An Interview With Ron Standerfer, Author Of The Eagle's Last Flight - Page 2

I have been told that once a flier, always a flier. Do you still fly?

I haven’t flown in years. For one thing, after spending my life flying supersonic and dashing across the ground at fifty feet and five hundred plus miles per hour, putzing around in a little puddle jumper is boring. Besides I lived in the New York City for over twenty years where the air traffic was so congested it wasn’t worth the trouble.

I used to live about a mile north of NAS Miramar when it was home to the Top Gun program. In the ten years there I met a number of fighter pilots; I found them generally to be a pretty arrogant bunch. Skip is not like that, Skip is a nice guy, Skip cares. Have times changed?

Don’t let Skip fool you. When he got on a tear he was among the worst of the bunch - especially when he’d been drinking. We were an arrogant bunch in those days. But then again, so were rock stars and professional athletes - and still are. A lot of that arrogance stems from one thing - it’s called immaturity. On the other hand, a little bit of arrogance in the fighter business is a good thing. We have a saying, “If you don’t know who the world’s greatest fighter pilot is, it aint you!” I hear that this generation of fighter pilots is more low key. That they don’t drink as much, live healthier lives, and take their work more seriously. This I doubt, but I don’t know for sure.

The book talks about there being a problem with the F100, and under certain circumstances they crashed for no apparent reason. Was the problem ever found?
Yes, but it took a long time. In a nutshell, the F100s we flew in Japan were modified so the autopilot could fly a nuclear weapons delivery without the pilot touching the controls. The delivery consisted in a sharp pull back on the stick, followed by a half loop before it rolled out for the escape maneuver. The system didn't work so well so it was deactivated. Unfortunately they didn't remove all the wiring that went with it, and after months of exposure to moisture and salt air they became corroded and when they shorted out, the aircraft could go into this maneuver before the pilot knew what was happening.

Article Author: Simon Barrett

Simon is an Educator in Calgary, Alberta. His own piece of idiocy is zzsimonb's rantings and he is also a contibuting editor for Blogger News Network.

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