FLORIDA TRACK 1963 & 1964

One of my favorite sayings is “Well that’s enough about me, let’s talk about you. What do you think of me?” In order to tell this story, I have to tell you a little about me. I graduated from the University of Florida in 1964 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. In addition to engineering, I majored in track in 1963 and 1964 after transferring from Kansas State. Percy Beard was the Track Coach and 1964 was his last year. I thought it was my last year at UF, but things are constantly changing. There was a chance I was going to be drafted for Vietnam if I did not find a job with a military deferment. My father had been a Sargeant in the United States Air Force and I grew up on Air Force bases all over the United States. I knew enough about the Armed Forces to know that I did not want to be drafted. Boeing was making the Minuteman Missile and I got a job as a Flight Test Engineer at Cape Canaveral working for Boeing and the Air Force on the Minuteman. The Minuteman is an intercontinental ballistic missile that carries three hydrogen bombs. It can reach almost any place in the world in about thirty minutes after launch.

After two years at Boeing I was too old for the draft and I decided to go to North American Aviation where I was a launch engineer on the 2nd stage of the rocket to the moon, the Saturn V. I Know you are asking “what does this have to do with the Blue Goose?” I getting there, just give me a little time. While working at North American Aviation, one of the technicians in my group was trying to get on with the airlines as a pilot. He had a flight instructor’s rating and told me he would teach me to fly if I would pay for the rental on the airplane. I was interested and I told him “Let’s do it”. I was on my way to becoming a pilot. As we got closer to the moon landing, it became obvious that almost all of the 25,000 engineers working on the moon project would be laid off as soon as the rocket landed on the moon. I started looking for another job at about the same time as every other engineer in the United States. I started looking at a career change. Just to be on the safe side, I got my commercial pilot’s license while I was at the Cape. In September, 1968, I moved back to Gainesville with my wife and daughter and started law school.

By the time track season came around it was spring 1969. I talked to Coach Carnes and he told me I could help as a student assistant with the middle distance runners. Roy Benson and I divided up the runners and started coaching. At some point Coach Carnes found out I had a pilot’s license and the Athletic department sent me out to the Gainesville airport to get my multi engine aircraft rating to go with the commercial pilot’s license I already had. It took about three weeks and I had the rating. I was never sure who owned the airplanes I flew but there was always one available from various alumni who would loan their airplane to the University Athletic Association. When they needed a pilot, I would do the flying. Most of the time the alumni supplied the Pilot and he flew the airplane.

I flew the cross country team all over the south in 1969. I attended every football game the Gators played that year, either flying the cross country team to a meet or flying recruits to the football game. If we did not have tickets for the game, we stood on the sidelines. It was a blast. Ben Vaughn was one of the first black athletes at the University of Florida and he was on the cross country team. He single handedly desegregated several airport rest rooms throughout the South. There were no “colored” rest rooms in most small southern airports where I would stop for fuel and we would be on our way before the KKK even knew we had been in town. I never let the truth get in the way of a good story so Benny if you read this and remember it differently, remember this is my story.

Coach Carnes was always interested in faster travel and comfort for his athletes. He never complained about my flying or the cost except on one trip to Johnson City, Tennessee. (Steve Spurrier’s hometown). There was a high school senior that was running about 46.5 for the 440. We got up there at great expense as we had to rent a plane. When we got to Tennessee, Coach Carnes found out this potential college recruit had a lower score on his SAT than he had for his time for the quarter mile. Of course he went to Tennessee and graduated (probably with honors) but we could not recruit him with such a low Sat. When we got back to the airport for the flight home, weather had moved into the area. Coach Carnes and I had to get a room for the night which was an extra expense we had not counted into the trip. Coach Carnes told me we had exhausted his recruiting budget on this one trip.

During the indoor season we took a trip to Louisville for an indoor two mile race. I had gotten a small four seat airplane with a single engine for the trip. I had flown three runners of the two mile relay team up there. To say the weather was horrible did not begin to describe it. I was a Florida boy who had never flown in ice and snow. As soon as we took off from Louisville the windshield iced over and I had to return to the airport and land by opening the small vent side window and looking out that side. The rest of the glass was iced over. The runway was covered with snow and became invisible. (That is similar to what happens to me after six beers.) The landing was accomplished by looking out the side window, finding the airport and keeping the airplane between the airport runway lights. After about two tries at heading south , I finally turned west toward the Mississippi River. That was way off our projected flight path to Gainesville, but kept us out of the bad weather and we were headed home. We got down to Pensacola about 2 am and everyone was asleep in the plane except me. I had finally caught up with the bad weather. This was the front I had flown in that morning at Louisville. I got an instrument clearance in the air from the Navy at Pensacola and started to climb to the altitude they assigned me. I did not have an instrument rating at that time but I told the Navy controller I did.

While we were climbing I suddenly lost the directional gyro which started spinning. When I looked at the vertical speed indicator, it was broken also as it showed a steep desent towards the ground. Just when I thought it could not get any worse, I noticed that the compass was spinning. . That meant the earth’s magnetic field was collapsing. That was when I realized that the instruments were correct and we had a pilot problem. My instructor, Jim Sharp, had always told me “If you have a problem, believe the gauges and not your body.” I am convinced he saved our lives that night.

I stopped the turn, the vacuum pump problem was solved and the earth’s magnetic field started working again. I broke out of the clouds over Crestview, Florida and I advised the Navy controller that my intentions were to fly on home to Gainesville in the clear night sky that lay ahead. I remember John Parker and Benny Vaughn with me in the airplane and I marveled at how they could sleep the entire time while I was doing my best at trying to kill everyone in the airplane.

I only got to fly the Blue Goose twice. Because of the size of the plane it required a co- pilot. I could fly as a co-pilot because of my multi engine rating and commercial license, but I could not be the pilot in command. I cannot remember if Coach Carnes was on either of the trips I flew but I assume he was. That trip must have been uneventful as I have no independent recollection of it. The Blue Goose was based somewhere in South Florida and the pilot would bring the plane up empty and solo. The passengers and the co-pilot, me, would get on the plane in Gainesville and head to where ever the next track meet was scheduled. I only flew her twice and my logbook is devoid of entries as I was never sure how legal those flights were.

My second trip I have never forgotten. The track team had gone to an invitational track meet at the University of South Carolina. This was before they joined the SEC. When then meet was over, we left Colombia, South Carolina for Gainesville around 8:30 p.m. The flight took about an hour and a half. We arrived in Gainesville about 10 p.m. and the pilot asked me if we could fly over the campus on the way into the airport. This was before Gainesville had a tower or air traffic control at night so it was no problem. It was a crystal clear night with a full moon. We went over the stadium at one thousand feet from the west to the east and it was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The whole campus was illuminated in moonlight and it was spectacular! I guess being a Gator contributed to the experience, but I have never forgotten what it looked like that night.

The Blue Goose crashed on a drug run in Mexico about ten years later and pictures of her sitting on the desert floor with no visible landing gear were in several aviation magazines. I tried to get one of the pictures for this article but was not successful. I cannot remember whether or not an autopilot was installed but I have to assume she had one. Most of the old DC-3’s were last manufactured in the late 1940’s and the Lear autopilot installed in the early 1950’s. I mention this only because one of the track runners of that time said he flew the plane without a pilot or a copilot on one of the trips. I do not doubt that it is true, but it would be illegal and my experience with the pilot, who I was told also owned the airplane, was always very good. I considered him safe and experienced. If the Goose was used, I would take the overflow passengers in a rental aircraft. As I recall, the two times I flew the Blue Goose was when they could not get another co-pilot. I was the man in those cases. Those were the days my friends. I am sorry they had to end.