Surviving military aviation Chapter 1: What not to do

[Reconjoe]

In response to some of the good stories peppered throughout the forums, here is a thread for all those "students gone crazy" stories, or myths and legends of pilot induced debauchery which may or may not have ended in some less than desirable Fitrep remarks.

I'm sure it would be good that we leave names and particular details out....use common sense.

One infamous story floating around K-rock is about a student who was going out on what I presume was a cross country solo. The flight was a simple out-n-back to a field a few hours away. Student solo X and his buddy decide to make a guy date out of the whole experience instead. Student X launches solo from Kingsville and makes it to his destination. Prior to that, student Y had taken a short road trip with others to the same city, bringing along all his flight gear. Both students met up for lunch before both returning to the plane, suiting up, and departing for a brolo back to base. Upon arriving at K-ville, they may have almost gotten away with it, except they didn't count on getting caught by one of the contract linemen. This particular lineman was expecting a student Solo to return in said jet, yet noticed clearly that there were two bodies in the cockpit. Puzzled, he phoned maintenance control with the question, who then forwarded the same question and puzzlement to the WDO shack. After what I'm sure was a brief moment of head scratching, everyone apparently caught on real quick to the tomfoolery being had here. Both students were promptly invited to attend a meeting with the CO in their finest attire and all decided it would be best if they would seek employment in some other community. I'm sure someone out there may have a more accurate account but this seem's to be the most common version that instructors have passed along and confirmed.

 

[ACowboyinTexas]

The stupidity only gets you washed out of the flight program. It's the attempted coverup that gets you booted out of the whole damn Navy. The above is about as accurate as a non-eye witness account can be. Several on this board were there when it happened. I think my desk was the next to the last ass-chewing those guys got on their way out the door.

 

[FLYMARINES]

I heard a similar story like this involving a T-44 and two studs picking up their girlfriends at some regional airport around Corpus and then heading to Houston or Austin or something like that. Like you can imagine the rumor was it didn't work out too well for the studs. I guess instead of a brolo it would have been like an orgy-olo.

 

[helolumpy]

Of course you could land and pick up your wife... Then crash... http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/10/u...ed-in-fatal-helicopter-crash.html?ref=bahamas

 

[SynixMan]

True confessions of your time in Orange and White would be about as dumb as telling your wife what you did in Vegas...

 

[FLYMARINES]

Of course you could land and pick up your wife... Then crash... http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/10/u...ed-in-fatal-helicopter-crash.html?ref=bahamas

Wow is about all I can say.

 

[ea6bflyr]

Of course you could land and pick up your wife... Then crash... http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/10/u...ed-in-fatal-helicopter-crash.html?ref=bahamas

Looks like the Warrent was convicted in Jun of 99 but didn't serve any time instead, he was given a reprimand and $10,000 in fines and forfeited pay.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1999-06-13/news/9906130164_1_army-pilot-guido-wife

 

[pilot_man]

How about the T-45 solo who got tired of waiting for the next pilot on a hot seat, so he showed up to the waiting room and told the dude that the jet was waiting on him. He had just left the plane running and got out. That sort of thing does not work well for ones career.

 

[blackbart22]

When I was stationed at NORIS, a P-2V flight engineer got tired of waiting for the pilots and fired up the bird and flew it to NAS New Orleans. Landed it OK, but ran it off the end of the runway. Heard that he got busted to E-5. When I was at Whiteing there was a NAVCAD that would land at Choctaw OLF and pick up his girl friend, take her for a ride, drop her back off there and then fly home. Then there was the A-9 student and the A-1 student that inadvertantly got airborne in a T-34B at Saufley.

 

[Lawman]

Honestly for the most part, guys I saw dismissed from Flight school we knocked out for shit they did outside of the cockpit 90% of the time. Being that the Warrant community is probably 70-80% prior enlisted (and most were at least E5) you would think they'd know how to behave in TRADOC and just shut up and not draw fire. However those guys usually have the worst time readjusting to being treated like a private again so a lot of that "Im too good for this bullshit" attitude ends up biting them in the ass. Shit like, Im not working today except for PT, guess Ill go down to Panama City on a Tuesday without leave/pass and advertise to anybody that asks (including a retired O6) that Im a flight student at Rucker. Or one of my favorites try to get away without taking leave and go all the way back to Ft Campbell for Thanksgiving and then try and play off that your "too drunk to drive yourself" to the recall formation that was sprung on you. Works fine till somebody on the staff tells your class leader "go get his ass... put it in a uniform... and get him here or nobody is going home today." Both instances, prior enlisted NCOs.

 

[MIDNJAC]

How about the T-45 solo who got tired of waiting for the next pilot on a hot seat, so he showed up to the waiting room and told the dude that the jet was waiting on him. He had just left the plane running and got out. That sort of thing does not work well for ones career.

Wow, had heard the K-rock bromance story several times, but never heard that one. That's some impressive headwork.

As for the stories of bringing girlfriends/wives into aircraft, I will just say that my grandpa proposed to my grandma in the cockpit of a B-24 that he was flying. They landed, and were later happily married for 30+ years until he died a premature death at 66.

 

[Reconjoe]

How about the T-45 solo who got tired of waiting for the next pilot on a hot seat, so he showed up to the waiting room and told the dude that the jet was waiting on him. He had just left the plane running and got out. That sort of thing does not work well for ones career.

Did they not have a strike frequency back then for these sorta things?

 

[Mr. Blonde]

Cowboy I'm sure you would know for sure then, but I seem to recall that part of the story on those two guys was that it was supposed to be an airnav ccx but they ended up cancelling IFR and doing an impromptu low level through south Texas on the way to krock? Or am I just mixing up facts with something else I heard once?

 

[squorch2]

Studs, take note: don't cancel IFR on your airnav solo to go do some "fun stuff." It's just not worth it.

 

[usmarinemike]

Studs, take note: don't cancel IFR on your airnav solo to go do some "fun stuff." It's just not worth it.

That's what the VFR solos in primary are for. Of course, you can't do it with the canopy open in the T-6. Not that I would know anything about any of that...seriously.