The worst part of entering the senior years as an aviator..loss of friends. At the time I was Private rated at Falcon..but also one of the Lead A&P. At times Dassault would expect a visit. France is where I had my first training in Composite aircraft field repair since the Falcon 50 was the first aircraft we had that included composite construction control surfaces. All of us at FalconJet in Little Rock were random selected to fly on either squawk flights or customer acceptance. Requiring the mechanics to fly had a definite encouraging factor to be certain the aircraft was airworthy. If a floor mechanic refused they were terminated on the spot, no matter what experience level they had. No secret, it was well known prior to an offer for employment that random flight duty would be required.   

 It was my time in the barrel so to speak in a bigger way due to the fact I was the Lead A&P on the first Falcon 50 of the program, so I had to be the trainer of our people in the States after my stint in Europe. Many trips followed..

 My wife who is Russian, has on her list of places to visit, Paris France. I've been avoiding that trip!  Outside of the Capitol it is pleasant but I have no romantic ideas of Paris. Not particularly fond of the Frenchies attitude toward others, at least as it was in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

 I asked because Little Rock Airmotive was the next door neighbor to our facility and if my memory is not too clouded over they were working the Hawker aircraft.  Perhaps sometime we can chat a bit about the times there.

Vern      

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From: main@Q-List.groups.io <main@Q-List.groups.io> on behalf of Robert Cringely <bob@...>
Sent: Monday, February 7, 2022 5:05 PM
To: main@q-list.groups.io <main@q-list.groups.io>
Subject: Re: [Q-List] New Member Introduction

 

I guess I worked directly for BaE. I was the dumb right-seater to RAF test pilot and European Aerobatic Champion Neil Williams. We became friends at the Shuttleworth Collection where he was a display pilot and I was an apprentice. Nearly every weekend had us flying a jet somewhere -- that is until Neil and his lovely wife flew an He-111 bomber into the side of a mountain... After that I moved back to the USA.

On Mon, Feb 7, 2022 at 12:10 PM <smeshno1@...> wrote:

 Which company were you with then? Made that journey a few times in a Falcon..both 20 and 50 to and from Little Rock.  Looking down at Greenland/Iceland and the wide open waters between even at Flight Levels is a serious undertaking. I can only imagine what a single engine at the Glasair speeds must have been like..and that is where it will stay for me too.. in my imagine :-o

 Flying Europe might be a fun challenge in a US homebuilt tho..take the cargo ship with the airplane. 

Vern   

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From: main@Q-List.groups.io <main@Q-List.groups.io> on behalf of Robert Cringely <bob@...>
Sent: Monday, February 7, 2022 11:58 AM
To: main@q-list.groups.io <main@q-list.groups.io>
Subject: Re: [Q-List] New Member Introduction

 

I once flew my old Glasair to the UK and back in the 1980s. The immersion suit mandated by Canadian regs was ghastly. I had made the flight 100+ times delivering Hawkers to Little Rock but that doesn’t prepare you at all for that many hours and miles over water in a sliver of fiberglass. I never did it again.