I was the IP on Tim Faye’s first water-injected take-off at Castle. Funny thing about it was that it was the first time I was in the seat for one too. I was always an H-model guy. My single FTC sortie was the first water-takeoff and they had me in the IP seat for the event, so I missed most of it. I think I came close to killing the lot of us that day. Somehow we survived. It is probably my most entertaining G-model story.

As a 2Lt Tim Faye was a highly-motivated seeker of everything you could teach him. He was a pleasure to instruct. Years later, when he requaled at Barksdale, I found him strangly the same person, only a bit older. He helped proof CFIC’s new IP workbook that Reed had just put together, even helped us clear up a few areas.

I asked him if he remembered the take-off at Castle. To him, it was one of many and he didn’t know enough at the time to understand how unprepared I was for that take-off. All the better.

Anyway, it’s hard to believe that such a fine officer has survived the system that terminated us all. Barksdale will be the better for as long as they have him.