A Pilot’s Way of Coping With Long Flights

Re “Rarefied Air for Flight 19,” Feb. 6: I and a number of other pilots flew 17- to 17 1/2-hour flights under contract to the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. We were delivering Cessna O-2s from Wichita, Kan., to Bien Hoa, South Vietnam.

The first and longest over-water leg was from Hamilton Air Force Base north of San Francisco to Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu. In addition to full wing tanks, we took off for the leg with two full 90-gallon fuel tanks in the back seats and a full 60-gallon tank in the copilot seat. We were stuck in the pilot’s seat hand-flying the whole trip with no autopilot.

I and some of the other pilots had a system for keeping ourselves hydrated: The morning of takeoff for Honolulu, we would buy three beers from the machine in the bachelor officers’ quarters and put them in a 1-gallon thermos jug, then we would fill the rest of the jug with ice. That gave us ice water to drink for the flight and an ice-cold beer, which we opened after landing. After 17-plus hours in one seat and clambering over a 60-gallon tank to get out of the plane, it was a little hard to walk straight. It probably looked more than a little odd to see me and some of the other pilots staggering around our planes with beers in our hands after we landed.

Richard Miller

Lake Forest