Cross Country Flight

Pat Taylor

As to memories... my last N3N flight ... the one they referred to the "cross country hop", where you strapped the chart of the Chesapeake onto your thigh and flew by the railroad tracks out of the Severn River and south...that was a nightmare, as it turned out. By the time I had almost 10 to 12 hours in that bird, successfully pulled out of power-on and power-off stalls from 1500 -2000 ft, I was seriously considering Navy Air... Then, for the first time, I really took notice of all the cockpit gauges on that cc hop.

When I realized my oil pressure gage read zero... the needle hard over, I tried frantically to get my jg pilot's attention... signaling him by spelling "OIL" backwards since he was viewing me in his rear-view mirror... drawing "zeros" and using both hands to form a round gage and a finger in the middle showing a 0-peg. All for naught...this nonchalant jockey who must have had all of 200 hours in Naval Aviation yelled into my gosport to keep my head out of the cockpit, my hands on the stick, and quit the charades! Needless to say, I was uptight for the full hour, knowing this airplane was due to fall out of the sky before my 21st birthday!

Heading back - making the sweeping circle around the antennas farm at the Navy radio station - my instructor coached me to confidence, informing me that I was going to make the landing on this, my last N3N flight.

Everything he said those last two minutes was prefaced with, "Now...." "Ok... now you can level out ..." "...now look at those whitecaps out on the River...they'll help you with some depth perception"..."now -the throttle, cutback a little on your air speed..." As I made my final approach on what I thought to be the thrill of a lifetime...his last "now..." I was sure was going to be something like ..."set her down"... I cut the throttle completely, and the sky fell out from under me...we dropped the last 25 feet like a rock, I momentarily lost the "bubble" and as we pancaked onto the water, the struts on the starboard pontoon snapped!

My pilot was livid... we were like a ruptured duck - a 18 degree list to starboard, and the little amphib ..I think they were called "Ducks" weren't they?... came down the ramp and hooked up a cable and snatch block to tow us back up onto the apron of the Aux NAS. There were at least 3 or 4 young pilots standing around, their flights completed, laughing at their buddy, my instructor, over what a silly sight we must have been. Meanwhile, I am getting an earful chewing out...

"I will see to it you never fly a Navy airplane!..You would have wiped out everything aft of the island had that been on a carrier! You've got no depth perception at all, Taylor! ..."

On and on... I couldn't get back on the bus fast enough! So... yes, I have recollections of that beautiful little airplane...and I thought to myself on several occasions over the years since..."how did I ever acquire such a good periscope eye... (monocular vision) when I couldn't even set that damn airplane down on the water?!!