What an amazing flight history this man as had I was fortunate enough to live next to 3 Eastern airline pilots in what about dog were than Carroll word than what a man is like a second father to be here who's just AA high caliber guy but I still missed the day thank you
He is such a nice guy. He is my flight instructor and I just did my second flight with him. I have 3 hours on that piper Cherokee and exited to keep on flying.
Tom taught me to fly. I got both my Private and Instrument rating from Tom Tweedale. The best pilot I've ever flown with. Such a privilege to learn from him.
Tom started teaching me how to fly when I was 16 years old. Although he was my flight instructor he really became like a family member to me. He is a wonderful guy and I feel blessed to have been his student. He is one in a million!
You should have Tom talk about when he navigated across the desert when their GPS went out. The copilot wanted to turn around but Tom knew the passengers wanted to get home.. so experienced and what a memory....
This was a wonderful interview with an old salt of aviation. Interesting to here from a pilot of so many hours and experiences. Loved his crossed finger description of being on glide slope and localizer, as ,apposed to a glass cockpit .
FANTASTIC interview!! One of your best ones so far! A half hour went by in a blink - I could've watched 3 hours of Tom's stories and still been glued to the screen. 👍👍 😎
Thanks Dan and Christy, Tom was very interesting to listen to. You need to think about adding him to your crew on In The Hangar, I would love to hear more from him.
I STILL remember things he told me while training! Like "if you are flying single engine and night and lose the engine....turn on the landing light...when you get close to the ground...if you do not like what you see...turn it OFF"! The point was...single engine at night is NOT a good healthy practice.
Fantastic interview. What a great career this gentleman had and continues to enjoy. I could have listened for hours. I became close with two retired UAL Captains, one 1944-1981, the other 1951-1984. I use to spend hours picking their brains and LISTENING! I so regret not doing oral histories with both of them. In the past five years they have both passed. Sure miss them and our talks. One of them use to take me up in a 172, he never lost his skill. We would also go fly sims together, he would always have to shoot the Kai Tak landing. That generation that survived had to be skilled aviators working with much less in their tool box. Thanks for the interview.
They dont make them like they used too! What a legend. Did I hear him correctly 55,000 hrs!! I could listen to him for hours. Thank you for a great guest.
This man can spin a yarn. I enjoyed that. All you need is a fire and a few cold ones and that man will talk himself horse and I would love every word of it. Thank you
Third time I've watched this interview. What a wealth of knowledge this guy is. I really hope you guys invite Tom back for more. 55,000 hours! he's wore out multiple airframes lol
These old pilots- I could listen to their stories for DAYS! When I was a boy, growing up in the 1970s in Guam, I got to sometimes be around the pilots of the B52ds, C141s, C5As, and occasionally F4s in from Clark AFB. Just being in their shadows, listening, I was in the lap of the gods. As for commercial pilots, we had some 727s operated by Continental Airlines / Air Micronesia running out of Guam from the NAS. My family went on vacation to Rota, Tinian, & Saipan on an old Air Pacific DC3. The runway on Rota was built during WW2 by the Japanese Navy for Zeros. The DC3 we flew in on had returned to Guam, had engine trouble, and couldn't come back for us. Air Mike dropped a friggin' 727 onto that WW2 airstrip! You should have seen that bird coming in sideslipping! Absolutely incredible! THAT was airmanship!
Braniff wow glad you guys got this interview on. Tom Tweedale is a living legend in multiple way's. Back than those days think of it those Pilots learned it the right way all manual how to handle a plane and how to read everything. All without Computers it's something which has such a high value a main reason why often military pilots get the front seat because they know extreme moments like how to land and take off from a Aircraft Carrier. Those men earn our biggest respect because they done things like the Berlin Bridge and so on. Those Pilots are the Gentleman's which knew what they can really do. Thank you for this interview it's something we no longer see. I personally saw and done flights with test pilots back in the day when the A380 was still only 1 build by Airbus and at the ILA I was able to fly with the crew while they did their demonstration above the now completely changed. Schoenefeld made multiple times history same as Tegel did in Berlin but Pilots like Tom are rough cut diamonds which are extremely hard to find today.
This is the best hanger talk yet good job. I’ve told Hanger stories before and when you have the people at other tables leaning over to hear your story you know you might have something interesting
55000 hrs! Crikey! That's 25000 more than next highest I've heard of. FYI. My favorite airliner of all is Braniff DC 8-62 N1805, the lime green one. Just magnificent!
This story reminds me of my uncle, Captain Dale Girard. He left Braniff just prior to the demise. I know he LOVED working for Braniff and the wonderful people he worked with. He shared many stories about his many fun times because he was a very gregarious and fun loving man. Sadly, he passed in an auto accident much too young leaving many friends and family to miss him.
I was a passenger on a Braniff flight from Sao Paulo Brazil to Miami .this was back in 1962 In a DC7 That pilot was so gracious Tom remindes me of him. That flight and pilot was my main influense on becoming a pilot, I was only 9 years old at that time
In response to "your scariest moment" I thought he would have mentioned the time he landed short in the 727 in Guam for Express One Int'l, and sheared one of the mains off, skidding down the runway shutting the airport down. Now that's a Baller Pilot, if you don't think so, just ask him,
I wonder if Mr. Tweedale knew Koerner Rombauer (RIP) He is probably best know for his Rombauer Winery in Napa, but he too was a Braniff Pilot back in the day, not to mention an Air force pilot before that. Koerner was an inspiration to me and my learning to fly. Nice video. Mr. Tweedale is awesome.
I flew braniff out of Dallas Love field, as a kid. The planes were all different colors and in great shape. The Stewardesses were all beautiful and weighed less than 120 lbs. It was the end of flying in style.
I was a BI flight attendant (we were called hostesses) from 1973-1982 (the bankruptcy) and enjoyed your comment! Those were truly the good old days! And yes, I weighed less than 120 lbs!
Thanks for a great video, I could listen to him talk for hours. One question, he never mentioned multi-engine training before being hired by Braniff, did I missed it? were things that relaxed in the sixties? maybe you could have him back for some more Braniff stories...
Love him! What a guy! Greetings from Norway! Does anybody knows what airline he worked for after BN and what type of planes he flew? 55 000h is over 6 yrs in the air! Mamma Mia!
Essential power, power the bus, download... Never heard a bigger load of bull. I remember once when he was hand propping and airplane and almost killed himself
What a great interview! Hope you can get Tom again to tell more Braniff stories, Concorde would be cool question. Did Tom fly Concorde when Braniff had those from New York - Dallas - New York route?
@@TakingOff I had it bit wrong, route was Washington DC - Dallas Forth Worth - Washington DC. Short lease from Air France and British Airways. 12 January 1979 to 1 June 1980. Braniff Crew fly airplanes on over U.S. And BA/Air France crews then over Atlantic to Europe.
Mr. John J. Casey became head CEO of Braniff and his brother was CEO of American Airlines together they destroyed Braniff so American Airlines could take over DFW from its move from New York. Then there was a Federal Court inquiry into AA's criminal activity. Ted Beckwith, the CFO of Braniff, was murdered a day before he was to testify on Casey's crime of bankrupting Braniff. Then there was the third Casey. William Joseph Casey (March 13, 1913 - May 6, 1987) was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987. In this capacity, he oversaw the entire United States Intelligence Community. After Ted Beckwith's murder by the Casey family, the former CEO Harding L. Lawrence moved to Europe in order to not be the next target. You see my fellow Braniff employees the airline that you worked so hard for was destroyed by criminals and of course, William Casey head of the CIA made sure that the crimes were never investigated, and still, to this day the murder of Braniff's CFO Ted Beckwith remains unsolved. Braniff did not go Bankrupt it was a corporate murder.
Hearing protection is NOT optional...hearing loss from noise is permanent and irretrievable....hearing aids are crazy expensive, and often not very effective
55k hrs is roughly 6 years of being in the air. Continuous. Also, based on the average 40hr work week it''s something on the order of 28 years of employment. Full time. No vacation. THAT is a LOT of time....
Would like to hear Tom's view on the Braniff Flight 352 incident, the L-188 flight that originated at the army base, carrying military explosives. Braniff employees maintained a web page in an attempt to bring out the true cause of the crash. Don't tell me the airframe approved for today's hurricane penetration came apart when traveling between CB cells.
Many folks on RU-vid have interesting stories but are impossible to listen to. Either they purposely try to inject drama, or just try too hard. Give this guy a microphone and let him ramble as long as he wants!!!!
Very very disappointed. I was expecting a lot more from this gentleman s career especially what did do after Braniff went bankrupt………not his fault but more the interviewers