Try these stories on for size!

[dave mcqueen]

www.taloa.org/stories.html

[jesse]

I am guessing that you have probably seen the Ernest K. Gann movie of the same name starring John Wayne. Here is an interesting little story that goes along with the making of the movie. TAL has always been one of my favorite small charter airlines. I flew several trips with them between Travis and Tokyo in Converted C-54s. On one flight between San Fran and Honolulu we were picking up unexpected headwinds and when we arrived at Honolulu, several of us were asked if we would mind being bumped so they could take on additional fuel to make the run to Wake Island. They put us up in the Royal Hawaiian and the next day we flew out of Honolulu on a PanAm DC-7C to Tokyo. That was riding in style.

Jesse

[dave mcqueen]

There was a pilot by the name of T. Edward Peiffer, "Ed" who flew for Transocean also flew for Flying Tigers, Japan Airlines, and Capitol Airways. . He served in World War II training RAF pilots before 1941 and later training US pilots and ferrying P-63s to Russia. He was forced to retire early at age 56 after suffering a heart attack on Wake Island.

I saw him for the first time at my daughter's wedding in Livermore, CA. Her father in law, a nuclear physicist at Lawrence Livermore Labs had befriended Jim Nissen, ex Pan Am flying boat captain and college professor. Nissen helped found San Jose Airport and if you go there you may see a memorial to him inside the terminal. Ed helped Nissen restore a Curtiss Jenny to airworthiness and its WW1 colors. We used to see the Jenny flying over Livermore all the time in the 1980s. Even though Ed could no longer fly airplanes it did not stop him from taking to the air. In his 80s he regularly flew ultra lights out of Nissen's air field, Meadowlark. He was still flying at 91 when he died of natural causes.

At the wedding I saw this little man with a mustache in a suit and bowtie standing alone in the middle of the room. I asked my son in law who he was and he told me and mentioned he had flown for Transocean. Well I struck up a conversation with him and I must tell you, even though he was nearly 85 he was just as sharp as, as, as Jesse Callahan. I learned a lot from Ed and he also had that warm smile whenever I saw him.

One day around 1996 I was invited to fly along with three others, one of whom was Ed, from Meadowlark to the Watsonville air show in a 1955 Cessna 172 (with the upright rudder). My daughter's brother in law (unlicensed) was going to fly the airplane under the watchful eye of his dad, a CFI. When we walked to the airplane Ed started to get into the front seat next to the pilot. My daughter's father in law knowing that he must sit next to his son called to Ed, "not there Ed, sit in the back."

To which Ed grudgingly replied, "I'm not used to sitting in the back!"