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The view: Looking west from over the York River in Virginia
The plane: Cessna 172N (N738HX)
The pilot: Tom Dorl
The mission: Teaching a CFI to be a CFII—we took a pause to appreciate the beauty of the evening.
The memory: Sometimes you gotta look outside and appreciate the beauty of flight and the freedom it provides.
Want to share your “Friday Photo?” Send your photo and description (using the format above) to: [email protected]
Tom Dorl grew up in New Jersey and learned to fly at a young age. His father was an A&P and engineer and he remembers taking flights with him at a young age. Tom learned to fly at McGuire AFB, NJ, and attended college in Ohio, majoring in aerospace technology. He was commissioned into the USAF as a 2LT and attended pilot training at Vance AFB, OK. Tom went on to fly combat search and rescue missions in the HH-60G Pavehawk, deploying to numerous combat operations and saving many lives. Tom retired from the USAF after 25 years of service and continues to fly, instruct and serve as a board member for NAFI. Tom has accumulated over 4000 hours of flying fixed and rotary wing aircraft with over 1450 hours of dual given. He is an active CFI/I and Check Airman at a Virginia part 141 flight school.
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Tom, Nice picture! I was a T-38 IP at Vance from 1974-78. Started as a line IP in ‘H’ Flight, then became the Assistant Chief of Check Section (we really didn’t wear black hats!). When I left Vance to go fly the A-10, I was the Wing Commander’s exec. That was a few years ago, but Vance was a fun place to be if you enjoyed snowstorms that had thunder and lightning and didn’t mind the occasional tornado coming down final while you were sitting in the RSU! BTW, after flying the A-10 at Myrtle Beach I was stationed at Langley AFB serving on the TAC (now Air Combat Command) Staff. I lived right across the SW Branch of the Back River and loved hearing those F-15’s overhead.
Great to hear from you. I was a student in H flight a few years after that ( 92) and enjoyed flying that machine. A-10s… close to my heart… wound up as a Jolly Green for 25 yrs!
Cheers
Tom
Jolly’s always had a spot in my heart as well. Flying OV-10’s in SEA, our squadron had an intramural flag football game vs. the Jolly Green squadron one evening. I lined up against one of their PJs and, after we ran a few plays, I said to him, “Don’t I know you?” He replied, “I’ve been thinking the same thing!” We talked and soon discovered we had played on the same high school football team 7 years prior — we had often lined up against each other in some of our drills back in the day. I made certain I wasn’t too enthusiastic in blocking him as the game went on because I wanted to make sure that, if he had to came down on a jungle penetrator to get me, he would take me back up with him!