Comments on: Vicarious trunk ride

By: Justthisguy

Justthisguy — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:06:37 +0000

P.s.

On mature consideration (*many* years later) I decided that I prolly have the dutiful back-seater’s temperament, anyway.

If I had graduated on schedule in the early seventies, and spent a year or so training and gotten commissioned, I would have missed all of the Vietnam experience, and have gotten to experience the depressing after-effects of the Viet-Nam experience..

By: Justthisguy

Justthisguy — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:51:15 +0000

I coulda been a contendah.

Actually, a high school guidance counselor (Mrs. Stewart, AKA Lt. Commander Stewart,USNR(Ret.) took a shine to me and tried to get me to apply for the Regular ROTC program. I could have probably got in, but being myopic in one eye (even though it corrected to the same 20/15 as the other one, eliminated aviator as a career path. I distinctly remember thinking that I did not want to ride in the back seat, so I blew it all off. Curiously, I don’t recall thinking about the Vietnam thing much back then. Just assumed we’d prevail, I think

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:04:27 +0000

I really shouldn’t be encouraged, you know …
I guess you didn’t realize that.

Oh well, too late now, I will have to check it out. Thanks

By: GEO6

GEO6 — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:02:28 +0000

Michelle,

Something else for you to check over there in Nova Scotia. Is Canada also pursuing the Light Sport Aircraft Certification and Sport Pilot Certifications? This may put flying in reach for you as it takes a whole lot less time (read money) to get in the air. I think I read somewhere that Canada was looking at it. Best of luck!

By: Bruce Jones

Bruce Jones — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:01:17 +0000

Personally, I never had a problem being chauffeurred.

Nyuk, Nyuk.

Seriously, I view it in reverse to Milton: it’s better to serve in heaven than rule in hell.

By: Flatlander

Flatlander — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:28:12 +0000

Michelle, there are a lot of pilot wannabees in the ranks of NFOs, but there were in my experience a much larger group of NFOs who simply had different skill sets. In naval aircraft, NFOs were used when the workload related to the mission was too much for one person to perform. Some of what an NFO does is “nice to have” copilot stuff if you have an extra set of eyeballs available in the cockpit, but the real reason for an NFO is the mission, and the functions of the mission that require more than one person to perform. Naturally, division of labor allows for complementary skill sets.

I certainly would not have been a good pilot, and I knew few pilots who would have been good NFOs in my aircraft. However, I also knew a few guys who started as NFOs and later got eyesight waivers to become pilots (one of them now an admiral), and a couple of guys who had trouble as pilots (landing at night on the ship) who became successful NFOs. So the skill sets are certainly related.

Most NFOs have been replaced by microprocessors, which are cheaper, faster, lighter, more easily trained, and less likely to tell what really happened!