Silvio Petricciani - University of Nevada, Reno

54 Silvio E. Petricciani
I said, “Do you mean to tell me I can’t fly
my airplane out of here now?”
“I didn’t say that,” he says, “we’ll be glad
to see you go!” [Laughs]
So when I came back to Reno after that
little episode, why as I told you I belong to an
organization called the Quiet Birdmen. (And
as a matter of fact this fellow that just called
me now is going to be initiated into it tonight,
Bill Skliar. He’s a retired colonel from the Air
Force, and he was the test pilot at Edwards
Air Force Base when they were testing this
SR-71 which flies at eight thousand feet and
above, and flew from New York to London,
England in one hour. But, real wonderful
person. Now he’s teaching gliders out at Stead
airport.) But anyway, when I got back, there
was a gentleman by the name of Jack Walsh
who was an instructor out at Stead and also
my sponsor in the Q-Bird organization—he
and Gene Hughes whom you met today. And
I recounted my experiences. Lo and behold,
and there again I show you the camaraderie
between people who fly; he said, “This does it.”
He says, “You’re going to learn instruments.
If you’re going to fly into that area,” he says,
“I want you to be able to make an approach
into an airport and land safely.”
So he had his own airplane, and of
course I had my Aztec. And for no charge
whatsoever, this gentleman used his airplane
and sometimes mine (it’d all depend on which
one was available and what type of work he
wanted to do); and every night after I’d get
through here, we would go out and fly. And
he was a tough taskmaster because he left
nothing to chance at all, and he demanded
absolute attention and precision. And he
taught me instrument flying; we took a trip
back East, and we flew instruments eighty
percent of the time. This was before of course
I got my license. He was with me, and we
flew instruments all the way. We got into,
you might say, every conceivable situation.
We went from Reno to New Jersey, then
New Jersey down to New Orleans back to
Albuquerque, Albuquerque into Las Vegas,
Nevada, and then Las Vegas, Nevada back
to here. And of course, like I say, the radio
equipment that I had then was much more
sophisticated than the way I originally learned
it. And I learned how to fly instruments, and
I haven’t been in trouble since. But now I’ve
been through icing conditions, and I’ve had,
we’ll say, ninety percent of the experiences
that most of the pilots have. But again there’s
an adage: There are old pilots and bold pilots,
but there are no old, bold pilots.
But of the people that I have met in the
flying business, there are many characters
including myself, but they’re all good people
and they’re all good pilots. And the proof
that they are is that they’re all still alive. And
amongst the fraternity in the Q-Birds we
have people— well, we have one for instance,
Joe Sanders. He’s seventy-two years old and
still instructing. We have Marty Cromberg
who is still flying; he’s in Minden now
(was an instructor in World War II), crop
duster.* Gene Hughes was a crop duster in
Sacramento. Crop dusting is a very hazardous
occupation because they have to zoom down,
let go of their load of dust or whatever it is and
then go on back up, and there’s power lines
and everything all around the fields, but all
these people have survived, and they’re just
that much the better man for it.
We have airline pilots that belong to the
organization. And when you talk to these
people and tell them the experiences you’ve
had, they’ve all been through the mill, every
one of them, and flying a 747 is no different
than flying the smallest airplane. They all have
their problems, and they all have wings, and
they all fly. They all fly the same. The only
thing is you’re a lot heavier and a lot bigger.