thing about flying into Buffalo is that you could usually get a short tour of Niagara Falls. We ended up having plenty of fuel as we arrived in the Bufallo area so we did a few laps around Niagara Falls before landing and refueling. The falls are beautiful at any time but my favorite time to see them is during the winter when the falls and surrounding area are covered with ice. Unbelievable to see that much ice covering a raging water fall. The mist also freezes on the surrounding trees and makes an effect of trees made of glass. It is absolutely beautiful and well worth the trip at least once in your life.