The Stovebolt Site Forums The Side Lot Southern Bolters Meet and Greet.

I had a chance to meet up with a great young Bolter, Nathan ( Stovebolt48). He is currently working on a '53 GMC and used this weekend to make a road trip for parts.

Nathan is going through Flight School in Pensacola for the U.S. Marines, he wants to be a Rotor Pilot. He swapped some training around to afford the time for this trip. He left Pensacola Saturday Morning, made a stop in Alabama for bumper brackets, then on to Knoxville and Mark ( Rusty Heaps). He picked up a set of Wheels from Mark and a Cylinder Head for me. From Mark's he headed to Georgia and my place. He did make a short detour in McDonough GA to the Summit Racing outlet.

He stopped here at my place. I added 3 more 16" wheels to his collection. He got the grand tour as I was hanging insulation in the Shop. I talked to him for just a short while, in that time he did impress me as smart, level headed young Man.

From here he was headed to Jacksonville FL tomorrow to check out a GMC engine. Then on back to Pensacola. Oh to be that young again..... Simper Fi Nathan!

And he didn't stop in at HQ along the way???

Seriously ...

Cool!! Having tread his paths three decades ago ... Whiting Field (In Milton, FL where he will spend the bulk of his time in the VT's and the HT's) had a truly fabulous Auto Hobby Shop when I was there. But ... first things first -- he'll need to remember what he is there for and apply himself to that, first. The hobby is good, but needs to take its appropriate place. Primary is challenging! And if he doesn't make it to VT-3 (The Red Knights!!!), he'll need to wear a man bun and change his name to Shirley! Red Knights ROCK!!!

Semper Fi, Nathan! It's excellent you want to go vertical lift! So if you want to fly a helicopter (and what REAL man wouldn't??), then fly THE helicopter -- the mighty '53 Kilo -- Size Matters! Anything else is just another hyped up, overblown wanna be.

john, I told him about you being in Alabama and being a retired Marine Officer that had been through the same training. Hopefully he will reach out and at the very least keep us up on his progress..

Roger that, Craig. I just hope he understands how intense the training is that he's about to start. it won't leave a whole lot of time for old truck restoration...

I hope he does check in with me. I'm sure much has changed at Whiting Field ...

Many years ago, I used to hunt feral hogs with the retired former pilot of Marine One- - - - -back in the Slick Willy Clinton days. I sort of prefer to fly on aircraft where the wings and the fuselage travel at the same speed!
Jerry

Sez the man who, when he went flying in his airplane, needed to start the checklist 48 hours before going wheels in the well.... Or however long it takes to get a BUFF in the air from cold iron. Probably need a hand truck to carry the pre-start checklist out to the aircraft...

Our new Huey (The UH-1Y) is probably less than 30 minutes cold iron to daylight under the skids. But I don't know for sure -- I was only around them in RDT&E, not operationally. The TH-57 was like a car -- kick the tires (skids, actually ...) and light the fires, baby.

But I think Harry Reasoner put it best ...