Wayne T Mathews

In the videos Vev posted above (post#2), Neil addresses and talks about that part of the mission. He says they were circuit breakers that Buzz Aldrin had hit. That he thought they'd stay in, but just to be sure, they jammed the pen into the main one. Or words to that effect. The part that got to me, was Neil's decision to take over manually during the descent and move to a better landing spot. Which had him doing a landing that no one had ever done before, in a machine that no one had ever flown before with only 20 seconds of fuel left when he touched down? To paraphrase Goose, "That's serious test pilot sh#t." The man's gotta have had balls the size of the great outdoors... And I'll be damned if I think it's indicative of how lucky he was. I think it shows us how bloody good he was.

Hhmmm, I've done a few test flights over my years on the big jets. And one of the things I noticed was that luck had very little to do with any of them. Hours, and even days, of preparation and going over what we'd do in advance meant we were prepared for what might happen. But that doesn't mean there was no humour or fun in what we were doing. On the very first DC10 test flight I did (took us 6.5 hours over the Irish Sea), Neil Jackson, the captain, gave his departure brief prior to lining up and at the end, asked if there were any questions. I leaned forward and asked, "Yair Neil, what's the purpose of life?" Without batting an eye or missing a beat, Neil said as he lined up, "Flying jets, driving 'vettes, drinking whiskey, and chasing women. Now if you've got no other questions. Set take-off thrust." and we were off with a song in our hearts. From what I've read of the Astronauts, every one of them approaches his job from that angle and then some. And Armstrong was way up there at the top of that exceptional group. So while luck may have played a part in his making old age, I suspect that hard work, self discipline and focus would have had a lot more to do with it than any luck. Test pilots who rely on luck, don't get to do it for very long.

Yep! But hey, who's to say Mr. Gorsky didn't recognise the man's potential even way back then?

Not me. I've only met Greg or Ian. Not sure who's who...

Thanks for posting this Vev. Neil Armstrong was truly, in so many ways, an extraordinary man. I was told this story about the great man while I was living in the USA. I have no idea if it's true. But it'd be nice if it was. The story goes: Almost everybody knows of Armstrong's first sentence when he stepped onto the moon. But few remember that his last sentence as he stepped back onto the ladder to board the module was, "Good luck Mr Gorsky." Every word spoken during that incredible mission was recorded, analysed and understood. Except that last sentence. Nobody knew what he meant, fore no one had heard of Mr Gorsky. Over the years many people searched for the explanation and meaning of that last sentence. But every time Armstrong was asked what the sentence had meant, he'd just smile and shake his head without answering. In the late 90s, Armstrong was on his way to one of his rare speaking engagements when he granted a young investigative journalist an interview. During the interview, the question of that last sentence was brought up again but this time Armstrong smiled and said, "You're in luck young man, fore Mr and Mrs Gorsky passed recently, so I can now tell you what it was about. "When I was a boy, I was playing stick ball in the backyard with friends when one of them hit the ball over the fence into the neighbour's yard. I went over the fence looking for the ball, and found it in the flower garden under Mr and Mrs Gorsky's bedroom window. As I reached for the ball, I heard Mrs Gorsky say, "Oral sex? You'll get oral sex when the kid next door walks on the moon." End of story. And now we know who paid for Neil's original flying lessons when he was 15.

Back in the fifties, my Dad was sent down from Williamtown to Rathmines (we were living in married quarters in Booragul at the time, so he didn't have far to go each day) to help take boat loads of unwanted Catalina tools and spares out into Lake Macquarie and dump them. Complete toolboxes were just thrown overboard. I know though, that not all of the highly corrosion resistant Zircaloy spanners (black, ugly looking suckers, but jeez they were tough) that were amongst the stuff being dumped, went splash. Unfortunately, in '83, I lost the set I had when some bastard broke into my house on Nauru and stole my toolbox. Odds are though, that whoever has them now is still getting good service out of them. Which is better than having them cluttering up the bottom of Lake Macquarie.

Do you remember how young Jack Thompson looked in those Clayton Adds? Oh oh, we've only got 34 left, Guys... So I'll go for another "Two for the plice of one." That line reminded me Nev of a time, during a NSW election, that I was at the Westfield mall with my 4 year old daughter. In her clear piping voice that could be heard from one side of the food court to the other she said, "Oh look Daddy, there's somebody's Grandma."

Holly crap, David, your quick story is a terrible story, and I'm sorry it happened to you. You have every right to be furious. There's an American called Gregory N Brown who wrote a book tittled, "The Savvy Flight Instructor", in which he rips into organisations for doing stuff like you've reported and tells us up front, "DON'T DO IT!" I can only assume the people in the organisation you've told us about would have read his book, and will know that they screwed up big time... Please don't let those seagulls (you have to throw stones at seagulls to make them fly) turn you off learning to fly. Find a good instructor who will do what he says he'll do. Then go and fly...

It's very easy, and probably natural, to watch someone do something we would not be comfortable with, and then label that person as a "dumbsh#t". But it ain't necessarily so. What if the "dumbsh#t" was up there with an instructor getting trained to handle marginal conditions? Bad weather happens. And I think, within the laid down limits, that we should be able to handle it. To be able to do that, we'll need to fly every now and then in a sky that is less than eight eighths blue. If we don't, what hope will we have when we get caught out and sh#ts are trumps?

Dang it, I am uncomfortable with our daughters demonstrating that sort of crassness... And no! I'm not old fashioned... But I will admit to having double standards.

Perhaps, Frank. Perhaps they'll get a HP certificate, maybe in some cases even probable... But it's competency based. It's not a case of, "Oh you've got that have you? Well OK, we'll just give you this"... Uh Argh:no no no:,,, we're not playing that game.

Oh come on Comp, you've been told already, it's gotta be turtle. Gives a really hard shell and just keeps going on for eevveerr...

I have to tell you. I hate this sort of news!

A lady I knew in a previous life (she originally came from Hong Kong), was telling me that drinking that bubbly stuff is known to bring about insipid elections. I'm not sure what she'd say about our latest NSW (Not So Wobbly) election though. Knowing her, it'd probably be something like, "Ay yar! Two for the plice of one?... Hook Ta-Loy, you cheap charlie!" How's that? Close enough to being on topic?

Speling and gramer chequer buttton, please? Pretty please?

Not at all, Mark, Nev and Reggie decided they were both saying similar things from different sides of the table, so they kissed and made up, and everyone watching moved on... It happens, Mate... Don't worry 'bout it...

Beaudy Comp... Very pleased to hear it.

But doesn't it depend on which one is at the forefront??... Methinks we're about to get told here shortly...

Lookout Deskpilot! Statistics prove there'll always be a spike in baby births 9 months after a power outage....

This reminds me of a movie scene I saw recently where the daughter's boyfriend said to her cougar mother, "I was told you're 58." To which the cougar replied with an angelic smile, "Only parts of me, Sweety."

Good onya Flyerme... Here's another possible benefit to using the airservice's site that Turbz didn't mention. I'm not at all sure Airservices keeps a record of who logged on to look at what, but I like to think/suspect they do. And if that is the case, you'll have left a "paper trail" that'll prove you looked up the current, applicable weather, and by extension, that you were planning your flight. I personally find it helpful to print out the first page at least, of the area forecast, and put it on the knee pad with my flight plan.

Yep! You guys're right. By-law 12 is a scatter gun loaded with #4 buckshot...

Argh shoot, ya mean I gotta go and read it?

Would it be possible/acceptable to track visitors, and after say a month, or maybe 10 visits, or whatever, send them an email, politely inviting them to join if they wish to continue visiting? Please understand Compulsion, the fear of being jumped on from a great height is not restricted to "Newbies to flying". I've been involved in aviation in one way or another all my life (my Dad was on #1 intake of RAAF apprentices, I was on #22 intake, and most of my earliest memories involve aircraft), and when Bubbleboy, Old Koreela, David Isaac and Don Ramsay finally talked me into contributing, let me tell you, I was as nervous as a cat on hot bricks. But over time, I came to realize that the blokes who know the most rarely jump on anyone, and when they do, it's sort of like a grandfather picking a youngster up and dusting him down while saying, "You silly billy. Bet you won't want to do that again?..." I've also come to realize that the occassional bloke who does rip someone a new one, usually doesn't know all that much himself. So don't worry or get upset about what they're saying, they're just grabbing the chance to be a bully. As always, there are exceptions... I have seen the older hands get lit up occassionally. But it's almost always when they've been provoked by a Troll...