Hey! This is Paul Szymanski, if that means anything to you. Am I the first poster besides Tucker (hi Tucker)? WHERE IS EVERYBODY? I am living in Eugene, Oregon where I lived from ~1971 to ~1982. I love living here, if you can call it a living. I am unemployed and haven't had much fun since the days at AMROC. But other than that everything is JUST PEACHY. I'll check in again from time to time, I am always curious to hear about how everybody did. Thanks, Tucker, keep 'em flying! - Paul
(PS - That picture of the Dolphin taking off? I took that shot. Perhaps my one claim to fame. ALMOST made the cover of AvWeek.)
3 comments:
Hey! I wasn't complaining, just doing a bit of crowing! I don't get much of a chance to do that anymore!
Yikes! It's worse than that ... I didn't even know Paul took it. And rather than scan any of the ones I had ... I just copied that one from the internet and didn't even credit where I swiped it from!! But Paul ... GREAT PIC!! :-)
I remember it as clearly as if it were 20 years ago. There were three of us in one of the inflatables (my brain refuses to divulge the identities of the other two). We had three radios in order to communicate with the launch boat but either none of them worked or the folks on the launch boat had forgotten us. There was also supposed to be a flare from the launch boat just before launch but that never came. So I stood there, holding myself upright using the ersatz radio tower set up in the boat, holding the camera up, ready to shoot at the slightest movement. It popped up and I got a couple of shots as it breeched the water, the one on this site is probably the best. I kept shooting through the whole flight. It was surprisingly quiet, I expected it to be a lot louder. It was sort of a hissing crackling sound. I could actually feel the radiant heat from the exhaust flame. Of course, the engine was shut down as the Dolphin pitched over. The rocket broke in two when it hit and the excess pressure in the LOx tank propelled it toward us. We wondered what the #@*%! was going on. But it stopped. I also recall there was a Navy plane (from the nearby 'Enterprise'), an A-6 if I recall, that flew directly over the Dolphin seconds before it took off. The rocket then tilted over in flight, coincidently in the direction of the jet. I seem to remember hearing later that the pilot feared the rocket was tracking him. Also, didn't the 'Enterprise' zap our Army surplus radar trailer?
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