August 10, 2010: General Yeager is flying the Citation V as I write. He is on his way to spend time with his friend on his friend’s yacht to go fishing in Alaska. They’ll catch (I hope) silver salmon, halibut, ling cod.
Mike landed the Citation to pick up the General and started taxiing till he spied the General ready to guide him to “park” him – giving him hand and arm signals. The signals became rather funny. Finally General Yeager shook his finger at him to stop, then drew a finger across his throat to signal cut the engine.
Because Gen Yeager and Mike are quite in tune so no danger, it was hilarious. I said hello to the guests and host, Barron, on board. We had a t-shirt for Barron from the Oak Ridge Boys road manager, Darrick, and a brochure of William Lee Golden’s paintings. Barron was most appreciative.
Cliff Robertson was among the guests as was Clay Lacy, who was just inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
After I watched Gen Yeager do the take-off and fly away, I went to the Nevada County Fair breakfast. Ran into a few people I hadn’t seen in a while so was fun. Then I wandered around by myself enjoying the morning and the lack of crowds. As I left at 11:15am – the crowds were coming.
My orders from the General is to give away the fish he caught before because he plans on catching a lot more this trip. I hope so – he loves it.
When Chuck returned, as Barron HIlton was de-planing, he said to Chuck, who only flew that plane about 4 times/year, “Did you make that landing?”
Chuck replied, “Yes.”
Barron: “I thought so.”
The landing was one of Chuck’s usual – where you weren’t sure you had landed, it was so smooth. Unlike the landings of Barron’s pilot, Mike, who flew the plane several times a week.
c. GCYI