{"id":5580,"date":"2019-10-17T10:05:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T17:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=5580"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:50","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:50","slug":"242-blowing-my-own-horn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/242-blowing-my-own-horn\/","title":{"rendered":"#242 Blowing My Own Horn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was this guy\u2019s first flight instructor and soloed him.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>On his first solo he proved that he had the correct instinct when he made a low pass on one wheel.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>He went on to become the Commanding officer of an FA-18 Squadron on an Aircraft carrier.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>He is a third-generation fighter pilot and has recently retired from the Navy.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>He\u2019s now flying for Fed Ex.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>He is Geoff Bowman and to be honest, anyone could have been his first flight instructor, but I drew the short straw, so I get to gloat!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; padding-top: 15px; font-size: .85em; line-height: 1.5em;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-5592\" src=\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/bowman-formation-san-diego-cropped.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/bowman-formation-san-diego-cropped.png 956w, https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/bowman-formation-san-diego-cropped-600x350.png 600w, https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/bowman-formation-san-diego-cropped-300x175.png 300w, https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/bowman-formation-san-diego-cropped-768x447.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Mike and Geoff in formation over San Diego<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think I really became aware of this families\u2019 background in aviation until Jerry Groendyke, Bert Garrison and I went to Tennessee to shoot what became \u201cFlying the Chipmunk\u201d on the Tailwheeler\u2019s journal.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Geoff\u2019s dad, Mike Bowman wrote the forward in \u201cBrian\u2019s Flying Book.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>He was an admiral in the Navy and about ready to retire when he went to visit his son in San Diego.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The powers that be lent Mike an FA-18 and the two launched off.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The result is the picture above, which hangs in the Bowman den.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I think it\u2019s wonderful and was great of the Navy to celebrate this family! <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>When the second world war started, many U.S. Fliers joined the RAF.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Geoff\u2019s grandfather was one of them and it\u2019s hard to imagine his heroism.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>His \u201cHurricane\u201d was mounted on tracks on a merchant ship and his job was to launch off in it if enemy bombers were spotted, engage them, and either ditch or parachute next to a friendly ship.<\/p>\n<p>What a rich tradition, to be the third generation of this family for whom so much is owed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was this guy\u2019s first flight instructor and soloed him.\u00a0 On his first solo he proved that he had the correct instinct when he made a low pass on one wheel.\u00a0 He went on to become the Commanding officer of an FA-18 Squadron on an Aircraft carrier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,67],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}