After I got out of the Corps, I had the aviation bug real bad. I searched
around for a pilot job and found a beaut!

It was flying an old jet fighter for the National Weather Service. Back then
they didn't have profiling radar, so the samples had to be taken aloft in a
plane.

My job was to fly the F-80 directly into hail storms and get meteorological
data. I knew it was dangerous, but not to what extent. The plane was amored
so it could sustain hail impact.

My first time up nearly got me. I flew into a big thunder cell near Hays
Kansas. I flew up the center of the cloud, getting smacked by hail. Then I
had a flame out, why, I don't know. I pointed the nose down and got out of
the cloud. Down below I could see I-70 with the cars. I could land on the
interstate, the armored plane would easily take out a few cars.

I tried relighting the engine and eventually it lit. The intakes became full
of hail. Up I went, back into the storm. After a few repeats, I knew when
the intakes would fill with hail so I dropped altitude to melt them out and
continue flying.

When I told the ground crew what happened, they just stared at me. Checking
the plane out confirmed my story. I never had to buy a drink again, they
even renamed the plane after my old F-4.

Jax