Bill F. Schoen
Charlie was the Line Check Airman assigned to my first DC-8 Captain upgrade check. Flight which was from LAX to Santiago. Heavy rain from a passing thundershower preceeded our heavy weight pushback from the LAX gate. Ramp was wet and slippery from accumulated petroleum drippings and the tug jackknifed during pushback shearing the tow bar pin and somehow the nose gear door linkage was damaged unknown to us. We put all 4 engines in idle reverse to assist the tug completing the push back. Just after rotation, there was a big bang and very bright flash fo light rom the area of the radome and at gear retraction there was a very loud screeching noise from the nose gear area, heavy weight required a minimum airspeed in the turbulance we were experiencing but anything over 250 seemed to exascerbate the noise and vibration from the nose gear wheel well area. I desired to stay close to the 250 rather than 290 and Charlie calm as could be reminded me of the book required minimum rough air speed and we compromised at about 270 enroute to the fuel dump srea North of Santa Catalina island where we proceeded to dump 88,000# of fuel before returning to an instrument approach in heavy rain and more turbulence to a wet runway landing. At the gate, Mx found onr of the nose gear door links was bent and the door wouldn't fully close on gear retraction. couple hours later off we went again on the 11 hour flight to Santiago. I recall telling Charlie that I had already completed my Simulator check and wasn't aware that I needed another one. He laughed and the rest of the operation went pretty smoothly until our return trip to Lax which was always a fuel challenge. We passed up Acapulco as a fuel stop as the weather in Lax was excellent, though it was very close to a mandatory stop which I suggested I would do if I was on anything but the line check. We thoughtfully discussed it and proceeded to Lax landing with just enough fuel to be legal. Bottom line is I enjoyed the very long somewhat stressful couple of flights in large part because Charlie was such a gentleman and full of flying wisdom. I've obviously never forgotten the experience and learned a lot from Charlie.