OT: The Good Old Days

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olyinaz
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OT: The Good Old Days

Post by olyinaz »

(A great old-pilot rant:)

Those were the good ole days.

Pilots back then were men who weren't looking to "get in touch with their feminin sides" and didn't even know what the heck that means. Pilots knew who Jimmy Doolittle was. Pilots drank coffee and whiskey, smoked cigars, didn't wear digital nerd watches and if they felt like dropping a Colt .45 into their flight bags they bloody well did it.

They carried their own suitcases and brain bags like the real men they were. Pilots did not go through the terminal impersonating a caddy pulling a bunch of golf clubs, computers, guitars, and feed bags full of tofu and granola on a sissy-trailer with no hat and granny glasses hanging on a pink string around their pencil necks while talking to their personal trainers on a cell phone.

Being an airline Captain was as good as being the King in a Mel Brooks movie. All the Stewardesses ("Flight Attendants" today) were young, attractive, single women that were
proud to be combatants in the sexual revolution. They didn't have to turn sideways, grease up and suck it in to get through the cockpit door like the braying aisle donkeys today. They would blush and say thank you when told that they looked good instead of filing a sexual harassment claim. Junior Stewardesses shared a room and talked about men...with no thoughts of substitution.

Passengers wore nice clothes and were polite; they could speak AND understand English. They didn't speak gibberish or listen to loud garbage pumped into thier vacant noggins. They bathed and didn't smell like a rotting pile of garbage in a jogging suit and flip-flops.

Children didn't travel alone, commuting between trailer parks. When present they were quiet and said "please" and "thank you" because Mom or Dad had some strong medicine at hand if they failed in that regard.

There were no Biggest Losers asking for a seatbelt extension or a Scotch and grapefruit juice
cocktail with a twist.

If the Captain wanted to throw some offensive, ranting jerk off the airplane, it was done without any worries of a lawsuit or getting fired.

The Cheif Pilot used to have your back and wasn't some management lacky plotting to stick a knife in it. And Heaven help the headquarters noob who messed with one of his men. They were HIS pilots and HE would take care of that.

Axial flow engines crackled with the sound of freedom and left an impressive black smoke trail like a locomotive burning soft coal. Jet fuel was cheap and once the throttles were pushed up they were left there. After all, it was the jet age and the idea was to go fast and run like mercury.

"Economy cruise" was something in the performance book, but no one knew why or where it was. When the Mach airspeed warning went off no one got all tight and scared because Boeing built it out of iron. Nothing was going to fall off and that sound had the same effect on real pilots then as Viagra does now for these new age guys.

There was very little plastic and no composites on the airplanes (nor the Stewardesses' pectoral regions). Airplanes and women had eye-pleasing symmetrical curves, not a bunch
of ugly vortex generators, ventral fins, winglets, flow diverters, tattoos, nose rings, or other nasty hardware.

Airlines were run by men like C.R. Smith, Bob Six, Pat Patterson and Juan Trippe. Men who had built their companies virtually from scratch, knew most of their employees by name, and were lifetime airline employees themselves...not pseudo financiers and bean counters who flit from one occupation to another for a few bucks more, a better golden parachute or a fancier title, all the while fervently believing that they are a class of beings unto themselves.

And so it was back then....and never will be again!


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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by gak »

Nice post Oly - and nice DC-8! My close 2nd fave jet to the B-707...my 1st and 2nd jet rides at the ages of 8 and 10 respectively. Actually a Convair (CV)880 on a 90 minute flight in Japan slid inbetween.
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by Rusty »

It's been almost 40 years since I've flown anywhere and see no reason to change now due to their stupid policies.
If you're gonna be stupid ya gotta be tough-
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by piller »

Sadly, like the Courtiers took everything away from the conquerors, the chair polishers of today have taken things away from the generation who actually did something. Similar to the jets, the cars of yesteryear cannot be driven by many of todays slick little sissies. I can still double clutch a non synchro tranny and I am only 45.
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by OJ »

On a little smaller scale - I've held a commercial license for over 40 years and most of my work consisted of flying cargo into back sountry - mountains & plains - small strips - or often in fields with no strips. I have the greatest respect for those guys in the big stuff but still feel a little sorry for them in that they never get the real feel of flying in those huge machines as you do in the Cub - where you can entertain yourself with such fun things as two turn spins with recovery right on the direction of entry into the spin - :mrgreen:

Commercial licenses required two turn spins in each directon with recovery within 10 degrees of entry direction - piece of cake in a cub.

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And - yep - there was always a rifle on board with me.
Last edited by OJ on Sat Apr 30, 2011 12:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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stretch
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by stretch »

The TSA is the final reason I don't fly commercial anymore.

But all of those other things sure are true!!! :lol:

They DID used to treat passengers like royalty,
and most passengers acted, smelled, and dressed
at least like humans.

Great post!!!

-Stretch
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by Blaine »

:wink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IV9PZW1 ... re=related

1955 - Maybe the most famous barrel roll in history.
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by OJ »

Could be - but, I doubt there'll ever be better demonstration of a pilot's superior flying talent than Pilot Sullenberger's landing his passenger loaded plane in the Hudson River after birds stopped all his engines - without a single loss of life or even injury of any passenger. Aeorbatics is a learned skill - and fun - but that was a true test of a pilot's true skills.
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by AJMD429 »

Rusty wrote:It's been almost 40 years since I've flown anywhere and see no reason to change now due to their stupid policies.
Same Here. I just can't take the symbolic stupidity... :evil:
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by OJ »

AJMD429 wrote:
Rusty wrote:It's been almost 40 years since I've flown anywhere and see no reason to change now due to their stupid policies.
Same Here. I just can't take the symbolic stupidity... :evil:
A BIG +1 HERE ON THAT :!:
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gak
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by gak »

BlaineG wrote::wink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IV9PZW1 ... re=related

1955 - Maybe the most famous barrel roll in history.
Boeing 707 - best danged plane of its kind ever to fly... George Kennedy says so!
rtsp://v5.cache7.c.youtube.com/CjgLENy73wIaLwlEKXlkS_G5-hMYESARFEIJbXYtZ29vZ2xlSARSB3Jlc3VsdHNgkanAqoC0xOhLDA==/0/0/0/video.3gp

rtsp://v3.cache5.c.youtube.com/CjgLENy73wIaLwlj5zbckmrqwhMYESARFEIJbXYtZ29vZ2xlSARSB3Jlc3VsdHNgkanAqoC0xOhLDA==/0/0/0/video.3gp
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by Old Time Hunter »

OJ wrote:Could be - but, I doubt there'll ever be better demonstration of a pilot's superior flying talent than Pilot Sullenberger's landing his passenger loaded plane in the Hudson River after birds stopped all his engines - without a single loss of life or even injury of any passenger. Aeorbatics is a learned skill - and fun - but that was a true test of a pilot's true skills.
Absolutely AJ....Capt. Sullenberger landed an anvil as if it were a feather. Just the thought of maintaining the precise roll, inclination, and sway with a bird never intended to be able to glide, much less handle a power off landing not on a runway, but on the worst possible medium other than a mountain top...choppy water. The book says to generally attempt an emergency landing with the gear down (if you can), and ALWAYS with full flaps, he did neither and if he did, that bird would have done cartwheels on the surface. Well done Mr. Sullenberger!
They DID used to treat passengers like royalty,
and most passengers acted, smelled, and dressed
at least like humans.
Stretch, back then, not to be an elitest, the people that flew on airlines were in a different social-economic class than what they are today. A $500usd flight today was a $1500usd flight back forty years ago. And that was for coach!
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by Booger Bill »

The thing that bugs me commercial flying is compareing the cost of your ticket with other passengers around you. We got caught up in that game once. A few were airline employees wifes flying for free, mine was about $350s, someone else that bought late was like $1,100s all of us sitting together! There is nothing standard or fair buying tickets on the same flight!
I havent been a active pilot in many years. I once belonged to a club in the 1960s where about 30 of us owned 3 airplanes. A luscombe, cessna 150 and a 170. Dues were like $11.00s a month, $800s to buy in, sold my membership for the same $800s later. The luscombe was $2s wet, 150 was $5s, and the 170 was $7s! Today you would have to mutiply those figures by roughly more than 20 times! I bought a beautifull metalised piper tri pacer in 1976 for $5,000s! Today that plane would run 50 to 65 thousand dollars I would think!
Flying is a rich man`s sport! Unless a person plans on flying for a liveing these days none but the elite or a highly motavated batachlor probley dare to think about learning to fly! They really havent built cheap affordable airplanes in many years. Hence, the old junkers hold their price. That, and now days you need a philidelphia lawyer to ride along. It`s probley close to impossable to not be breaking some new regulations you cant keep up with on just a normal flight!
I still plan on getting my bi annual, flying my citaberia for a year or so then probley sell it. I havent had a check ride in around 12 to 15 years and have to get some lessons. I just got my physical and really had to fight for it as I take blood thinner, am three spins on the scale and turned 70 years old a couple days ago! My citaberia hopefully will be done in a couple months. It was sitting forever, a long sad story!
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by FWiedner »

Old Time Hunter wrote: Well done Mr. Sullenberger!
I agree, but I'd suggest that's CAPTAIN Sullenberger. He might have EARNED IT.

:wink: :mrgreen:
Government office attracts the power-mad, yet it's people who just want to be left alone to live life on their own terms who are considered dangerous.

History teaches that it's a small window in which people can fight back before it is too dangerous to fight back.
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by olyinaz »

Old Time Hunter wrote:Absolutely AJ....Capt. Sullenberger landed an anvil as if it were a feather. Just the thought of maintaining the precise roll, inclination, and sway with a bird never intended to be able to glide, much less handle a power off landing not on a runway, but on the worst possible medium other than a mountain top...choppy water. The book says to generally attempt an emergency landing with the gear down (if you can), and ALWAYS with full flaps, he did neither and if he did, that bird would have done cartwheels on the surface. Well done Mr. Sullenberger!
Sully did a great job for sure, but in my opinion most of that had little to do with the flying. The flying part was decided the instant he suffered a "Loss of All Thrust" (which is an Emergency Procedure we practice and is on a Quick Reference Checklist that we keep at hand...for a reason) because at that point he had only the one option. What Sully did well was keep his cool and not make the situation any worse by doing something stupid like putting his gear or flaps down! Not that any airline pilot worth a hoot would have done that because we practice ditching (emergency water landings) also. No, I aint takin' nothing away from ol' Sully - he done just fine. But it's not the flying part where he stood out (we all get paid to get that right fer Pete's sake...) but the before and after and the way he carries himself. He's a class act.

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Oly
Cheers,
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That fires we don't put out will bigger burn

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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by stretch »

Quote:
They DID used to treat passengers like royalty,
and most passengers acted, smelled, and dressed
at least like humans.

Stretch, back then, not to be an elitest, the people that flew on airlines were in a different social-economic class than what they are today. A $500usd flight today was a $1500usd flight back forty years ago. And that was for coach!
Thats' true, Old Timer, but I didn't want to say it in so many words!
The "Jet Set" was called that for a reason. They were the "Jet Set"
mainly because they could afford to be. Most folks (in this country,
at least!) hadn't ever flown in an ariliner at that time, and it was a BIG
DEAL if you had. They are more like flying buses these days, except maybe
for first class. I'm not sure about that last sentence - I've never been
able to afford first class!! :(

-Stretch
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by tman »

Agree, but make mine cheap vodka with unsweetend Donald duck grapefruit juice on the rocks.
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by Meeteetse »

stretch wrote:
Quote:
They DID used to treat passengers like royalty,
and most passengers acted, smelled, and dressed
at least like humans.

Stretch, back then, not to be an elitest, the people that flew on airlines were in a different social-economic class than what they are today. A $500usd flight today was a $1500usd flight back forty years ago. And that was for coach!
Thats' true, Old Timer, but I didn't want to say it in so many words!
The "Jet Set" was called that for a reason. They were the "Jet Set"
mainly because they could afford to be. Most folks (in this country,
at least!) hadn't ever flown in an ariliner at that time, and it was a BIG
DEAL if you had. They are more like flying buses these days, except maybe
for first class. I'm not sure about that last sentence - I've never been
able to afford first class!! :(

-Stretch
I realize that many folks flew all over the country to party or whatever because the new fangled "jets", but I don't completely agree that the cost was excessively high. When I was a kid in the 50's we could fly from Denver to several places for pretty reasonable costs. I even got to go to England to visit a friend in 1963 and the round trip was $375. Maybe that was high, but seems cheap to me. I do agree that people were nicer, dressed better and appreciated the good service. We got served decent food and you could even smoke on the plane. People actually talked to each other rather than today where everyone has ear phones and loud music or whatever it is. Cheapest flight I was ever on was flying military standby (1967) from San Francisco to Denver for $33.50. About half my pay check as I recall.
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by Booger Bill »

meeteetse, in 1963 $2.00s a hour was better than a good job! In 1962 when I started out on the conservation dept I made $320s a month. That $365 dollar trip would have cost me about 5 weeks work back then. Such a deal! How old are you?
I got one for you. There was a gambler special flight I took once. Back in about 1968 from burbank california they would fly you to the el capitan casino in hawthorn nevada. The plane would leave long beach and then burbank about sundown. It would return the next morning. They gave you drinks, a roll of $2.50 in nickles and feed you at the casino all for $10.00s! I went with a girl friend on new years eve, but on holidays it was $15.00s. I enjoyed it and made plans to go again later. Some overtime came up, I needed the money so cancelled. The plane crashed on mt. whitney! I carried that clipping for a long time to look at when I thought things were rough!

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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by Meeteetse »

Booger Bill wrote:meeteetse, in 1963 $2.00s a hour was better than a good job! In 1962 when I started out on the conservation dept I made $320s a month. That $365 dollar trip would have cost me about 5 weeks work back then. Such a deal! How old are you?
I'm 67 and I made $1.25 and hour in most jobs, but there were others out there that paid more. I got $4.50 an hour working at the refinery in 1963 with time and a half for overtime. Never said I didn't have to save a lot to make the trip, took me several months to save up and I was single. Never heard of a credit card back then, but I knew how to save for special occasions. Now that flight is $1500 or more, you don't get fed much, you don't get kissed just screwed and they don't say thank you. Doesn't sound cheaper today to me. Just my humble opinion.
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by Blaine »

Well, with cash a little tight these days, I'm flying to see Mom this weekend. Four hundred round trip. I usually like to ride the motorcycle (Tacoma - Columbus, Ohio) but even at 45 mpg, fast food and cheap motels it's a 1400 - 1500 $$ trip. I hate flying :evil:
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Re: OT: The Good Old Days

Post by Booger Bill »

I was raised in wisconsin and left home to do my career in california. Folks were in wisconsin. It was very impractable to try and drive home when you only had a few weeks off. I had to fly commercial many times. The tickets were like playing the lottery. As I wrote before, some familys of airline employees seemed to be the "real" jet setters. They would fly anywhere on a whim for free. But as said, what I really noticed was the difference in cost of the same flight tickets of people I talked to on the flights. Seldom did two people pay the same fare. Besides the freebys, a ticket might run anywhere from $250s to $1,200s for the same ride.
Most of my career I was single. Flying was the cheapest way to get home. Than I was married with a kid, and flying wasnt even considered, had to drive to keep from buying 3 tickets and breaking the bank. I also rode it on a harley and flew my own puddle jumper. Both trips were the most memberable events of my life. The bike trip was a endurance contest in the worst most miserable weather, and the time I flew it solo in my citaberia God watched over me as I should have got killed several times!
When I first come west in 1960 I put a ad in the newspaper to split the cost. I charged a airman $65s to take him to travis AB, hundreds of miles out of my way. On top of that somewhere in nebraska we got a room at a farmhouse for I think a advertised $1.75! The woman didnt make any money on me. She tried to turn a fan on in a 12 foot high ceiling, couldnt reach the string. I got on a chair reaching for it, chair broke, landed flat on the bed and broke it to smitherines! Offered to pay, she graciously declined. The next day we got a hundred miles down the road and my partner discovered he left his wallet back under the pillow! Had to go back! That idea wasnt a paying propersition for me!
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