My wife and I had the great privilege of spending the day with V-tail and ArtieS today. Did some training with V-tail to get back up to speed on some flying skills that have become rusty, and ArtieS joined as well.

Just want to say how much I thoroughly enjoyed meeting both of these fine gentleman. I believe some of you have had the opportunity of meeting one of both of these members and will second my opinion that two finer gentleman would be very hard to find. If you haven’t had the privilege and get the chance, I strongly encourage you to. You won’t regret a minute.

Thank you V-tail and ArtieS! It was a genuine pleasure. I look forward to seeing you again.

I bet a vertical touch and go in a V-tail is a real hoot!


You and they are good people!

Glad you all got to meet each other.

(I am way overdue.)

It was very nice to meet you and the delightful Mrs. Mojo as well!

Very nice day, and good to meet more fine folks from this organization.

I hope we can make it a regular event when you travel to the area.

Have a good visit with your parents, and a safe trip back.

A

I am jealous. I would love to meet some of the members here. Happy New Year to all and I wish everyone good health. Blessings to all.

Agreed, had the pleasure of enjoying lunch locally with vtail and cal45 couples years back. Fine folks indeed.

Vtail reminds me all the time i need to come down there. Should take a long weekend and do that, i understand theres some outstanding eating to be had down there!

They are both very fine gentlemen.

Of course both are local to me so I can see them more often.

Dog gone it, I was working up there yestersay!

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
They are both very fine gentlemen.

I concur.

Sounds great! I've had the pleasure of meeting a number of other members. Never once have I had the reaction of , gee I never want to see THAT guy again. You guys (and gals) are all just family I ain't met yet.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeGLI:

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
They are both very fine gentlemen.

I concur.

2nd that, met them a few years ago when I was at a conference in their town, along with a couple other local members.

I've met several SF folks over the years and every encounter was memorable. LBJ used to come to Dallas every couple of years and we'd have a dinner of a dozen of so members. Hasn't happened for a long time, though. Last DFW get-together I participated in was somewhere in Grapevine a couple of years ago.

flashguy

What a great time that must have been!!!

As ArtieS said, Mrs. jojo is a thoroughly charming lady.

As far as Mr. (Captain?) jojo -- looks are deceiving. He appears to be a regular type guy, like you would see at the hardware store picking up a few things for a weekend project. Absolutely no clue that he has brass balls the size of grapefruit. I have flown an instrument approach with minimum visibility in fog and blowing snow, knowing that if I did not see the runway environment by the time I was 200' above the ground I was a dead man, because there was so much ice on the airframe that there was no chance at all that the airplane would climb if I had to execute a missed approach procedure. But this guy! He was crazy enough to try to plant a fast moving jet onto a tiny carrier that was bouncing around on the ocean in rotten weather, at night. And then, he would go back and do it again, the next day. That takes a pretty special kind of airmanship. I am humbled.

It was an honor and a great pleasure to meet him.

Mojo was a USMC pilot, flying Harriers and A-4 Skyhawks, as well as instructing in them. In addition to his military flying, he holds a commercial pilot certificate for single and multi-engine airplanes and of course he is instrument rated. Our mission yesterday was to refresh him and bring him up to date on flying in the civilian world, and to discuss some of the steps he needs to take in order to earn a civilian flight instructor certificate. We spent several hours discussing these things, then it was into the simulator to sweat out some instrument work.

We configured the simulator to mimic a Cessna 172. This airplane has the same nickname as the A-4s that he had flown in the Corps -- they are both Skyhawks. Mojo had not flown with a modern GPS navigation system, but with a bit of discussion and some experimental button pushing and knob twisting he caught on fast. We flew one instrument approach in good weather just to get the feel of things, then I pulled up the meteorological configuration screen at the instructor's console and dialed in visibility and cloud ceilings that were barely minimum for the approaches we were going to do. He nailed every one, breaking out of the clouds at minimums with the runway right in front of the airplane, half mile out and 200' below us. It has been my experience in many years of teaching that Air Force guys are damned good, but Navy and Marine carrier pilots are unbelievably precise. Mojo was no exception.

We finished up the day with a discussion of instruction techniques and an agreement to stay in touch and to meet again, for more of the same. A great day with a really nice lady and two fine gentlemen (Mojojojo and ArtieS)! I am looking forward to next time.

Cheers to all. Sounds like a good day.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Cheers to all. Sounds like a good day.

Yup. And the food. Did I mention the food?

Breakfast at a local mom & pop redneck diner. If you like rednecks, you will absolutely love Apopka! Country ham, hash browns, egg (just in case there wasn't enough cholesterol in the ham), accompanied by the mandatory hot sauce.

Lunch break, we drove into town to Porkie's BBQ joint. ArtieS recommended the Mad Cow sandwich, which is brisket with horseradish sauce and grilled onions. We still had some work to do, so drank tea instead of beer.

Having been a flight instructor myself, let me say that Vtail is an EXCELLENT instructor. If you’re looking for info on flying, airplanes, or almost anything about life you can’t do any better than seeking him out.

Sounds like you guys had a great day and a lot of fun too!

I've never met vtail, artie S or mojojojo, but have met several forum members over the years and they have all been great people.

I've had the pleasure of having them both as guests.
They are very good people