"Gordon" wrote in message
...

SNIP! for shortness

Whoosh - down the cat track and off into air. Drifting lower, but no
apparent
fire...yet. The F-14, lagging far behind its mates, made a straight line
run
to Oceana and a nice long rest at NARF. We were all DAMN surprised that
thing
didn't skip its way to shore like a stone. A grape next to me asked, "I
thought
that thing was supposed to crash?" "Accidents happen, bud: it
'accidentally'
didn't crash."
I always wondered who got the short straw and flew it ashore - I bet his
memories of that flyoff include some colorful language cornerning our
chimpheaded friend!

v/r
Gordon

The lucky guy is usually the Squadron Maintenance Officer or the Assistance
Maintenance Officer. One of the perks of the job. }:-(

A little off the subject , but I learned that it was best to rotate the
hanger queens every 30 days or less. This made it harder for the higher ups
to tell that you had a hanger queen, kept the readiness numbers up and the
exception numbers down. Of course everyone knew what you were doing, but it
also help keep the CO off you A$$ so you could get some work done. Where it
really got rough were for the guys with a detachment, and didn't have enough
aircraft for a hanger queen.

A good MaintO was never the last person to fly an aircraft. :-)

Red Rider