This will make some of you think. Unless you're a retired military fighter pilot, airline captain, or other aircrew member it's unlikely you experienced most of these ... but you can imagine what many must have been like!
Flying close finger tip formation in a flight of four. Losing an engine in an F-84F while taxing back tothe ramp after a mission.
Terminating afterburner at 1.85 Mach in an F-101 andexperiencing deceleration so hard that I flew off of theseat and into the harness so hard that I had strap bruises on my body, and needed a change of underwear.
Full afterburner take off in a clean F-101 in 20 below zeroweather at night.
Somehow, all the jet-lag and other problems had some compensating balance!
Doing formation join-ups in the F-4 around big beautifulcolumns of Cumulus out of every fighter base.
Sunrises seen from the high flight levels that make the heart soar.
The patchwork quilt of the great plains of Kansas from 37,000' on a day when you can see forever.
Cruising mere feet above a billiard-table-flat cloud deckat Mach .86, with your chin on the glare shield and your face as close as you can get to the windshield.
Knowing you got to land a fighter on a five thousand foot runway, that is covered with hard packed snow,and no drag chute.
Punching out the top of a low overcast while climbing 30,000 feet per minute in Afterburner.
The majesty and grandeur of towering cumulus.
Rotating at VR and feeling 800,000 plus pounds of Airplane come alive as she lifts off.
The delicate threads of St. Elmo's Fire dancing onthe windshield at night.
The twinkle of lights on the Japanese fishing fleet far below,on a night crossing of the North Pacific.
Cloud formations that are beautiful beyond description.
'Ice fog' in Anchorage on a cold winter morning.
Seeing the approach strobes appear through the fog on a'Must do' zero, zero approach when there is no other place to go.
Seeing geologic formations that no ground-pounder will ever see.
The chaotic, non-stop babble of radio transmissionsat O'Hare during the afternoon rush.
The quietness of center frequency at night during a"Transcontinental flight" ... or over the Amazon at any time.
Watching St. Elmo's fire all over your windscreenin the winter night skies over Alaska.
The welcome view of approach lights appearing out of the mist just as you reach minimums.
Finding yourself in a thunderstorm with 750# bombs still hanging on your wings.
Lightning storms at night over the Midwest.
Picking your way through a line of huge Thunderstorms that seemed to go all the way from Chicago to New Orleans.
The soft, glow of the instrument panel in a dark cockpit.
The dancing curtains of colored light of the "Aurora Borealis"on a winter-night "North Atlantic" crossing.
The majestic panorama of an entire mountain range stretched out beneath you from horizon to horizon.
Lenticular clouds over the Sierras.
The brief, yet tempting, glimpse of runway lightsafter you've already committed to the missed approach.
The Alps in winter.
Watching a fellow pilot do an engine out flameout approachand making it in an "F-100".
Seeing a "dumb" bomb you drop hit a targetand knowing you had all the parameters right.
The lights of London or Paris at night from FL 350.
Squall lines that run as far as you can see.
Exotic lands with exotic food.
Seeing Tokyo lights at night from thirty five thousand feet stretching from horizon to horizon.
Maneuvering the airplane through day lit canyons between towering Cumulus Clouds.
The deep blue-gray of the sky at FL 430.
The hustle and bustle of Hong Kong Harbor.
The softness of a touchdown on a snow-covered runway.
Hearing the nose wheel spin down against the snubberin the wheel well after takeoff. A delightful sound signaling that you were on your way!
Old Chinatown in Singapore before it was torn down,modernized, and sterilized.
Watching the lightning show while crossing the ITCZ at night.
Long-tail boats speeding along the klongs in Thailand .
The quietly turning paddle fans in the lobby of the"Raffles Hotel" in Singapore .
Dodging colored splotches of red and yellow light on the radar screen at night.
The sound of foreign accents on the radio.
Luxury hotels.
To paraphrase the eloquent aviation writer, Ernie Gann,"The allure of the slit in a China girl's skirt."
Sunsets of every color imaginable.
The tantalizing glow of the flashing strobe lights just before you break out of the clouds on the approach.
Yosemite Valley from above.
The almost blindingly-brilliant-white of a towering cumulus cloud.
A cold San Miguel in Angeles City after a long day's flying.
The Diamond Horseshoe at Itazuke.
Ocean crossings and in-flight refueling.
Hearing every sound a single engine fighter makes at night over the open ocean.
The taxiway sentry (with his flag & machine gun) at the old Taipei (downtown) airport.
Seventy-thousand-foot-high thunderstorm clouds in the tropics.
Sipping Pina Coladas in a luxury hotel bar,while a Typhoon rages outside.
Chinese Junks bobbing in Aberdeen harbor.
The smell of winter kimchee in Korea.
Watching the latitude count down to zero on the INS, and seeing it switch from "N" to "S" as you cross the equator.
"Wake Island" at Sunrise.
Oslo Harbor at dusk.
Icebergs in the North Atlantic.
Contrails.
Pago Harbor, framed by puffy cumulus clouds in the late afternoon.
The camaraderie of a good crew.
White sandy beaches lined with swaying palms.
Double-decker buses in London
The endless expanse of white on a Polar Crossing.
The "Star Ferry" in Hong Kong
Bangkok after a tropical rain.
Mono Lake and the steep wall of the Sierra Nevada rangewhen approached from the east.
The bus ride to Stanley ... on the upper deck front seatof the double-decker bus.
The "Long Bar" at the Raffles.
Heavy takeoffs from the "Cliff" runway at Guam.
Landings in the B-767 when the only way you knew you had touched down was the movement of the spoiler handle.
Jimmy's Kitchen.
The deafening sound of tropical raindrops slamming angrily against the windshield, accompanied by the hurried slap, slap,slap of the windshield wipers while landing in a torrential downpour in Manila .
Endless ripples of sand dunes across the trackless milesof the Sahara desert.
Miller's Pub in Chicago German beer.
Oktoberfest.
The white cliffs of Dover
Oom-pa-pa music at Meyer Gustels in 'Frankfurt'!
Fjords in Norway
The aimless compass, not knowing where to pointas you near the top of the world on a polar crossing.
The whiskey compass on a steep tilt.
The old Charlie-Charlie NDB approach into Kai Tak.
Brain bags crammed with charts to exotic places.
The Peak tram in Hong Kong.Breaking out of the clouds on the IGS approach to runway 13at Kai Tak, and seeing a windshield full of checkerboard.
An empty weight takeoff in a B-757.
The bustle of Nathan Road on a summer day.
Sliding in over Crystal Springs reservoir for a visual approach and landing on 1R in SFO.
The smell of tropical blooms when you step off the plane in Fiji
The quietness of a DC-10 cockpit.
The rush of a full-speed-brakes descent at barber pole in a B-727.
Deadheading in First Class.
The Canarsie approach into JFK.
The Eiffel Tower Max Gross Weight Takeoffs.
Cross-wind landings at 29 Kts/90 degrees
Good Co-pilots.
Man-sized rudder pedals as big as pie plates.
Leak-checking your eyelids on a long night flight.
Making an aural null range approach.........
Then there was Venus coming up before the sun in the Eastern sky, giving the horizon a light show like no other!
Watching countless rounds of 23/37/57mm AAA being shot at you, at night, and ALL missing.
The smells of the interior of a B-52 almost as old as I was.
From a fellow Spectre: