Cal Branton invited our guest speaker Charles Horihan, a Vietnam-era pilot.  Charlie described training in a T38 Talon, the highest performance military aircraft at the time, capable of climbing to 30,000 ft in 3 minutes (average vertical speed 120 mph), ceiling of 53,000 ft, and a roll rate of 300 degrees/sec. Slow rolls could be done with only rudder. In one emergency pull-up he reached 9.3 Gs without losing consciousness due to his G-suit.  But the a/c was rated for only 7.3 Gs.  Some Dzus fasteners were popped.  Then he “went off to fly C-130 Herky Birds” because he “wanted to see the world.”

He flew Berlin airlift missions when there “was a lot of stuff fresh from WW2.”  He helped put out oil well fires in Iraq caused by Egyptian terrorists, carrying pipe and supplies and meeting the famous Red Adair.  Landing gear doors were removed, and the wheels were partially deflated in order to land on sand.  The movie Hell Fighters with John Wayne is based on this incident.

At the age of 25 he went off to Vietnam, Laos and Thailand to fly “airlift stuff,” being told that the war would be over in 6 months.  He flew “beans, bullets and bodies,” mostly supporting the Army. Then he dropped night flares over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, illuminating trucks to be attacked by Sky Raiders, F100s and F4s (the F4’s were too fast to be useful)—“a pretty Rube Goldberg operation.”   Over 200 million tons of bombs were dropped on the trail, more than all of WW2.

His last assignment was flying Cessna Bird Dogs as a Forward Air Controller (FAC).  They were equipped with rockets which were occasionally used.  He radioed targets to artillery units. A “rewarding” accomplishment was rescuing a group of surrounded ground troops.

His last day in Vietnam was the first day of the Tet offensive in which his Bird Dog was damaged, and he escaped under mortar fire.

After the war he did photo mapping in the US and South America and flew for NWA.  When he retired at age 60 in 2001 he had flown over 26,000 hours of which 1000 hours were in combat, all accident-free.  “I didn’t even blow a tire.”

Returning to Vietnam as a tourist, he found the people to be “very gracious,” and “they treated us very well.”

John Baligrodzki presented his Yellow P-47.  8 flights so far.  “Flies nice.” Construction with the help of Kirk Hall.  John substituted a G62 for the standard G45.  No balance weight was required.  He applied 13,000 vinyl rivets from Fritz Designs 

They were applied after primer and before Krylon Metal Silver.  After much experimentation, he found the

best results to be buffing each panel in a different direction with 000 steel wool.  This surface is easy to repair.  “Repairs blend right in.”   He tried to repair a broken wingtip with expanding foam but he used too much and it “popped right off.”  ProMark paint masks ($80) and Perfect Pilots pilot.

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."
                   - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Jeff Quesenberry's Heinkel 111A Wins!