The day Chuck and I talked Rolex Coke GMT flew fast - damn fast......

[InitialAndPitch]

Five years into my aviation career, I was a private pilot having flown a series of monocoque aircraft and always listed after more power. I was in my late twenties, and aggressively worked through tail wheel endorsements (made harder by flying short, unforgiving powerful Pitts Specials.

From the Pitts S2S (260Hp) upwards, I slid into Extra 300s, Sukhois, Yaks and towards the end of my unlimited flying time, the Edge 540 (Zivko).

In Australia, we know how to display aircraft - the military and we civvies had a unusual respect for each other. We flew low and hard with the life and death dance often separated by three feet. We learned discipline from our friends in the military and we swapped stories.

On one of my ferry flights, I ferried a Pitts Specials S2A about a thousand kilometres over some of the most beautiful land Australia could muster up. Occasionally, I’d do a position check and ten minutes later, I’d have two FA-18 Hornets in loose formation and listen as they made the call and lit the reheat and watch two magnificent machines launch just as imagine a seven year old might have watched it. We all admired what we each had to work with. On that flight, the Hornets effortlessly slipped skyward and it always made me deeply proud that these guys admired my humble skills and even though I wasn’t, I was treated like a member of that extraordinary club.

This sortie would see me touch down after a refueling stop in a small country town. Passengers boarding a twin engine Fokker RPT asked for photos and I gladly gave them. Sunset at Avalon saw me touch down ahead of a GlobeMaster. The crew and I laughed at each other once safely on the chocks.

A distinguished military man, commented on my smooth touch down and clearly numb bum as I climbed down. He said that pride in tailwheel landings were fading but that my fear made it a matter of honour as you never know who is watching. We talked ‘seat of your pants’ aviation - not just instruments or systems but the inherent feeling of right.

The older pilot bought me ginger ale and he drank beer. We sat outside in the dark and swapped stories. I told stories of how to use wool taped to a wingtip that would indicate if you were flying backwards. He talked about control reversals that happened in steep dives approaching transonic flight.

After a while he sensed my discretion and said he liked my admitted failures. I had half a dozen years under my belt and he served his country for 35 years. I like him enormously and up until that point he had only revealed that he was “just a pilot” and had always he’d worn on his lucky watch - A Rolex GMT Coke.

He’d worn that watch on October 14th - 1947 in a nice little orange rocket powered aircraft that he’d dubbed the Glamourous Glennis. General Charles E Yeager flew in pain that day as a horse he’d been riding knocked his ribs around a little. Nothing that a piece of broom handle used to close the hatch couldn’t manage. After the inflight launch, Chuck broke the sound barrier wearing his Rolex Coke GMT and a huge grin.



Chuck talked to me about fluttering control surfaces what would constitute a good - no second guessing - ejection.

Hang in there and I’ll tell you about the Astronauts, U2 pilots, SR-71 Blackbird pilots and modern day pilots equipped with unimaginable payloads. I’ll skip stories of the payload but check in for men who flew aircraft where the stakes could be no higher.