"Back in the day" stories

[Flugelman]

F-man: What is this copy machine you speak of? If it isn't purple/blue & stink to high heaven, I don't think it can be used to make copies. Internet? Is that something used to catch fishes?

I meant a copier like we see today.

When I retired at NAS CC we were still using a copier where we had to go to the secretary to get the paper and a sheet to go between the copy and document to be copied. A step up from the purple stuff A.B Dick machine ( I can't believe I even remembered the name...) but not much.

 

[exhelodrvr]

Actually, my experience was that it was a lot easier to get the flight schedule out before computers. Once we got the first "word processors", we were in the publishing business. No more pen-and-ink changes; no more not worrying about a fuel load being off by one column, so that it wasn't quite lined up.

 

[Scoob]

Gee, what it must have been like to be "combat effective" rather than "powerpoint savvy"...

Those must've been the days.

 

[Flugelman]

Gee, what it must have been like to be "combat effective" rather than "powerpoint savvy"...

Those must've been the days.

Power Point??? We didn't need no stinkin' Power Point!!!

 

[Godspeed]

What was wrong with writing the flight schedule up on a whiteboard or even chalkboard back then? We still do that today, at least in the VTs.

 

[Flugelman]

What was wrong with writing the flight schedule up on a whiteboard or even chalkboard back then? We still do that today, at least in the VTs.

Hard to send a whiteboard to the Wing or NAS Ops, and the CO didn't like whiteboards on his desk....

 

[Godspeed]

Hard to send a whiteboard to the Wing or NAS Ops, and the CO didn't like whiteboards on his desk....

I misunderstood sir. That's why you used papyrus scrolls...

 

[BACONATOR]

I guess we don't file paper flight plans anymore, either? My last was in '82, so I guess there've been a few procedural changes since then.

What's a flight plan?

-helo bubba

 

[HeyJoe]

Back in THE day

What was wrong with writing the flight schedule up on a whiteboard or even chalkboard back then? We still do that today, at least in the VTs.

Aviation cadets await hops in ready room at Kingston Field, NATC, Corpus Christi, Texas. November 1942. Lt. Comdr. Charles Fenno Jacobs (US Navy via National Archives)

 

[Catmando]

Flight schedules for the squadron were printed on a mimeograph machine with spirit fluid (just the smell of that stuff makes memories come flooding back... that is... if they still make the stuff). You had to type REAL HARD on the manual typewriter to cut through the stencil... and correcting the masters were a real bitch with correction fluid.
Clicky

Man I loved the smell of a blue ink mimeographed flight schedule in the morning.

Back in the day we used to sniff the schedule before reading it.

 

[HeyJoe]

Man I loved the smell of a blue ink mimeographed flight schedule in the morning.

Back in the day we used to sniff the schedule before reading it.

I can still hear the sound of the drum going round and round even back through elementary school where we'd sniff the quizzes and tests that were fresh off the machine...still remember first copier that arrived in the squadron in early 80s and first Z248 computers with big floppy disks in mid 80s. Those were the days! Before that, our Skeds O had a personal Commodore 64 that he brought on cruise and eventually programmed to spit out a flight schedule after hours and hours of programming.

Also recall the early Fax machines that had the funky paper and drums that had to roll over and over before you got something you might be able to read.

 

[Catmando]

CNATRA is destroying all of its old Student Naval Aviator hard copy records, but former USN, USMC, and USCG flight students can request their records be sent to them by writing:

M. A. Mclauglin
Chief of Naval Air Training
250 Lexington Blvd Suite 102
Corpus Christi, TX 78419-5041

I need a copy to tell me what I did in flight training... 'cause I was in a cottage cheese fog for most of the way through.

On another topic, NAMI at P'cola used to run a bunch of tests (like EEGs and coordination tests) on every new SNA. They were trying to establish a database to predict success as a Naval Aviator. They supposedly followed their subjects to correlate their predictions with actual outcomes.

1. Does NAMI still do this?

2. Does anyone know if one's personal test results and follow-up are available to the individual?

3. Does anyone know who to contact and how to do this other than an in-the-dark letter to NAMI?

4. And I bet I proved 'em wrong...... ~~~

 

[HeyJoe]

Man I loved the smell of a blue ink mimeographed flight schedule in the morning.

Back in the day we used to sniff the schedule before reading it.

I can still hear the sound of the drum going round and round even back through elementary school where we'd sniff the quizzes and tests that were fresh off the machine...still remember first copier that arrived in the squadron in early 80s and first Z248 computers with big floppy disks in mid 80s. Those were the days! Before that, our Skeds O had a personal Commodore 64 that he brought on cruise and eventually programmed to spit out a flight schedule after hours and hours of programming.

Also recall the early Fax machines that had the funky paper and drums that had to roll over and over before you got something you might be able to read.

 

[FlyMikeFly]

I misunderstood sir. That's you you used papyrus scrolls...

Papyrus scrolls...:icon_lol: classic!

 

[exhelodrvr]

Man I loved the smell of a blue ink mimeographed flight schedule in the morning.

Back in the day we used to sniff the schedule before reading it.

"Back in the day we used to sniff the schedule before reading it."

Good preparation for being a "hinge."