Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

GET SOME!

I've got some fixed wing and sailplane hours. No license yet. I've been flying with my 76 year-young dad in his two-seat ultralight lately.

Helicopter? That's like trying to stand on a ball. I don't see how anyone can ever learn those skills.

Joe, it's just like a bicycle. At first you don't think you'll ever be able to control it but then all of a sudden, out of the blue, you've got it and never give it a second thought. You can come back years later and the skill is still there.

Compared to a plane, a helicopter is more like a personal magic carpet, more a part of you than just a machine you're riding in.

Thank God you don't have to think twice about it. Cyclic...collective, er, oops.

Door Gunner: HUEY 1967/1968 Viet Nam

Wow, what an experience that must have been!
THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE DALE!!!

I went up in a two-seater Cessna once, back in the '80s!

Sorry, just trying to keep up with the conversation.

Choppers and music don't mix - Shirley Strachan (lead singer of ex-Aussie band Skyhooks) managed to put his into a cliff backwards. Incredibly sad!!

He's now doing gigs with the Angels!

Um, Howard, I can attest that John Hall, besides having his chopper, also has his chops.

Shirley (are you listening Kenny? Shirley!) could have used his Skyhooks then, I'll bet.

I am listening. And stop calling me Shirley.

It's a myth - MYTH!!

My dad was a combat vet of WWII and Korea, and did two tours in Viet Nam...he was a left-door gunner in '64-'65 at Camp Holloway (Pleiku). He quit the Army after his second tour...he hated what the war had become, and wasn't too fond of his commander-in-chief at that point either. He died of a brain tumor in '77 at the age of 49...door gunners frequently had to handle canisters of Agent O.
Years later, as a field engineer in Antarctica, I rode next to the left door many times on Navy Hueys...it felt like a glimpse of what the sarge went through. Of course, we never flew with the door open, nothing ever came through the floor, and the only things I shot were pictures of glaciers...

John, you being a pilot explains why RIC is the only one of the vintage US guitar makers still making everything in the US. It also explains why you're a cool guy and run a company that treats its employees and customers right. There is just something about pilots and musicians that makes a person cool, and makes them a valued part of the human race, rather than being some corporate snobby, money grubbing fool like so many other companies execs have turned into. (aka G%bs*n)
My dad is a pilot and has an airplane (1951 Piper Pacer), my brother and 2 cousins are pilots and fly for airlines, and 2 uncles are pilots and used to fly for airlines. All except for my brother own their own airplanes. I'd do it myself but my eyes aren't good enough......so I play guitar and bass instead!

Al Dronge, the founder of Guild was also a pilot. Unfortunately, while he was still president but after he had sold his company, he crashed his plane and was killed. Really a loss.

Now THAT was a cool company!

My dad was a navigator in Catalinas during WWII. Based in Northern Ireland, they flew out over the Atlantic looking for U-boats.

They had to ditch twice - freakin' cold!!

One night the bay doors stuck and he couldn't release a bomb. He was hauled up before a board of enquiry and was nearly court-martialled! He never got over it..........

Great aircraft, though - flew in one a couple of years ago.

The PBY is my favorite WWII plane. Used to be one near my house when I lived near Chicago, maybe 30 years ago... I spent hours admiring it. Very cool!