Scrapbook Pg 3

"Mr. Couth" Douglas, pilot for TBM Incorporated. (Sometimes also known affectionately as "Dirty Dick"). The Forest Service ordered me to stop him from taking off because the fire orders had been cancelled. Dick pretended he had radio trouble. I'll never forget the image of that heavy TBM roaring by me, it's spinning wheels sucking up into the wings and Dick facing me through the Plexiglas window, his head swiveled ninety degrees from the direction of takeoff. He was wearing a huge toothy grin which could be seen through his huge handlebar mustache. His third finger was held up in the universal salute. Unfortunately Dick was killed some years later in an air tanker.

Bottom left, U. S. Forest Service borate crew worker Stanley Cheek from Quincy. Others were Randy Slaten and Bill Holland. Bill and I occasionally commuted from Quincy to Beckwourth in Wardman's Cessna 120 and Luscombe. Other TBM pilots based at Beckwourth Airport included Frank Konke & Don Orenbaum. Some fire fighting pilots of  this era found themselves in the employ of covert outfits such as Air America and Continental Air Service in Southeast Asia. I quit the USFS later in the summer to begin flying the Fire Patrol (a forest product co-op) for Wardman Flying Service, happily earning minimum wage ($1 per hour).

TBM & Borate Crew at Beckwourth, Summer, 1960                                                                                                                      Quincy 1960               I practiced snap rolls all the way to Sacramento. They were getting sloppy. Back at Sac Sky Ranch I checked the elevator cables and discovered a turnbuckle unwinding!                                                 Luscombe at old Sacramento Sky Ranch on Freeport Boulevard, Fall 1960