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Flying the Navy's First Jets (Sierra Hotel)

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Flying the Navy's First Jets (Sierra Hotel) FLYING THE NAVY’S FIRST JETS (SIERRA HOTEL) By Steven Craig Reynolds As Told By Charles “Gil” Erb, Cdr. USN (Ret.) TABLE OF CONTENTS PROLOGUE .........................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1: IN THE BEGINNING .................................................................. 3 CHAPTER 2: THE SKY IS CALLING ................................................................9 CHAPTER 3: CABBIE ADVENTURES AT THE MISSION RANCH ...............11 CHAPTER 4: ARMY DAYS AS A PRE-AVIATION CADET .............................15 CHAPTER 5: ALEXANDRE NYEFSKY YARASLOVICH SLATOFFOVOICH (SLATS) ................................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER 6: THE RAT IN THE CAN .............................................................22 CHAPTER 7: BATHING BEAUTY BOBBY BROWN ......................................24 CHAPTER 8: A HECTIC THREE WEEKS AND THEN SOME ...................... 27 CHAPTER 9: GETTING HIS WINGS .............................................................30 CHAPTER 10: JET TRAINING .......................................................................36 CHAPTER 11: FIRST BORN ...........................................................................38 CHAPTER 12: A “NUGGET’S” FIRST NEAR-FATAL CARRIER EXPERIENCE........................................................................................39 CHAPTER 13: INVERTED IN THE DARK ....................................................42 CHAPTER 14: OSCAR’S FEET ........................................................................46 CHAPTER 15: WHAT AM I DOING HERE? ..................................................49 CHAPTER 16: COLLISION! COLLISION! COLLISION! ............................... 56 CHAPTER 17: THE WARRIOR’S HUMANITY .............................................. 59 CHAPTER 18: SCOTT, THE ARCHITECT, IS BORN IN A HURRY ...............61 CHAPTER 19: THEY MADE THE VALLEY TREMBLE ................................64 CHAPTER 20: WHY MODERN AIRCRAFT CARRIERS HAVE ANGLED DECKS ...................................................................................68 CHAPTER 21: FLAT-HATTING OVER KOREA ..............................................71 CHAPTER 22: GIL AND BOBBY GET DEGREES .......................................... 73 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 23: HIGH WATER PANTS ............................................................ 77 PHOTOS ........................................................................................................... 81 CHAPTER 24: YOUR AVERAGE LIFE SAVING JUDGMENT .......................91 CHAPTER 25: THE “ROMANCE” OF TEST PILOTING ................................ 95 CHAPTER 26: THE BREAKS OF NAVAL AIR ...............................................99 CHAPTER 27: A CDO’S WORST DUTY WEEKEND .................................... 106 CHAPTER 28: EXCITEMENT! EXCITEMENT! WE’RE MOVING TO FLORIDA! .......................................................................................112 CHAPTER 29: EXHILARATION ................................................................... 120 CHAPTER 30: SECOND LIEUTENANT HEMMINGWAY ...........................123 CHAPTER 31: ALONE IN THE WATER .......................................................133 CHAPTER 32: GIL WRECKS DOCTOR’S PORSCHE; DOCTOR SAVES GIL’S LIFE .............................................................................. 139 CHAPTER 33: LIFE AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY ........................................ 144 CHAPTER 34: HOW ONE BECOMES A DEVELOPER ............................... 149 CHAPTER 35: THE BITCH KITTY ............................................................... 158 CHAPTER 36: FAREWELL, MY LOVE ..........................................................167 CHAPTER 37: ONE MORE (HOPEFULLY LAST) NEAR MISS ................... 171 AUTHOR’S NOTE ...........................................................................................173 TABLE OF CONTENTS PROLOGUE The device to assist me in keeping the throttle forward was not there! This is the point where I panicked. Here I was turning up at full power and nothing to keep my left arm from pulling off the power during acceleration. Being a young Navy pilot and relatively immortal I made an instantaneous decision to go through with the take-off. Not to mention there were a lot of shipmates watching and, like most young men, I’d rather suffer injury then look less than brave. Being panicked, and not showing it, is a young man’s privilege. I saluted the cat officer, the “OK to fire” signal. I now had three seconds to grab the stick, get my elbow in my stomach and, WHAM! Off we go. So I grabbed the stick and got my elbow in place and concentrated on pushing, as hard as I possibly could, on the throttle to keep it in the full power position. The catapult fired and the acceleration force was something I will never forget. I pushed so hard on the throttle that, to this day I swear I could have bent it in half. To my dismay (as well as everyone on the flight deck, the bridge, and the observers on vultures’ row) in concentrating on pushing the throttle forward, I also pushed the stick forward and when I went off the end of the flight deck the plane headed straight down to the blue ocean. Everyone on the ship knew I would hit the water. The crash alarm sounded, the ship went into an emergency full rudder turn to avoid hitting the airplane, and the rescue helo was on its way to pluck me out of the sea. However, I didn’t know I was going in the water, I only knew instantly that I was in a hell of jam. When I realized my mistake I quickly pulled back on the stick with the adrenalized force of someone trying to save his own life. I got the nose as high as I could without stalling the plane. As I eased off a bit, the plane shuddered and scooted forward with the tailpipe dragging near the water. Fortunately there were no big waves. The sea was calm and they told me later that I churned up a white water trail for two miles. Slowly the airplane gained speed and I was able to pick up a few feet of altitude by tenderly jockeying the stick back and forth. I finally got high enough to ease the nose over and accelerate to a life saving PROLOGUE flying speed. I wasn’t about to risk another cat shot without the rod, so I bingoed back to Moffett Field. Sure enough, I had been assigned a plane that wasn’t configured for operations aboard ship. This was Gil Erb’s initiation into the world of flying jets off aircraft carriers. It was 1951. In this case, it was a F9F-2 Panther. He was one of the first. Planes with jet engines were new to the US Navy and nothing was done by computer; least of all a carrier landing. It was a beautiful morning and Gil and his squadron had just rendezvoused with the USS Princeton off the southern California coast. His first tail-hook landing in a jet had come off as well as could be expected for a rookie. That’s when he got hooked up to the hydraulic catapult that took him from parked on the flight deck to 130 knots in about 4 seconds and almost into the water. The exciting career of this young Navy pilot was just beginning. Gil was one of the pilots to fly the Navy’s first training jet (F-80 Shooting Star); first carrier jet (F9F-2 Panther); first supersonic carrier jet (F9F-6 Cougar); and first MACH 2 carrier jet (A3J Vigilante). He served as a fighter/bomber pilot in Korea and went on to become a test pilot for the Navy. His story is filled with adventure, romance, humor and danger. He has had more than his share of near- death experiences but seems to have had more lives than an alley cat. The composite of Gil Erb’s and his fellow Navy pilots’ experiences is what taught the Navy how to become the mightiest and most capable Naval Air Force in the world. Gil and his peers flew these monster machines before there were computers. They weren’t all famous but they should be. It’s their adventures and mishaps that served as the lessons learned to constantly improve the tactics, technology and policies of the Navy. They were there when the human equation was vastly more important than the computer algorithm. In the following chapters we will attempt to record Gil’s adventurous life for ourselves and future generations. Wait ‘til you read the chapter where Gil, at night on instruments, with no visibility, ends up flying down Main Street in a small town in California. He looks at the movie marquee, which catches his eye as he is going by, and realizes for the first time that he’s inverted. The marquee is upside down! PROLOGUE CHAPTER 1 IN THE BEGINNING Charles Gilbert “Gil” Erb came into the world on October 29, 1926 in the Santa Cruz, California city hospital. He was an intelligent and precocious child unafraid to take a risk whether physical or life altering. Gil’s formative years were spent moving back and forth between California and Utah where he skipped a couple of grades which ended up making him always the youngest in his classes and therefore not quite as attractive to the older set as he wanted to be. This catalyst only served to make him try that much harder to “make the grade”. The loss of his father at an early age forced a certain self reliance and independence that he carried through his life. Gil’s father, Charles Meredith Erb, was born about 1888 and raised in Harrisville, Pennsylvania. His first wife was a lady named Ada and with her he had two sons, Carl and Ralph. Gil doesn’t know why, but for some reason his father left Ada and the two boys in Pennsylvania and moved to Texas. It could
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