Pax River Story 1951
John Eckberg sends a story I can't copy/paste for you about a test pilot at PAX river in 1951 who deliberately took off with wings folded in a straight AD-5 and wrote it up in his report. He lifted it three feet off the ground three times on three successive runs. They had him do this in May 1951 because a fleet pilot had done it inadvertently. That pilot reached 300 feet of altitude and spun in, but survived the experience. It was done twice in VC-12 after that. Once by a midshipman at Charlietown who went in at night in the swamp south of the field and survived. Name not known. The second occasion was at Lawrence, MA in Nov 1954. George Markovits witnessed that and has previously written up the account.
