DeltaRed

Shepherd Bill · Jul 9, 2016

https://www.facebook.com/PetersonFa...2294.430130917009104/1131115126910676/?type=3

Farmallhal · Jul 9, 2016

Bill,
I enjoyed the photos on the link and recall when I first started at Boeing-Wichita as a young engineer in the early mid-1960's there was a person in our group that took off in the summer during the wheat harvest to help the family until their harvest was complete. His in-laws had 16 sections (the same as 4 square miles) in western Kansas in wheat to harvest. I recall seeing the B-52's and other aircraft landing on the runways at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita with their landing lights on at night coming through a layer of wheat chafe and dust in the air several hundred feet thick when landing from the harvest areas to the west. Farms of that size to a kid who grew up on 400 acres in Missouri were unbelievable to me at that time.
Thanks for sharing, Hal.

56 Fan 400 · Jul 9, 2016

Thank you Hal for the insight. As an old radar troop that worked a lot with B-52s, I appreciate it. I was a ground radar tech that trained them biggo birds to evade radar and drop ordinance on select targets. Peace really is our profession.

Shepherd Bill · Jul 11, 2016

Thanks guys. I was hoping Steve (DeltaRed) would see the cartoon about needing another tractor.

The Peterson Bros. seem to have a lot of things going.

DeltaRed · Jul 11, 2016

Bill,I saw it. Really wasn't sure what I supposed to look at.The cartoon is more 'realistic' than not. LOL Thanks for thinking
of me.

Andy Martin · Jul 11, 2016

16 quarters is four square miles, if they said they had 16 sections that's 16 square miles. A lot of wheat ground but only four miles by four miles, lots of families have more than that.

denglish · Jul 12, 2016

Hal,
Did you know a guy named Andy Dayton that worked at Boeing at that time? He was a WWII Navy vet and retired from Boeing in the 90's. We were neighbors a few miles from McConnell. He died in a home explosion during 2015.

Farmallhal · Jul 13, 2016

No that name is not familiar - I was in Wichita from June 1963 until April 1965 before going to the Seattle, Washington area and the Commercial Airplane Group in Renton for a couple of years before moving to the 747 in Everett. I retired from Boeing in March 2002 and moved back to the Missouri farm I grew up on as a child and started playing with Farmalls again, Hal.
P.S. If you were at Boeing Wichita do you recall the B-52 that lost it's vertical tail over Colorado during a test flight before safely landing in Oklahoma as this happened during my time in Wichita? If so, that tail landed on a farmer's barbed wire fence and had a wood fence post trough it with the wires cut off on each side a few feet from the tail. It was in a flight test facility next to the main factory building along Oliver for some time for engineering test and evaluation.

denglish · Jul 13, 2016

Hi Hal,
No, I never worked at Boeing, but know lots of folks who did. And a lot of folks who still work at Spirit. I'm sure my friend Andy would have remembered the B-52 tail with the barbed wire. I think he worked primarily as a mechanic on the bombers. After he retired he became a hit-and-miss engine collector, among other things. He had a machine shed built from sheet metal and rivets that reflected his airplane expertise. Sadly, he died in 2015 at age 89 when his house blew up from a gas leak. He must have died instantaneously as his body was found in the basement and the house was leveled. Knowing him, I think he would have been fine with this demise since he was getting quite old and was very worried about being taken to a nursing home. He was neat guy, funny, friendly and full of fascinating stories.

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