Willy
June 15th, 2005, 14:02
One Way to Grow
Naval Air Stations in the Reserve chain are always anxious to increase their quotas of airplanes in order to give their Organized Reservists every chance to fly. At one point it looked as if NAS NEW ORLEANS was using the direct approach to add one more Corsair to it's pool.
The story as told by ADC Ed Willis at the station, concerns an F4U that was flown in to NAS NEW ORLEANS by a transient pilot for a routine overnight layover. The next morning the Corsair was not to be found, even though the line chief searched the station.
Finally, hearing the tower controlman announce that this particular plane was being taxied back to the hangar, the pilot and line chief rushed over -- in the nick of time. A check crew was already pulling an acceptance test. A paint crew was standing by to paint the NAS NEW ORLEANS insignia on the plane. And another line chief was marking up the Corsair for flight that "weekend". Questioning revealed that orders directing the work had been issued by the planning division.
With visions of finishing his flight on foot, the visiting pilot demanded that his plane be returned to the transient line. Then followed a brief investigation which showed three newly overhauled Corsairs had landed at the station the day before -- two as replacements and the third as a replacement for another station. Somehow the the visiting pilot's airplane had been mistaken for one of the replacements.
With his Corsair once more under his control, the pilot couldn't resist one question for the line chief before taking off:
"Do you collect many airplanes this way?" he asked.
"No, Sir" was the red faced Chief's reply. "But" he added wistfully, "We sure could use an R4D"
Naval Air Stations in the Reserve chain are always anxious to increase their quotas of airplanes in order to give their Organized Reservists every chance to fly. At one point it looked as if NAS NEW ORLEANS was using the direct approach to add one more Corsair to it's pool.
The story as told by ADC Ed Willis at the station, concerns an F4U that was flown in to NAS NEW ORLEANS by a transient pilot for a routine overnight layover. The next morning the Corsair was not to be found, even though the line chief searched the station.
Finally, hearing the tower controlman announce that this particular plane was being taxied back to the hangar, the pilot and line chief rushed over -- in the nick of time. A check crew was already pulling an acceptance test. A paint crew was standing by to paint the NAS NEW ORLEANS insignia on the plane. And another line chief was marking up the Corsair for flight that "weekend". Questioning revealed that orders directing the work had been issued by the planning division.
With visions of finishing his flight on foot, the visiting pilot demanded that his plane be returned to the transient line. Then followed a brief investigation which showed three newly overhauled Corsairs had landed at the station the day before -- two as replacements and the third as a replacement for another station. Somehow the the visiting pilot's airplane had been mistaken for one of the replacements.
With his Corsair once more under his control, the pilot couldn't resist one question for the line chief before taking off:
"Do you collect many airplanes this way?" he asked.
"No, Sir" was the red faced Chief's reply. "But" he added wistfully, "We sure could use an R4D"