Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

[Apteryx]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

Talk about mood swings, my friends and I were in the stands that year, and I was amazed how fast everyone else left. We were stunned, and to hear over somebodies radio Hoover saying something to the rescuers like "take your time, there's no way he's survived that" we just sat dumbfounded for a while, (the screwy bit being the explosion was RIGHT were the Tora,Tora,Tora pyrotechniques went off).
The last lap of the last race, on the last day, a great guy & a beautiful airplane, we could not have felt worse.
The pit gates were open and we gravitated down to were some people were monitoring a good radio. Some of Steve's friends were near and of coarse crying, when one of the medics announenced "he's conscience & coherent". WHAT?!!! Now EVERYBODY was crying, you wanted to shout it to the crowd, but the stands were empty. It would have been a very quite ride home, had we not stayed.
Amazingly, I think Steve was the biggest part of the wreckage.
Sometimes it just ain't your time.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

Amazingly, I think Steve was the biggest part of the wreckage.
Sometimes it just ain't your time.

One of my favorite sayings about guys like Steve and anyone who has the ... ahem... balls to race at Reno is "he's got big one's, made of bronze"....

Did you ever see the picture taken at the wreckage of the cockpit, it's in one of the air racing books out there.. Shows what the stick did to the seat pan....

OUCH!!

That had to hurt! Steve survived and has children, obviously not adopted, made of, at least, bronze... titanium maybe!!??



Even though through all these years, I've never officially met Steve, I think everyone there that day will always feel a sort of "bond" with the man... we all shared in his passing.. NOT!

Phew... what a day, what a race!

Remember how it felt knowing he had a problem but he stuck there, holding onto second... I remember thinking "WOW... this is some kind of RACING!" I was hooked in that moment, a hooking that would have certainly been dashed had my hero been taken in that horrible moment..

Funny how god works ey!

[GWB]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

Now I'm gonna nit pick yer memory though

You could be right...then again, you could be wrong Burned into memory is a good way to put it....burned into my memory absolutely, for sure, were the words "lost his life" ...the verbage before that may be blurred due to the shock of the moment and the passage of the years. I'm pretty sure my version is correct, however it isn't worth more than a "spirited discussion" . The important thing is that Hinton survived and went on to make many contributions to the warbird and racing communities.

Now....do you remember his last radio transmission? <evil grin>

[Unregistered]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

There was a half hour special show on TV in the early 80's that included footage of the low altitude record of 988. Very cool indeed!

Greenamyer was told not to attempt the low altitude record because at a speed of 1000+ mph, he could hit the ground BEFORE HIS BRAIN KNEW TO PULL UP! In effect, he could think he was alive for a few nano seconds when, in fact, he was already dead...

Think about THAT one!

**ADMIN NOTE** this one has no signature but is really good so goes into the pile!

[Unregistered]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

Urban legend is "I'm in deep sh**",then "Tell Karen I love her" followed by "Oh sh**" (which I understand is the most used last words on most voice recorders) but I did not have a radio that year and had to rely on my neighbor, and was too busy taking pics and watching to remember.

The 1978 race program has a story of the RB-104 record flight describing the shock wave as blowing open car trunks. They had been placed along the run to give him depth perception. Any truth?

[MRussell]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

We spoke to Darryl at the sport class hangar this year, and specifically asked him what it was like flying the 104. We asked him, "is it as much fun flying a '104 as it looks like?" and he basically said (paraphrasing here) "yeah. It's hard to forget the feeling of being 30 feet up and seeing 800 indicated on the clock."
To be honest, the grin he flashed after he said that was just signature. It's the evil grin he has that people have written about.

[speeddemon]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

Urban legend is "I'm in deep sh**",then "Tell Karen I love her" followed by "Oh sh**" (which I understand is the most used last words on most voice recorders) but I did not have a radio that year and had to rely on my neighbor, and was too busy taking pics and watching to remember.

Pretty close. "Man...I'm in deep sh** now." Couple second pause. "I ain't gonna make it, Randy (Scoville, the crew chief)...tell Karen I love her". The plane disappears below the airport ridge, and just before he hits he says "Damnit!!!" in a voice that would do a 16 year old girl proud, and then there is static.

That is what is said over the ABC footage that I have from the American Sportsman.

[Leo]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

i'm still looking for a copy of the crash coverage if someone has it in a copyable form...

[Apteryx]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

...tell Karen I love her"

Speed-
Heard a rumor that Steve was married, but NOT to Karen, at the time. Know the story on that? Makes you think about choosing your "last" words, VERY carefully.
GREAT I'M ALIVE, uuhh, OHHH CR*P.

Paul

[Apteryx]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

i'm still looking for a copy of the crash coverage if someone has it in a copyable form...

Leo-
Try here for a post crash photo and brief comments.

Paul

[Unregistered]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

Speed-
Heard a rumor that Steve was married, but NOT to Karen, at the time. Know the story on that? Makes you think about choosing your "last" words, VERY carefully.
GREAT I'M ALIVE, uuhh, OHHH CR*P.

Paul

I had never heard that one before. I'm pretty good friends with Ed Maloney (Karen's dad), and THAT subject has never been broached! :-) So I can't comment as to any validity. My guess is no.

[Unregistered]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

RE-SR71's retired. Even in Lockheed's offical books about the skunk works, the number of SR-71-s and U2/TR-1A's is still classified. It was common practice to alter serial numbers with several aircraft using one tail number or sometimes assigning multiple tail numbers to the same ship. This is why when they were retired, the SR71-s either went to museums, ore were mothballed indoors, so no one could photograph parked SR-71's to even get a rough idea of how many were built
If SR-71's were really retired due to fear of getting shot down, then why are U-2's still flying. Does anyone really thing the skunk works and groom lake have been idle since the f117 and f-22 became public knowledge.

[Unregistered]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

For what it is worth. We spent the weekend at the Greenamyers ( his parents) with our friends about 10 years ago. I am naturally curious and can get people to talk about things. I got him to talk about the f 104. ( I had never heard of him before that weekend. He told all of us the story about how his landing grear indicator didnt show it was locked. He flew out to edwards and the tower said it looked down but they couldnt tell if they were locked so he had to punch out.

Everyone stood silently and you could tell that it was a great loss to him. His Wife at the time told me that I was good because, he had never spoken about that incident with anyone in the family.

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

Originally posted by Unregistered
Even in Lockheed's offical books about the skunk works, the number of SR-71-s and U2/TR-1A's is still classified.

I don't think that's true today, although some data on the Blackbirds IS still classified.

I had a book all about the Blackbird that listed every SR-71 and A-12 made and their current status/location at the time the book came out. I think we also had a discussion a year or 2 ago in this forum about the status and location of each aircraft.

If SR-71's were really retired due to fear of getting shot down, then why are U-2's still flying.

The SR-71s were retired to due extreme operating costs for one reason, which is many, many times the price of keeping a U-2 flying. Satellites (and I suppose UAVs) have taken over the roles the Blackbird once played.

.

[MRussell]

Re: Darryl greenmayer f104 rb(red baron) ??

I had a book all about the Blackbird that listed every SR-71 and A-12 made and their current status/location at the time the book came out. I think we also had a discussion a year or 2 ago in this forum about the status and location of each aircraft.

Right. They built like 31.5 SR-71A models.

The SR-71s were retired to due extreme operating costs for one reason, which is many, many times the price of keeping a U-2 flying.

In 1990, the active fleet operating cost was estimated at $200 million / year. Even if the estimate was conservative, at $400 million / year it means you could operate the entire fleet of SR-71A models for about 2.5 years, or you could buy one stinking B-2 bomber.

Habu's demise was strictly political.

Satellites (and I suppose UAVs) have taken over the roles the Blackbird once played.

Correction: they have *attempted* to take over that role. Their level of success continues to be a subject of debate. (I suppose you can guess which side of that debate I stand on)