The Military and Aviation History of Russell L. King (5/5/1936).
The founder of the very FIRST IA school in the world in 1973.
I made it into this world on May 5, 1936. I was raised on a small farm, but you can tell by the picture, I was doing very well. My mother was a sweet old lady and my father was a grumpy old man.
My military career started when I was about 7 or 8 years old.That is my brother on the right. He died when he was 25 years old. My military career only lasted that one day. I don’t even know what happened to my uniform.
My military career started again when I was 18 years old and I joined the Army. In basic I was recruited by the Army to be in the ASA (Army Security Agency). After basic training and a secret clearance, they sent me to ‘spy school’ in Fort Devens Mass. and then to Europe for a six-month tour. I spent my 19th birthday in the British Zone monitoring the Russian Radios. The nice part about this was that ASA people never wore a uniform or had to cut their hair. I tried to look as German as I could.
I got a little banged up and spent 2 months in a military hospital in Frankfurt, Germany.
Here I am at 15 years old and teaching my older brother's wife to drive, my first job as an Instructor. She never did learn to drive in her whole life.
Here I am at 15 years old and teaching my older brother's wife to drive, my first job as an Instructor. She never did learn to drive in her whole life.
This picture was when I was a young flight Instructor. When I was about 11 years old, a Luscombe with the pilot crashed in my home town while trying to locate the airport in heavy fog, I skipped school to go see the wreckage. I decided I wanted to learn the fly as soon as I could. I did learn on the GI Bill a few years later at Oklahoma University.
Here I am looking at an airplane that a friend of mine had just finished restoring. The wind blows hard around Amarillo Texas and it turned the aircraft over and destroyed it.
I took up spraying for awhile in Missouri. I wasn’t very good at it and had trouble keeping the aircraft out of the trees and wires. Got my wheels down in the Wheat one morning flying a PA-18 with a spray unit on it. Wheat pulls you down till you lose control. I did however get the aircraft pulled out and continued on. A little later I cut the top half of my rudder off while spraying and went over a fence and under the telephone wires-errr well almost under the telephone wires.
I also bought a new Cessna 150 after I got my Flight Instructor’s Certification.
This picture is of a class of students taken when King’s School of Aeronautics was in Nashville,Tn the first time. That’s me pointing out some important detail to the class.
This picture is of a Taylorcraft owned by my oldest brother. Aviation ran in the King family.
This homebuilt was constructed by my favorite cousin, Roy McKinney. He was a true artist. He only flew the airplane twice and then he passed away.
This picture is of an old military PT-19. I traded a 49 Chevrolet for it. It had a Ranger (upside-down) engine. The aircraft was made of wood. I always hoped that the Termites didn't quit holding hands.
This picture is of an old military PT-19. I traded a 49 Chevrolet for it. It had a Ranger (upside-down) engine. The aircraft was made of wood. I always hoped that the Termites didn't quit holding hands.
This picture is of a Aronca L3-B that I restored (firewall forward).
This picture is of a Aronca L3-B that I restored (firewall forward).
I did my hitch in Vietnam in a Dust-off outfit and still recall using OD paint and a brush to brush over the dried blood and curtail the smell in the stretcher area, because we hardly had time or a way to wash these aircraft.
In 1972 I took the 3 IA tests in Oklahoma City and received my Inspection Authorization. I wrote a book to help others obtain their IA. Lots of people copy other peoples work when they are unable to produce anything of value themselves. About 30 schools have claimed to have written the book when the truth is they were still in their diaper or not even born in 1972. These people give me diaper rash.
In the meantime I had owned several different aircraft, a couple
J-3’s and Aeronca Champs. I had a PA-11 sprayer and a Stearman-sprayer. I sprayed all day one day in the PA-11 not knowing that two of my friends would crash and burn to death the very next day in that PA-11.
I owned a Varga once and consider it the best of the best for playing around in.
Then worst airplane I ever owned was as the advertisement said, 'The Nicest Luscombe' in Arkansas. I rode the bus from Oklahoma to get it and bought it to keep from riding the bus back home. Yes it was a piece of junk. It never showed one pound of oil pressure all the way home and I only flew it that one time.
In the meantime I had owned several different aircraft, a couple
J-3’s and Aeronca Champs. I had a PA-11 sprayer and a Stearman-sprayer. I sprayed all day one day in the PA-11 not knowing that two of my friends would crash and burn to death the very next day in that PA-11.
I owned a Varga once and consider it the best of the best for playing around in.
Then worst airplane I ever owned was as the advertisement said, 'The Nicest Luscombe' in Arkansas. I rode the bus from Oklahoma to get it and bought it to keep from riding the bus back home. Yes it was a piece of junk. It never showed one pound of oil pressure all the way home and I only flew it that one time.
This last picture is of my first cousin, Mac King. He joined the Army Air-Force at the age of 17 and was a waist-gunner on a B-17 bomber. The B-17 was blown in two somewhere over France in 1942 and he was killed. He loved aviation and his room at his home was full of aircraft models. They were the old stick, glue and tissue models. One day when a window was open the wind blew in and destroyed every model but one.
This last picture is of my first cousin, Mac King. He joined the Army Air-Force at the age of 17 and was a waist-gunner on a B-17 bomber. The B-17 was blown in two somewhere over France in 1942 and he was killed. He loved aviation and his room at his home was full of aircraft models. They were the old stick, glue and tissue models. One day when a window was open the wind blew in and destroyed every model but one.
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I am 79 years old and still like to help people. As you know I had my school in Florida for a number of years and have now returned to Nashville where I will be until I'm old enough to retire.
