It seems like just yesterday I opened my email and found that Dave Houle had emailed a personal story about the C-17 first flight. He watched it from a hill overlooking the field where he worked. Dave was a distinguished member of SFTE and a founding member of the FTSC. This past week when the world celebrated the first flight of the DC-10, I thought about Dave’s stories again. We corresponded a lot, but I never met him in person.
Unfortunately Dave passed away earlier this year, but his legacy for mentoring flight test professionals lives on. Read this month’s feature column to hear about the thousands of pages of flight test safety material he archived during his lifetime and the amazing effort of emeritus board member, Pete Donath, to organize and publish it in a useful format.
The careful reader will notice herein a subtle reference to the greatest flight test squadron of all time. If you disagree, I’d love to hear from you. Even if you don’t, we’d love to hear from you, and you can even contribute to the Houle Collection or suggest ideas for a future edition or podcast.
Download Flight Test Safety Fact 20-09.