Still doesn't explain how you can be FAA rated for an aircraft that has no civilian equivalent
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Ferry Pilots
- Thread starter brownshoe
- Start date
Sea story alert! Just in case some of you might not want to waste time reading further. 
We’d been on quals aboard the Lex and somehow gotten stuck at Pensacola with no ride home. We hung around, and hung around for a few days getting very desperate. The O in C and a few of us went over to the tower to see if we couldn’t get/beg a ride home somehow.
While we were hanging around the tower pestering everybody an old DC-6 (don’t remember the military name) on route to the bone yard, had landed at Pensacola for some reason. The tower staff, anxious to get rid of us, quickly negotiated a ride back to Cecil on this plane. The ferry pilot who looked like Smiling Jack (crumpled hat and all) agreed to go out of his way and give us a lift back home.
We all scurried off to get our stuff together and got back to the tower ASAP. We boarded the plane and settled in for our trip home. As luck would have it, one of the engines wouldn’t start. The pilot came back in the cabin and said we’d all have to get off the plane until he’d figured out what he was doing about the engine.
Off we clambered, waiting anxiously by the disabled plane for any encouraging news. The pilot announced, after he and the ground crew replaced the cowling on the engine, that that he’d take the plane out on the runway, pitch the prop on the hard to start engine and run up the runway at speed to force the engine to start.
We all stood on the ramp cheering like crazy as Smiling Jack took the plane up the runway forcing the engine to start. With the hard to start engine coughing and spitting the pilot retuned to the ramp, picked us up, and we were finally on our way home!
When we landed at Cecil the pilot came back to the cabin to say he wasn’t going to shut down the engines, we’d have to disembark in the prop wash. Hey, no problem, off we got. He waved at us from the cockpit as he taxied back to the runway. Thanks to that ferry pilot we’d gotten home. He didn’t have to do it either, he just did it because that’s the way things used to be done years ago. He helped out a few sailors who needed a ride.
Another time we were stranded we got a ride home on the “Hay Wagon” a lumped out DC-3 admirals plane. But that’s another story.
Steve
We’d been on quals aboard the Lex and somehow gotten stuck at Pensacola with no ride home. We hung around, and hung around for a few days getting very desperate. The O in C and a few of us went over to the tower to see if we couldn’t get/beg a ride home somehow.
While we were hanging around the tower pestering everybody an old DC-6 (don’t remember the military name) on route to the bone yard, had landed at Pensacola for some reason. The tower staff, anxious to get rid of us, quickly negotiated a ride back to Cecil on this plane. The ferry pilot who looked like Smiling Jack (crumpled hat and all) agreed to go out of his way and give us a lift back home.
We all scurried off to get our stuff together and got back to the tower ASAP. We boarded the plane and settled in for our trip home. As luck would have it, one of the engines wouldn’t start. The pilot came back in the cabin and said we’d all have to get off the plane until he’d figured out what he was doing about the engine.
Off we clambered, waiting anxiously by the disabled plane for any encouraging news. The pilot announced, after he and the ground crew replaced the cowling on the engine, that that he’d take the plane out on the runway, pitch the prop on the hard to start engine and run up the runway at speed to force the engine to start.
We all stood on the ramp cheering like crazy as Smiling Jack took the plane up the runway forcing the engine to start. With the hard to start engine coughing and spitting the pilot retuned to the ramp, picked us up, and we were finally on our way home!
When we landed at Cecil the pilot came back to the cabin to say he wasn’t going to shut down the engines, we’d have to disembark in the prop wash. Hey, no problem, off we got. He waved at us from the cockpit as he taxied back to the runway. Thanks to that ferry pilot we’d gotten home. He didn’t have to do it either, he just did it because that’s the way things used to be done years ago. He helped out a few sailors who needed a ride.
Another time we were stranded we got a ride home on the “Hay Wagon” a lumped out DC-3 admirals plane. But that’s another story.
Steve
You Sir may very well be older than A-4s. Did you know John Paul Jones?
You Sir may very well be older than A-4s. Did you know John Paul Jones?
Nope... He got out of the navy a few years before I joined. From what I hear though he was a good guy.
Steve
I was an aircrewman at NADEP North Island in 2006 and went on the deliveries of C-2's and E-2's to Norfolk. The pilots and NFO's out at the NADEP Test Line had a good deal. It was really laid back. The only bad part was the prop guys could go 2 months without having a plane come through so you don't get a whole lot of hours out there. During times like that they would go over and fly with VRC-30 for currency. The cross country trips were fun though, stopping in different RON cities every time...
A4's or JPJ?
A4's or JPJ?
John Paul Jones
I joined the navy after high school while I was 17. A4's was still in college most likely. We're about the same age though. I'm 61. Steve
Yeah but the guys with Grumman St. Augustine patches who occasionally find their way into the VAQ-129 ready room probably do. If a RAG NATOPS "I" says you're good to go, I bet the rest is just Navy/FAA paperwork.Still doesn't explain how you can be FAA rated for an aircraft that has no civilian equivalent