Still here, have the same P model George sold us, did you fly with Beau and have Chuck B as Chief Pilot ?.
I just missed Beau on the way out...I got hired just about the time he went West to fly 350s...but he was the guy I pestered for information on the company. Great guy, by all accounts, met him briefly during initial training. And yes, Chuck B. was the CP when I was there...what a great guy. I always thought I smoked a lot until I went on break time with Chuck...
Chuck seemed to have all the more interesting flights, he was co-pilot on the J model N770MA that tossed a blade near Corsicana, TX .Lucky for them the vibration set up from the 18" of blade loss broke the FCU from the mounts and shut the engine down within microseconds of the blade letting go.
Haha. Yeah that was one of many stories he told us that had me wondering what I'd gotten myself in to. Luckily, I never had any "great stories" to tell like he did. If the Zombie Apocalypse ever strikes, I'm staying the heck away from Tulsa, because that guy is unkillable.
George would always point to the Large hangar complex he built on the northside of TUL and say that MU-2 on a the pole near Sparks Aviation, tried to kill him so many times he had it mounted, the engineering into the mount cost him $36,000 in 1977 dollars alone.
He have a few and swear he was gonna cut it down the next time somebody for the "farside" of the ramp as he called it. "Hi George'd" him. He built all of that complex off US Military contract fuel sales and loss it all in the Oklahoma Oil bust of the Mid 80's.
He freely admitted losing 22 million dollars of his money in the bust, and added " i can't even tell you how much of my wife's money i lost". ( I believe she was a heir to one of the wealthy Tulsa Oil clans. He started working for her father flying the Co's B-26, Lodestar & Howard 500)
He was a character and a half, i'm sure you heard the one about a certain F/O Stinky and his visit to Matarmoros, MX or the brawl over the 4 crew cars at DFW and OKC.
Heh, no I think I missed that one, but I heard plenty of others. Something about a Mitsi going through a thunderstorm and getting a few lights busted out, taxiing in, and being pulled in to a hangar so he could bust out all of the rest of the lights with his
cane because he had all the spares and knew the insurance company would be buying them from him. Of course that's all second hand...
Sounds like great times, sorry I missed them (but I'll bet I've saved money on new underwear). They don't make em like that anymore! Thanks for chiming in and if you have any stories not fit for public consumption, feel free to PM