Survival II

In article ,
Big John wrote:

As an aside. When I bailed out in a snow storm in the arctic
(Greenland) I took the booklet included in my survival pack and tore
out the tropical instructions and used to start a small fire.

John... you cannot dangle one of your stories like that and leave us
hanging.
Tell us the particulars!

John

Have told story before.

Was leading a flight of 3 T-33's to Iceland to replace three that were
due overhaul. Got to Sondrustrom (Greenland) and a gaggle of F-5's
were trying to land and we held for over an hour before being cleared
for approach. Had about 75 gallons which would have been plenty for a
straight in. Let down at max rate but still high on glide path so they
gave us a 360 to lose more height. This put us behind a mountain and
we lost radio contact. I went to Guard channel and was able to get
contact. As we came up on glide slope again they forgot I was on Guard
and tried to talk to me on descrete channel so flight overshot final
so was sent around. At that time I had 15 Gallons in a snow storm and
in a Fiord with high terrain on both sides that was snow covered so
couldn't see ground if wanted to.

Made decision to punch so climbed to altitude and punched. Was picked
up about 4 hours later by a Danish chopper. All four pilots survived
and birds were only valued at about $65,000 due to deprecation so not
a very expensive accident.

Lots of things I did right to survive so am thankful to be here today.

This is the short abbreviated version to give you the flavor.

Fly safe.

Big John
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On Sun, 11 Jun 2006 21:44:34 GMT, john smith wrote:

In article ,
Big John wrote:

As an aside. When I bailed out in a snow storm in the arctic
(Greenland) I took the booklet included in my survival pack and tore
out the tropical instructions and used to start a small fire.

John... you cannot dangle one of your stories like that and leave us
hanging.
Tell us the particulars!

In article ,
Big John wrote:

Have told story before.

Thanks Big John. I hadn't heard it before.