[philthy]

Hi All,

This afternoon I had the great honor of getting a flight in the 183rd plane I had a hand in building. What an awesome experience! The owner took delivery this morning and it had 5.5 hours on it when we cranked engines for our flight. Nevermind the smell of brand new leather was terrific. I was amazed when I watched our very first plane lift off for the first time, but this really brought it all together for me. Yea, I LOVE my job! By the way, I'm the balding dude in the middle with the blue "Pacific Fly" shirt...at least I was thinking of all my flyfishing brethren

Phil

[mcnerney]

philthy

Congrats! That looks to be a great aircraft you are building, you have a right to be proud of your efforts. Must be very satisfying to ride in something that you have built.

Larry

[Frank Whiton]

Hi Phil,

People are lucky who have a job that they love. Is that an Eclipse 500?

Frank

[philthy]

Hi Frank,

Yes, it is the Eclipse 500 and we build them here in Albuquerque. You may have seen them down your way since DayJet is based in Florida. It's pretty cool for being a "wee" jet.

Phil

[fyshstykr]

That's great Phil!
How long have you been involved in the industry?

[philthy]

Hey Fyshstykr,

I've been working at Eclipse for a little over 2 years now and it's my first aviation gig since graduating from school after I retired. I did work on F-15s my first 4 years in the Air Force and even got a ride in one. Probably never get to go Mach 1.4 again LOL. The remaining 22 years I was in civil engineering and was a First Sergeant for 5 years.

A co-worker and I are gonna approach the higher-ups about going on production test flights to build our hours towards a "type rating" in the Eclipse and eventually be available to take a jet on short notice with our parts and tools to fix someone's that may be having problems. Now THAT would be real satisfaction!

[fyshstykr]

That would be a great gig being able to fly out to repair aircraft. Good luck, I hope the powers that be go for it.

[mcnerney]

Philthy

Where were you located in the AF when you worked on F-15's?
I spent a tour at Langley AFB and then at Tyndall AFB.


Larry

[philthy]

Hi Larry,

I was at Langley from November 76 to December of 80. 1st AGS, 27th AMU. When were you there? Funny how you run into people, even years later. One of our first maintenance officers was a Capt. George Babbitt. He ended up retiring a few years back as the 4 star commander of AFMC. Great guy! One of the 27th pilots there at the same time was Mike Pinter. Believe it or not, 14 years later he was my Commander as a Lt Col and I was his First Sergeant in Turkey. I even did a TDY with him a fews years later to Bahrain.

Phil

[mcnerney]

Phil

My first tour of duty was with the 48th FIS at Langley AFB (Air Defense Command), that was from 1970-1974, flying the F-106 aircraft. Then after several assignments I returned to ADTAC at Langley AFB (Tactical Air Command had absorbed the Air Defense Command). During 1980-1982 I was at Colorado Springs with ADC Headquarters, when TAC absorbed ADC and then they moved the headquarters back to Langley AFB so I was there for a second tour from 1982-1984 assigned to Stan Eval, from there I went to Eielson AFB, AK flying the A-10 aircraft.

Small world for sure!

Larry