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Missed Approach at Tuy Hoa

Operation Turnkey involved four crews: two initially and then two replacement crews. I don't remember who the original crews were, but the replacement crews were Al Benson and Richard Tinney. I was flying with Dick. One day approximately the first of November or halfway through our two months, we had just departed Taipei with our usual load of trash when we received a message to contact the contractor on the HF radio (Kitty McCormack Construction (?) ). When we made radio contact with the head of the project, he told us that there was approximately 5,500 feet of the new aluminum planked runway completed, and if we wanted to, we could land on the new runway rather than the old strip (for anyone who reads this that may have been familiar with the old Tuy Hoa runway they will remember that it was about 3100 feet of old WWII planking and blacktop with the first and last 100 feet unusable). He also suggested that when we arrived, it would be prudent to make a low pass before landing to let all the workers know we were landing and to make sure that there were no obstructions on the runway. We immediately discussed among the crew

Richard Tinney that it sure sounded to us like he was requesting that we do a "Firebird Approach" (if anyone has forgotten, it was maximum power-airspeed to the red line-altitude below 200 feet over the approach end based on the pilot's nerve - pull and roll to 90 degrees of bank over the top at 2000 feet-airspeed should now be at gear and flap speed-wipe off the power and dump the garbage - let the plane fall to the approach end of the runway - land. As expected, when we arrived at the field, Dick performed a flawless "Firebird Approach" and then discovered when we rolled out that there were a host of VIP's and MAC photographers waiting.

When we finally had a chance to get with the contractor to ask him what was going on, we found out that this was the day that the GCA was arriving by a MAC C-124, and the contractor was "damned if he was going to let MAC make the first landing on his new runway."

Story occurring circa 1967, is courtesy of Alan Anderson, Firebird Navigator

Operation Turnkey involved four crews: two initially and then two replacement crews. I don't remember who the original crews were, but the replacement crews were Al Benson and Richard Tinney. I was flying with Dick. One day approximately the first of November or halfway through our two months, we had just departed Taipei with our usual load of trash when we received a message to contact the contractor on the HF radio (Kitty McCormack Construction (?) ). When we made radio contact with the head of the project, he told us that there was approximately 5,500 feet of the new aluminum planked runway completed, and if we wanted to, we could land on the new runway rather than the old strip (for anyone who reads this that may have been familiar with the old Tuy Hoa runway they will remember that it was about 3100 feet of old WWII planking and blacktop with the first and last 100 feet unusable). He also suggested that when we arrived, it would be prudent to make a low pass before landing to let all the workers know we were landing and to make sure that there were no obstructions on the runway. We immediately discussed among the crew

Richard Tinney	that it sure sounded to us like he was requesting that we do a "Firebird Approach" (if anyone has forgotten, it was maximum power-airspeed to the red line-altitude below 200 feet over the approach end based on the pilot's nerve - pull and roll to 90 degrees of bank over the top at 2000 feet-airspeed should now be at gear and flap speed-wipe off the power and dump the garbage - let the plane fall to the approach end of the runway - land. As expected, when we arrived at the field, Dick performed a flawless "Firebird Approach" and then discovered when we rolled out that there were a host of VIP's and MAC photographers waiting.

When we finally had a chance to get with the contractor to ask him what was going on, we found out that this was the day that the GCA was arriving by a MAC C-124, and the contractor was "damned if he was going to let MAC make the first landing on his new runway."