P-38 training video (in color)

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It was my good fortune to do some flying with an ex WW2 P-38 fighter jock. He told me one time he was flying to Hawaii back in the Seventies as a passenger and saw the pilot come on board (this was back before the days of terrorists) and realized it was one of his old squadron mates. When the airliner was at altitude and trimmed out, he summoned a stewardess (yes, that is what they were called then) and asked her to pass a note to the pilot saying, in effect, if he had known a P-38 pilot was going to be flying him to Hawaii, he never would have gotten on the plane. He was invited up to the cockpit for a jolly good chat about old times.
 
He took me up one time in an Aero Commander. We had flown out of Palomar Airport in San Diego County to Indio, out in the desert. There was an air show there and we toured the place briefly, then flew back to the coast. It was pretty overcast, but suddenly an opening appeared below us. Down we went at the limit of safe allowable dive speed (P-38 pilot at the controls) and broke out just over the coast near the Encina Power Plant. An oil tanker (a ship) was unloading fuel for the facility, and this was just the opportunity to do a simulated strafing run. Of course, the "attack" was broken off in time not to alarm anyone or jeopardize a flying license.
 

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