Can't always trust a pilot's memory

[John1]

Was listening to The Fighter Pilot Podcast on the way home tonight (highly recommended by the way).   They were doing an episode on the F-4.   The host was interviewing a Vietnam-era F-4B pilot and RIO. Between them, they had about 6,000 hours on the jet.   He asked them a question on what color those early jets were painted.   I'm thinking to myself, these guys are gonna throw out Light Gull Grey and white and probably the FS numbers as well.   

 

The pilot responds "I think it was gunmetal grey".   RIO - "Yep, gunmetal grey".      

 

Shaking my head....

 

 

[RadBaron]

Pilot's are rarely maintainers. It's hard enough to get one to do a walkaround, let alone understand what they're looking at 

 

[Grant_T]

3 hours ago, John1 said:

The pilot responds "I think it was gunmetal grey".   RIO - "Yep, gunmetal grey".      

 

Shaking my head....

 

They were there, I doubt they have any nerd obsessions about correct colours etc.

[LSP_K2]

I ran into the same problem with an old boy that was a B-17 Bombardier during many WWII raids; he had no recollection at all about the colors of the nose area, none.

[MikeMaben]

I've been an airplane nerd all my life and I don't remember what I had for breakfast. 

[mozart]

My father was an RAF pilot from 1943 to 1946, so three solid years of being around and flying aeroplanes almost every single day. But when we started modelling the types he flew he couldn’t recall very much about colour schemes......things that were “just there”, taken for granted and didn’t really register. 

[quang]

Likewise ask yourself which colour is the cabin roof of the car you’re driving,  I’m not sure many of us would know. 

[ziggyfoos]

Ya I'm not at all surprised. Most "normal" people don't really care/notice what the colors were or trivial (to most) details of markings, colors, etc, are not even noticed.

 

Recently had an email from a vet from VMA-AW-224 from the Coral Sea cruise mentioned to me he thinks the tails were black, not green (I knew 100% they were green). Shortly later through he came back and said he looked at photos and they were in fact green and not black like he remembered.

 

Many of the Vietnam guys I've contacted requesting info/pics would say they didn't take any photos of the aircraft, or only a few, instead their focus were their buddies, Vietnamese scenes/life in Vietnam, and just goofing around during their down time. The aircraft, like Max said in earlier post, was simply there as the job.

Edited October 31, 2020 by ziggyfoos

[DrewH]

When I was flying the only pilots who cared about that were those who were modellers - and they were rare to find. And then, as a young pilot still learning the craft I had no time for models. I didn't start again into models or caring about the details for them till after I was out and had down time to do such things. 

[lawman56]

It's a common thing, I think, among veterans especially. I can tell you my M1025 was painted green, black and dark brown. But my job was to operate and utilize the vehicle, not paint it. That's the paint shops job. I know it took oil, but can't tell you the viscosity. That's the mechanic's job. I knew how to operate the ANVRC-46 radio, but can't tell you more than how to change frequency. 

 

But I think as model builders, (especially anal ones like myself ), we strive for accuracy which leads us to know things beyond operation. And honestly, I have to write the crap down or I forget lol

 

But I can still tell you the max effective range of the M60 machine gun....

[John1]

2 minutes ago, lawman56 said:

But I can still tell you the max effective range of the M60 machine gun....

And I can tell you how much it absolutely sucked a** to hump that thing.     

 

I posted initially as a cautionary message from those folks who chime in to a debate on WW2 color schemes with "Oberburgerfuher Cheesy Von Hamburger, in an interview in 1984, clearly stated that his FW-190 was painted with the late war variant of RLM-76"). 

 

 

[Mark P]

I once discussed with Robert Johnson his ETO P-47. The discussion of colors came up. He was adamant that the colors of the ETO ID bands on the tail were red (they were white). At an IPMS meeting a modeler asked me what the colors were that highlighted trim around the emergency exit of my commercial aircraft as he was building a kit of it. I didn't know and I flew it the day before. 

 

The point here as so many have highlighted is not to rely on the recall of color, especially from decades ago. For some reason, pilots worried about other matters...

 

As modelers, by necessity, we dig deeply into the issue of colors. However, most others could care less. 

 

Mark Proulx

[ssculptor]

Heck, as l get older l forget before l think of something. But things that happened long ago l remember. Still, l am not sure that l am remembering old happenings correctly when l do think of something.

Still that is. not all bad because l forget all my failures.

[MikeC]

It's not just colour.  I once knew someone who'd been aircrew on Meteor night fighters.  He swore blind that they had ejection seats. (For those not familiar with the Meatbox, only the single-seat F8, FR9 and PR10 had this means of egress.)

[lawman56]

And in reference to John's thread title, I can't even trust my OWN memory, let alone anyone else's!