US 2nd Fleet Questions

[mpipes]

Originally Posted by The Dark

By 1994, Jimmy already had Navy Survival Training (it's mentioned in the report on his Grumman Widgeon crash in August 1994). I am a little dubious that he'd be flying attack aircraft in the late 90s; by 1998 he's fifty-one years old (turning fifty-two on Christmas Day of that year) and (IRL) he had no jet experience, so he'd either be flying jets after a couple years of off-and-on simulator training or prop aircraft with thirteen years of experience. My personal opinion is he'd more likely remain with prop transport or SAR aircraft, possibly even his personal HU-16C Albatross "Hemisphere Dancer" (which was shot at in Jamaica in 1996 and retired in 2003) to allow younger and fitter guys to take the jet aircraft.

Actually, my understanding is that he was multi-engine rated by 1994. He definitely has his commercial license now. If you watch the 1995 movie Congo, he is the 727 pilot, and I remember reading an article on the movie and it was commented at that time that he was licensed to fly it, so he was at least rated in 727s then. I had a girlfriend that grew up living by "Uncle Jimmy" and he was taking her up on multi-engine aircraft years before then. He flies a LOT and has a ton of hours by 1996. According to an article on the Widgeon landing accident he had in 1994, he had over 1500 hours logged; 400 in multiengine aircraft.