[patrolpilot]

Yeah, exciting stuff "our" airplanes have done.

The lady that manages the 400 series Cessnas I will be flying, known her since I got out of the Army in '75, started her aviation career as a scheduler for an aircraft exporter. They managed the O2 gaggles that flew across the pond to SEA. She said they only lost one, but it was a total loss, including the pilot.

Rock Rabb has written a couple of good books about the use of the O2 in SEA: Baggy Zero Four (2006) and Mike Five Eight: Air War Over Cambodia (2007). I conversed with the fellow on a firearm related forum and discovered our interest in the airplanes.

While flying pipeline patrol with the 337 in South Texas during '78, one of our lines crossed the middle of a bombing range, where the two circular areas met. It was a Navy range that both they and the AF used. It was very active and they did not hold back on what was expended on the range. My Skymaster had an FM radio to communicated with the Navy Range Controllers. I would standby for the stuff to be dumped and then inspect the ROW. O2s out of Bergstrom AFB flew in the Restricted Area. I would horse around with flights of four O2s; formation fly, dogfight, etc., while I waited to enter the range. Somewhere, someone has a photo of a 337G tight in a flight of O2s. I'll never forget chasing a guy down low across the brush, maybe a 100' AGL, he was loaded with stores and could not shake me. So, he rolled the airplane; the wingspan ate up near half of the airspace to the ground. I was impressed as it really dumped the speed, and I had no recourse, but to drop the chase.

Years later, I would share a 737 cockpit with a couple of these guys. We always had an O2/337 connection and became immediate friends.

The Company I flew the 337 for had a pipeline that ran from Harlingen, TX to Manhattan, NYC, via Houston, Atlanta, and Baltimore. There were three airplanes and pilots spaced along the distance, me being at the SW end of things. I was a very young guy, the other two fellows in their late '50s. I coordinated with the Aviation Director, and these guys a total patrol of the line start to finish. Something that I wanted to do, so the other two guys took the week off. I flew a 337 over our terminal end, downtown Manhattan, at 800 AGL per the letter of agreement with ATC.

That's my "fiction"...