Interesting!
I was worried about that, if the "tow operator" might be the target?
Flying off a carrier is a lot more exciting, then flying off of Terra Firma.
What Was The Last Western You Watched?
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The Bounty Hunter
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Interesting!
I was worried about that, if the "tow operator" might be the target?We were supposed to deploy 4000 feet of quarter-inch steel cable to tow sleeve targets behind our plane (the AD-4 Skyraider) in order for fleet ships and sometimes fighter planes to practice anti-aircraft fire. I could always tell when we'd lost a sleeve, because the Skyraider would give a little jump because of suddenly-reduced drag.
One day I'd streamed a target and got back up into my seat to read while ships practiced their firing. After a few minutes, I felt the Skyraider jump so I got down onto the compartment floor and engaged the winch clutch to reel in the cable. Usually, it took about 12-15 minutes to recover most of the cable and I could tell when it had been mostly recovered because slipstream turbulence behind the Skyraider would cause a loose cable end to begin beating against the plane’s bottom. When that happened, I was supposed to secure the mostly retrieved cable and cut off the loose end. On this day, I had reeled in the cable for just a couple of minutes when I heard the loose end begin beating against the plane’s hull. I checked the wire length meter and it showed that only about 200 of the original 4000 deployed feet had been recovered. Seems one of the ships had shot the cable in two closely behind our plane.
Needless to say, when we got back aboard ship, I told my commander that I was resigning as a tow target operator ASAP. LOL
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Close call, I would think it would be hard to make a 3800' mistake, that is dangerous. The Skyraider was a fine airplane for it's time. They were great for low end strafing and bombing.
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The Skyraider was a fine airplane for it's time. They were great for low end strafing and bombing.
Yes, the old prop-driven Skyraider was a very good plane (for its' time) but as an aviation ordnanceman (AO2), I wasn't all that enthused about them because they were supposedly capable of carrying their own weight in bombs and rockets and I was one of the sailors responsible for loading all that weight.
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loaded pistols
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Gene Autry And The Mounties
Night Stage To Galveston -
Goldtown Ghost Riders
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Charro
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Canadian Pacific
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The Gunfight At Dodge City
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The fourth official Sartana film: ''Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay'' directed by Giuliano Carnimeo with John Garko.
It was good but not as the first two legendary pics.
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hello All I watched Cheyenne Autumn with Richard Widmark and Carroll Baker. John Ford's last Western and like others he directed it portrayed the politics and realities of the era quite well ( in my humble opinion )
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Calamity Jane a bit of light hearted fun with Doris Day, Howard Keel, Philip Carey & Allyn McLerie enjoyed it yet again.
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''Chisum''... and I will see it again because of the unsurpassed presence of Ben Johnson with Duke.
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outlaws of stampede pass
war drums -
Latest episode of Hell On Wheels, and I've had enough of it. The haphazard writing, and ridiculous plot devices have finally done me in.
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Ghost Patrol
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In Old Montana
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