Last April (2014) I was visiting Bill and Fran Ferrier in San Antonio when Bill pulled out his Air Force Pilot’s Flying Log Book to show me a trip that we took when we were flying T-38s at Randolph. I had to chuckle as we remembered more details of the trip, other than not catching any fish!
Another thing that caught my attention was the aircraft tail number for our trip, # 949 – it is the same number of the painting I have in my den:
I just love these “little coincidences” I discover these days!
A few years ago I was getting my FAA physical, the doctor’s practice is exclusively aviation medicine as he was a Marine flight surgeon. As one would expect the walls of his office are covered with airplane pics. There was a picture of an F-4E on the wall I had seen many times before, only an 8×10 and actually it’s a drawing. It was in the post Vietnam gray camo paint scheme so I never really looked close at it until on that day I noticed the tail number, 515. I had flown that airplane at Korat and later saw it sitting on the ramp at Fort Wayne in the Indiana ANG after it had the slat conversion. I always remember that airplane because it was one of two replacement airplanes that had a tail number a lot newer than all the others that ran from about 275-396. It also had a hydraulic mod only one other plane had.
As I approach retirement it dawned on my that only three airplanes I have flown for pay are still around, and the 747-400 is on the way out. The T-38 is still around although as you know highly modified. The only plane still in production is the A-320. The Metro 2, CV-580, DC-9, 727 and DC-10 are gone, the MD-82s are being scrapped, of course the T-37, F-4 and OV-10s are all history as well.
Guess it’s about time for me to go to the scrap heap as well!