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Chuck Yeager Flies West: ‘The First Time I Ever Saw a Jet, I Shot It Down’

Chuck Yeager dies at 97 — the avatar of The Right Stuff.

Chuck Yeager Flies West: 'The First Time I Ever Saw a Jet, I Shot It Down'

Legendary aircraft test pilot Chuck Yeager died this week at 97. Pilot Bill Whittle reflects on this iconic American aviation figure — first to break the sound barrier, among other aviation records — clearly had ‘The Right Stuff.’ He once said, “The first time I ever saw a jet, I shot it down.” Bill Whittle, Stephen Green and Scott Ott create 20 new episodes of Right Angle each month thanks to our Members. Join us now at https://BillWhittle.com

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Bill Whittle Network ยท Chuck Yeager Flies West: ‘The First Time I Ever Saw a Jet, I Shot It Down’

21 replies on “Chuck Yeager Flies West: ‘The First Time I Ever Saw a Jet, I Shot It Down’”

Saw Bob Hoover many times as an older man, can’t even imagine him as a young man. He could make a plane dance and land it on a dime totally without power. Just about my Dad cry with envy

Well done, all three of you. But, Bill, I gotta hand it to you — you’ve got the dot!
Or, to put it a bit differently, that was an … Ok, 3 wire!
R.I.P. Chuck!

Not long after acquiring my “private” license, an opportunity came up to move our aircraft, from an airport an hour away from our home, to one five minutes from our home. In the interest of time, we jumped on the chance.

My wife (also a pilot) rented a plane from the nearest airport and we flew to the one where our aircraft was. Once there, I did a preflight and got a weather brief, not that much had changed between one airport and the other. I got in, set the preliminary instruments, got the monochrome hand-held GPS set up and started the engine.

Since the airport we were departing (my wife followed in the rented aircraft) was under the outer veil of a Class “C” airspace, it was necessary to contact the appropriate approach frequency and I planned on asking for “flight following” across their airspace.

On climb-out, I called approach, identified myself, declared my intentions and asked for permission to cross their airspace. They acknowledged me (as I circled to avoid their inner airspace), gave me a squawk code and as a conclusion, both warned of lower ceilings and asked that I “ident”. And just as they had warned seconds prior, the outside went white. I was in the cloud bottoms.

I immediately pulled the power, and leveled my wings (making sure my airspeed did not increase or decrease) and pressed the transponder “ident” button; thoughts of the various towers in the vicinity loomed large in the mind’s eye. I needed visual contact with the ground below. A lowly private pilot wasn’t supposed to be in the clouds.

Fortunately, the good Lord smiled and I broke out of the clouds shortly. I followed the controllers instructions to my destination. And after landing, I went over what I had done, how I had gone wrong and was thankful I listened during training. It could’ve gotten worse quickly.

But the story points up how one needs to have their head in the game at all times, actually listen and not to presume too much, and be able to adjust / adapt when things don’t go as planned.
Rule one: fly the plane. (Everything else is second.)

What does that have to do with Chuck Yeager?

While it is possible to learn the art of flying, most of us struggle with the elementary parts. A select few seem born to the 3 dimensions of the sky. General Yeager was one of those. And it is on their wings the rest of us ride.

Thanks for the guidance sir.

Here’s another tribute to Chuck Yeager. Its from an ex-fighter pilot who now runs an investment service. This video is about investments, (and his opinions) butt he stops it to give a short tribute to Gen. Yeager. Start at about 7:05, lasts for about 1.5 mins.(copy and paste the URL into your browser).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBHclobMvvI
Its not nearly as exhaustive or as personal as what Bill and the guys present to us, but it shows you how Chuck Yeager affected so many of us.

Sir! Do One More Roll for Me!
We toast our hearty comrades who have fallen from the sky,
and were gently caught by Gods own hands to be with him on high.
To dwell among the soaring clouds they have known so well before,
from victory roll to tail chase at heavens very door.
And as we fly among them there, we’re sure to hear their plea:
Take care, my friend, watch your six, and do one more roll for me.

Two things that impressed me was Chuck stole a prototype F-104 and took it straight up until the engine stalled for lack of air, setting the all time high altitude record at the time, lost the aircraft in a spin, and punched out thus destroying it and landing safely by parachute.

The other thing was Alan Shepard demanded they put a window in the Mercury capsule or none of the astronauts would fly in it. They wanted at least the illusion of control, otherwise they could send a monkey!

I know I’m in the minority on this, but did anyone else think that The Rught Stuff movie was overrated? As a kid I remember watching it on HBO with my parents. We all agreed it was good, but also agreed that it wasn’t as phenomenal as all of the critics were making it out to be.
All of that said, Yaeger was one in a million, and we could really use more guys like him today

I only remember seeing it way back then (I thought it was the 80’s, not the 70’s, but time is relative), but it did have a positive impact on me, especially when later I moved out to the Mohave desert to work. I remembered both it, and Top Gun, another kind-of over-rated movie.

From the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), “The Right Stuff” movie came out in 1983, and it hit the little screen in 1886. I enjoyed the movie because I remember following our space program from the 1950’s through the 1960’s. Our “Weekly Reader” in my 1950’s Elementary School days had the Sputnik story in it and we were shocked and perhaps a bit afraid that the Russians had beat us to the punch. The insight into the politics and technology and sheer guts exhibited by the pilots was enlightening, even if it was “Hollywood-ized”.

It is sad that Chuck has flown West but it is also fitting to take the time to acknowledge his legacy and that also of Man who in less than a century achieved powered flight and then walked on the moon that was made possible by men like Chuck who had the Right Stuff. As Mankind continues to stumble forward we rely on men with the Right Stuff to break the barriers that restrain us.

High FlightJohn Gillespie Magee, JrOh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, –and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of –Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Safe journey, Sir!

My father, whom has also gone west, was a fighter pilot and aerospace engineer for NASA. This was his favorite writing on the joys and spiritual experience that is flight. I remember after he had developed dementia, he had much trouble in constructing a simple sentence, but he would often recite to me in it’s entirety this poem…High Flight.

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