On 10-08-08, BOB ACKLEY said to TIM RICHARDSON:


BA>Replying to a message of TIM RICHARDSON to BOB ACKLEY:


TR> On 10-06-08, BOB KLAHN said to BOB ACKLEY:


BA>> My flightline experience is limited to EC-47s and driving a
BA>> motor vehicle on it (there are a lot of arcane rules for
BA>> operating motor vehicles around aircraft).  We did have


TR> I worked on the railroad for about 7 years. I've worked around heavy
TR> equipment and large trucks most of my life.


TR> My experience has been that there is nothing `arcane' about rules
TR> governing movements in, on, or around large pieces of equipment. Most
TR> of the rules are written in someone's blood.


BA>No doubt.  My little rule of thumb was that if an aircraft was moving I
BA>made sure I was well out of its way and stopped until it had passed.


My experience with aircraft has always been to keep the hell away from them
when the engines were running, unless I was either boarding or getting off.


I parked my flatbed near an airstrip at Duc Pho once, while the rest of the
convoy group were unloading. The disadvantage of having the highest unit
number on the tractor was you had to be the first truck in the convoy (not an
enviable spot). Which meant you were the first one to take fire in an ambush,
and the first one to hit a mine in the road.


The upside was...you were the first one unloaded, got to the form-up point
first, and got to sleep for a few hours, or whatever.


I was walking around the rig kicking tires when this Huey started landing on
the strip about fifty feet away. It came down so hard I dove under the
trailer, thinking there was going to be a wreck! It was an American pilot
teaching a Vietnamese pilot how to fly a helocopter. They made take-off's and
landings for over an hour right near my rig, and sometimes they came down so
hard the landing struts would splay outward so far I thought they'd snap off.


Scary!


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*Durango b301 #PE*