Mother's Day 2013

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!

The Woman Behind The Goggles

I just got off the phone with the woman up there wearing the goggles. I've known this woman for 17 years. She was born July 1, 1920 ... 89 years ago and I am still amazed at what she has to say, teach and offer of herself. Her name is Barbara Jane (BJ) Erickson London ... and she is one the coolest women I've ever met and probably ever will meet. She flew for the U.S. military during WWII as a member of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron.

I called to tell her I'd finally ordered a digital voice recorder so I can record all our telephone conversations. She's been telling me stories for years ... and they are stories that you want to remember.

Tonight we talked about the new movie "Amelia".... P-38 emergency procedures ... losing your sense of self and all those things that you think define who you are ... how the real Amelia was actually not so great a pilot ... packing up the P-51, living your dream and then having it taken away ... barking dogs ... RONing ... flying granddaughters (cool band name?) ... and a woman named Del.

Amelia (the movie): I told her ..... it sucked! Well, I don't use words like that with BJ ... but I let her know ... it was terrible, terrible, I say! I rambled on about how the director set us up with a situation that never had a pay-off (super annoying) ... I got bored (Amelia's life was not boring and they found a way to make it so), not enough conflict and by God, Hillary Swank, wipe that goofy smile off your face and stop giving us the Amelia we see in newsreels (actually, I blame the director for this, not Hillary - she did good with what she was given) ... and Amelia why are you never dirty ... pilots get dirty ... your coveralls are white, perfectly white ... no grease ... nothing! And director woman ... shame on you for not having the cojones to actually place blame where it partially belonged .... Amelia made some stupid decisions - like, lets see ... not taking the trailing antennae even if it could possibly save your life! I bet she really wished she'd had that sucker at the end.

Moviemakers are supposed to give you at least, at least - one character in a movie to care about ... I don't care about any of you. The real Amelia had an ego too big for her own good (as in got her killed), but she did have guts and she did open a huge door for women in aviation .... and she did have a really cool plane (Electra) ... and really cool clothes....and did I mention ... the real Amelia really, REALLY loved to fly - not so convincing in the flick. Director lady broke the movie making rule ... "show don't tell" ... she .... "told and didn't show".

But ... hey ... I'll go see it again .... it's a VERY pretty period movie and you can't beat the planes in it!

P-38 Emergency:

The P-38 is the coolest plane in the world ... at least I think so. First time I saw one fly, I was in love. It has Pratt & Whitney engines that puuuurrrrr like a kitten and it moves through the sky like smoothy silk butt-tah.

One night, back in '43, BJ was on a night flight in a P-38 over the LA basin area (she was the WAFS Commanding Officer at Long Beach Air Field). She had taken the plane up to get a few hours of night time ... as in night "flight" time. She'd been flying around for awhile and when she came back to base to land ... she extended the landing gear and .... she only got 2 green landing gear lights to come on ... and that's a real bummer. It's totally awesome with 3 green lights because you just ... land... the gear is down and locked into position. You get to walk away and think to yourself ... jolly good job, chap ... I just greased a P-38 landing ... I'm definitely hot shit. With only 2 lights on ... well ... you will end up having to use one of the wings as a wheel and it rarely works out very well ... like not at all well ... and you get to walk (hopefully) away thinking to yourself ... I'm a piece of crap ... I just wrecked a million dollar airplane .... I'm screwed." Again, 2 green lights = holy shit! ~~ 3 green lights = hot shit.

So what did Barbara do when she saw only 2 green lights? Everything in the book. First of all she flew back out over the Pacific and trouble shooted the situation. Sometimes you can take the plane and jerk the controls around which jerks the plane around and sometimes you can "knock" the wheel into the locked position. Or you can use a CO2 cylinder to get it in place. BJ worked her fanny off ... still no third green light ... double bummer.

Okay, so now you start thinking ... 2 wheels down and locked ... 1 wing scraping along the runway trying with all it's might to be a wheel, sparks flying ... fuel tanks in the wing, possible fire ... maybe explosion .... no problem. Any landing is a good landing ... right? Well, like a smart pilot ... Barbara flies around over Catalina Island until her gas tanks are practically empty. Not as much gas in the tank ... not as big a fire. Makes sense.

Here she comes ... on final approach ... still only 2 green lights ... hoping, praying, maybe, just maybe, please God let it be so ... light number 3 is just broken. The gear really IS down and locked ... the problem is in the cockpit ... not the gear. She's just about to touch down, 10 feet, 5 feet, 2 feet ... it's like being at the dentist ... waiting ... waiting ... just waiting for that sharp jolt of pain that might or might not come ... cringing .... and then ............ a smooth as silk landing. All 3 wheels down and locked! This is when you start getting reeeeaaally pissed at the mechanics that should have changed the frickin' 5 cent light bulb!

Okay ... I'm not going to finish my list of "Things I talked to Barbara about on the phone tonight" .... but maybe tomorrow.

Goodnight, Amelia ~~ Happy Landings & Hefty Tailwinds and trailing antennaes.

How do you start a blog? I wondered .... so I thought .... I will post my first two writings. It was 1966 and I was 8 years old. It was a weekend. I remember this because I was staying at my grandpa and grandma's and that's what I did on weekends, an overnight stay.

I would wake up on Sunday mornings and watch the 6:00am replay of the Notre Dame football game that had been played the day before. I'd get up before my grandpa and sit in "his" chair to watch the game. If he did get up early ... I'd sit in the chair next to him. It was a big square scratchy feeling chair. I liked his better.

I loved Notre Dame football. Probably because they were called the "Irish". My gramps was Irish, my Mom was Irish and so I supposed I must Irish, too. We were the O'Managans from County Kerry which was changed to Mangan when my great great grandfather landed in Canada during the potato famine. But really, it was the gold helmets. I loved those gold helmets.

Where was I? Oh, the living room. My grandma had set up an old typewriter on a card table and I was free to type whatever I wanted. All I needed was some paper to type on. Now, my grandma owned and operated the first telephone answering service in town. Because the answering service was in their house, I had access to certain doctors, lawyers, etc. letterhead notepads. That first Sunday I chose Dr. Ralph J. Bertolin M.D. I knew Dr. Bertolin. He even made a house call late at night once when I was sick. How cool is that ... an actual house call like Little House On The Prairie style - little black bag and all! So on this letterhead, below his name and address it says ... "Instructions". When I saw this I assumed it was meant for instructions on what to take to feel better. This is what I wrote:

Ralph J. Bertolin M.D.

The Memorial Clinic

529 West Fourth Avenue
Olympia, Washington
Infants, Children and Teenagers

- INSTRUCTIONS -

Cut off right leg then left leg
Cut off right arm then left arm
Chop off nose, then cut off both
ears. Take out eye balls, when
done disect eye balls.Take out
liver and eat it.Cut off toes.
Take out ribs and grate them.
Then put them in soup with toes
and liver. Then eat for lunch.

RALPH J. BERTOLIN, M.D.

My second writing surprised even me. Yes, I've shown it to my therapist ....


TO WHOM THUS MAY CONSERN

WHEN I WAS BORN I WAS ONLY 1 IN. LONG. ALTHOUGH MY HEAD WAS 6 FT. IN DIAMETER. I HAD A VERY BIG PROBLEM. SO MY MOTHER DISOWNED ME FOR THE TIME BEING. TO BRING YOU UP TO DATE I LIVE IN A PUP TENT, FOR THE TIME BEING. I AM STUDYING TO BE A LUMBERJACK AT LUMBERJACK UNIVERSITY IN LUMBERJACK WASHINGTON. SOME DAY I NOW I WELL BE PRESIDENT OF AMERICA. THE ONLY PERSON I KNOW IS MY CAT, KITTY. SHE IS A VERY INTELEGENT CAT SHE ALREADY KNOWS HOW TO WALK AT THE AGE OF 277, which is very good FOR A CAT. THIS BRINGS ME TO THE CONCLUSION OF THE STORY OF MY LIFE. MY LIFE STINKS.


THE
END

So this is where I begin my blog. Hopefully, my creativity can and will ... still run a muck.