Best flight ever.

[phrogpilot73]

I used to make trips with my parents in the family Bonanza back to Iowa every summer, and the only thing I really remember about flying over Mt Rushmore (or the mountains around them) is how freaking incredibly turbulent that leg always was. Normally a mid afternoon takeoff, summertime, Rapid City SD to Billings, MT. There was almost never a moment of that flight where the plane wasn't getting thrown around the sky. Still it was pretty cool to see from the air....it looked a LOT smaller than it does in your pics though....almost indiscernable from the background clutter

Again, we were at 500' and 1/2 mile away from Mt Rushmore. I'm guessing that you guys were higher/farther away in a Bonanza. I was waaaayyy too busy wiggling the sticks to take picture of us flying through Yellowstone. Although, I enjoyed Cody, WY enough to think that I could live there for the rest of my life. That is, until I checked out their winter temps. Never mind!

 

[A4sForever]

Flyby Rushmore ... but the caption is wrong. The flight was in 1977 and I was drivin' one of the birds ... ... CAP'n Wimberly TRAWING-3 Commodore) was in the lead ...

Link: VT-24/TRAWING 3 fly-by Mt. Rushmore, 1977
(I can't put the pix up -- it's proprietary now -- although it never used to be and was hanging in every OPS terminal in the USN at the time -- today it's only found on the Skyhawk Assn webpage)

When I put my letter in -- he called me into his office & interviewed me as I was the TRAWing LSO and he wanted to know 'why one of his boys was getting out ... "

After we talked for @ 30 minutes ... he offered the opinion:

"You know ... I was going to get out ... I could have gone to work for PanAm ... what do you think I'd be making a year, now ... ??"

CAP'n Wimberly on the right (he's a very, very GOOD man) and someone else in a trop-white uni' that many of YOU might know ...
​

 

[rondebmar]

Best flight ever?? Had a few of'em, because I simply survived...but every once in a while I recall this one:

Was a (the only surviving) nugget in the squadron...fresh out of Advanced at Corpus (VT-30 Spads)...directly to the RAG (VA-45 JAX)...then directly to Medcruise...

Couple months into the cruise, fragged for a night live ordnance drop onto whatever target we used over there...section leader was a senior LT...a good man, but not the best "stick" I ever flew with.

Cat off Saratoga, join up...first thing I get from lead is he's totally NORDO...no TX, no RX...OK, WTF!! So utilize a little common sense, take the lead, nav to our briefed "live ord drop zone"...utilizing all the briefed signals, dumped our loads of Mk 80 series bombs on safe, flew some circles around the dark sky, smoked a couple butts, took him into marshall, (case III recovery)...down the chute, bring him onto final, ON SPEED, ON CENTERLINE, CENTERED BALL...kissed his ass good by, broke to the left, joined the bolter w/o pattern, shot my own OK #3 (LOL!), and trudged down to Ready Five.

Met by most of the guys in the squadron, hanging' loose, awaiting our return, I guess. I discerned a sense of astonishment on their part. I don't know what the hell they were all thinking...were we supposed to crash, burn and die?? Use a little head work, follow NATOPS, follow the preflight briefing...and perform the way you were trained!! That is all.

Except of course, for this one...(maybe a TIE?):

http://www.skyhawk.org/2d/tins/tins-glider_ron-marron.htm