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Mind If I Borrow It? AF Mechanic Commandeers a F-86 Sabre.

Great Story!! I think if a maintainer did that today, they would send him to Gitmo...and they probably wouldn't approve his PTS;)
I can't believe they used to let maintainers do high speed taxiing. Does anyone know when they stopped that?
 
Flying Toaster said:
Excellent read! I can only imagine what would occur if this happened today...
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I recall an incident where on 06/04/86, a Marine mech L/CPL Howard Foote, stole an A-4M Skyhawk at MCAS El Toro at night! He took off, flew up toward March AFB then returned and orbited while they scrambled around to get the landing lights turned on (field was closed for July 4th holiday). Foote landed without incident & taken into custody. He was later court-martialed & discharged from the Corps.

Foote was not without "stick time', he held a PPL, and was an accomplished Hi-Altitude glider pilot. The complete story appeared in a recent issuue of A-4EVER, the quarterly Journal of the Skyhawk Association.

I also remember another lncident [around] 1958, wheh an FJ-4B Squadron mechanic on a NAAS Fallon deployment, took off while on a maint. taxi, and flew around locally for a while, wae then coaxed down by radio. Made a rough landing, rolling off the side of the runway. Resulted in major damage to landing gear & airframe, but no injury. Disposition of case unknown.
*Thumbnail: FJ-4 FuryVA-94 FJ-4.jpg
BzB
 
Urban legend holds that Army helicopters have keys because a maintainer wanted to take one for a ride and land at the White House.
Since "anyone" could just walk out on the flight line, start a helo and fly it away, the logical response was to make a key required for starting up.

I flew H-60A's was the CA Guard unit once and the Ignition Switch (which is a switch on an overhead panel is allows power to the Ignitors in both motors on a Seahawks) was a no-shit key switch like on your front door.
 
BusyBee604 said:
I recall an incident where on 06/04/86, a Marine mech L/CPL Howard Foote, stole an A-4M Skyhawk at MCAS El Toro at night! He took off, flew up toward March AFB then returned and orbited while they scrambled around to get the landing lights turned on (field was closed for July 4th holiday). Foote landed without incident & taken into custody. He was later court-martialed & discharged from the Corps.

Foote was not without "stick time', he held a PPL, and was an accomplished Hi-Altitude glider pilot. The complete story appeared in a recent issuue of A-4EVER, the quarterly Journal of the Skyhawk Association.
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I remember this as I grew up in socal, was in high school and saw it on the news. Crazy.
 
Security back in the day was almost nil. I used to fantasize how easy it would be to "borrow" another squadron's aircraft after normal hours and take it for a joy ride. Not that I would ever do it, but it would have been easy.

Then on an XC to P'cola one weekend to visit a friend, he asked if I wanted to fly the T-28. So on a Sunday we just went out to Whiting where he was an instructor, climbed into one and off we went. I was never sure how he pulled that off; I didn't ask and he didn't tell.

Then there was the mental case years ago that stole an Army reserve tank and went on a joyride crushing parked cars and rolling down the freeway. Of course that didn't end so well for him.
 
helolumpy said:
Urban legend holds that Army helicopters have keys because a maintainer wanted to take one for a ride and land at the White House.
Since "anyone" could just walk out on the flight line, start a helo and fly it away, the logical response was to make a key required for starting up.

I flew H-60A's was the CA Guard unit once and the Ignition Switch (which is a switch on an overhead panel is allows power to the Ignitors in both motors on a Seahawks) was a no-shit key switch like on your front door.
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Not an urban legend. Check out the story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_White_House_helicopter_incident.

The tank incident happened in San Diego. Luckily the Padres were doing poorly that year or the driver might have crushed more cars as he drove in the vacinity of Jack Murphy stadium. In the end, he was killed by law enforcement when they fired into the top hatch.
 
RobLyman said:
Not an urban legend. Check out the story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_White_House_helicopter_incident.

The tank incident happened in San Diego. Luckily the Padres were doing poorly that year or the driver might have crushed more cars as he drove in the vacinity of Jack Murphy stadium. In the end, he was killed by law enforcement when they fired into the top hatch.
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He high centered himself on the median, didn't he? If memory serves me correctly, it was an old M60 tank he was puttering around in. Though he couldn't go too far, he could have done a lot more damage had he not run over that barrier.
 
FWIW, Williams (Phoenix-Mesa Gateway) is a great gas/food stop if you've got a little time to kill, but not enough time to make a trip to Phoenix worthwhile. The field is gi-normous, all sorts of T/M/S stop there, the FBO has good, quick service, and the restaurant is top-notch.

Again, not a place I would go as a destination (stay in Phoenix proper if you're going to Phoenix), but a good enroute stop.
 
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