• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

RE: The Long Way Home-The Pacific Clipper

brad kaste

brad kaste

Charter Member
RE: The Long Way Home-The Pacific Clipper

Hi All,
This YouTube clip was sent to me by a friend of mine. He's much into the golden era of flying boats,...such as the Boeing Pacific Clipper. Here is a brief five minute video of that time when the Queen of the Skies,...the Pan AM Pacific Clipper, got caught up in the tragedy of Dec.7th, 1941, and could not return back to Pearl Harbor. But had to fly around the world (westward) to LaGuardia Airport in New York city. Quite an adventure....
[YOUTUBE]Ms84WfJwalI[/YOUTUBE]

 
I love stories like this. What an adventure that must have been! Thanks, Brad.
 
Imagine that.. 31,500 miles with radio silence and no fuel stops planned..

Sounds like it was fun to me...
 
Well, it may not have been described by them as "fun" (?) at the time. But if you asked them now about that particular flight, I'll bet 25 cents none of them would say they would trade the adventure for all the fun that can be had at Disneyland. Adventure is not always fun, but it is always adventure, and remembered as such.
 
I've read that book. It's historical fiction. The basic story really happened, but the story itself is pure fiction. I would like to see that book rewritten. It clearly was never even proof read. It's a good story. But it was tough to read because of the grammatical and a good bit of the general sentence structure stunk.
 
Wasn't Ken Follett's "Night Over Water" (or so) about something similar?

And hello Hollywood, you've got some good stuff for a blockbuster right in front of you!
 
Thanks for sharing the story Brad . I also love stories like this as it was mentioned above. Those crew members had to be completely wiped out by the time they got to the states .

Rich:ernae:
 
Hi Folks, :salute:

If any of you folks would like more history on this bird, and would like to fly it, you will find all four paints that she bore before, during, and at the end of her historic flight at: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/downloads/download.php?lloc=downloads&FileID=11525 . I spent several months researching and painting the four skins for this Clipper a couple of years ago. Even got to correspond with one of the crew that was on that flight.

Enjoy!

Rev Ev
 
revev said:
Hi Folks, :salute:

If any of you folks would like more history on this bird, and would like to fly it, you will find all four paints that she bore before, during, and at the end of her historic flight at: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/downloads/download.php?lloc=downloads&FileID=11525 . I spent several months researching and painting the four skins for this Clipper a couple of years ago. Even got to correspond with one of the crew that was on that flight.

Enjoy!

Rev Ev
Click to expand...



Brilliant paints they are too..

Thanks for posting the link Rev....:applause:
 
Railrunner130 said:
The book I am referring to is The Long Way Home by George L. Flynn. I was thinking it would be a good movie if done properly.
Click to expand...

:salute:
Hey railrunner, being one not prone to argue, I did not take exception to your statement. It was excerpts from Flynn's book--sent to me by bradkaste--that got me wound up on what would become several months of research, and yes, Flynn's account of the flight is not accurate. However, the story is, and it is chocked full of more drama than Hollywood could ever dream. Download my file--noted in the above post--and read the credits in the README file. You will see that the bases have been pretty well covered in the area of research. I have the recorded interview of Capt. Bob Ford, copies of logs, Gene Leach's account, other crew notes, photos (some autographed), and more. By the time I was finished, I felt like I had been on that flight!

If you want a good account of the historical flight, I would recommend Ed Dover's book, "The Long Way Home" http://www.amazon.com/Long-Way-Home-Ed-Dover/dp/1888962070 . There were a few inaccuracies in his book, but they were mostly that of names, and Ed sent me the corrections on a separate sheet, along with his book. Ed Dover was a great help in producing accurate paints and history for the Clipper, as were many others I rubbed elbows with on my quest.

By-the-way, Flynn's book was entitled, "Escape of the Pacific Clipper."

You can all than bradkaste for getting this bird in the sky. He is the one who lit the fire under me! :isadizzy:

Enjoy!
 
I've read Ed Dover's book as well. Thanks for correcting me on the title. I looked it up on Amazon because I'm not near my little library and forgot to put correct the name with it.

Either way, it must've been quite an adventure. Unfortunately, the events of the day certainly took a sense of fun out of it and added a sense of urgency.
 
Of all the situations the crew found itself in, I wonder if any of them can rival the scramble at La Guardia's ATC when radio silence was broken, the ID was made, and the big seabird broke through the early morning fog. History was made!
 
revev said:
Of all the situations the crew found itself in, I wonder if any of them can rival the scramble at La Guardia's ATC when radio silence was broken, the ID was made, and the big seabird broke through the early morning fog. History was made!
Click to expand...

I doubt there has been any excitement at all. Life isn't Hollywood.

You do your job, you finish it and a few hours to a few days later you realize that your action(s) could have had any importance and that's it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top