Around 1970 I was stationed at Nellis AFB, NV and flying the F-111 in The Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron. Mike Wallace showed up and wanted to do a story about the controversal F-111 for CBS News. This was after a wing had folded the wrong way on one killing a friend of mine. After he was greeted by the base VIPs he was turned over to me for briefing. I gave him the same Dog & Pony Show I gave the steady stream of generals coming from the Pentagon to get their trophy ride in the F-111. He wanted to fly at Mach 2.5 I briefed him and suited him up and away we went. I did not take him on one of my pre-planned Upchuck routes that I used for some of the generals from the Pentigon. These consisted of routes that had several steep peaks so that the terrain following radar, flying at 200 feet and Hard Ride at 550 knots would push over at 2-2 1/2 Gs. I found that if I lit the burners at the same time it pushed over, the Upchuck was more likely. My favorite route consisted of approaching the Grand Canyon from the East at a point where it turned from South to West. We would be over flat desert and then suddenly the A/C would be diving for the bottom of the canyon. The route spent a consideable amount of time at the bottom on the canyon with the walls sometimes only a few yards away. Then it would climb up and dive back down when it cleared a bend in the canyon. All the time I sat there with my arms crossed.

Our supersonic area started a Nellis and ran north to just short of an east-west airway. The plane I had was somwhat of a dog and I didn't reach Mach 2.5 until just at the end of our air space and I entered the airway. I saw an airliner approaching from the east about 25 miles away and well below me. I wanted to hurry up and get out of the airway even though I was well above the airliner and no way was he going to catch up with me. I rolled into a 60-70 degree bank to the left and the computer controlled yaw damper did not do its job and I got several quick compressor stalls in the right engine. It sounded like the aircraft was blowing up and vibrated badly. It scared the hell out of Mike (me too) and he was yelling and cussing. I retarded the throttle and the stalls cleared up, no damage done. The commercial pilot reported me to LA Center even though I never got within 25 miles or 5,000 feet of him.

I'll bet Mike never forgot that ride. He asked me once how I felt about flying such an expensive airplane. I told him I never thought about it. Congress buys them and hires me to fly them. 

2011 Trip to Europe

We delayed our trip this year until Sept. 12 for various reasons, one being that the weather in Europe was miserable most of the summer. Ilse made the flight reservations thru a travel agent on Air Berlin. I made the rest of the arrangements on the internet including the Super Shuttle pick up. I could have made the flight reservations that way and saved $170. I used Google Earth to find hotels where I wanted them and plan my travel routes. We flew nonstop from Lax to Dusseldorf and then on to Munich. I had reserved a car there for only one day because airport rentals cost 20% more. I had a reservation at a hotel just outside the airport. Next day we drove on secondary roads to the autobahn to Garmisch. I had reservations in the Armed Forces Recreation Resort there for 3 days so we could rest up. I turned in my car there and rented another one for 6 weeks. I use Hertz and get a 15% discount because I book thru Charter USA.

http://www.edelweisslodgeandresort.com/accommodations.html

After three days we drove across the Alps to Moreno, Italy, where I had reservations in a very nice hotel for 6 days. It was a beautiful place and the first day we had a snow and rain storm and next day the surrounding mountains were covered with snow. After that we had beautiful weather. Breakfast and dinner came with the suite and we ate very well. We had two balconies with views to the mountains and I spent a lot of time there with a bottle of the local wine and a chunk of the famous air dried ham they make there. It was apple harvest season and I have never seen so many apples in my life. Every square meter of vacant land is planted in apple trees. They train them to grow in flat rows so a tractor can drive between the rows.

http://www.hotel-lisetta.it/

Then back to Garmisch to rest up for a couple of days before our drive to Wiesbaden. I took the scenic route over the mountains and had to go over two passes. It was very beautiful in the high mountains. We stopped at the top of one pass and had lunch outside with fantastic views. We checked back in the Edelweiss Resort and had a balcony with a view to the famous Zugspitze Mountain, the highest peak in Germany.

We drove the autobahns to Wiesbaden and moved into our apartment. The landlady’s son took our bags upstairs for us and we settled in for the rest of our stay. The apartment is small but with lots of windows with two balconies with views to a park and the Taunus Mountains.

SOME NOTES ABOUT LIVING IN GERMANY.

If you are there for very long, get a coin purse. The coins will wear a hole in your pocket.

Obey the traffic laws. There are cameras everywhere and the ticket comes weeks later. Hertz charged me for two. Twice when I parked outside a hairdresser while my wife was inside I got tickets. The person, who wrote the ticket did not tell me to move, just wrote the tickets. I received one at home in CA.

Do not go too far when stopping at traffic lights. Unlike here, there is only one light and it is on the corner where you stop. If you go too far you will have to lean over the dash and peer thru the top of your windshield to see the light.

What we call a restroom is a toilette, sometimes a WC. In public places there is sometimes an attendant and you are expected to leave something on the dish when you leave, usually 20 cents Euro. I was surprised the German household engineers do not use the siphon principle on their commodes to flush. They go with the massive water theory. Sometimes that piece of paper with the brown spot on it and an air bubble under it just will not go down. Most commodes have a small and a large flush button. Self explanatory.

The super markets have an unbelievable selection of sausages and hams. My favorite hams are the ones from S. Tirol and Parma, It. My favorite sausage is the dried blood sausage. Every plastic of aluminum drink container has a deposit on it, usually 25 cents Euro. To get your deposit back, find the machine somewhere in the super market that has a hole to put the containers in. It reads the bar code and registers the credit and when you finish push the green button and get a ticket that can be cashed at the check out. There is a wide selection of milk products and they are generally cheaper than here. One thing I like is the H-milk. That is milk that has been treated at high temperatures so it does not need refrigeration until it is opened. There is some available here but it is expensive with little selection. The Kefir, a buttermilk like product, is also very good.

We really enjoyed our stay but one morning we woke up to find the park outside was all white with frost and it was time to go back to Sunny Southern California. It was almost November. We drove up to Dusseldorf and stayed overnight at a hotel near the airport I had found on Google Earth. Our Air Berlin flight to LAX was only about three fourths full. We had exit seats with lots of leg room but it was still 11 hours. We found our Super Shuttle and then had a tour of S. CA for three hours while it dropped of four passengers ahead of us. Too tired to sleep, I had a scotch or two. Whew!!

Some pictures of our trip can be found at: https://picasaweb.google.com/106369595145350182528/Europe2011