Spring - The Silver Falcons

Honor, integrity, pride, fellowship — The rEAL Flight Crew!
The Official Newsletter of The Silver Falcons
Volume 15, Number 2
www.silverfalcons.com
Spring 2011
A Salute to Mackey Airlines
A great picture of a Mackey Airlines DC-6 flying along the Florida Coast in the early
nineteen sixties. This aircraft was purchased by Mackey Airlines in October 1961 and sold
after the merger with Eastern Air Lines in January 1967.
Article on page 14
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
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Ladies and Gentlemen of The Silver Falcons,
Due to medical problems, our President
Capt. Ron Shoop has asked to be relieved
of his position. I have been asked by Capt.
Shoop and the Board of Directors to step
in and complete his term of office. I have
accepted the position and will work with
the board to complete the tasks at hand.
P.O. Box 71372
Newnan, GA
30271
Board of Directors
Hank Sanak, President
Tel:(770) 487-4255
[email protected]
Dave Ingle, Director
Tel: (770) 432-5165
[email protected]
Phil Hutchinson, Vice President
Tel: (770) 886-6189
[email protected]
Dick Borrelli, Newsletter Editor
Tel: (770) 254-1748
Fax: (770) 254-0179
[email protected]
Stuart Hughes, Database
Coordinator
Tel: (770) 229-2784
[email protected]
Mary Hutchinson, Secretary
Tel: (770) 886-6189
[email protected]
Sandy McCulloh, E-Mail Editor
Tel: (770) 491-0727
[email protected]
Joe Zito, Financial Officer
Tel: (770) 252-0761
Fax: (770) 252-0758
Cell: (678) 523-1235
[email protected]
Joe Wolbert, Director
Tel: (770) 345-0466
[email protected]
The opinions expressed in The rEAL Word are the opinions of individual members
and do not express the opinions of the BOD or the organization.
Newsletter layout by KFD&P; 770 474-1953; [email protected]
The Silver Falcons is a group of former Eastern Airlines Pilots and Flight
Attendants who honored the picket line in 1989. It is incorporated and registered
as a nonprofit organization in the State of Georgia. The Silver Falcons is also
registered as a tax-exempt organization with the IRS.
Dues are $25 per year for Charter members and family members. A life membership
may be purchased for $500. Dues and all correspondence should be mailed to: The
Silver Falcons, P.O. Box 71372, Newnan, GA 30271.
A quarter page ad for one year (Four issues) is $250. A half page ad, either
horizontal or vertical, is $500 a year. Every attempt will be made to put these ads on
the outside of the page rather than toward the middle. The back cover and the inside
of the front cover will be offered for full page ads only and will cost $1000 a year. If
you have a special event that needs attention for a short time, we will accept single
issue ads at $62.50 for a quarter page, $125 for a half page, and $250 for a full page
(If available). We will not decrease the content of the newsletter, but will increase
its size to accommodate our advertisers. Every attempt will be made to insure that
there is no more than one ad per page. The editor will have the right to reject any
ad that he deems objectionable, although we do not anticipate this as a problem. All
ads must be in black and white since we do not have color capability at this time.
It will be the responsibility of the advertiser to supply a print-ready ad to the editor
at least 30 days prior to publication of the newsletter. Every effort will be made to
accommodate any specific requests you may have.
Publication dates are January 15, April 15, July 15, and October 15 each year. All
materials can be mailed to The Silver Falcons, P.O. Box 71372, Newnan, GA 30271,
or contact Dick Borrelli at this address, by fax at (770) 254-0179, or by E-Mail at
[email protected] if you plan to participate. Deadline for ads is at least 30
days prior to the publication dates stated above.
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The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
Our first concern is the 2011 convention,
and Carol is doing an excellent job completing all the details. This
should be a great party so please make every effort to attend the
convention in San Antonio. Even if you are not sure that you may
attend, make your hotel reservations now, they can always be canceled before the convention starts.
Our second concern is the planning for the 2012 convention. Ron
has asked me to continue the plan to have the convention at the
Savannah Marriott. I hope to have a confirmation on this item in
May/June time frame. I will plan to give you all the details at the
convention in San Antonio. While I am discussing conventions,
please think of the 2013 convention. We need a location and a
person or persons to plan and head up a convention. Please give
this some serious consideration and present a destination for the
convention at the 2011 meeting.
The third item that is of concern is the replacement of the two
Directors who will end their terms in office. Please give us a hand
and a little of you time to guide the Silver Falcons in the coming
years. Give this some serious consideration, as it only requires 4
meetings a year and they only last a couple of hours at most. Those
of us that have spent many hours serving and planning need a little
of your help. Also, to the members that live in the Atlanta area,
you should give this some serious thought and volunteer your time,
talent and services.
Fraternally,
Hank Sanak, President
If you have not yet paid your dues this will be your final
newsletter and your name will not appear in the directory.
We must receive your dues check immediately for your
membership to continue
Please advise users of AOL and Hotmail that their providers have again begun to enforce
their arbitrary blocking of Silver Falcons emails. A few have apparently gotten through, but
the majority have not. No explanation given for the bounces, but Yahoo, who handles all the
ATT/Bellsouth email, counts them against me. I'm no longer going to tip-toe around those
two providers. I've tried batches of 20 or less and they still bounce most of them. ENOUGH!!
I will begin removing the 80 affected members from our emailings.
— Sandy
Mark your calendar.
Our 2011 Convention
will be in
San Antonio
September 18 – 21.
See pages 4-8.
2011 Christmas Party
December 9
Petit Auberge
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
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Bandy Rabbit Strikes Again!
Babbitt Mulls Fees For Low-Time Pilots
Money Collected Would Offset Fuel Taxes Not Paid By Pilots Who Don’t Fly Regularly
ANN April 1st Special Edition:
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt is reportedly considering tacking
a surcharge onto renewal fees paid by pilots. The surcharges would
be based on the number of hours a pilot flies in any given year.
Due to decreasing revenues to the federal government, and because
the President and Congress has asked all government agencies to
come up with ways to not only save money, but to also increase revenues, the FAA has developed this fee scale for nearly ALL pilots,
most of them holding GA-related certificates and ratings, with different annual renewal fees dependent upon ratings and endorsements
and hours flown each year.
In an internal memo forwarded to ANN, the Administrator proposes
a registration fee structure that begins with a basic registration fee of
$20. For pilots logging from 0 to 99.9 hours annually in the previous
calendar year there will be a $100 surcharge each renewal period.
The FAA says the surcharge is intended to offset the revenue from
Federal aviation fuel taxes that the pilot did NOT pay by not flying at
least 100 hours during the previous year. all pilots, for the first time,
will not only have to renew what was previously a lifetime certificate
and pay annually,
but will also have
to keep a logbook
and make entries
for each flight to
avoid the additional fees.
For pilots holding
advanced ratings
(beyond S.E.L.
etc), the fees will be
similar. However,
Babbitt notes in an
internal memo that
all flight hours will
not count in the
hours requirement
for this section of
the new regulation. For instance,
in addition to paying for your S.E.L. rating every year, if you have an Instrument
Rating, there will be an additional $10 annual charge for that rating
as well as an additional surcharge of $100 if fewer than 10 hours
of actual IFR flight are logged. These 10 hours will count towards
your annual total flight hours, but an Instrument Rated pilot could
find him or herself in a situation where he or she flew 200 hours in
a calendar year, but of them, only 9.5 were IFR, and is assessed an
additional $100.
Pilots who fly aircraft which run on mogas or other alternative fuels
will also be assessed additional fees based on any STC on file with
the FAA. Those will be in addition to the low-time surcharge. Sport
Pilot fees begin at $10 for basic renewal, and the first surcharge is
$50 for those flying under 100 hours.
EAA President Tom Poberezny called the proposal “just about the
stupidest thing I’ve seen come down the pike since since Orville
and Wilbur knocked together that first airplane in shed in Kitty
Hawk in December.” NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said the
new fee structure is “simply outrageous! The monitoring will cause
nightmares for pilots AND will be hard to prove if the FAA ever
audits you as an individual pilot.” However, several iPhone and
iPad apps are reportedly already in development to automatically
track your flight time and push that data to a federal government
server.
For those who determine they are unable to afford the fee structure,
the FAA does make a provision for terminating your pilot certificate privileges. Fees for termination, which are irrevocable, begin
at $50 for Sport Pilot, and increase based on additional ratings and
endorsements.
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The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
2011
SILVER FALCONS CONVENTION
MENGER HOTEL • SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
SEPTember 18 – 21, 2011
Hosted by Carole and Don Thompson, Lil Ayars, and our always enthusiastic Texas volunteers
Come to San Antonio and enjoy the color and
excitement of the Alamo, the world famous
River Walk, the Market Square, the Mission
District, the Hemisfair Park, and La Villita, and
the many other historic venues that make our
city a prime tourist destination. Ride the river
barges on the San Antonio River, including the
new Museum Reach section with it’s dams and
locks and interesting architectural works.
The Convention will be held in the Menger Hotel which was
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
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2011 Silver Falcons Convention
San Antonio was an Eastern Airlines destination. We hope this
will become a nostalgia experience and a trip down memory lane
for the Pilots and Flight Attendants who were fortunate enough to
experience the old San Antonio and the old Menger back when
Eastern Air Lines was the undisputed best Air Line in the World
and when to be an Eastern Crew Member meant pride in company
and pride in profession
So put this on your calendar for 2011. Pack your best turquoise
established in 1859 when the city was known for it’s wranglers, six
guns, fast tempers, and faster draws. The hotel has been expanded
several times and is now a 350 room, elegantly restored hotel that
is unique, filled with priceless art and antiques. It sits directly
across the street from The Alamo ad about one hundred yards from
the river walk. Directly behind is the River City Mall, the largest
shopping center in the downtown area.
Buddy Davison will be hosting the golf tournament and the details
will be published just after the first of the new year.
The pre-arrival dinner will be held at Luciano’s Restaurante
Italiano on Riverwalk. The setting is delightful and the cuisine
is outstanding. The spousal luncheon will be held at Mi Tierra at
Market square.
jewelry, cowboy boots, ten gallon hats, chaps and spurs and come
prepared for the western party of your life.
Many Silver Falcons will remember layovers at the hotel when
Historic Menger Hotel
In 1909 the hotel was enlarged with an addition to the
south side. Architect Alfred Giles altered the main
façade, adding Renaissance Revival details in stuccoed
brick, pressed metal, and cast iron; he also designed
an interior rotunda that provided light and served as a
circulation hub. The hotel was a center of San Antonio
social affairs and a meeting place for visiting celebrities. It declined during the Great Depression, but in
the mid-1940's the building was reconditioned, and the
more celebrated dining rooms were restored. By 1951
a new wing had been added, and the building had been
completely modernized. In 1976 the hotel was added to
the National Register of Historic Places as part of the
Alamo Plaza Historic District. The Menger was again
renovated in the 1980's.
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The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
Historic Menger Hotel continued
In addition to its significance as a historical landmark, the Menger
offers unparalleled amenities which continue to include the famous
Colonial Room Restaurant and the Menger Bar along with 316
guest rooms and suites. Many rooms overlook the Alamo, pool or
Alamo Plaza and all retain the furniture, art, and accessories from
the hotel’s earlier days, including four-poster beds, velvet-covered
Victorian sofas and chairs, marble-topped tables and period wall
coverings.
As to its resident ghosts, the historic Menger Hotel is said be called
home or visited regularly by some 32 different entities. Seemingly,
they don’t mind sharing the old hotel with the living, as they pleasantly go about their business.
The Menger's most famous spiritual guest is that of former
President Teddy Roosevelt. It was here, in the Menger Bar, that
Roosevelt recruited hard-living cowboys fresh from the Chisholm
Trail, to his detachment of Rough Riders. Reportedly, Teddy would
sit at the bar and as the cowboys came in, he would jovially offer
them a free drink (or several) as he worked his recruiting strategy
upon the unsuspecting cowpoke. Many sobered up the next morning to find themselves on their way to basic military training at Fort
Sam Houston before joining in the Spanish American War. Over
the years, Roosevelt has reportedly been seen having a drink at the
dark little barroom off the main lobby.
The most often sighted spiritual guest
is a woman named Sallie White. Long
ago, Sallie was a chambermaid who
worked within the hotel and one night
after an argument with her husband,
she stayed overnight. The next day
her husband threatened to kill her and
some time later, on March 28, 1876,
he attacked her inside the hotel. Badly
injured, she held on for two days before
dying of her injuries. According to the
hotel’s ledgers, it paid for her funeral at a cost of $32.00.
Today, Sallie apparently continues to perform her duties within the
Victorian wing of the hotel. Sallie has been seen numerous times
wearing an old long gray skirt and a bandana around her forehead,
the uniform common during her era. Primarily, appearing at night,
Sallie is generally seen walking along the hotel hallways, carrying
a load of clean towels for the guests.
Another apparition that is often reported is that of Captain Richard
King, one time owner one of the largest ranches in the world – The
King Ranch. A frequent visitor to the Menger Hotel during his
lifetime, he had a personal suite within the hotel. When he learned
of his impending death from his personal physicians, Captain King
spent the last months of his life, wrote his will disposing of his great
wealth, and bade farewell to his friends in his suite at the Menger.
On April 15, 1885, King’s funeral was held in the Menger’s parlor. Today, the room in which he stayed is called the "King Ranch
Room.” He is often seen entering his old room, going right through
the wall where the door was once located before it was remodeled.
Display cases and photographs on the walls of the first floor lobbies
provide a glimpse into the Menger’s colorful past.
Another ghostly spirit of a woman is often spotted sitting in the
original lobby of the historic hotel. Wearing an old fashioned blue
dress, small wire-framed glasses, and a tasseled beret in her hair,
she sits quietly knitting. On one occasion a staff member stopped
to ask her, "Are you comfortable...may I get you something?", only
to be answered with an unfriendly "No” before the woman disappeared.
Another guest reported emerging from the shower to see an apparition dressed in a buckskin jacket and grey pants, who is busy
having a heated conversation with an unseen presence. The entity
demands to know; "Are you gonna stay or are you gonna go?" three
times before vanishing.
Other entities have been known to "help" in the kitchen area, as
various utensils have floated through the air seemingly all by themselves. Utensils are often seen transporting themselves from one
area to another without the help of human hands.
Adjacent to the Alamo, some of these ghostly visitors to the hotel
are attributed to the many that died during the battle of the Alamo.
Often heavy footsteps and kicking are heard and old military boots
are spied by the guests and staff.
Other spiritual guests are said to have been some of the many who
have stayed there over the years, as well as those who were recruited into the Rough Riders. Though the number of entities counted
at the historic Menger Hotel is high, all are said to be harmless to
staff and visitors, doing nothing more than sometimes starling a
guest or an employee.
The first choice of San Antonio ghost hunters, the hotel is located
downtown, immediately adjacent to both the Alamo and the
Rivercenter Mall.
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011 7
2011 Silver Falcons Convention – Luciano’s
“Family is very important to us.” We are passionate about
sharing with your family an authentic Italian experience.
was our late father, Sal, who taught us attention to details and
keeping the customer first.
You could say our story began in a small town outside Naples,
Italy. That’s where our mother, Lina, operated a trattoria and
where we would learn the valuable skills we would later put to
use in our Italian restaurants. Most importantly, we learned to use
only the finest and freshest ingredients straight from the heart of
Italy.
Our mother, Lina, created authentic, Italian specialties in the
kitchen and is still our inspiration today.
Authentic Italian family recipes since 1971.
When the Centofanti family left Italy for America in 1971, we
brought wih us a tradition of hard work, a passion for excellence
and—just as importantly—Nonna Lina’s authentic Italian recipes.
These priceless original recipes are still on our menus today.
The Luciano’s experience—inspired by Nonna Lina & Nonno
Salvatore.
From our complimentary bruscetta to our comfortable family
atmosphere, you can see the influence of our loving parents. It
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The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
When people come back again and again, they become like
family.
We love return customers, and we have a lot of them. Having
customers enjoy our authentic Italian food and our atmosphere
makes us feel good about what we do. It’s like having family drop
in for lunch of dinner.
From our family to yours: “Make yourself at home.”
There are plenty of good Italian restaurants. But very few
combine great food, friendly service and affordability all in a
comfortable family atmosphere. At Luciano’s, we put them all
together, so you can relax and feel right at home.
SILVER FALCONS 2011 Golf Tournament
Breckenridge Park Golf Course • SEPT 19, 2011
First tee time will be at 10:00 with up to 20 players teeing off in foursomes consecutively.
The total cost per player is $80.00 and this includes green fees, cart,
box lunch with water or soda, prize fund, and two drink tickets. Players
should state their sandwich preference in writing when checks are submitted. Sandwich choices are: Turkey, ham. tuna fish, chicken salad,
or roast beef. There is a practice facility near by, but not part of the golf course.
Those wanting to hit some balls should be prepared to leave the hotel
at 8:30, depending on the number of cars available we may have to
provide a shuttle service with our cars.
Money and entry form should be sent directly to: Buddy Davison,
304 Champions Drive, Rockport, TX 78382, Phone: (361) 727-1735,
E-Mail: [email protected]. Your entry must be submitted
and check received by September 14. Make your check out to Buddy
Davison.
Brackenridge Park Golf Course: The History
This historic 18-hole golf course, the first inductee into the Texas
Golf Hall of Fame, was the original site of the PGA Winter Tour.
Located near the heart of San Antonio in historic Brackenridge
Park, this course is the oldest of the six municipal golf courses.
It opened for play in 1916 as an 18-hole championship course.
The Texas Open Golf Tournament originated on this course in 1922
and was played here until 1959. The golf course closed January 2008
for renovations and re-opened in October 2008. Renovations include
greens, tees, fairways and a layout which includes 15 of the original
18 holes previously designed by the renowned golf course designer,
A.W. Tillinghast. Thirty new bunkers were added to the course. The
renovated golf course measures 6,263 from the championship tees
with a par of 71.
“He who plans any hole for golf, should have two aims: first, to produce something which will provide a true test of the game, and then
consider every conceivable way to make it as beautiful as possible. He
should have in mind not only the skill and brawn of the golfers but
their eyes as well.”
bunker that crosses at around 240 yards off the tee makes you think
about your tee shot a little. The 10th hole, a 196-yard par 3 guarded by
water and bunkers with a sloped green, was one of Ben Crenshaw’s
favorite holes growing up because of its beauty and challenge. The
restoration surely only enhanced his memory of it.
Then, like many great courses, Brackenridge Park has an interesting
finish. The 17th is a drivable 306-yard par 4 with water in front of the
green - the epitome or risk-reward. The 18th, not unlike Congressional
Country Club or Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club, is a par-3 finishing
hole. With its small green and water in front, it’s anything but an easy
par, even at 187 yards.
The new USGA greens now have MiniVerde. The tees and fairways
are TifSport, the roughs are CT2 (formerly called GN-1) and there is
some zoysia on some of the more shaded tees.
Some 6,000 trees, many of them oak, which have been around since
the course opened, were trimmed throughout, and 35 were removed,
providing added definition to this beautiful parkland course.
In addition, the historic clubhouse has been totally renovated with
a new golf shop and dining area. It is also the soon-to-be site of the
reopened Texas Hall of Fame.
Brackenridge Park Golf Course: The Verdict
At just under 6,300 yards, this might not sound like much of a test, but
what this golf course lacks in length, it makes up for in shot-making
requirements. If you’re driving the ball well, you can hit driver on
almost every hole, but it’s definitely not the smart play all the time.
Therefore, those who can think their way around the course will have
the best chance to score.
More than anything, however, each hole is memorable. The par 5s are
all reachable in two, but they come with great risk. Many of the par
3s are over water, and several par 4s present doglegs that make you
think off the tee.
Also, the greens aren’t very large, so bring your short game. Really
good players can go low, but the course has plenty of challenge for the
single digit to high-handicap players.
Both of Tillinghast’s philosophies can be seen through Brackenridge.
The fourth hole, for example, is only 370 yards, but a large fairway
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
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Obituaries
Captain Harold (Hal) J. Sotona
Captain Frank
We announce with deep regret the death of Captain Harold (Hal) J.
Sotona, 82, of Conyers, GA, Hal passed away on Tuesday, March
8, 2011. He was born August 8, 1928,
in Tomah, WI, the youngest child of
Frank Sotona and Adeline (Geschke)
Sotona. Hal was a loving husband,
father, and grandfather. His passion
was aviation. A retired Eastern
Airlines Captain with nearly thirty
one years of service, Forest Service
pilot, and private pilot, he logged
more than 33,000 hours of flight time
in his many years of flying. He leaves
to cherish his memory, his loving
wife of 52 years, Marilyn Sotona of Conyers, GA; three daughters:
Shirley Sotona of Atlanta, GA; Kristine Huffman of Douglasville,
GA; and Karen Marsh and husband Jeff Marsh of Covington
GA; and four grandchildren. He was preceded in death by son
Gary Sotona. His cremated remains will be interred in Evergreen
Cemetery in Medway, MA. Hal will be remembered by everyone
who flew with him as an example of what every airline pilot should
be—a complete professional, considerate of his crew, concerned
for his passengers, and liked and respected by everyone who knew
him. He was always the pilot in command, but treated his fellow
crew members as team members and considered their thoughts
and opinions when making decisions. Fly on, Hal, may you have
nothing but blue skies and fair winds forever!
H. Hancock
Captain Frank H. Hancock,
86, passed away in his
Jonesboro home, April 2nd.
He was preceded in death by
his lovely wife, Sue. Frank
is survived by his two sons,
Frank and Mike, daughter
Kathy, 12 grandchildren, and
17 great grandchildren, and
many nieces and nephews. A
native of Hopewell, VA, he
served in the US Navy on
board USS SWEARER DEl86
in the Pacific Theatre during
WWIl. He was accepted for
Navy flight training, but the war ended prior to receiving his wings
and he was discharged. Continuing his flight instruction, he earned
all the required ratings and eventually became a pilot for Eastern
Airlines in 1955. After an enviable 26 year career Frank retired
as an Eastern Captain in 1981. Frank loved aviation and flying
and when at home could be found in his hangar most days either
building an airplane or preparing to fly one or giving instruction
to a fledgling pilot. The sky was in his eyes and the heavens in his
heart! A Funeral Mass was held Thursday, April 7th at 10:30 AM
at St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church in Jonesboro, GA. In lieu of
flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be sent to St.
Philip Benizi Catholic Church, 591 Flint River Road, Jonesboro,
GA 30236, or, Southwest Christian Hospice Care, 7225 Lester
Road, Union City, GA 30291. Your friends are waiting, Frank. This
is the ultimate layover!
Layabed
The following Silver Falcons and family members are currently
under the weather and would appreciate calls, cards, and visits from
friends. A card or a friendly voice can do wonders when a person
is really hurting!
It’s easy to get on the Lay-A-Bed list. All it takes is a bad headache
and a big mouthed friend. Getting off the list is another matter
altogether! No one ever tells us when they get well!
Therefore we have had to make rules to control this situation. In
the future:
1. When the flower dies, take your name off the lay-a-bed list
whether you are sick or not.
2. If you are still sick, put your name back on the list and we will
send you a new flower!
3. When the new flower dies, go back to rule one!
Capt. Tim Chase and
Mrs. Ardy Chase
109 Carols Ln.
Locust Grove, GA 30248
(770) 320-8576
[email protected]
Mrs. Dee McKinney
Wife of Capt. Clancy McKinney
2860 Roxburgh Dr.
Roswell, GA 30076
[email protected]
(770) 475-1129
Captain Norm Cole
127 Cannongate Cir.
Sharpsburg, GA 30277-9732
(770) 463-4475
Captain Ron Shoop
2616 High St.
Conyers, GA 30094
[email protected]
(770) 929-1924
Capt. Jerry Fradenburg
3 Fenway Ct.
Newnan, GA 30265
(770) 502-0451
Capt. Jim Holder
1821 Holmes Dr.
Conyers, GA 30094-4727
[email protected]
(770) 929-0978
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The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
Capt. Curt Whaley
945 Gondolier Blvd.
Gulf Breeze, FL 32563-3017
[email protected]
(850) 932-6649
Minutes of the Silver Falcons Apr BOD Meeting
The meeting was led by Hank Sanak who was standing in for
Ron Shoop.
Those in attendance were Hank Sanak, Dick Borrelli, Joe Zito,
Joe Wolbert with Dave's Ingle’s proxy, Philip Hutchinson, and
Mary Hutchinson.
It was unanimously approved that Hank Sanak would be appointed to complete the remainder of President Ron Shoop’s term due
to Ron’s ill health.
Financial Report:
No changes in the financial report since the last BOD meeting
which was given by Joe Zito.
Membership update:
Joe Zito reported we have 400 dues paying members. This does
not include life members and widows.
Family members are now eligible for membership in The Silver
Falcons.
Thanks Ron!
Old Business:
Clarification of board member's duties/functions was discussed
for the benefit of the new members.
New Business:
1. The nomination of two new board members was discussed.
These nomination must be presented before the 2011
Convention.
2. Silver Falcons License plate frames were approved and should
be available for purchase at the Convention. .
3. Plaque at Hartsfield/Jackson Int'l airport: will contain the
names and date of hire of all Eastern pilots from day one
through 1988. The plaque will show 6,400 names. The cost
, $17,000 of which $6,000 has been collected through donations. Contributions Welcome!!
4. Hank Sanak volunteered to do the preliminary foot work for
the 2012 Convention in Savannah.
The meeting was adjourned until July’s meeting..
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
11
The Editorial
Before I begin this editorial please let me emphasize that the opinions
expressed here are strictly my own and do not in any way reflect an
official opinion or attitude of The Silver Falcons. I am expressing them
purely because of my concern for our country. I welcome guest editorials
from our members and will be happy to publish them in future issues of
The rEAL Word. Any letters, either pro or con, written in response to this
editorial will be published in the next issue, The editorial page is a forum
available to all of our members and I urge you to use it. I am not and will
not ever try to politicize The Real Word or represent this newsletter as a
political publication!!
It’s hard to imagine a group of hard core Republicans walking a picket
line, but that’s exactly what happened at Eastern Air Lines in 1989. It’s
hard to imagine a Republican Labor Union, but that’s exactly what the
Airline Pilot’s Association is. It’s not that difficult to imagine when
we consider that we always deluded ourselves by saying we were an
“Association”, not really a union. Let’s face it ladies and gentlemen, to
management we were never anything more than blue collar workers who
were not salaried and worked for an hourly wage. Although you were a
Captain in sole command of an aircraft with an entire crew and carrying
up to 350 people and were responsible for their safety, you were never
considered management! We may have been officers in the military and
made more money than most and lived in upscale housing developments
and drove luxury cars, but we had a contract just like everyone else in
the work force and had to negotiate our wages and benefits and working
conditions just like all the other unions. We were affiliates of the AFL/
CIO! We thought that since we lived like Republicans and associated
with Republicans that we had to be Republicans. As a union we really
had no national power since each airline operated as a separate entity and
resolved its own labor issues, often to the detriment of other airlines (We
were just an Association, remember?). If we had had the foresight, early
on, to have created a master seniority list, and if we had negotiated for
the industry instead of just ourselves, we would have had the power to
effect change and influence the entire industry.. In the event of mergers
each crew member would have taken his or her national seniority number
to the merged airline. If we had had all this when the Eastern dispute took
place we might have been able to effectively fight the corporate raiders
who were destroying our company and our jobs. Then we would have
really been a union instead of the joke we are today.
I can still remember that the Eastern strike took place under a Republican
administration and that the strikers were able to get no meaningful
assistance from any government agency. George Herbert Walker Bush, a
social friend of Frank Lorenzo and the recipient of large cash donations
from Lorenzo to his political campaign, was the only President in history
who flatly refused to name a Presidential Emergency Board to arbitrate
a labor dispute. We now have a Republican Governor in Wisconsin who
is attempting to do to the municipal unions exactly what Frank Lorenzo
did to Continental and tried to do at Eastern and once again everyone
is simply letting it happen. Seeing the success in Wisconsin, Ohio is
attempting to do the same thing!
I grew up in a union family and I am also old enough to remember the
history of the trials and tribulations of the coal miners, the garment
workers, the twelve hour work days and six day weeks, the company
stores, miners being paid in script rather than cash, no sick pay, no
benefits, no retirement, no job security, goons and strike breakers, and a
society that consisted of only the rich and the poor. Labor unions created
the great American Middle Class and gave labor a voice and as the union
movement is being destroyed today the middle class is being destroyed
with it. When you get into your BMW or Toyota, burning Saudi gas,
wearing your Japanese watch and in your Chinese clothes and as you
prepare to buy a Japanese television and a Chinese computer while you
plan to stop at the supermarket on the way home to buy produce grown in
Mexico and Chile, and when your maid and gardener who are Mexican
illegals do your work please don’t let me hear you complain about the
economy, the lack of jobs, the deficit, or the national debt. We have let
this happen and have no one to blame but ourselves. There is only one
party in America today and that party is Corporate America. The corporate
lobbyists have corrupted both the Republicans and the Democrats equally
and none of our representatives can be trusted to represent us. Since
everything we purchase in this country is imported and since we produce
no products and create no meaningful jobs, what are we going to do when
the money is all gone? It’s happening right now! Think hard about the
future you are going to give your children and grandchildren! We won
World War Two not because we outfought the rest of the world, but
because we out manufactured it! Our produce and our weapons and our
machines and our oil (Yes, in World War Two, the United States was
the world’s largest oil EXPORTING country!) supplied us and our allies
with everything they needed to win. Today we would lose that same war
because now we manufacture nothing and import most of our oil. Think
about it! In fifty years America will be a third world nation!
— Dick Borrelli, Editor
12
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
annual ATL EAL Flight Operations,
Pilots (and Friends) Picnic
(A SPECIAL MEMORIAL TO OUR LONG TIME HOST, CAPTAIN BOB BRUCE)
WHEN: SATURDAY, May 21, 2011, 1030 UNTIL???
WHERE: EAGLE’S LANDING AIRPORT, WILLIAMSON, GEORGIA. UNICOM 122.75.
(Atlanta Sectional Chart, West of Griffin, GA)
(N 33 09.36 W 84 21.54, (5GA3), ELEV 980 ft, 122.75 (CTAF) 2 grass runways
Note: Carolyn McGaughey has again graciously consented to having the picnic at her hangar, located next door to Bob
Bruce’s lot. Many thanks to Carolyn who hosted the picnic last year.
1. Reservations are a MUST FOR MEAL PLANNING PURPOSES. Please clip off the reservation form below and send it with your check for $12.00 per person, plus a stamped self-addressed
envelope so that we can mail your ticket to you. Bring your ticket with you! We will have a drawing
for prizes and your ticket(s) could win!
2. Bring your own beverage cooler for the time that the lunch isn’t being served. The caterer will provide
a beverage, but only during the meal. Lawn chairs and folding tables would be a good idea.
3. Carpool where possible. Some of our members are more prone to attend if the driving is left to someone else. Also, wear your name tag so everyone will know you. If you can’t find it, we’ll make one for
you.
4. Barbecue lunch will be served beginning at approximately 1230.
5. FLY-INS AUTHORIZED! — And encouraged — bring your airplane for others to see.
(Please monitor and communicate on 122.9 if you come by Air)
6.
7.
Have any questions or suggestions? Please call one of the following:
Capt. Virgil Tedder @ 404-351-4960 or Captain Dick Garner @ 770-253-1176
Last day for reservations: Monday, May 16, 2011
EASY DIRECTIONS (NOBODY GETS LOST)
FROM Atlanta: South on US 19/US 41 to Griffin Bypass. Take Griffin Bypass to Hwy 362 exit. Turn west onto Hwy 362 to
Williamson. It’s about 6 miles into Williamson. At the gas station, 362 angles right, but you stay to the left at the fork. At the 4-way
stop sign turn right onto Reidsboro Road. Continue to 2nd entrance on left into Eagles Landing. Turn left onto Lufbery Circle. Look
for Carolyn’s hangar (the second house on the right, 1111 Lufbery Circle, Williamson, GA 30292 for GPS users). Parking will be
obvious as you enter. Lost? call Virgil Tedder 770-851-1091 (cell phone)
No need to cut this section off, simply make check out to REPA-ATL ($12.00 each) with number
of people in memo section and enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Send to:
Virgil Tedder
2987 Margaret Mitchell Court, NW
Atlanta, GA 30327
Tel: 404-351-4960
Mackey Airlines
The Merger that took us to the Bahamas
In the 1950 - 1960 era any airline wanting to expand it’s service
had to apply to the CAB for route authority, which was usually
denied, or they could purchase and merge with another airline who
already had the desired route and expand that way. For this reason
Eastern engaged in a series of mergers with smaller airlines. Our
merger with Colonial gave us authority to fly to Toronto
and Montreal as well as the lucrative Washington—
Bermuda route. Our merger with Caribair gave
us Puerto Rico and The Dominican Republic.
Our merger with Mackey gave us the
extremely profitable Florida—Bahamas
vacation destinations. Eastern had
bought it’s way into the international
market. In previous issues we have
honored our Carribair and Colonial
friends and, in this issue we finally
honor Mackey Airlines. As a brand
new co-pilot with Eastern in 1957 I
was based in New York and spent
my first two years as a Martin 404
pilot learning my craft from the
former Colonial Captains who were
the best cold weather, snow, ice, and instrument pilots I have
ever flown with. They taught us well! As a brand new Convair
440 Captain in 1967 I spent eighteen months flying the beautiful
sun drenched Mackey routes to the Bahamas. Later, as an A-300
Captain I flew the Carribair routes to San Juan and Santo Domingo.
Although I didn’t appreciate it at the time, the Colonial, Carribair,
and Mackey routes and pilots made
me a far better pilot than I would
have been without them. Eventually
we were all just Eastern Pilots and
we became a better airline because
of their skill and experience. There
is very little written about Mackey
Airlines, but I have searched Google
and come up with this:
14
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
Joseph C. Mackey, a former stunt pilot who
was the commanding officer of the army
Air Corps base in Miami during World
War II, organized Mackey Airlines.
The airline was formed on September
30, 1946 and initiated scheduled
services from West Palm Beach and
Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas on
June 2, 1953.
The operation started with three Lockheed Lodestars and progressed
to three Douglas DC-3s by 1955. Prior to its merger on January 8,
1967 to Eastern Air Lines, the fleet
was comprised of six Douglas DC-6s,
one Douglas DC-4, two Douglas
DC-3s and one Beechcraft B-18.
The route system by that time consisted
of service to Jacksonville, Tampa,
West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale,
Miami, West End, Freeport, Bimini,
Nassau, Andros Town, Green Turtle
Cay, Marsh Harbour, and Harbour
Island.
Mackey continued
You've been a flight attendant for too long if...
Joe Mackey
An ex-barnstormer, Joe Mackey founded Fort Lauderdale’s first
airline—Mackey Airlines—and began air service between Florida
and the islands of the Bahamas and the Caribbean in the 1950s.
Mackey Airlines prospered and eventually merged with Eastern
Airlines. Joe Mackey became a prominent Broward County politician.
1. You can eat a 4 course meal standing at the kitchen counter.
Len Povey
When Mackey Airlines began, Joe Mackey brought fellow friend
and barnstormer Len Povey into his company as the executive
vice president. Before his career with Mackey, Povey helped
organize the Cuban Air Force. His illustrious career also included
work as a test pilot, a CAA inspector, a Marine Corps Reserve
pilot and vice president of the Embry-Riddle School of Aviation.
After the Mackey-Eastern merger, Povey became vice president
and general manager of Eastern Aviation Services and was
eventually inducted into the OX5 Aviation Pioneers Hall of Fame.
5. All of your pens have different hotel names on them.
2. You search for a button to flush your toilet.
3. You look for the “crew line” at the grocery store.
4. You can pack for a 2 week trip to Europe in 1 roll-aboard.
6. You NEVER unpack.
7. You can recognize pilots by the backs of their heads - not by
their faces.
8. You can tell from 70 yards away if a piece of luggage will fit in
the overhead bin.
9. You care about the local news in a city three states away.
Pete Goss
The original sales manager for Mackey Airlines, Pete Goss
benefited from the Mackey-Eastern merger as well, becoming
Eastern’s director of Airport Services and eventually becoming
responsible for all of Eastern’s operations in Broward County.
FLL became known as one of the best operating stations in the
Eastern system while Goss was at the helm. He retired in 1989.
12. You understand and actually use the 24-hour clock.
MACKEY AIRLINES AIRCRAFT
13. You own 2 sets of uniforms: fat and thin.
START: 6/53
STOP 01/67
ACQUIRED BY EASTERN 01/67
14. You don’t think in “months” - you think in “bid sheets”.
DC3-201C
C-49F
DC3-201E
C-53
2236
2226
2269
4935
CITY OF TAMPA
07/64 CITY OF PALM BEACH
DOUGLAS DC-4 / C-54 Family
N88840
N88843
N88863
C-54
DC-4
DC-4
3061/DO5 05/64 CITY OF HAVANA
3113/DO3 01/67 CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE; (cvtd C-54)
3120/DO10 07/62 CITY OF NASSAU (cvtd C-54)
DOUGLAS DC-6
N90712
N90713
N90714
N90895
N90896
N90898
N90960
42865/25
42879/26
42891/49
43150/162
43151/163
43218/171
44082/378
BEECHCRAFT
BEECH D-18
05/64
10/61
02/64
04/63
04/63
01/63
10/61
11. You know at least 25 uses for air sickness bags - none of
which pertain to vomit.
15. You always point with two fingers.
DOUGLAS DC-3 / C-47 Family
N25648
N25651
N28392
N86584
10. You can tie a neck scarf 36 ways.
01/67
01/67
01/67
12/63
01/67
01/67
05/64
16. You get a little too excited by certain types of ice.
17. You stand at the front door and politely say “Buh-bye,
thanks, have a nice day” when someone leaves your home
18. You can make a sentence using all of the following phrases:
“At this time,” “For your safety,” “Feel free,” and “As a
reminder”.
19. You know what’s on the cover of the current issues of In
Touch, Star, and People magazines.
20. You stop and inspect every fire extinguisher you pass, just to
make sure the “gauge is in the green”.
21. Your thighs are covered in bruises from armrests, elbows, and
briefcases. 22. You wake up and have to look at the hotel stationery to figure
out where you are.
23. You refer to cities by their airport codes.
24. Every time the doorbell rings you look at the ceiling.
25. You actually understand every item on this list.....
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
15
The Chiles-Whitted Encounter
July 24, 1948
In the early morning hours
of July 24, 1948, Captain
Clarence
Chiles
and
co-pilot John Whitted were
flying an Eastern Airlines
Douglas DC-3 from Mobile,
Alabama to Montgomery, at
about 5000 feet in altitude.
Co-Pilot John Whitted,
Capt. Shipe Chiles
At about 2:45 a.m., Chiles
spotted a hazy red cloud,
somewhat similar to aircraft
exhaust. It was slightly
above them, and to the frontright of the DC-3 by about
half a mile. Chiles saw an
aircraft, and, thinking it
the source of the
exhaust, pointed it
out to Whitted and
said, “Look, here
comes a new Army
jet job.” However,
they
quickly
realized that the object was unlike a jet plane, and was
moving towards them at very high speed. Air Force
Captain Edward J. Ruppelt would write that within a matter of
seconds,
The UFO was now almost on top of them. Chiles racked
the DC-3 into a tight left turn. Just as the UFO flashed
by about 700 feet to the right, the DC-3 hit turbulent air.
Whitted looked back just as the UFO pulled up in a steep
climb.
Both the pilots had gotten a good
look at the UFO and were able to
give a good description to the Air
Force intelligence people.
They had seen the object for about 10
to 15 seconds. Both men described
the object as cigar- or torpedo-shaped,
about 100 feet in length, and about
three times the diameter of a B-29
bomber. The “fuselage” was entirely
smooth, with no wings, projections or
fins. A bright red-orange exhaust was
emanating from the object’s rear, and
was more orange at the outer edges of
the exhaust, but grew redder when it
rose in altitude. The exhaust extended
approximately 30 to 50 feet behind
the object. They heard no sound from
16
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
the object as it sped past the
DC-3.
Perhaps most intriguingly,
the witnesses asserted that
the object had what appeared
to be two rows of rectangular
“windows.” A few weeks
after the sighting, Chiles
was to write that “there were
two rows of windows, which
indicated an upper and lower
deck, from inside these
windows a very bright light
was glowing. Underneath
the ship there was a blue
glow of light.” (Clark, 182)
The light from
the object was
so bright that
both men were
blinded by its
intensity for a
few seconds.
There
were
only a few
differences in
the observations of the two men: Chiles thought he observed a
conical shape the object’s nose that was somewhat similar to a
radar pole, and he described a glassy window at the object’s front
that was somewhat similar to a cockpit window. Whitted thought
the object was slightly further away than Chiles described, and he
did not see the cockpit-like “windshield” or the “radar pole” at the
object’s nose. Chiles recalled the “exhaust” as being less intense,
and not flaring out as much as Whitted observed.
Given the early hour of the flight, most
of the passengers were asleep. One of
them, Clarence L. McKelvie, would
later offer corroborative eyewitness
testimony. He asserted that he saw an
extraordinarily bright light from his
window seat in the aircraft, describing
it as unlike lightning. He later told
Project Sign investigators that the light
seemed to have moved parallel to the
plane, but at a higher altitude.
Co-Pilot John Whitted,
Capt. Shipe Chiles
Within seconds of the close encounter,
Chiles asked Eastern Airlines flight
controllers, via two-way-radio, if any
known experimental aircraft were being
flown in the region. There was none.
The flight landed at Birmingham a little before
4.00 a.m. The pilots went to a hotel, only to
learn that their sighting had already generated
some interest. Within a few hours, they were
interviewed at radio station WCON, and also
by newspaper reporter William Key. The UFO
report earned national press attention.
People had quickly suggested that the object
had been a meteor, but the pilots both flatly
rejected this: they had both seen many meteors
in their careers, and this object was certainly
not a meteor. On the contrary, they insisted
that the flying fuselage they’d observed was “a
man-made thing.” Within days, investigators
interviewed eyewitnesses Chiles, Whitted and
McKelvie. Investigators discovered several
eyewitnesses, who seemed to have seen the
same object Chiles and Whitted observed
One of the witnesses was Walter Massey, a
ground-crew chief at Robins Air Force Base in
Georgia, about 150 miles from Montgomery;
he claimed to have seen a very similar object
about an hour before Chiles and Whitted’s
encounter. Like the pilots, he said it was a
cylindrical object that seemed to be two or
three times larger than a B-29 “with a long
stream of fire coming out the tail end …
I noticed a faint glow on the belly of the
wingless object.” Massey was certain the
object was not a meteor.
Ruppelt also writes of another Air Force
witness:
A few days later another report from
the night of July 24 came in. A pilot,
flying near the Virginia/North Carolina
state line, reported that he had seen a
“bright shooting star” in the direction
of Montgomery, Alabama, at about the
exact time the Eastern Airlines DC-3 was
“buzzed.”
The Pentagon first suggested that the men had
seen a weather balloon, but this explanation
was quickly withdrawn. Within days, an
Air Force spokesman admitted the sighting
was credible, further stating: “this country
has no plane resembling a double-decked,
jet-propelled, wingless transport shooting a
40-foot flame out of its back end.”
Astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a
consultant, argued that if the pilots had
reported accurately what they’d seen, that
“no astronomical explanation” was even
remotely plausible.
We have included both Captain Chiles and
co-Pilot Whitted’s reports as well as their
drawings of the UFO. Captain Chiles was
a Colonel in the Air Corps in World War II
and co-Pilot Whitted was a Lieutenant and
B-29 pilot. Both were considered extremely
creditable witnesses.
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
17
A Great Airplane Story
By Jim Rearden
On 4 June 1942, Japanese aircraft attacked
the American military base at Dutch Harbor in
the Aleutians. One Zero fighter was hit during
the raid, severing its oil line. The pilot of the
damaged Zero, 19-year-old Flight Petty Officer
Tadayoshi Koga, knew he couldn’t make it back
to his carrier, the RYUJO, and decided to land
his aircraft on the island of Akutan, 40 kilometers
(25 miles) away. Akutan had been designated for
emergency landings, with a Japanese submarine
standing off the island to assist pilots who were
forced down. Koga attempted to land on what he
thought was a grassy meadow while two of his
wingmen watched on.
when the aircraft flipped over. On 10 July 1942,
a US Navy PBY Catalina flying boat on patrol
spotted the Zero, and set down on the waves so
the crew could go ashore and examine the downed
fighter. They excitedly reported their find to their
superiors and an expedition was sent to recover
the downed aircraft. Navy worker laboriously
dragged the Zero onto a skid and pulled out of
the bog with a tractor, put the aircraft on a barge,
and brought it to Dutch Harbor. Koga’s body was
buried on Akutan, to be repatriated back to Japan
after the war. At Dutch Harbor, the Zero, which
was still on its back, was righted, cleaned up, and
put in a crate for shipment to San Diego.
The grassy meadow turned out to be a marsh,
and when Koga
touched down, the
Zero’s main gear dug
into the mud and the
aircraft flipped over
on its back. Koga’s
two wingmen had
orders to prevent a
Zero from being
captured, but as they
were not certain Koga
was dead, they were
reluctant to shoot up
the overturned Zero
and destroy it. Koga
did not emerge, and
his wingmen finally
had to depart in order
to make it back to the
Ryujo. In fact, Koga
was dead. His neck
had been broken
The Zero’s wings could not be detached in
any convenient way
and so the crate was
very big and clumsy.
The inability to
remove the wings
was a nuisance for the
Japanese as well, but
adding such a feature
would have increased
the aircraft’s weight.
After arrival in San
Diego, the Zero,
which turned out to be
an A6M2 Model 21
with a manufacturing
date stamp of 19
February 1942, was
repaired. One problem
was that the propeller
was damaged beyond
repair, but that was
easy to fix, since the
18
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
Sumitomo design was a straight copy of a readily available Hamilton
Standard propeller. Flight evaluations of the captured aircraft
began in late September 1942, and demonstrated the performance
capabilities and limitations of the type .The information it yielded
was vital to the U.S. war effort because in 1941 and most of 1942, the
Zero outflew virtually every enemy fighter it encountered, primarily
because of its agility. During the previous several years many Zero
pilots had seen aerial combat in China, so unblooded Allied pilots
in less maneuverable planes usually regretted any attempt to fight
Zeros flown by the experienced Japanese if they lived long enough.
For example, in April 1942 thirty-six Zeros attacking a British naval
baseat Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), were met by about sixty
Royal Air Force aircraft of mixed types, many of them obsolete.
Twenty-seven of the RAF planes went down: fifteen Hawker
Hurricanes (of Battle of Britain fame),eight Fairey Swordfish, and
four Fairey Fulmars. The Japanese lost one Zero.
Five months after America’s entry into the war, the Zero was still a
mystery to U.S. Navy pilots. On May 7, 1942, in the Battle of the
Coral Sea, fighter pilots from our aircraft carriers Lexington and
Yorktown fought the Zero and didn’t know what to call it. Some
misidentified it as the German Messerschmitt 109.A few weeks
later, on June 3 and 4, warplanes flew from the Japanese carriers
Ryujo and Junyo to attack the American military base at Dutch
Harbor in Alaska’s Aleutian archipelago. Japan’s attack on Alaska
was intended to draw remnants of the U.S. fleet north from Pearl
Harbor, away from Midway Island, where the Japanese were setting
a trap. (The scheme ultimately backfired when our Navy pilots
sank four of Japan’s first-line aircraft carriers at Midway, giving the
United States a major turning-point victory. Koga’s wingmen were
supposed to fire incendiary bullets into his plane to keep it from
falling into enemy hands. But Koga was a friend, and couldn’t bring
themselves to shoot. In the raid of June 4, twenty bombers blasted
oil storage tanks, a warehouse, a hospital, a hangar, and a beached
freighter, while eleven Zeros strafed at will.
Chief Petty Officer Makoto Endo
led a three-plane Zero section from
the Ryujo, whose other pilots were
Flight Petty Officers Tsuguo Shikada
and Tadayoshi Koga. Koga, a small
nineteen-year old, was the son of a
rural carpenter. His Zero, serial number
4593, was light gray, with the imperial
rising-sun insignia on its wings and
fuselage. It had left the Mitsubishi
Nagoya aircraft factory on February
19, only three-and-ahalf months earlier,
so it was the latest
design. Shortly
before the bombs
fell on Dutch Harbor
that day, soldiers at
an adjacent Army
outpost had seen
three Zeros shoot
down a lumbering
Catalina amphibian.
As the plane began
to sink, most of the
seven-member crew
climbed into a rubber raft and began paddling toward shore. The
soldiers watched in horror as the Zeros strafed the crew until all were
killed. The Zeros are believed to have been those of Endo, Shikada,
and Koga. After massacring the Catalina crew, Endo led his section
to Dutch Harbor, where it joined the other eight Zeros in strafing. It
was then (according to Shikada, interviewed in 1984) that Koga’s
Zero was hit by ground fire. Army intelligence team later reported,
bullet holes entered the plane from both upper and lower sides. One
of the bullets severed the return oil line between the oil cooler and
the engine.
As the engine continued to run, it pumped oil from the broken line.
A Navy photo taken during the raid shows a Zero trailing what
appears to be smoke. It is probably oil, and there is little doubt
that this is Zero 4593.After the raid, as the enemy planes flew back
toward their carriers, eight American Curtiss Warhawk P-40s shot
down four VaI (Aichi D3A) dive bombers thirty miles west of Dutch
Harbor. In the swirling, minutes-long dogfight, Lt. John J. Cape shot
down a plane identified as a Zero. Another Zero was almost instantly
on his tail. He climbed and rolled, trying to evade, but those were
the wrong maneuvers to escape a Zero. The enemy fighter easily
stayed with him, firing its two deadly 20-mm cannon and two 7.7mm machine guns. Cape and his plane plunged into the sea. Another
Zero shot up the P-40 of Lt. Winfield McIntyre, who survived a
crash landing with a dead engine. Endo and Shikada accompanied
Koga as he flew his oil-spewing airplane to Akutan Island, twentyfive miles away, which had been designated for emergency landings.
A Japanese submarine stood nearby to pick up downed pilots. The
three Zeros circled low over the green, treeless island. At alevel,
grassy valley floor half a mile inland, Koga lowered his wheels and
flaps and eased toward a three-point landing. As his main wheels
touched, they dug in, and the Zero flipped onto its back, tossing
water, grass, and gobs of mud. The valley floor was a bog, and the
knee-high grass concealed water. Endo and Shikada circled. There
was no sign of life. If Koga was dead, their duty was to destroy the
downed fighter. Incendiary bullets
from their machine guns would have
done the job. But Koga was a friend,
and they couldn’t bring themselves
to shoot.
Perhaps he would recover, destroy the
plane himself, and walk to the waiting
submarine. Shikada abandoned the
downed fighter and returned to the
Ryujo, two hundred miles to the
south. (The Ryujo was sunk two
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
19
A Great Airplne Story continued
months later in the Solomons by planes from the aircraft carrier
Saratoga. Endo was killed in action at Rabaul on October 12, 1943,
while Shikada survived the war and eventually became a banker.)
46 years later, Sanders remembered how his very first test flight
exposed weaknesses of the Zero that American pilots could exploit.
The Zero sat for a month, unseen by U.S. patrol planes and offshore
ships. Akutan is often foggy, and constant Aleutian winds create
unpleasant turbulence over the rugged island. Most pilots preferred
to remain over water, so planes rarely flew over Akutan. However,
on July 10 a U.S. Navy Catalina (PBY) amphibian returning from
overnight patrol crossed the island. A gunner named Wall called,
“Hey, there’s an airplane on the ground down there. It has meatballs
20
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
on the wings”. That meant the rising-sun insignia. The patrol plane’s
commander, Lt. William Thies, descended for a closer look. What
he saw excited him. Back at Dutch Harbor, Thies persuaded his
squadron commander to let him take a party to the downed plane. No
one then knew that it was a Zero. Ens. Robert Larson was Thies’s
copilot when the plane was discovered. He remembers reaching the
Zero. “We approached cautiously, walking in about a foot of water
covered with grass. Koga’s body, thoroughly strapped in, was upside
down in the plane, his head barely submerged in the water.
We were surprised at the details of the airplane”, Larson continues.
“It was well built, with simple, unique features. Inspection plates
A Great Airplane Story continued
could be opened by pushing on a black dot with a finger. A latch
would open, and one could pull the plate out. Wingtips folded by
unlatching them and pushing them up by hand. The pilot had a
parachute and a life raft”. Koga’s body was buried nearby. In 1947
it was shifted to a cemetery on nearby Adak Island, and later, it is
believed, his remains were returned to Japan. Thies had determined
that the wrecked plane was a nearly new Zero, which suddenly
gave it special meaning, for it was repairable. However, unlike U.S.
warplanes, which had detachable wings, the Zero’s wings were
integral with the fuselage. This complicated salvage and shipping.
Navy crews fought the plane out of the bog. The tripod that was used
to lift the engine, and later the fuselage, sank three to four feet into
the mud. The Zero was too heavy to turn over with the equipment
on hand, so it was left upside down while a tractor dragged it on a
skid to the beach and barge. At Dutch Harbor it was turned over
with a crane, cleaned, and crated wings and all. When the awkward
crate containing Zero 4593 arrived at North Island Naval Air
Station, San Diego, a twelve-foot-high stockade was erected around
it inside a hangar. Marines guarded the priceless plane while Navy
crews worked around the clock to make it airworthy. (There is no
evidence the Japanese ever knew we had salvaged Koga’s plane. In
mid-September Lt. Cmdr. Eddie R. Sanders studied it for a week
as repairs were made. He remembered his flights in Koga’s Zero.
“My log shows that I made twenty-four flights in Zero 4593 from
20 September to 15 October 1942,” Sanders told me. “These flights
covered performance tests such as we do on planes undergoing
Navy tests. The very first flight exposed weaknesses of the Zero that
our pilots could exploit with proper tactics.” The Zero had superior
maneuverability only at the lower speeds used in dogfighting, with
short turning radius and excellent aileron control at very low speeds.
However, immediately apparent was the fact that the ailerons froze
up at speeds above two hundred knots, so that rolling maneuvers at
those speeds were slow and required much force on the control stick.
It rolled to the left much easier than to the right. Also, its engine cut
out under negative acceleration [as when nosing into a dive] due to
its float-type carburetor. We now had an answer for our pilots who
were unable to escape a pursuing Zero. We told them to go into a
vertical power dive, using negative acceleration, if possible, to open
the range quickly and gain advantageous speed while the Zero’s
engine was stopped. At about two hundred knots, we instructed
them to roll hard right before the Zero pilot could get his sights lined
up. This recommended tactic was radioed to the fleet after my first
flight of Koga’s plane, and soon the welcome answer came back: It
works, Sanders said, satisfaction sounding in his voice even after
nearly half a century. Thus by late September 1942 Allied pilots in
the Pacific theater knew how to escape a pursuing Zero. “Was Zero
4593 a good representative of the Model 21 Zero?” I asked Sanders.
In other words, was the repaired airplane 100 percent?” About 98
percent,” he replied The Zero was added to the U.S. Navy inventory
and assigned its Mitsubishi serial number. The Japanese colors and
insignia were replaced with those of the U.S. Navy and later the U.S.
Army, which also test-flew it. The Navy pitted it against the best
American fighters of the time, the P-38 Lockheed Lightening, the
P-39 Bell Airacobra, the P-51 North American Mustang, the F4F-4
Grumman Wildcat, and the F4U Chance Vought Corsair, and for
each type developed the most effective tactics and altitudes for
engaging the Zero. Leonard recently told me, “The captured Zero was a treasure.
To my knowledge no other captured machine has ever unlocked
so many secrets at a time when the need was so great.” A
somewhat comparable event took place off North Africa in 1944,
coincidentally on the same date, June 4, that Koga crashed his Zero.
A squadron commanded by Capt. Daniel V. Gallery, aboard the
escort carrier Guadalcanal, captured the German submarine U-505,
boarding and securing the disabled vessel before the fleeing crew
could scuttle it. Code books, charts, and operating instructions
rescued from U-505 proved quite valuable to the Allies. Captain
Gallery later wrote, “Reception committees which we were able to
arrange as a result may have had something to do with the sinking of
nearly three hundred U-boats in the next
eleven months.” By the time of U-505’s
capture, however, the German war effort
was already starting to crumble (D-day
came only two days later), while Japan
still dominated the Pacific when Koga’s
plane was recovered.
A classic example of the Koga plane’s
value on April 1, 1943, when Ken
Walsh, a Marine flying an F4U ChanceVought Corsair over the Russell Islands
southeast of Bougainville, encountered
a lone Zero. “I turned toward him,
planning a deflection shot, but before
I could get on him, he rolled, putting
his plane right under my tail and within
range. I had been told the Zero was
extremely maneuverable, but if I hadn’t
seen how swiftly his plane flipped onto
my tail, I wouldn’t have believed it,”
Walsh recently recalled. “I remembered
briefings that resulted from test flights
of Koga’s Zero on how to escape from
a following Zero. With that lone Zero
on my tail I did a split S, and with
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
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A Great Airplne Story continued
its nose down and full throttle my Corsair picked up speed fast. I
wanted at least 240 knots, preferably 260. Then, as prescribed, I
rolled hard right. As I did this and continued my dive, tracers from
the Zero zinged past my plane’s belly. From information that came
from Koga’s Zero, I knew the Zero rolled more slowly to the right
than to the left. If I hadn’t known which way to turn or roll, I’d have
probably rolled to my left. If I had done that, the Zero would likely
have turned with me, locked on, and had me. I used that maneuver a
number of times to get away from Zeros. By wars end, Capt. (later
Lt. Col.) Kenneth Walsh had 21 aerial victories (seventeen Zeros,
three Vals, one Pete), making him the war’s fourth-ranking Marine
Corps ace. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for two extremely
courageous air battles he fought over the Solomon Islands in his
Corsair during August 1943. He retired from the Marine Corps in
1962 after more than twenty-eight years of service. Walsh holds
the Distinguished Flying Cross with six Gold Stars, the Air Medal
with fourteen Gold Stars, and more than a dozen other medals and
honors.
How important was our acquisition of Koga’s Zero?
Masatake Okumiya, who participated in more air-sea battles than
any other Japanese naval officer, was aboard the Ryujo when Koga
made his last flight. He later co-authored two classic books, Zero and
Midway. Okumiya has written that the Allies’ acquisition of Koga’s
Zero was “no less serious than the Japanese defeat at Midway and
did much to hasten our final defeat.” If that doesn’t convince you,
ask Ken Walsh. Jim Rearden, a 47-year resident of Alaska, is the
author of fourteen books and more than five hundred magazine
articles, mostly about Alaska. Among his books is Koga’s Zero: The
Fighter That Changed World War II, which can be purchased for
$12.95 plus $4.00 for postage and handlingfrom Pictorial Histories
Publishing Company, 713 South Third Street West, Missoula, MT
59801.
INSIDE THE ZERO
The Zero was Japan’s main fighter plane throughout World War II.
By war’s end about 11,500 Zeros had been produced in five main
variants. In March1939, when the prototype Zero was rolled out,
Japan was in some ways still so backward that the plane had to be
hauled by oxcart from the Mitsubishi factory twenty-nine miles to
the airfield where it flew. It represented a great leap in technology.
At the start of World War II, some countries’ fighters were open
cockpit, fabric-covered biplanes. A low-wing all-metal monoplane
carrier fighter, predecessor to the Zero, had been adopted by the
Japanese in the mid-1930s, while the U.S. Navy’s standard fighter
was still a biplane. But the world took little notice of Japan’s advanced
military aircraft, so the Zero came as a great shock to Americans at
Pearl Harbor and afterward. A combination of nimbleness and
simplicity gave it fighting qualities that no Allied plane could
match. Lightness, simplicity, ease of maintenance, sensitivity to
controls, and extreme maneuverability were the main elements that
the designer Jiro Horikoshi built into the Zero. The Model flown by
Koga weighed 5,500 pounds, including fuel, ammunition, and pilot,
while U.S. fighters weighed 7,500 pounds and up. Early models had
no protective armor or self-sealing fuel tanks, although these were
standard features on U.S. fighters. Despite its large-diameter 940-hp
radial engine, the Zero had one of the slimmest silhouettes of any
World War II fighter.
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The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
The maximum speed of Koga’s Zero was 326 mph at 16,000 feet, not
especially fast for a 1942 fighter. But high speed wasn’t the reason for
the Zero’s great combat record. Agility was. Its’ large ailerons gave it
great maneuverability at low speeds. It could even outmaneuver the
famed British Spitfire. Advanced U.S. fighters produced toward the
war’s end still couldn’t turn with th Zero, but they were faster and
could out-climb and out-dive it. Without self-sealing fuel tanks, the
Zero was easily flamed when hit in any of its three wing and fuselage
tanks or its droppable belly tank.
And without protective armor, its pilot was vulnerable. In 1941 the
Zero’s range of 1,675 nautical miles (1,930 statute miles) was one
of the wonders of the aviation world. No other fighter plane had
ever routinely flown such a distance. Saburo Sakai, Japan’s highestscoring surviving World War II ace, with sixty-four kills, believes
that if the Zero had not been developed, Japan “would not have
decided to start the war.”
Other Japanese authorities echo this opinion, and the confidence it
reflects was not, in the beginning at least, misplaced. Today the Zero
is one of the rarest of all major fighter planes of World WarII. Only
sixteen complete and assembled examples are known to exist. Of
these, only two are flyable: one owned by Planes of Fame, in Chino,
California, and the other by the Confederate Air Force, in Midland,
Texas.
Letters
Good afternoon,
My name is Tim
Bottoms and I am the
collections manager
for the North Carolina
Transportation
Museum. Recently,
an Eastern Air Lines
Junior Flight Stewardess
cap was donated to us. I wondered if you or any of your members
could give me any background information concerning the cap.
Attached is a photo. Thank you for any help you can provide.
Sincerely,
Tim Bottoms
Timothy S. Bottoms
North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
Collections Manager
North Carolina Transportation Museum
411 South Salisbury Avenue
Spencer, NC 28159
Tel: 704.636.2889 x 230 • Fax: 704.639.1881 (Fax)
[email protected]
www.nctrans.org
See photos on next page
The rEAL Word | Spring 2011
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The rEAL Word | Spring 2011