Pilots Must Be Hands On

 Midweek--Coffee Break
July 22nd, 3013


The worst thing a Navy carrier pilot can do is to land short of the landing area on the flight deck. When that happens the airplane either hits the  deck where it curves down behind the ship (called the ramp), or it misses the flight deck altogether and hits the rear-most part of the ship beneath the ramp called the spud-locker. Either way it can ruin your whole day.

     For that reason, the pilot stays totally focused upon the details of landing aboard the ship safely, ie staying aligned with the centerline of the angled flight deck as the ship moves constantly to the right, flying exactly the right approach speed, and, most importantly, controlling the decreasing altitude to stay exactly on the right glide slope (this is the part that keeps you off the ramp and out of the spud-locker). 

     In the early sixties when I was flying the F-8 Crusader from the USS Saratoga in the Mediterranean Sea, we used an ingeneous landing aid consisting of a large concave mirror mounted on the left side of the flight deck. An amber spot light mounted aft of the mirror shown into the center of the mirror to reflect back up the glide slope for the pilot’s reference. The mirror was flanked on either side by a fixed horizontal row of green datum lights. If the pilot kept the reflection of the orange light (called the “meatball”), in line with the row of green datum lights, he was on the proper glide slope to land on the right spot on the deck where his tailhook would catch the arrestring cables. This glide slope could be adjusted for different aircraft types by changing the tilt of the mirror.

     This concept went through several refinements until the gyro-stabilized Fresnel lens beamed colored lights up the glide slope; green for above glide slope, amber for on glide slope, red for below, and flashing red for dangerously below.

     Ultimately, of course, the Automatic Carrier Landing System was developed whereby the planes flight controls and engine power settings are controlled by radar from the ship. Although touted as a “hands off” system, I never knew a pilot...including myself...who didn’t keep one hand loosely on the control stick and the other loosely on the throttle, ready to override the system instantly.

     All of this is pertinent because we have just witnessed Asiana Airline Flight 214 incur the equivalent of a major ramp strike with the entire tail section (along with two young passengers) ending up in the spud-locker of San Francisco Bay. The NTSB has barely commenced

 it’s investigation, but already, it’s not looking good for the pilots.  The flight control recorder indicated the pilots were using “auto-throttle” to maintain proper approach airspeed, but either it hadn’t been properly engaged or had failed and not noticed until the airspeed had dropped 30 knots below where it was supposed to be, and impact with the ground was immenent.

     A career United pilot who had spent over five years as an instructor pilot for Korean Airlines has suggested there could have also been cultural issues in play in the cockpit whereby a junior instructor pilot may have been reluctant to emphatically correct a more senior “student” pilot. He also personally observed the propensity of the Koreans-as he put it-to become overly dependent upon technology.

     Airline Captain “Sully” Sullenberger, who successfully ditched his bird stricken plane into the Hudson River 5 years ago with virtually no casualties said “Pilots must be engaged, aware, and mentally flying the airplane even when it’s actually being flown by a computer.”

     It is becoming more clear that none of the four Asiana pilots was keeping one hand “loosely on the control stick (yoke) and the other loosely on the throttle.”

Coffee Break

 Midweek--Coffee Break
July 17th 2013


“This is the most transparent Administration in history.”      

                              Barack Obama; White House “Fireside Hangout” hosted on line by Google, February 13th, 2013

    As Saturday Night Live’s would be newscaster, Seth Meyers, would say in reply, “REALLY, Mr. President!”

    One of the most basic tenets of good leadership is maintaining--nay, demanding--timely communications with one’s subordinates up and down the chain of command.

    A good leader will have a well promulgated standing policy in place that his/her subordinates will instantly communicate anything that could possibly bring embarrassment to the organization or to the leader. A good leader should never be surprised.

    That Barack Obama would like Americans to believe he knew nothing about the IRS targeting conservative groups..”I first learned about this from the same news reports that I think most people learned about them”...he simply confirms our growing suspicians that his leadership is seriously lacking, OR that he commands no loyalty from his subordinates, OR that his operating MO is to insure denyability of any wrongdoing, OR that he is simply lying.  Yes, lying, not mis-speaking, not skirting the truth, but flat out lying...like it or not.

    Good leaders meet controversy head on and stay out ahead of it, but Mr. Obama, is in such a state of denial he lies even when the truth would serve him better. He is currently so overwhelmed by scandals on every side to the point of near helplessness, all to the worsening plight of our economy, our foreign policy, our national security, and certainly our confidence in government. As the President himself recently prophisized, “when we lose faith in our government, then we have problems”. REALLY, Mr President!

    The whys and wherefores of the Benghazi tragedy are still the subject of an “ongoing investigation” and cannot be discussed; not even the President’s and Secretary of State’s whereabouts throughout that evening after leaving the White House ops center and her State Dept office respectively early on while our Ambassador and three other Americans were murdered by Islamic terrorists, none of whom have been “brought to justice” as our President promised...but then what’s just another Presidential promise?

    In the meantime the leadership of the Justice Department and the IRS mirror the style of their Supreme Leader, Mr Obama himself. Lois Lerner, who headed the Non Profits division of the IRS which targeted only conservative  groups seeking non profit status refused to testify to a congressional hearing by pleading the Fifth Amendment, a rarely used tactic to avoid incrimination. Her lawyer swears she is innocent of any wrong-doing so one wonders just whom she is protecting.

    Eric Holder, the President’s old Chicago Mafia buddy whom he appointed US Attorney General continues his lying habits to Congress by denying any knowlege of or role in the unconstitutional persecution of Newsman James Rosen, which transcripts show he clearly did. He has previously lied under oath about the DOJ process resulting in not prosecuting Black Panthers for flagrant voter intimidation in the election of 2008. He also denyed any knowlege of the ill fated “Fast and Furious” DOJ program shipping guns to Mexico hoping to follow their trail to Cartel kingpins. DOJ records revealed Holder did in fact know of the program. One of the guns was traced to the incident in which Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed.

    Our President is currently watching the riots in Turkey directed against Prime Minister Erdogan who is inexorably (like a frog in gradually boiling water) leading his country (and our NATO ally) toward a more rigid form of anti American Islam. Yet he continues to praise Erdogan as “one of America’s closest friends”. Sayonara Egypt...and soon Turkey. Great foreign policy!

    And in the background of all this is the continuing saga of the Fort Hood terrorist attack (since 2009) by Major Nidal Hasan, who says he was acting in defense of the Taliban. Yet Obama, in deference to his affinity for Islam, continues to call it “workplace violence”, and refuses to put a stop to Hasan’s Army pay, by now in the hundreds of thousands. Must be of great comfort to the families and friends of the 13 innocents slaughtered by Hasan.

    We have a “Leader” who refuses to hold anyone accountable for anything...including himself.

Having A Little Heart-To-Heart

Midweek -- Coffee Break
July 3rd 3013

 Over the past 20 plus years I have had several heart attacks, the first being literally induced by an overly determined Cardiologist during a simple angioplasty to remove an 80% and a 50% blockage of my heart arteries. He left the balloon, which compresses the arterial plaque, inflated too long resulting in the rapid fibrillation of my heart until electrically shocked back into a normal rhythm by the paddles (“CLEAR!”..WHUMP), and then--according to the protocol of the hospital--double bypass surgery. 

    Since then, there have been three more heart attacks, two more angioplasties, four stents, and another (triple) bypass surgery. All of this with none of the usual antecedents of heart disease, ie family history, overweight, smoker, high blood pressure, etc.

However, heart disease (among other health issues) has more recently been presumptively attributed to the effect and circumstances of the Vietnam POW experience. And considering stress and heart disease are related, it makes sense to me.

     In any case, multiple heart attacks of course take a toll on the heart muscle itself. Heart attacks characteristically cut off blood flow through the heart’s arteries depriving much of the heart muscle of the blood it requires to stay healthy and viable. In my case, it has been determined, mostly by an Echocardiogram, that my “Ejection Fraction”, the measure of my heart’s efficiency in pumping blood, is only about 36%. Because I am below the normal of 65% to 75% my Cardiologist recommended an ICD (Implanted Cardio Device); a heart defibrillator (as opposed to a “pacemaker” which regulates the heart’s rhythm).

     The heart defibrillator is a programable, surgically implanted (in the chest to rest just below the clavacle) device about the size of a gentleman’s pocket watch with wire leads that connect through veins to both sides of the heart. If the heart’s rhythm drops below or rises above a certain level (fibrillation), the device delivers a strong shock to the heart returning it to it’s normal rhythm. This device is the result of years of trials and R & D and, considering the first heart defibrillator was the size of a washing machine, it is truly remarkable how far we have come.

  

    Vice President Dick Cheney could be considered the “poster boy” for the advances in cardiac technology. As a high profile/VIP heart patient, he has always had access to the “cutting edge” of life extending innovation. It seems that over the years the technology that has kept him alive--including several years using a defibrillator--has been developed just ahead of his advancing need. His treatment has given reality to the axiom, “necessity is the mother of invention”.

     For me, the use of a life saving device such as the defibrillator will be the source of much peace of mind (for which I am ever so grateful), even though there is a little trepidation about the unknown. It is said that when the device kicks into action, the electrical shock can feel like a kick in the chest from a mule. Talk about mixed emotions!...I can hardly wait.

   

A Reunion with Vietnam POW's

 Mid Week--Coffee Break
June 3rd 2013

En-rout to the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA. the eight big shiny buses (truly the limousines of tour buses) carrying returned Vietnam POWs and their guests--mostly wives or other close family members--made their way down Yorba Linda Blvd to the cheers and waves of hundreds of local folks. My enduring impression, through misty eyes, is of the dozen or so first graders lined across the porch of the  KFC all waving American flags and enthusiastically cheering us on.

    As we pulled into the circular drive of the Library itself we were surrounded by throngs of local well wishers and a hundred “Rolling Thunder” bikers who had escorted our buses the last several miles, most of them proud Vietnam Veterans as well. There followed a few short welcoming speeches and introductions by Library officials, President Nixon’s younger brother, Edward--himself an Ex Navy helo pilot--and the President’s daughter, Tricia.

    The next few hours were occupied by staggered tours with 30 or so POWs with each guide, and separated by a golf tournament style “shotgun start” which made the most efficient use of our time. The Library, of course featured President Nixon’s achievements such as founding the Environmental Protection Agency, opening up diplomatic relations with Mao’s Red China, and bringing the Vietnam war to an end with honor--later dishonored by a Democrat Congress refusing funding for promised continued material support for South Vietnam’s armed forces, thereby snatching defeat from the jaws of our victory.

    Perhaps the most noteworthy section was the Library’s comprehensive coverage of the Water Gate scandal, President Nixon’s most unflattering and darkest hour which ultimately led to his resignation of the Presidency. 

    The day concluded with a terrific bar-b-que picnic which also featured Tony Orlando singing his hit song, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree”, which has become not only the POWs but all returning Veteran’s theme song.

    The next day featured a late afternoon and evening at the Library which reprised the elegant formal welcome home banquet at the Nixon White House in April of 1973. That event--about which I have written separately--featured many celebrities of the day, and thirty or so POWs in an impromptu choir singing the POW Hymn, composed by a UNC music major turned Air Force fighter pilot turned POW, Colonel Quincy Collins. He composed the hymn in prison using four fellow POWs (including yours truly) for his “piano” to get the harmony just right. Well, we did it again for this occasion at the Library. Dressed in dashing Navy and Air Force mess dress (formal), we sang;

               “Oh God to Thee we raise this prayer and sing

                       from within these foreign prison walls

                We’re men who wear the gold and silver wings

                       and proudly heed our nation’s call

                Give us strength to withstand all the harm that the hand

                       of our enemy captors can do

                To inflict pain and strife and deprive every life

                       of the rights they know well we are due

                We pledge unswerving faith and loyalty

                       to our cause...America...and Thee...Amen...Amen!”

    During the four days of the reunion we all stayed at the Newport Beach Hyatt hotel, about a forty five minutes freeway drive to the Library. There were welcome and farewell events at the hotel as well, but the best part was in the “Ready Room”, the center of the action for any military pilot. The Hyatt had set aside a pool-side banquet room well stocked with hard and soft drinks, twenty four hour snacks, and information boards. A dozen round tables with chairs hosted many an animated group retelling favorite sea stories, war stories, and dog fights...complete with appropriate “airplane hands”. 

    A true reunion, some had not seen old cell mates for decades; cell mates with whom they had spent more years than with their wives at the time. Although arithmetic dictated the youngest of us was around sixty five years old, there was a great deal of enthusiasm for a fiftieth  anniversary reunion as well. 

    Speaking for myself,…I'm goin’ for it!

Spinning With the 'Gooney Bird'

Midweek--Coffee Break
 April 15, 2013

    

    In 1964 I was one of the “Red Hot” young instructor pilots at the Vigilante training squadron in Central Florida. The “Vigi” was being integrated into the Heavy Attack Wing there, an aviation community of older, more staid, more conservative pilots, some of whom were even crusty remnants of the Korean war. They tolerated us wet nosed youngsters like a patient old Lab tolerates exuberant puppies.

    Most of these senior and mid grade pilots were checked out in the training wing’s old vintage C-47, a twin engine propeller airplane that had been around since introduced by Douglas aircraft as the “DC-3” in 1935. Officially known as the “Dakota”, but affectionately known as the “Gooney Bird”, it was busy almost every weekend, flown by the older pilots delivering replacement parts and tires to stranded Vigi pilots on cross country training flights at far flung mlitary air fields across the country. Fed up with being away from their families on the weekends, they launched an informal training syllabus to get the younger jet pilots qualified in the lumbering old Gooney. So, we “younger jet pilots” launched the informal “Lieutenants Protective Society”.

      The Gooney Bird was so old it had conventional landing gear with a tail wheel, just taxiing the beast to the runway was a challenge because the nose sat so high you couldn’t see forward around it so you had to taxi back and forth in an “S” pattern to see what was ahead. Having never taxied an airplane with a tail wheel, the first young candidate, in the first few minutes of his first lesson, crunched a wing tip on the corner of a hangar, so he was off the hook.

      The second Lieutenant trainee, like most younger pilots, hadn’t flown a propeller driven airplane since years before in the training command. Starting a conventional reciprocating engine is hardly rocket science, but  more complicated than a simple jet engine. There are three levers controlling each engine, the throttle, the propeller pitch, and the fuel/air mixture. Well, in the process of his first startup he got confused and backfired the starboard engine so violently he blew a cylinder completely off the engine. He was off the hook.

    Then came my turn. I managed the taxi and takeoff uneventfully, but every flying training syllabus includes “approaches to stalls” whereby the power is reduced and as the airplane slows you keep raising the nose higher and higher until the airflow across the wings fails to produce sufficient “lift” to keep the plane flying. You induce an aerodynamic stall. The plane bucks and shudders until you push the nose down and add power to regain flying speed, but if you wait too long, the plane drops into a spin. I waited too long!

      Chief Petty Officer Bernini was the wizened old Plane Captain (the person responsible for the plane’s preparation and readiness). He had thousands of hours logged in C-47s. While airborne, he habitually stood behind the space between the pilot and copilot while drinking his coffee. Although I immediately initiated spin recovery with the controls, we still made about three complete rotations from four thousand feet down to two thousand feet, where we recovered. But needless to say, there were a few very “white kniuckle” seconds of chaos there in the cockpit. But since the Gooney Bird “never spins”, we had to immediately return to base and inspect the plane for structural damage. 

    On the return I noticed Bernini was sweating profusely through his coffee stained shirt. We no sooner shut down the engines and he made a bee line to the Commanding Officer’s office. As related by the C.O. himself, Bernini tossed his wings onto the desk as he managed to stutter out, “Skipper, if you keep trying to check out these crazy Lieutenants  I’m turnin’ in my wings.” 

    All the Lieutenants were of the hook.

    The C-47 has a storied operational past from pre WWII, to Air Molokai right here on Oahu. Fortunately, we will soon have one on display at the Pacific Aviation Museum on Ford Island. I’m proud to have a (very) few Gooney Bird hours in my own log book.

Skylar and The Mighty Mo's Dent

Midweek--Coffee Break
 January 23, 2013

Like many Oahu residents, I have visited the USS Missouri several times. And I never tire of seeing the big dent in the starboard side, deck level, a little aft of midship.
I always imagine the scene of the Japanese kamikaze (divine wind) plane smashing into the ship in a fiery crash, and the casualties it must have caused.
But I just learned from a visiting Big Mo “plank owner” (original crew) that such was not the case.
Skylar Fredrickson, a farm boy from Worcester, Mass., joined the Navy at age 17 – he’s now 85 – to serve his country and to a learn a trade. He was aboard the battleship in the South Pacific during a particularly fierce battle.
As a member of the ship’s R Division (Repair) his “battle station” assigned him to a Damage Control position near the ship’s stern.
“Sky” saw the incoming suicide plane just in time to dive for cover behind a gun turret.
Fortunately, the kamikaze pilot misjudged his dive.
Instead of his plane slamming into a hard, flat surface, it hit at an angle at deck level. Half of the wreckage, with one wing and the pilot, scattered onto the deck, the other half fell into the water – miraculously, it didn’t explode.
The ship’s captain insisted the Japanese pilot be buried honorably. His burial at sea in a canvas bag was as dignified as that of a Missouri crewman, but had to be rushed because of another incoming raid.
Again Sky manned his battle station, again anti-aircraft guns blazed away, but this time a kamikaze plane screamed over his station at 50 feet and crashed harmlessly into the sea.
Another miraculous miss. After the damage to the ship had been mopped up and repaired, Sky took a pair of metal cutters to the big red ball (the Japanese aircraft insignia) on the wrecked wing and cut strips to distribute to his shipmates as souvenirs of the battle.
Of course, Sky was not only proud of “Big Mo’s” fighting prowess, but also of the fact that ultimately it was the site of the Japanese surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay, which formalized America’s victory in World War II.
Sky literally had a bird’s-eye view of the proceedings. From a perch “12 stories up” he witnessed Nimitz, Halsey and McArthur receive the sword of the Japanese military representative as they all signed the surrender documents – a chickenskin moment.
I interrupted Sky’s animated narration just long enough to ask him, “Why do you think you survived all those harrowing days aboard the Mighty Mo? How did you do it?” He thought for a second, and then in typical Greatest Generation humility said, “Oh, I was just lucky!”

A Japanese Zero about to crash into the Mighty Mo. Photo courtesy of USS Missouri Memorial Association

Pope Francis I

Midweek -- Coffee Break
 March 8th 2013

     This morning, Wednesday, March 13, 2013, I watched on TV the introduction of the new Pope, Argentina’s, 75 year old, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. As he walked out the door and through the curtains to the balcony overlooking St Peters square, the 100,000 umbrella’d believers erupted into prolonged cheering and applause for the first Pope from the western hemisphere, the first Franciscan Pope, hence, Pope Francis the First.

    Even though I was a practising Catholic for 35 years, I’ve not been one for the past 20 years, so I felt no special personal attraction to the event. But I did feel a sense of joy and pride, because there is a greater significance in the selection of a new Pope that transends a specific religion or denomination, perhaps because this one man can effect the social and spiritual lives of 1.2 billion believers worldwide.

   Pope Francis the First is about to take the reins of the church when some of its most basic tenets of are being challenged. Contrary to established church doctrine, according to most recent polls, 58% of catholic believers favor abortion “in some cases”, 62% believe the church should accept divorce, 63% favor the use of contraceptives. A growing number of catholics believe Priests should be allowed to marry, that women should have a greater role in leadership and liturgy, and all of this with the overlay of the priestly sex abuse and coverup scandal with horrendous moral and financial consequences. The Vatican gardens are rife with thorny issues. But Pope Francis the First, in his first few words spoken from that famous balcony overlooking the multitudes, indicated he is the right Gardener for the times.

     Like St Francis himself, the Patron Saint of the natural environment, and of animals, birds, fish and all God’s living creatures, the gentleness and humility of the new Pope were clearly evident. After thanking the people for their tremendous welcome, he invited them to pray for him. “Brothers and sisters please pray for me. Let us pray silently together”. And then he prayed aloud, again with the people, the most common and universal prayer of all; The Lord’s Prayer. 

     I think I was especially touched by the event this morning because as a youngster learning California history, I was always fascinated by the Franciscan monk, Father Junipero Serra who founded nine of the 21 Spanish missions spanning the length of the state, and having a major role in several others. And because my catholic faith sustained me through some very dark times in my life.

    Three years ago while travelling in Italy, Susan and I sought out the picturesque town of Assisi where St. Francis ministered to the poor in the early 1200s AD, and we prayed at his tomb there in the lower catacombs of the majestic basilica of St. Francis.

    Finally, in honoring the new Pope, Francis the First, I am moved to share one of Christianity’s most moving prayers which is also set to music; The “Prayer of Saint Francis”. If you choose to read it, please do so  thoughtfully, and appreciate!

                       Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace

                           Where there is hatred let me sow love

                           Where there is injury, pardon

                           Where there is doubt, faith

                           Where there is despair, hope

                           Where there is darkness, light

                           Where there is sadness, joy

                     O Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek...

                     To be consoled as to console

                     To be understood as to understand

                     To be loved as to love

                      It is in giving that we receive

                      It is in pardoning that we are pardoned

                      It is in dying that we are born to eternal life

                                                   Amen

    

                             Long live Pope Francis the First!

               May his rein be fruitful, and  may his legacy be rich.