UPS pilot Scott Farley flying inches off the ground in Pomona Top Fuel debut

cheryl

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UPS pilot Scott Farley flying inches off the ground in Pomona Top Fuel debut - NHRA

Scott Farley has done a lot of flying in his life -- spending more than 12,000 hours in the air as a pilot, the last several years at the helm of an MD11, flying trans-Pacific cargo routes for UPS -- but it’s nothing like the flying he’s doing this weekend just inches off the ground in Terry Haddock’s Top Fueler in his debut in the class.

“For sure there are a lot of similarities between flying a jet and driving a dragster, but they’re obviously two different machines,” he said. “Flying a big jet like that is a lot of mass to manage – 630,500 pounds fully loaded -- so you’ve got to think where it's gonna be 3, 4, 5 minutes down the road. As a pilot, you’re always looking way ahead down the runway, that same thing we do in the racecars, and yeah, an airplane is all about procedure, procedure, procedure. We do this and we get x results. And if x results aren't happening, here's the emergency procedure for that. And all that transfers; obviously it's different, but it's very familiar processing stuff.

“I've had engines on fire. I've had engine failures. We've had wheels separate from the airplane, and a lot of it is calm -- just prioritize and let everything settle before you do anything big and that transfers as well.”
 
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