Here is one of the posts regarding my stories. I post it here because I need blubbering adoration.
Spiraldive
Joined: Dec 08, 2001
Posts: 214
From: OGG
Posted: 2003-07-03 00:45
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Duke:
You have clearly forgotten more about flying than most of us will ever have the chance to know. The battle you now fight is not a new one, but more people than you have ever met want you to win it. Me included.
If you have given to your family half what you have given to flying, your family must think you are a saint (silly them, we all know pilots are bastards at heart ).
I have a feeling that we’ll get the chance to hear your sordid stories about the merits of one stewardess over another for some time to come. And don’t worry, like all good aviators, we won’t tell your wife or family. Promise. Really. We won’t.
Btw, that you can both write AND fly is unusual, since many pilots can’t do either.
For the record, your stories make me a little mad, ‘cause those were the glory days when stewardesses made less money than the pilots, and passengers thought pilots were heros for just getting them on the ground still alive. Now the ‘stews, many of whom are pushing 55, whine like abandoned dogs if they even feel the plane land and ‘risk’ is a word alien to the travelling public.
It is nice to hear tales told as only the true pilots can tell them. I have had the privilege of hearing similar stories told of the days when smoking pipes was the norm in the cockpit and the "stews" were as free thinking as the crazy bastards that flew them around. The trouble-makers were inevitably listed as the best pilots of the bunch.
Your tales list you as one trouble-maker who is either truly blessed, incredibly skilled, or just plain lucky. (I see that you seem to favour, ahem, -"incredibly skilled"-, modesty not being a trait found in most pilots, I guess)
I have the pleasure of knowing a few other aviators who have lived through similarly silly (and from what I can see, enviable) careers (using Germany as a dogfight playground in Sabres? Whee!) . Also some of the less enviable flying, ie. flying when and where they shouldn’t, for reasons that TC would have kittens over these days. Like getting the job done ‘cause war, hunger, or family, called for it.
In thirty-five years time, Duke, your friends and family may have an excuse to have no dry eyes in the house. And some similarly crazed trouble-makers may have figured out a way to steal a fleet of TBM Avengers from the Canadian Aviation Museum and overfly the church in missing-man formation. Should the time come, I’ll happily steal one myself and then write tall stories about it. Until then…
History is written not by the victors like everyone says it is- it’s written by the survivors.
And your stories list you as being solidly among them.
My best wishes and hopes that you’ll be writing your own damn history for some time to come. Tell me when the book comes out.
Be well.
Spiraldive.
I cannot thank people enough for giving me the inspiration to live my life over again and share it with fellow Aviators.
Thank you all who read.