Happy Holidays!

[gfitzge2]

Our

Hi Gregg,

You Bet I remember. Started flying Ford Air out of Detroit Metro on the Convair 880's of which we had 4 of them. Then we upgraded to the Folker F28 jets. Very plush even tops todays 1st class. One of the regular flights besides Louisville was to Arizona Proving Grounds or at least close...Havasu Arizona.

I even booked these via my secretary with VP appoval and flew to our Best in the Desert offroad races, taking not only executives but engineers and secretarial staff out into the deserts of California, Arizona and Nevada. These folks got embeded into the teams for the race....we taught a ton of engineers, bean counters and secretaries the value of using offroad racing. Managing Ford Truck Racing was my second job after the day job. Truck racing helped to keep Ford Truck #1 in the day. I remember one trip out to the Vegas to Reno race. We were all on board but one tardy fellow. The pilot came to me as asked. Mr. Schilke....is it approved to leave now?" I told him we will wait 5 minutes...if the fellow does not show, close the doors and let's go. Now when have you ever had the aircraft pilot come to you and ask for permission to fly???? Those were the day! Flight attendants loved me as we took them with us to the races and then got to see first hand what offroad racing was all about....we boarded the return flight and the attendants with grit in their teeth and a grin on their face served us in style. No booze as this was not what we in Truck Racing were about... We were in the business of winning! And we kicked ass in the desert! One of the best parts of my career was managing off road racing for 25 years and my win rate was three times the win rate of all other manufacturers, combined. But the best part was to see the truck employees learn and apply the things experienced in the desert or on road with the SCCA Race trucks. Engineers used the racing to test and improve their parts and systems.

Sad it does not continue like it did....

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Our HR manager was a very large man. When the flight attendant would get finished with the flight safety talk she would bring that sample seat belt back and hand it to him. He used it as an extension to get the seat belt to fit around him. You don't get service like that on a commercial flight. I have to admit that I had to really restrain myself to keep from laughing. I liked my job and wanted to keep it.

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[Cmar]

A merry and safe Christmas to all my US and Canadian Ranger driving friends. I was supposed to get over there this year, but alas, Covid intervened. Maybe 2021.

I saw snow in an above post, SNOW, we finally got some rain and even floods here after a hot, dry, and nasty November, with temperatures above 40 Deg C on several days. Looks like things will be green for Christmas after all.

Take care all of you!