30 May 2008

Early Morning Aircraft Walk-Around Inspection,

By An Italian Air Force Pilot

The date:  Oh, maybe 1962, or so ...

Location:  Hahn Air Base, Germany

Transient Alert Launch of 4 or 5 Italian Air Force C-119s

You know, aircraft operations are normally conducted with a degree of integrity, intelligence, and pride.

But, on this fairly cold morning, as I was making the "walk-around inspection" of an Italian Air Force C-119, or

"Dollar 19," or "Flying Boxcar,"  as they had been affectionately called in the U.S Air Force before their

demise, about 100 years before   (LOL)   :-), alongside the Italian pilot, something seemed a little different

than the way U.S. pilots conducted their "walk-around inspection."  Maybe it was because the pilot had

a bottle of wine in one hand, and a small loaf of bread in the other ...

Munching on the bread, and taking a swig of wine now and then, he finally made it all the way around the aircraft,

and decided it looked good enough to fly again!  "Okay," he said, handing the left-over bread and wine to someone

else, and then climbed into the aircraft. 

After engines were started, I gave him handsignals to get him off the parking ramp, and on his merry way

towards the runway, with the the rest of his C-119s, half expectling to see them taxi into one another on

the way there.  No way ... they made it to the runway in one piece, took-off, and that was that!

What a way to run a war - I never saw anything again that quite compared to it.

                                       dan walters

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Last Updated:   30 May 2008