Jim
Fly With Me
My first flight was 1960 in a T-33 flying with
the Republic of Korea jet pilot, top. In 1984
in a T-38 I went for my idea to get a vertical
up picture, and got it with 3rd try of the F-106
Delta Dart, top. In 1967 flying with the Navy
I shot a A-4 Skyhawk using a motorized Nikon camera in front of the pilot - I sat behind him,
over Hunter Legget Army Base in California,
the 3-picture B&W sequence above.
l
Upside down over Lake
Tahoe about 1973, I sat
side by side with the T-37
pilot who later took my
Leica in hand, as I took
his jet and barrel rolled
it twice near Orland. In
the orange flight suit
this is a self-portrait
of me in a F-104B over
West Sacramento in
1968 taking a jet flight
to promote Armed
Forces Day. That day
we skimmed the Golden
Gate Bridge, and then
shot a picture of a F100
as it passed over the
State Capitol building
in Sacramento - all
pre-arranged. See below.
I flew with him twice, once we did aerobatics with a A-10 Wart Hog, that was unable to fly vertical, but can be seen in
the T-38 windshield, left, over Sacramento. Then the T-38 was taken apart - after a six-month break in my Test Pilot
story, we were able to take to the air again and with some pre-planning met-up with the F-106 test pilot after he finished
a super-sonic test run between Eureka and San Francisco - we made three attempts to get my vertical shot, upper left,
over a flight test area near Orland. First time he was to high and in just blue sky; second time too low and only his nose
was on the horizon line, 3rd try did it as seen. Keep in mind, in the 11,000 to 30,000 height, at those air speeds, we ran
out of air pretty soon going straight up, and actually fell out of the sky on our backs. The F-106 just fell away from us like
a rock as we rolled over upside down, so the two test pilots had their hands full using two planes with totally different flight characteristics. This UFO pilot 360-degree computerized panoramic took about 22 layers of images in Adobe Photoshop using a number of my Ektachrome photographs. You can actually connect the left with the right side of this picture for
a full horizon-to-horizon shot of my spaceman from Roswell, New Mexico, who went flying with the Air Force one-day in
his modified T-38, chasing the A-10, left, as the F-106's kept track of the MacIntosh tourist over the Sacramento Valley.
I always tried to come up
with pictures from airplanes
that weren't just photographs
that could be taken by say a
step ladder - that is one able
to go to 10 - 35,000 feet. When
the Red Baron Flying team came to the Sacramento
area, they offered rides to anyone. I arrived at the Cameron Park air field one morning, with a layer of valley
fog evident. Hoping it would clear, I took to the air and set about the series of loop-the -loops. But the horizon line
was not easily seen. I went back to The Sacarmento
Union and we processed
the Ektachrome film. The
background was gray, no up,
no down, no sideways. I
called and got a 2pm ride
re-shoot and more sky fun.
The 1960 Korea T-33 and F-86 jet picture was taken for a story on their Air Force training while a Stars & Stripes U.S.
Army photographer stationed in Seoul. In 1967 the Navy and Air Force were working together on Jet Vernability Tests
at Camp Hunter Legget, using jet planes from 75-feet to 45,000'. As a news photographer for the San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune, I spent months getting clearences to fly. After high-altitude chamber and ejection seat training
at Lemoore N.A.S., I was able to fly the day the tests ended - because our second plane would foul the electronic
readers used on the A-4 Skyhawk in my pictures. I already had pictures of probable ground of weapons used in
Vietnam to make the possible shoot-downs. The upside-down view of Lake Tahoe was taken while doing a story on
navigational training at Mather A.F.B., as a way to introduce navigators to the flying options of tactical wings, versus
transportation, or support assignments on larger air craft. The F-104B (B = 2 seater) was to promote Armer Forces
Day at McClelland maintenance air base. That was a quite a ride in a the super-sonic Starfighter - the pilot had some fun
as we went out west of the Golden Gate, came back low but above the towers, and then he spun the jet 3-4 times over
the Richmond gas farms as we went upwards to meet up with the F-100 for the Capitol fly-by, clipping above.
In 1983 I my jet-flight card about ready to expire (4 year periods), so I tried for the Test Pilot story at McClelland.
The facility re-built the Century Series jet planes (F-100, F-104, F-111, etc.), and the F-4 Vietnam era Phantoms, and the newer A-10 Wart Hogs low flying anti-tank jets now used in Irag, etc. On two occasions I was able to actually fly the jet-trainers. I was able to barrel roll (3,500' sideways roll, 14,000 down to 11,500) the T-37, and on my second flight take the T-38 to our aerobatics area to try for the vertical F-106 pictures. On return we moved about the sky as the F-106 rolled around our jet that made images later used in the "UFO pilot" 360-degree computer generated pix. On my first flight in the T-38 in Fall 1983, the test pilots had their fun and some initiation set for me - or return Maj. Howe asked for and go some "fly bys" over the run-way at McClelland. He buzzed the run-way in the T-38, then sharply pulled up (pulling G's....), then made a hard-left turn that sent me right stressing my seat harness, and then as he went up, he quickly leveled out creating negative G's by lowering the nose so that my stomach acids "float," and then asked, "want to try that again.....?" Not wanting to back-down, I said, "Sure let's go once more" as I pulled the barf-bag out, and un-coupled my oxygen mask. This time he repeated the manuever, accerlerating the pulling up on the G - and then negative G. And he got me, I had about a 1+ oz. upchuck. After landing, as we rolled up to the flight test pilots area, as we popped open the canopy, another pilot was walking out with a metal bucket and mop, with a big smile on his face. Now I knew why the seat cushion had little black stain marks on it, I didn't add one, had the bag.
In 2000 the computer came into play and at the time it
made the manipulation of photographs very easy. But
it also meant that some images that were very hard
to print the old way, became easier with the software
now available. The self-portrait above gets some help
by adding two F-4 Phantoms, one of which buzzed me
standing on the McClelland base runway - that I duped
again. My T-38 test pilot Maj. Jim Howe did the pass
over after a flight test he just had finished. More on
Adobe Photoshop 7 fun and games follows below.
The day Maj. Jim Howe and I flew for the first time, one
of the other test pilots with a talent for cartooning drew
this picture. Our T-38 trainer was "off the books," that
meant it was white with a red-trim, along with another
F-111 the McClelland aviation department made that had a complete set of dual avionics for testing in flight. One system could be turned off, or activated if the main system shut down.
