I once had a Lincoln Continental in my tandem garage storing for a friend, and it barely fit. It was a cool experience driving it around, as everybody wanted to tlk about, but since it wasn't mine, I knew noting beyond year and mileage. I'm sure that black Lincoln could tell some tales.
On that, let's hear about your office chair. Here's mine:
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It's an Escapac 1A-1 with a data plate from an A4D circa 1970s. I removed the DART system from the base, reinforced the base plate and mounted to an office chair spider with rollers. My Webex coworkers don't know what to make of it! Those who do often want details.
I like the chair and the fact that it has a rolling swivel base. I have never attempted to convert mine for concern over how top-heavy it would be. I like the patches on the cushions, I have way too many patches myself and I am always trying to figure out a good place to display them. Around 2005-2006 I was one of the last Flight Engineers at VMGR-352, the Marine Raiders Squadron in Miramar, CA. During that time, we were in the process of changing out our aircraft. We switch our fleet of F and R model KC-130's to the KC-130J model. The new J model came with a glass cockpit, everything was digital, a 6-bladed prop vs the old 4-bladed, and a new crew concept, no more Flight Engineers. While flying the older fleet to its new homes, a few airframes went to Okinawa, great trips, and great memories, a few went to the boneyard down at Davis Monthan, and we had one airframe that had been cannibalized to get the other aircraft ready to fly. If I remember correctly, it was tail number 791. We calculated the cost to make her airworthy again and the decision came back to strike the plane on the line, no more flights for this old girl. We had orders to collect all the usable parts are return them to the supply chain, the list was extensive. The remaining shell was to be towed to the end of the flight line and to be used as a trainer for crash-fire rescue. I had many flights in that bird and I did not love the thought of burning it at the end of the runway. I decided I needed to rescue at least one piece of it before it met its new fate.
It was quite the process to strike the plane on the line, several meetings, strategy sessions, and an official list of reparable parts that would need to be removed from the airframe. One day when I returned from a flight, I stopped by the AMO's (Aircraft Maintenance Officer) office and inquired about the list of parts to be collected from 791. He gave me a look, as in what are you up to, but handed over the list. I poured over the list carefully that night and returned it the next day. While in his office returning the list I mentioned I noticed that the Flight Engineer seat was not on the list of repairable items that needed to be sent back and if he would be offended if I found a new home for the seat. He told me he would think about it and get back to me. While waiting for a decision I did visit the plane several times to form my plan of what it would take to recover the seat. The list of tools I decided on was a cordless impact driver with a couple of Phillips bit adapters and a drill for when the 50-year-old screws were stripped out. I had my tool kit stashed in my truck for the next few weeks while we continued repairing other planes and supporting the flight schedule. One day on returning from a mission the AMO caught me in the hallway. He simply said "Hey Bishop, you're cleared hot", I gave him a thumbs up and Roger Sir. I stowed my flight gear, retrieved my tool kit, and went to work. It was after 20:00 and very few people were still at the squadron. My plan worked flawlessly and I did not run into a single other person during my mission. I reported back to the AMO that the mission was complete and thanked him.
A few weeks later while chilling in the office another Flight Engineer had an epiphany. He stood up and boldly announced he was going to go retrieve the Flight Engineer chair from 791. I told him sounded great and watched him march out of the office. Roughly 10 minutes later he stormed back into the office and had some sharp words for me, stating he knew it was me... I played dumb of course and asked why he was so worked up. After hearing the issues, I offered a few other solutions although each had a drawback. The closest designed chair to the FE seat was the Radio Operators position. The only difference between the two chairs was the FE chair had armrests. As this detail was a deal breaker for both of us, we hatched a new plan to add a set of armrests to the RO chair. We retrieved the RO chair and spent a few days down in the Airframes shop bending out a new set of armrests. With an inventory check of the parachute shop, we managed to locate the cushions and covers for the armrests. With the RO chair retrofitted he had a piece of the aircraft that he still has and I sit in my FE chair now and then to reminisce on the adventures I experienced while sitting in that chair.
