Braniff Convair yes Piper Cub no

[2ndsegment]

Two doctors interests in aviation differed. One was a GP and owned his own airplane and flew it regularly. He offered to take me up but my father said no. The other was a obstetrician/gynecologist that had once worked for the Bureau of Public Health and was then a gynecologist with patients who preferred his care to Navy doctors in Corpus Christi Texas. When the time to drive back from Corpus to Ann Arbor he bought tickets for his son and myself on an airline where he owned stock.

Night was approaching and one of the generators kept dropping off the buss. Finally, the pilot announced that anyone who wanted to go should remain on the airplane and the others would have to wait for another airplane in the morning. I was familiar with dynamotors and various surplus gear my father had had converted for his HAM radio. We taxied out and the generators stayed online. My anxiety was with the vibration from the 2800's in climb. When we got to cruise altitude the cowl flaps closed on the nacelles and the engine note pacified. Was that all? We landed in Houston Hobby and were put up in a hotel.

The next day we flew to Dallas Love and boarded a DC-6. On the way to Detroit a thunderstorm built up, It was Spring near Easter. The airplane shook and rolled from ear to ear as flashes lit up the sky. I could look out the windows alternately on the starboard and then the port. Straight down I could see the ground out the windows. There was no Dutch roll as in a swept wing jet. At one point the pilot put the landing gear down to control any wild excursions in speed as we made big excursions in altitude. What folks in those days called "air pockets."

Recently, I have seen that the AH-1 "Cobras" are limited to 120 degrees of roll. I can walk a long ways on my hands and did in the aisles at work, Inverted tank? what time limit? I am not a show off. I left that to Blue Angels Leader Captain "Zeke "Cormier USN (re'td) who carried the Aeromed proposal to Washington, DC the day I parked my car in Jackson McGowen's spot planning to pickup from litho hand it to him and be gone by 6:00AM before the missing Visitor spots caused me to be late for his flight.