Self landing F-106

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by mako88sb

Good point about the side-winder problem. I did a bit of searching to see if this was the cause of the 2 incidents in my post. I'm not having much luck though. Seems any search involving an accidental shoot-down with F-15 in it brings up the Blackhawks incident. Do you know of a site that goes into more detail about the sidewinder problem.

I was also curious if you have ever read "Yeager". I stumbled on it when it first came out and bought the hardcover which I usually avoided back then when I was in school. Great book and it really heightened my appreciation for him. Especially when he went to all the effort to get back in the fight during WW2 after being shot-down over France. However, I found some parts of it to be a bit hard to believe. For instance when he described the time Neil Armstrong and him got bogged down in a salt-flat while doing a touch and go that according to Yeager, he strongly advised Neil from doing. From all I had read about Armstrong up to that point, it sounded pretty out of character for him to do something like that. Just a few years ago, I read "First Man" and Neil mentions that it was more the other way around with the salt-flat incident. Seems old Yeager wasn't above tall tales when it came to embellishing his book.

Actually I haven't read the book . From what you, XabbaRus and others have said, I doubt I will either. He is / was a great pilot but so are the many that have done so without the accolades and fanfare that Chuck Yeager received. I remember a time I had spoken to an older gentleman in a VA Hospital who was a flight instructor for a number of aircraft including the P-51 Mustang. He was still very upset that he was " relegated " to teaching others how to fly and fight with combat aircraft instead of being with friends and joining in the fight in WW2.


Before I posted the " spontaneous firing " comment, I had looked for it so I could post the link. I didn't find it but I know it had been an Issue. The pilot had been " hung out to dry " over the incident before they realized upon investigation that what he reported was consistent with other reported " Spontaneous firing " incidents. I'm sure they didn't want to acknowledge publicly that it happened. If I find it, I will let you know.