BeechTalk - BT - Elvis Has left the Bldg: Last B747 Has Been Mfg’d

Username Protected · **Posted:** 12 Dec 2022, 11:19

Not sure I've ever seen a padded piano before.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 12 Dec 2022, 11:19

Username Protected wrote:

Let's take a moment to remember the late John Deakin who, for a while there, was the highest time 747 pilot anywhere.

In his book I will always remember the story he told about when San Francisco went below minimums he diverted to Oakland along with dozens of other flights. When the weather cleared he reasoned that he would be there hours waiting for dispatch to file the appropriate flight plan and then with all the others ahead of him. So he filed VFR and flew across the bay.

Doug

Username Protected · **Posted:** 12 Dec 2022, 21:04

Username Protected wrote:

Let's take a moment to remember the late John Deakin who, for a while there, was the highest time 747 pilot anywhere.

In his book I will always remember the story he told about when San Francisco went below minimums he diverted to Oakland along with dozens of other flights. When the weather cleared he reasoned that he would be there hours waiting for dispatch to file the appropriate flight plan and then with all the others ahead of him. So he filed VFR and flew across the bay.

Doug

Username Protected · **Posted:** 12 Dec 2022, 21:25

Username Protected wrote:

RIP Deakin-san

My favorite story was of the charter for the U of W football team to an exhibition game in Japan. Due to different regs, visitors were allowed in the cockpit. After making the announcement, he noticed he had had football players, coaches, band members, boosters, but no cheer leaders.

So he made an announcement that unless some cheer leaders visited, he was turning around. So some did. More to the story, but NSFW.

My favourite was the night he almost wheels-upped a 747 into Narita(?) - was on a bet/dare to see if they could get to short final without touching the throttles. The story is in one of the Avweb articles he published as "the pelicans perch" which opened my eyes to fallacy that the pilot handbook is always correct.