Neil Armstrong was my co-pilot

Very cool story. And a great lesson in the closing lines:

"Bob, as a test pilot I learned that once you activate an aircraft’s control you hang on to its handle to make sure it does what you told it to do. Only then do you turn it loose ‘cause you might not be able to find it again when the stuff hits the fan.”

 

If ever I had a hero he was it. Great story about him in later years flying back from DC. Plane was in terrible weather, barf bags being used people scared and making a ruckus. Soemone with him said he never looked up from his sudoku puzzle.

 

The value of healthy mental equipment, innate skill, and most of all training. I saw this combination work many times when I was in the USAAF and in flying afterwards. Not all flyers have it but take a look at Sully, Tammy Jo Shultz, and The Astronauts that stayed calm and worked the problem when there was one. One of my favorite signs , " Don't run around all excited! Stop and THIMK!"

 

What's interesting about Neil is his desire to not want to make a big deal out of what he was or what he did before and during the Apollo program.

I can't imagine anyone but him doing it. He was one in a billion. He was a great pilot, a great astronaut -- and a great human being.

 

Armstrong did Jungle Survival School in Panama, at Howard AFB, in the mid 60's. My dad, a command pilot in the USAF, supervised some of the training, because he was an Air Commando, who specialized in that stuff. A few years later, we watched the moon landing together. He just smiled.