Boeing 757 pilot A demanding test

After flying the hot F-8 Crusader in the US Navy for a few years, I joined United Airlines. Now and then people ask if I had a scary or even memorable flight. In 33 years with United there were several, but my favorite took place on a windy, dark, and snowy night in Boston.

For four years I was a check pilot on the 757* and 767 for Captains and Copilots. On this night we were in a 757 and it was a new copilot, but that’s misleading: he was a former Air Force C-5 pilot. The C-5 is big, so I knew he wouldn’t be a problem and he wasn’t. This would be only the fellow’s third actual landing in an airliner. He’d had one good one and one not so good. This was going to be a demanding test for him and I was anxious to see how he handled it.

I always told the new guys, and even the old guys if it was going to be a challenge, “If at any time in the approach you feel uncomfortable, tell me and I’ll finish the landing. If at any time I feel uncomfortable, I will tell you and I will finish the landing.” But it was a hollow threat because I never took the airplane away from a single pilot at United, although I had a couple of times when I gave them specific instructions, rather firmly.

Very bumpy approach

An important detail for this story: on the approach page we used for landing in Boston, down at the bottom is a note: “On the south side of the airport is a deep-water channel.” I had seen it and wondered why I should care — it turned out to be important.

The snow wasn’t very heavy, but it was coming down. The wind wasn’t strong, but it was enough to make the approach very bumpy. That’s actually more important for the passengers than the pilots. Passengers tend to associate bumpy with scary or dangerous. It is neither.

We received instructions to land on runway 04 Right. There was a 04 Left, but it was being used for takeoffs. We broke out of the overcast at about 1,000 feet and had the runway in sight, which was a good feeling, but the tower came up and said, “There is a liquid nitrogen ship transiting the deep-water channel. You are prohibited from flying over this ship. You can either transition and land on 04 Left or go around for another approach to 04 Right.”

We were 90 seconds to touchdown. My brain was saying I do not want to go around in this weather and make another approach, but I didn’t say that; I asked the copilot what he wanted to do. He said he’d take 04 Left. That made me happy, but he had some work to do in the next minute and a half. He made a gentle, descending swing to the left and brought the Boeing in for a perfect landing on 04 Left. I was very happy and relieved. He was going to pass the check ride for sure.

Challenging Landing Test for New Boeing 757 Pilot

As we taxied to the gate, I set the brakes and told him I wanted him to immediately get his hat on and stand by the passenger door just outside the cockpit. I would shut the engines down and do the checklist. He asked if I was serious and I told him yes. After the last passenger deplaned, he came back into the cockpit laughing. He said every single passenger thanked him for getting them on the ground safely. I told him, “I didn’t want you to miss it. That’s the only time they don’t think we are overpaid.”

We went to the hotel and I told him change clothes and come back to the lobby in ten minutes. I was going to take him to the famous Cheers bar for a beer. Ten minutes went by, then fifteen, then twenty. I was beginning to wonder if Air Force guys were always late for appointments. Finally, he appears. I asked him, “Why so late?” He said, “Sorry, I had to call my wife and tell her about that landing.” That was okay with me.

*According to The Blue Board, the Boeing 757 is United’s premium narrowbody, with 40 aircraft featuring 16 lie-flat business seats. Its unusual range for a single-aisle jet lets it fly transatlantic, making it unique in United’s fleet.

In 2026 it still serves premium transcontinental routes like Newark–Los Angeles and Newark–San Francisco, plus Hawaii and thin transatlantic routes. United has begun gradually phasing out its 757 fleet across roughly 2026–2028: the Airbus A321XLR, which entered service in June 2026, is the designated replacement on thin transatlantic routes, while A321neo and Boeing 737 jets backfill domestic 757 flying.

Crusader

In September 1952 the Navy issued specifications for a new carrier-based fighter with the capability to exceed the speed of sound in routine level flight. Chance-Vought won the bid with its F8U Crusader design (later re-designated the F-8).

The F-8 retained 20mm cannon as its primary armament at a time when radar guided missiles were becoming the norm, hence the nickname “Last of the Gunfighters.” A superbly performing aircraft, the F-8 was credited with 18 downed enemy aircraft over Vietnam.

LSOs

It takes skills and nerves of ice for a US Navy pilot to land an aircraft on a carrier’s flight deck, essentially a miniature airfield, that is pitching, rolling and yawing in rough seas which these ships operate in.

To facilitate the “safe and expeditious recovery” of naval aircraft aboard aircraft carriers specially trained naval aviators, designated landing signal officers (LSOs), assist pilots by means of the “ball” and by giving information via radio handsets.

Responsible for making instant judgments, LSOs direct aircraft landing aboard ship, and often know more about what’s happening with an approaching aircraft than its pilot. The LSO can tell at a glance whether a plane’s approach is too high, too low, too fast or too slow, and despite advances in technology (examples being the Optical Landing Systems on display such as the aforementioned “ball” aka Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System), the LSO still monitors and guides each landing and is responsible for calling wave-offs when an aircraft has entered a dangerous situation.

Navy F-8 night carrier landing

What if the LSO can’t talk to you during a carrier landing?

Late one night we were doing “quiet hours” for a reason I cannot remember or comprehend. [Note: Zip-lip or EMCON (emissions control) recoveries at night are extremely rare.] The LSO couldn’t talk to you. Figure that out. I was very uncomfortable aboard my F-8 Crusader, which never happened. I had a bad hop or something. As I was in the approach, I needed to hear the LSO. I thought to myself, the hell with their stupid rules. I came up on the radio and said, “Talk to me. I’m scared.”

Nothing. Not a syllable.

I trapped, went to the ready room, got debriefed by the LSO, not one word was mentioned about my transmission.

Ten or fifteen years later, I saw that LSO, Carl Jensen, at a reunion and asked him why he never said anything. He said, “If you had been off a whisker, I would have said something, but you weren’t. Perfect pass. And one more thing, I’ll bet no one else mentioned it either. We are all scared, but you said it.”

Naval Aviation has an endless supply of great stories and vignettes.

Photo credit: U.S. Navy

O’club at NAS Sigonella

This event happened during the 1966-67 deployment of USS Shangri-La (CVA-38) to the Mediterranean Sea. I’d been an F-8 pilot in VF-13 for three years, and it was my third deployment. I was “salty” – Navy talk for someone who has been there.

Our skipper (squadron commanding officer) was Commander “Stolly” Stollenwerck. Everyone liked and appreciated him. He was calm and conservative… usually. The ship was scheduled to be in port Naples for two weeks and Stolly arranged for the squadron to fly-off to Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella. It was only 250 miles from Naples and would give us the chance for some gunnery practice. Plus, we would be off the ship – a welcome break. We flew to Sigonella and went directly to the Officers’ Club (O’club).

A patrol squadron was completing a one-month deployment and going back to the States. As each plane would take off, it would fly over the O’club at about 2,000 feet, gently waggle its wings, and proceed on. A nice gesture, I guess, but I don’t have to tell you what we thought of it.
I have no idea why or what, but something got into Stolly’s head. All of a sudden, he stood up and pointed at John Baehr, Dick Schaffert, and me. “You, you, and you come with me!” We did, but were completely bewildered. He drove us to the flight line where four planes were being made ready. “Take off, join on me in a diamond.” We did. Somehow, I ended up in the slot, Baehr on the left wing, Schaffert on the right.

Super-low F-8 Crusader Fly-by

We didn’t get very high, and soon we were descending. From the slot it’s hard to tell what’s going on, but I knew we were low and fast, maybe 400-500 knots. Schaffert comes out with, “I don’t think this is a good idea.” Stolly answers, “Hang in there, Dick.” I’m roaring and having a good time. I’m pretty busy trying to stay in formation as we are really bouncing.

I glance out of my front windscreen and see the O’club straight ahead and about level. We climb up a touch, for which I am very grateful, as I am the low man in the formation. We roar over the club and Stolly tells us to break up and return to base, which we did. As we land the tower says, “Would the flight leader please contact the duty officer as soon as possible?”

I’m thinking Stolly is in deep yogurt. What I didn’t know what the base skipper was Captain Donor, (callsign “Blood”) a former skipper of VF-13. We never heard another word about the fly-by.