There I stood, all proud of myself, having just completed my first solo in the mighty Buck-eye. I was king of the world, or at least NAS Pensacola, where I was a student at VT-4. All of the instructor pilots were excited, as well, because students who had completed their solos now were "turn qualed." This term meant I could start and taxi the airplanes for the contract-maintenance personnel, who maintained our jets. I soon was presented with my first opportunity to excel. The phone rang in the ready room; maintenance needed someone to taxi a jet to the compass rose for some required maintenance. Several instructors were hanging around and immediately began giving all kinds of excuses to get out of doing the taxi. One of the instructors spied me trying to hide in the "geedunk." I quickly was shooed out of the ready room and down to maintenance control.
展开▼
