Picture of the Day - 1/28/2011

Ken Flying the C130 Simulator - A little different image today - well, it's late Friday! Sheila and I have been cleaning out shoeboxes of old family prints and scanning them into digital files. I ran into this one - ahhh, taken a few years ago - of me flying a C-130 cargo aircraft simulator based at what used to be El Toro Marine Air Station in Orange County, CA. Notice the fancy "flight suit"! As an active pilot back then (mid-70s), I was used to flying any number of single engine fixed wing planes - Cesnas, Cherokee Warriors and the fast little Grumman TR-2 trainer. This was my first effort at "flying" a multi-engine military aircraft and it was surprisingly easy! It actually seemed as responsive as any Cesna I'd flown.

Anyway, I ended up flying it from El Toro MAS to Catalina Island, about 20 miles off the coast of Southern California, circling twice and flying back. The takeoff and landing went well, but this picture was taken shortly after I crashed the plane into one of the hangers during the taxi! Oh well, no harm done! Guess I'll stick to smaller planes!