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We Arrived in Amman, Jordan Today!
We arrived in Amman today- the flight was a blur as was the trip from the airport to the Kempinski Hotel Ishtar Dead Sea. I don't remember a thing?!?@#??$?$? Wake up, wake up, you crazy fool! Darn, I must have been dreaming, that doesn't happen until this day next year! 
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Hilarious.😂
What is this an episode of Gilligan's Island, Tauck style? I not sure if Alan would be the Skipper or Gilligan. I'll go with the Skipper since he was played by Alan Hale.
We took a Catamaran sailing trip with friends in the BVI a few years ago, Gilligan themed...I have the Mary Anne t shirt and yes, you guessed it, Mr. B was the Professor. Fond memories of vacations
Another possibility since Alan is/was a pilot. It's an episode of Lost. I forget if that turned out to all be a dream?
Sealord is the pilot, not Alan, or am I wrong Alan?
Alan was also a Navy pilot. I've watched some cockpit films from Whidbey Island NAS of what he used to fly. They were pretty neat videos.
Actually, I was an NFO (Naval Flight Officer)- right-seater or back-seater in Navy, carrier-based, tactical jets and wore "wings of gold" just different wings. I do have some "stick" time in Navy jets and I have a civilian Private Pilot's license, but technically, I was not a Navy pilot.
Navy Pilot Wings:
Naval Flight Officer Wings:
My mistake. So you were Goose, not Maverick!
Regardless, thanks for your service.
Sealord and Alan should fly the Taucktorians about on the African and Egyptian trips ! Imagine the pictures !
On our last Africa trip when I was in the ‘right’ seat everyone tried to get on our plane. It was pretty funny. The pilot in the left seat never said a word to me, I thought that a bit strange. I always had a ‘briefing’ for anyone riding in my cockpit. No one was ever just a passenger.
To sleep, perchance to dream...
Buckle up ladies!
Big and small, we fly 'em all!
Wings? We don't need no stinking wings.
I’m pretty familiar with what you can get away with flying Navy jets, and what you can’t. If Maverick ever got his wings, he would have lost them soon after ... just my opinion. Many of my friends don’t much care for “Top Gun”(the flying scenes were great), but many like “The Great Santini”. I think “The Final Countdown” had the best videos of carrier operations. I have landings on eleven aircraft carriers including those used in these movies.
And we were 2 Taucktorians trying to get onto Sealord's plane in Africa ! The poor TD had to separate the group into Sealord people and non-Sealord people. Some sad faces to be sure !
Here's my singular experience in small aircraft. A friend took me up in a glider.
Those in the next to last picture were the lucky Taucktorians....happy as a lark !
While on the helicopter flight in Queenstown, NZ I volunteered to hold the stick for the pilot. He politely declined. I did complain that Ride of the Valkyries wasn't playing.
My family was headed back to Miami from Eleuthera on a small twin engine charter plane, when it began yawing side to side as one engine surged. It turned out the "faulty" gas gauge for the right fuel tank which was "always" reading empty- was reading correctly. The maintenance crew had only filled the left tank! We probably had just enough fuel to make it to Miami if everything went right, but the pilot , a former Navy F-14 pilot, decided to land in Nassau, just in case. He never lands there and was unfamiliar with the procedures, so, since I was in front and had Navy flight experience too, he asked me to assist- just like I would have done in the Navy. I pulled out approach plates (map and landing info) for Nassau and gave him approach headings, altitudes, and radio frequencies. It was just like the old days. We landed, pulled up to the transient fueling area and filled both tanks this time. He had to pay with his personal credit card since his company didn't have an account at that field! After taking off again, he let me fly the plane for about 45 min. until we started our approach into Miami. He said I maintained a better course than the plane's lousy autopilot!
My family took it in stride, but the poor French girl on the flight who spoke and understood only a little English, had a hard time figuring out what was happening and was a bit freaked out. My teenage son calmly turned around and told her we had run out of gas and needed to land to get more. If she had been able to get out after we landed, she probably would have kissed the ground! After we departed Nassau, she freaked again when she noticed the pilot didn't have his hands on the controls! Again, my son calmly explained that I was flying the plane! I'm not sure that helped much! I wish I had been able to see her face- my son told me her expression was priceless! 
And, no I didn't report these events to the FAA. I probably should have, but I had too much fun!
I think we need to ask Sealord, how many of those 11 aircraft carriers are now razor blades?
Here is a follow-up to my earlier post.
Sorry about the poor quality- digital photos of some very old prints taken with a cheap Instamatic.
Who is this young lad, what is he wearing over his jeans and bare chest, what is he getting ready to do, and why? If you know what he is wearing, you'll know what is is getting ready to do. No guessing required except for the last question- photos are self explanatory and I'm sure Smiling Sam will venture an answer to the last question!
The young chap (Alan) is preparing for his role in the movie, The Longest Day. In the movie he lands on a church spire. This inspired him in his later life to be one of the people that actually stays in the plane.
Razor blades? Most. One is a museum in New York ... USS Intrepid. One is an underwater reef 22 miles south of Pensacola ... the USS Oriskany. The Eisenhower and the Nimitz are still sailing. All of the rest including the Enterprise have been scraped, or are in the process. There is actually a new Enterprise, and a new Kennedy under construction. The airplane I flew from the Ranger and the Kitty Hawk that had my name on it ended up on a pedestal in front of the BOQ in Rota Spain for many years. It was later retrieved by the A-3 Skywarrior Association, restored, and it is now sitting on the USS Yorktown Museum at Patriot’s Point, South Carolina.
AlanS Hi!! me again... now checking and doing some homework on my 2022 trip -Botswana, Zambia & South Africa.
I do have a question about the Microlight flight. I was looking at the website and will do the short flight but it doesn't say about whether 1 or 2 aircraft are run at same time .. I have a friend that is going with me, she wants to do it too and was wondering if we would have to wait for each other....
Please advise if you can, I would appreciate it.
Thanks
Sealord, that is so cool. The next time I travel to Charleston, I will make it a point to visit the USS Yorktown at Patriot's Point to check it out. What type of aircraft is it? I have visited the USS Yorktown before but would love to see it again.
Very ironic. We will be leaving for a week in Charleston next week and are planning to go to Patriot's Point to see the USS Yorktown. So we will be looking for Sealord's plane!
The plane is an EA-3B Skywarrior. It is a twin engine jet that was nicknamed the “Whale” because it was the largest jet to ever land on a carrier.
This photo is a KA-3B refueling an A-4 Skyhawk (Scooter).
Before transitioning to a newer aircraft (EA-6B Prowler) I logged a few hours in few versions of the A-3 Skywarrior. There were many variants of the Whale including the EA-3B (electronic surveillance/reconnaissance), TA-3B (A-3 training aircraft, often called a "T Bird"), KA-3B (tanker), EKA-3B (active electronic warfare (radar jamming) and tanker), RA-3B (photoreconnaissance), and a few other specialty variants. It was originally designed as a nuclear bomber. The bombay was reconfigured to to hold operators, inflight fueling hose reel, and even passengers- in a VIP version too.
Ask Sealord what it was like to "trap" (aircraft carrier arrested landing) or get a "cat" shot (steam or hydraulic powered catapult carrier launch) from an old carrier like the Lexington in an A-3 !!
On a personal note, an EA-3B crew member who was forced to bail out (no ejection seats!
) of a Whale over Germany, became my brother-in-law.
Also of interest, the engines on the Whale were the same ones used on the Boeing 707, Boeing's first commercial jetliner.
Indeed. And those engines (J57/JT3C) are the reason I am somewhat deaf and have substantial tinnitus. On the ship if an A-3 was taxiing around on the flight deck you could hear it down on the second deck ... there is something called the ‘hanger deck’ in between. We wore helmets and earplugs, but it was not enough.
Sealord, AlanS - Did either of you fly with the Wright Brothers? 😀
They ARE the Wright Brothers !