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SSgt. Jim Shepherd was the crew chief and I was the 1st mechanic on YK-1.
It was the Major Jannell's plane and also served as the VIP plane for the squadron. I always picked up coffee, juice, ice water, and a selection of donuts and rolls each day in case we got the call to take a VIP somewhere. This could include someone outside of our squadron flying with the Major. The Major and the plane had the nickname of "The Hook". I am sure some of the junior officers had felt this "hook" at one time or another. He checked out all the new officers coming from flight school and showed them what the aircraft would do. There was a maneuver he would always call down to me before he demonstrated. All he would say is, "Are you ready Smith?" and I would tighten my seat belt. He would then dive down on a remote landing site building airspeed, level out on the deck, and immediately pull the cyclic back into his lap till he felt the tail wheel hit, and then drop the collective with heavy brakes on. You thought the rotor blades were going to mow grass in front of you and the young officer was usually at a loss for words. Major Jannell would then say, "If I ever catch you abusing an aircraft like this I will court marshal you". "I just did that to show you these birds are tougher and capable of more than you think".
One plus of having the Major's plane was that we had very few yellow sheets with problems listed. No one wanted to ground the Major's plane are say something was wrong with it. We would be ask quietly if some of the small problems could be fixed before the next flight. If so, they wouldn't be indicated on the yellow sheet. Having 10 good yellow sheets for a pilot to look at always was a good way to keep any from coming. Defects on the yellow sheet always seemed to reflect more - "I guess that throttle is a little stiff."
The Major was pretty proud of the VIP portion of the plane and would always call own when a stranger was aboard and ask, "What's on the menu today Smith?" I would go through the whole list even though I knew what he just wanted impress his passenger.
As you can see by the picture, we spent a lot of time
waxing the aircraft. This picture was taken inside one of the old
blimp hangers at MCAF, Santa Ana, also called LTA for lighter than air.
The waxing proved to by an innovation that served us well on Operation
Dominic. We found that a good wax job protected the planes on extended
sea duty and kept the corrosion to a minimum. We ended up spraying
a coating on all the planes. Most didn't attempt to buff them out
like
YK-1. We got our wax from the auto store and the wax that was
sprayed on the planes could also be used on the tile floors.
Submitted by:
Warren R. Smith, former Cpl. USMC