[AlaskaRC] So That's How you do it!

[Tom Simes]

On 11/11/13 13:12, George Morgan wrote:
> what in the hell is this????????
> 

The encoding of the forwarded e-mail got a little scrambled, but here is
the basic content:

By LtCol. A.J. D'Amario
USAF Ret. From the pages of the American Rifleman,
November 2013.   On my first solo flight at K-13,
Suwan, Korea, in June 1952, I took off in an F-80
Shooting Star. It was not a combat mission. All I
had to do was go up and have fun boring holes in
the sky for about an hour and a half.
Immediately after takeoff, I felt the left wing was
heavy and determined that the left tip fuel tank was
not feeding properly or not at all. Afraid it might
fall off and rupture during landing, potentially melting
asphalt on the runway, the tower would not let me
land with the full tank. I was instructed to make a
bomb run and drop the whole tank.   Arriving at
the bomb range, I set up my bomb-release switches to
release the tank. Flying over the impact area, I
pushed the button but nothing happened. I tried a
second time and again there was no response. On my
next pass, I tried the manual release handle but to
no avail. Making one final run, I used the button we
called the "panic button" because it allegedly released
everything hanging on the airplane. It worked as
advertised and dumped everything, save my errant left
tip tank.   The tower control officer advised me
that if I couldn't get rid of the tank or its
contents, I should give them my location, eject and
await pickup. Well.  pilots really hate to punch out
of a perfectly flyable airplane and I figured I still
had one option worth trying.   The canopy of an
F-80 can be opened in flight up to about 220 MPH.
So I opened the canopy and unholstered my G.I. issue
Colt M1911 .45 automatic. Now, liquid fuel will not
burn, at least not like vapors, so I aimed for the
part of the tank I was sure would be full of
liquid. Firing my first shot, I had no idea where
the bullet went--perhaps airborne, high-speed physics were
at work, or maybe just my nerves. But my next three
shots punctured the tank, passing through the fuel and
exiting cleanly out the far side of the 24" wide
tank.   For the next thirty minutes, I flew with
the left wing down in a series of circles to drain
the fuel and slowly return to base. By the time I
got to the airstrip the tank was empty. I made a
routine landing. As far as I know, I am the only
pilot in the Air Force who ever shot his own plane
to correct a malfunction.   Thank goodness for my
.45.   Lt.Col. A.J. D'Amario, USAF Ret. Florida



-- 
Tom

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   "Z80 system stack overflow.  Shut 'er down Scotty, she's
         sucking mud again!" - Error message on XENIX v3.0

Tom Simes                                       simestd at netexpress.com
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