www.boeing.com
Bob Stoney
Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Boeing
Aircraft Model: 737
Aircraft Nickname: Not sure if there’s an official one; lots of unofficial ones on Google
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Large Jet
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Land
Engine Description: Twin Engine
First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown:
Date First Flown: 10/13/2005
Location First Flown: KBFI to 07MT
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Mike Bryan, Boeing Test Flight
Aircraft Experience
As of: 07/22/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 715
Number of Times Flown: 333
Other Aircraft Models Associated: B737-600/700/800/900/900ER, B737-7/8/9/10
Recollections:
For awhile, this was my “Favorite Boeing”….more on that later. The 737 is an amazing airplane, an interesting balance of new and old. My first flight, in tab number “YN001” was with Mike Bryan and I was fairly new to working with Boeing. In one of the many “small world moments” that are the nature of aviation (and flight test, in particular), I was again paired up with someone I’d known for a long time. Mike and I first flew together about 15 years before this…in a T-38 at USNTPS. Only then I was the instructor and Mike was the student, doing a ILS/FDS eval (an early exercise at USNTPS and Mike’s first time in the T-38). Mike drew a cartoon of that experience…with him as a wide-eyed “student” literally (in the cartoon) hanging onto the tail while the calm instructor took care of business. I’ve got that cartoon somewhere…will have to dig it out. Anyway, fast forward 15 years and one month and the roles are reversed…Mike’s now the “old hand” and I’m the one “behind the airplane”…my first time flying an actual 737 (instead of the sim) and there we go, launching off to do what? –> you guessed it…essentially an “ILS/FDS eval”. Actually it was a “limit headwind test of Fail Operational Autoland 700 aircraft with Winglets for ANA” (or at least that’s what my logbook says). Basically…an ILS/FDS eval except this time evaluating an automatic system. So, there Mike and I were again, except this time he was the one with the knowledge and I was “hanging on the tail”!
Mike was the first Boeing test pilot I flew the 737 with, but not the last. Along the way, I had the opportunity to reacquaint myself with many (like Mike..and the other Mike who was MY instructor at USNTPS, Regis, Jenn, Smoke, Big Al, Fish) and get to know so many others (ilke Van, Ray, Christine, Doug, Richard, Tom, Bomber, Stu, James, Barry, Scott, Steve, Dale and dozens of others). And those are just the pilots…some of my favorite people are the ones directing the test, sitting behind me as the FTE (Shaun, Junior, Paul, Senior, Steve, Bobby, Tin, Nick, Bob and the rest), and the engineers and safety professionals who analyze the data in real time–> THEY are the ones I take my hats off to. My experience in this ONE MODEL are a microcosm of what it means to be a tester…to get to work with the absolute best people you can imagine, testing a plane to make sure it’s safe for those who entrust their lives to us. It’s a blessing to do what we get to do.
My experiences in the 737 are a “love/hate” experience. I love the way the airplane flies. It just goes and goes, extremely dependable. It has an amazing safety record…the story is that there’s a 737 taking off or landing somewhere in the world every 1-2 seconds on average. Really amazing when you think about it. That’s the love part. The hate part I’ll leave to discussions over a beer. She’s been a world leader for more than 50 years and I wish her continued success as we move forward.
