LA Speed check

[Rickysa]

I have read this several times, but just came across the pilot telling the story:

[wildthing]

I've read this too. But how do we know it's the same guy? Bit of a skeptic here. Seems to be all audio and some laughter. Could be just some actor telling the same story.

[Scott Douglas]

There was a thread not too long ago that linked the actual video of his speech, given at Lawrence Livermore Labs. That's the real deal talking.
That's a great video with all the 'pertinent' photos of the mentioned planes.

edit - Here's the thread:

Author Brian Shul on piloting the SR-71


Well worth watching.

[cashflyer]

Allegedly....
Major Brian Shul, USAF (Ret.) claims that the story was real, and that it was him flying at the time.


Real or not, I'm a pilot and I like the story.


Edit: Scott beat me to the pilot's name.

[pwd72s]

Hell, I'm not a pilot and I love the story.

[Scott Douglas]

^^^ You should take the time to watch the whole video I linked then.

[Rickysa]

^^^ You should take the time to watch the whole video I linked then.

No kidding, I'm half way thru it and came here to post it....great stuff.

[Seahawk]

Shul is the only Air Force pilot I have ever heard that can tell a sea story.

True or not, I love the guy.

[Indescikov]

There is a similar story sort of goes like this: Sorry its a little long

A guy was bouncing around the traffic pattern in his Piper Cub with only a handheld radio as he had no electrical system, he was maybe doing 70 knots. He hears a Cessna 150 call, entering downwind and the Cub pilot thinks to himself: "Gee, one day I will get to fly a airplane fast like a Cessna 150, electrical system and all".

The pilot in the Cessna 150 hears a Cessna 172 radio in for a traffic pattern check and he looks out and ponders, "One day I will be able to fly a four seater like that 172".

While the 172 driver is checking for traffic, he sees a Cessna 182 fly overhead, not in the traffic pattern but really cruising along. The 172 pilot whistles and says, "It will be me in that six cylinder with all that power one day".

The Cessna 182 is monitoring approach control and hears a Twin engine Baron check in on the frequency. He listens in and thinks, "Gee one day, I too will be able to fly two engines and go really far and fast"

The Twin Baron is cruising along at 10,000 and has just been cleared to contact Center, as he tunes up the frequency, he hears a KingAir 350 report being level at Flight Level 250 and maintaining 280 knots. The Baron pilot looks up and thinks, "Wow, someday I will be able to cruise in the flight levels, get out of all the turbulence and go fast too".

The King Air pilot is told to watch for traffic, its a Citation 560 at Flight Level 310 and doing Mach .72 and from the King Air guys view is out a sight in a flash. He looks down at all his extra engine controls (power/prop/condition lever) and says: "one day I will fly high and fast like those Citations and only have just power levers, life would be good".

The Citation pilots are cleared to a higher altitude but are have a restricted climb due to passing traffic. They are told to watch for a Southwest 737NG passing overhead climbing to FL390 doing M.80. The left seater pokes the right seater and says: "one day I will get hired by SW and then I will be passing by all these slow Cessnas", One day!"

The SW flight levels at FL390 and they are told to report crossing traffic, its a Gulfstream 550 at FL 490 same direction but doing M .88 Both pilots watch as the Gulfstream leaves them in the dust high above their paltry 39,000 altitude. The right seater looks over and says: "I would love to fly a 550, so high and fast, go fancy places".

The Gulfstream cruising at FL490 is told to watch for military traffic, climbing through their altitude. Its two F18's in hot pursuit to their training area. The Gulfstream pilots can't see the F18's, too fast and too high but report them on TCAS. The captain looks up and says, "Wow, fast, sexy, what could be better than that?. One day that might be me!"

The F18 pilots are late, so the extra speed. They had to restrict their climb due to passing traffic. It was the Air Force again and better than that it was a SR71. Wing man calls over to his lead: "Hey, don't you wish you could go that fast? Talks about cool". I should have joined the Air Force, that could have been me!"

The SR71 is finally level at 85,000 feet and Mach 3.2. Life is good. The pilot looks down and the world goes on forever, he looks up into the beginning blackness of space. In a brief moment, he thinks I am the fastest guy up here but then... he realizes that the astronauts in the ISS are supposed to pass overhead this afternoon. "Darn, at 17,000 mph and 220 miles overhead... now that is flying. I wish I was an astronaut!"

High overhead the ISS passes above. Peering out the window at the ground below, the astronaut checks all the instruments one more time. As he looked out again, he motions to the guy next to him. " I can't wait to get back home, really looking forward to flying my Piper Cub, smashing some bugs and getting the wind in my face"

The life of the pilot

[cashflyer]

And every one of them wishes to be a helicopter pilot.

[flipper35]

Aren't helicopters 500 parts flying in loose formation? Or was it 500 parts that wish they were elsewhere at the moment?

I kid, I kid. It takes serious skill to be traveling into a quartering headwind with 0 ground speed while maintaining altitude within inches just so some guy who wished HE was elsewhere at the time can get on and be elsewhere shortly.

[DonDavis]

Well, not sure if you know, but Helo pilots do NOT fly...

They BEAT the air into submission.


just sayin'...

[onewhippedpuppy]

Heard it many times, such a great story. And knowing plenty of fighter pilots, totally believable.

[flipper35]

If his books weren't so expensive I would buy them.

[stealthn]

That was great, thanks for posting

[fingpilot]

This is me, first hand account.

Departed Shannon, Ireland, destination Burbank, LaLaLand. Gulfstream 4. Westbound at FL430, M.80 (gas saving speed).

Talking to Artic control, we are way north of Hudson Bay. Has been really quiet on the freq, is VHF thru a remote from somewhere down there. Center calls with traffic.

"Traffic 6 o'clock 60 miles 1100 knot overtake, no altitude readout, in fact is a primary target only intermittently, we're not talking to him."

I look over at the F.O., who puts down his paper, and he asks "and what does he want us to do about it?"

The controller says that we are on a merge track, but he has an idea... be right back.

A full minute goes by...

"Your traffic is on a flight from Mildenhall (mil base in Great Britain) to Mather (military base in California), and is not in controlled airspace (60,000 feet and below), and by the way, your targets just merged."

The hair on my arms sticks straight up, even now as I type this.

I lean forward and look up. The now familiar black double triangle shape was speeding by 20,000 feet above us, with two dark yellow triangle cones from the engines.

From the time he passed overhead to disappearing over the horizon out in front of us was all of 2 minutes.

37 years of amazing things seen while airbourne, that was one of the best.

[ted]

Pilot reports 5 mile final for Carlsbad airport.

Controller questions if pilot is lined up for Oceanside airport (the wrong airport).

Pilot is adamant he is on 5 mile final for Carlsbad airport.

Controller tells pilot to report the drive in theater.

Pilot soon after reports over the drive in theater.

Controller advises pilot the Drive in theater is on final for Oceanside and contract Oceanside tower now.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by fingpilot

This is me, first hand account

The hair on my arms sticks straight up, even now as I type this.

So cool.

Mine, not related to the SR-71, happened at China Lake in the late 80's.

I had finished my flight test period against the ship site and requested a free period in the upper test range, the electronic test range in a valley, heavily instrumented.

I was told a B-1 was working the upper range so no go.

The Navy version of the Blackhawk was new at the time so in a few minutes , while I was RTB, Range control told me the B-1 was ops complete and they wanted a fly by.

We worked out the specifics has I roared to the range at 120kts; ground speed MF'ers...

The B-1, this is 1986, and I manged to fly parallel for about .2 seconds at 200ft agl down the range, 500ft apart. I can still see his ass at 90 degrees, straight up just after he flew by.

Aviation grab ass.

[javadog]

Brian has told that story for years. Sometimes the speeds given vary a few knots, but the story is the same. He's an excellent speaker and a really nice guy to talk to. I recommend his books highly, especially the second one he did on the SR-71, The Untouchables. It has more detail than Sled Driver and deals with the actual missions he flew for Reagan back in 1986 (I think) when we needed to screw with Libya a little bit. He has a deal where he'll sell you both books for about $500. Sounds expensive, until you price a used example of Sled Driver on eBay and consider that the newest editions have lots more content and are printed in a horizontal format, which allows the photos to be bigger and better. I talked to him about a week ago and he still had some in inventory. He prints a run every so often, when they are gone, they're gone.

Great guy, I recommend you check out his videos if you haven't ever seen him speak somewhere.

JR