For years at one of my lunch spots there has been a group of retired Eastern Airlines pilots that meet on a regular schedule in a small seperate dining area.
Today when I walked in one of the pilots was walking in at the same time, in full bygone era EAL pilot's uniform. When I asked what the occasion was I was told that once a year at Christmas they all meet in full uniforms from the different eras they flew in. It's one of the few occasions that they all also bring their wives. In all the years I've seen these guys at lunch, I never knew that.
The woman and good friend who has always waited on me, knows how I feel about aviation and history, kept trying to get me to go back to talk to them. But I didn't want to bother them.
When I finshed lunch and was waiting outside for my partner, a few of the fellows came out and were waiting for someone from their bunch. I struck up a conversation with them and had to get around to asking about who was the oldest of the bunch and what aircraft did he start flying when he joined Eastern.
It turned out to be one of the guys who was standing right there. I forget how old they said he was, but he was the only one not in unform. His other pilot buddies were the ones who put the finger on him. He said he started with Eastern flying DC-2s.
Too cool!
I started telling him a little bit about MSFS and the Uiver DC-2 project and that I had a flyable EAL DC-2 on my computer. You could easily see the immediate sparkle in his eyes.
The first thing he asked "How are the brakes on that thing?", and he started describing the brake handle operation. This led us to talking about some of the systems recreated on the simulated DC-2.
Just a short encounter, but one that meant a lot to me. I think he got a kick out of it also.
FAC
Today when I walked in one of the pilots was walking in at the same time, in full bygone era EAL pilot's uniform. When I asked what the occasion was I was told that once a year at Christmas they all meet in full uniforms from the different eras they flew in. It's one of the few occasions that they all also bring their wives. In all the years I've seen these guys at lunch, I never knew that.
The woman and good friend who has always waited on me, knows how I feel about aviation and history, kept trying to get me to go back to talk to them. But I didn't want to bother them.
When I finshed lunch and was waiting outside for my partner, a few of the fellows came out and were waiting for someone from their bunch. I struck up a conversation with them and had to get around to asking about who was the oldest of the bunch and what aircraft did he start flying when he joined Eastern.
It turned out to be one of the guys who was standing right there. I forget how old they said he was, but he was the only one not in unform. His other pilot buddies were the ones who put the finger on him. He said he started with Eastern flying DC-2s.
Too cool!
I started telling him a little bit about MSFS and the Uiver DC-2 project and that I had a flyable EAL DC-2 on my computer. You could easily see the immediate sparkle in his eyes.
The first thing he asked "How are the brakes on that thing?", and he started describing the brake handle operation. This led us to talking about some of the systems recreated on the simulated DC-2.
Just a short encounter, but one that meant a lot to me. I think he got a kick out of it also.
FAC
