Page 12 - Aerotech News and Review 8-21-15

High Desert hanger stories with Bob Alvis

Being a lifelong resident of the Antelope Valley À\LQJ Air Force photograph
and growing up around the greats that pioneered
advancement’s in aviation in the High Desert skies “I began by rolling it upside down at a safe alti- )URQWYLHZRI;)ZLWK/RFNKHHGWHVWSLORW7RQ\/H9LHU
I look forward to giving you stories in each issue WXGHDURXQG¿YHKXQGUHGIHHWDQGÀ\LQJLWLQYHUWHG
that may not make the rounds that much anymore XQWLO,OHDUQHGKRZWRKROGLWLQOHYHOÀLJKWLQWKDW ULYDOEDFNDWWKH¿HOGGLGQRWWDNHZKDWKDSSHQHG always looking to push the envelope forward in
in the current world of our local aviation history. lightly and in fact came clean with all those in
position without losing altitude. Then I repeated attendance stating that he had made a mistake his quest for safety, performance and engineering
Many of you know me and see me around the WKLVPDQHXYHUFORVHUWRWKHJURXQG¿QDOO\GRLQJ and stalled to low! Tony learned from all these
Valley from time to time and if you would like to experiences and they made him the great man excellence and we here in the Antelope Valley
see a topic that you have an interest in feel free it at 50 of 70 feet. that he was to be and his gifts of aeronautical DUHJODGWKDWRQDGD\DWD/DQFDVWHU$LU¿HOGWKLV
to contact me and we will see what we can do to ³:KHQ,KDGPDVWHUHGLQYHUWHGÀ\LQJZLWKWZR XQGHUVWDQGLQJEHQH¿WXVHYHQWRGD\DVPDQLV
share those stories! didn’t come to an abrupt ending and that Tony
engines I turned one off and repeated the maneu- /H9LHUZRXOGÀ\RQIRUPDQ\PRUH\HDUVLQWR
So now on to a story about a famous test pilot
who had the right stuff but then on one day over ver on a single engine .Pretty soon I was able to do Aviation history!
the skies of Lancaster that right stuff was blessed
with a little bit of good luck! my stunts practically on the deck. After I became
IDLUO\SUR¿FLHQW,ZRXOGVRPHWLPHVFRQGXFWP\
Tony LeVier needs no introduction when it
comes to savvy people who follow aviation his- practice in the vicinity of Polaris Flight School
tory.
at War Eagle Field where two of my old students
7RQ\ZDVRQHRIWKHEHVWWRHYHUÀ\ULYHWVDQG ZHUHQRZÀLJKWLQVWUXFWRUVDQGXSRQVHHLQJZKDW
sheets of aluminum into the unknown that engi- ,ZDVGRLQJVHQWRXWDQLQYLWDWLRQWRKDYHPHÀ\
neers on the ground would draw up in the form IRUWKHFDGHWVDWWKH¿HOG
of an airplane.
“With approval from Milo Burcham and Lock-
In the war years of World War Two Tony found
KLPVHOILQYROYHGZLWKWKHÀLJKWWHVWLQJDQGGHYHO- heed with the blessings from the Army Air Corps
opment of the famous Lockheed P-38 Lightning. ,ZDVRQP\ZD\WR/DQFDVWHUIRUWKH¿UVW3
The Lightning coming off the drawing boards of
the late 1930s and was an airplane that was leaps demonstration the likes that cadets had never seen!
and bounds ahead in technology and the design
crews, engineers and pilots had to play catch up “My job was to sell the P-38 to the pilots
when trying to understand why this sleek bird was
VXFKDKDQGIXOWRÀ\ and to encourage them to request assignment
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With Lightning’s gaining a reputation as a pilot
killer the Army Air Corps was looking for a little was a big airplane and had two engines and I
help to bring some reassurance to the new shave
tail air corps pilots that the P-38 was a sound de- wanted to show the class at Polaris that despite
sign and when in the hands of a competent well
WUDLQHGÀ\HUFRXOGMXVWDERXWÀ\WKHSDQWVRIIRI its size and high performance it was extremely
anything else in the world!
easy to fly. The demonstration almost ended
Many of you may not know that in World War
II at the corner of current day 60th Street West up a disaster had it not been for my good luck
and Avenue I in Lancaster was an Army Air Corps DQGWKHIDFWWKDWWKHSZDVD¿QHDLUSODQH,W
training base called War Eagle Field that was the
home or the Polaris Flight Academy where hun- had a reputation among many pilots for being
dreds of student pilots were learning the basics of
FRPEDWÀ\LQJ treacherous on one engine in a stall and when

On one particular day Tony, War Eagle Field the students asked me to demonstrate a stall on
and hundreds of students almost ended up with
GDUNFORXGRYHUWKH¿HOGLIQRWIRUDOLWWOHELWRI one engine I agreed because it was a chance to
luck with a bumper crop of skill from Tony. I will
let Tony tell the story in his own words. prove this report was untrue. I had stalled the

“Up in the High Desert, in the vicinity of Lan- airplane a number of times on one engine and
caster and Palmdale, I set up a small program in
the P-38 to acquaint myself with low level aileron never noticed how much altitude I had lost be-
rolls, single engine maneuvers and upside down IRUH,UHJDLQHGÀ\LQJVSHHGLI,VWDOOHGWKLVWLPH

at 1,000 feet I assumed that I would have ample

altitude to recover.

“However I was completely mistaken. In order

to get into a stall I had to reduce speed to eighty

miles an hour and reduce power on my good en-

gine as I did this I immediately fell several hun-

dred feet before I could get the nose down again.

I then applied power on my good engine but I

continued to falling. There was only one thing left
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towards the ground and continue to apply power,
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ÀLJKW$ERXWIHHWIURPWKHJURXQG,H[WHQGHG
P\ZLQJÀDSVZKLFKJDYHWKHZLQJVHQRXJKOLIW

for me to pull up the nose and level off.”

Tony being nothing but professional upon ar-

People & Places

Operation Smile

SUBIC BAY, Philippines—Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Franz Dedios from Santa Clarita,

Calif., gives a Filipino man a chest X-ray aboard the hospital ship USNS MercyGXULQJ3DFL¿F
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Air Force photograph by SrA. Peter Reft

12 Aerotech News and Review August 21, 2015

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