First post, glad to be here!

[SpiceTac]

www.SpiceTac.com, but an important part of me never left California, and never will.

David

[SoCal Bob]

Good afternoon SpiceTac, welcome to Calguns, thank you for serving and congratulations on moving to free America.

[Redneck Geek]

Hi David, welcome.

Interesting AF history. How many people have been U2 pilots? Pretty small crowd I'd think.

[Garv]

Welcome Spice.

[bsg]

welcome to the forum.

[Dano3467]

Welcome

[maxx03]

Sup

[sealocan]

Welcome, glad to have you here.

Thank you for your service to our country, and I'm glad that it sounds like you enjoyed it as well.

[SonofWWIIDI]

Welcome.

[SpiceTac]

Hi David, welcome.

Interesting AF history. How many people have been U2 pilots? Pretty small crowd I'd think.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!

Great question! The airplane first flew in Aug 1955 and since that time there have been a very limited number of pilots that have flown it. A few years ago the number went over 1,000. The small number still amazes me considering that is over more than 60 years!

[wpage]

Howdy

[jarhead714]

Is the Dragon Lady really that hard to get to stop flying? What’s the difference between a U-2R and a TR-1? What are you wearing right now?

Welcome Calgunner!

[Sir Toast]

Hi David. Welcome aboard. Glad you're here.

[WartHog]

Welcome to CG, David - Thank you for your Service!

[SpiceTac]

It's basically a big glider that wants to fly which makes landing it difficult. It has a bicycle type arrangement of wheels where there is only a main gear and a tailwheel. Once it comes to a stop it tips over onto a wingtip. Because of this gear design you have to land without any crab or angle otherwise it gets all kinds of squirly and can go off the runway. So you couple that with being in the full pressure suit with limited visibility and yea, it is hard to land.

U-2 and TR-1 are the same thing, just different names for political reasons. Of course I am wearing the same thing I was wearing 5 minutes ago.