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203 • • • Chapter 17 Chapter 17 It was like going through hell a second at a time. —Flight Officer Earl C. Waller, glider pilot Johnny Alison peered through the gloom at the blurred image of his tug’s right engine exhaust. The trick was to keep the blue flame in the same position on the upper left of the Waco’s ample windscreen; it was the only visual clue that he was holding his proper position in the trinity of Gooney Bird and two Wacos. Slightly ahead and to his left he could just discern the other glider on double tow, a smudge in the darkness. The takeoff had been hair-raising. Other pilots considered Alison to be a “good stick,” a birdman with natural instincts who flew intuitively and could master anything with wings. They were right to an extent, but the assessment failed to consider the endless hours of practice and experience , the countless takeoffs and landings in a variety of single- and multiengine aircraft, the aerial acrobatics he had assiduously performed until he was satisfied that he had it right. A certain sameness accompanied the piloting of powered planes—usually they differed only in the numbers, the critical speeds at which performance of certain phases of flight or maneuvers is safe. All took to the sky with the same basic inputs from the pilot, leaving the earth at a particular speed, cruising at a set speed and within prescribed engine performance parameters, and landing within a narrow range of airspeeds (airplane drivers learned to 204 • • • Project 9 consider such things as weight of the airplane, loading within the bird, and temperature, among other factors). A glider was different, and a Waco CG-4A was vastly different, than any of the fighters, bombers, and cargo planes that Alison had flown so well. The takeoff was totally dependent on the tug pulling the glider. A hiccup in an engine could prove disastrous not only for the towplane but for the glider as well. The towlines were carefully inspected before each launch but still could break when exposed to severe jerking. If loaded with cargo too far forward, the nose skid would bore into the ground; if too far aft, the glider would nose up, stall, and crash. The glider pilot had to quickly force the craft into level flight just a few feet above the runway to avoid pulling up the tug’s elevators, which could result in a premature takeoff and potentially fatal stall. Alison had flown a glider only a few times, enough to become familiar with the basics but not enough to be comfortable. In fact the day before the launch of Operation Thursday Alison had taken off twice at the controls of a Waco, released, and landed at Lalaghat. That constituted his entire glider piloting time.1 The strange heavy controls felt awkward and slow. The arrival of dusk, the time of strange half-light that is neither night nor day, had degraded visual clues. Added to the stress was the proximity of both other aircraft in the takeoff triangle, the forward glider on the dual towline and the C-47. When the biscuit light flashed the green signal at the tug pilot, the veteran Hump flier Jacob Sartz, Alison could feel the one-inch nylon towline begin to stretch. (It was actually 15/16ths of an inch.) Somewhere from within the bowels of the Waco came a slight screech followed by a deep-pitched moan, as from a living creature in pain.A slight jerk, and he could feel the ungainly bird begin its first tentative forward movement.Alison held back the large wheel, felt the solid rudder pedals under the balls of his feet, and then stopped himself from reaching for the throttle lever. Of course, he said to himself. No throttle in a glider. The C-47 was moving now, but something was wrong, Alison was certain. The nose seemed to be lowering, and he sensed the raising of the tail despite his holding the yoke to the rearward stop, the wheel almost touching his chest. He looked to 1st Lt. Donald Seese’s glider on short tow and could see that its nose skid was digging in, and, yes, the tail was rising. The launch crew suddenly ran to both gliders and pulled down their empennage, or tail assembly, holding on to the tail surfaces and running as far down the runway as they could manage. The two gliders eventually lifted off...

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