# Major Brian Shul, USAF, SR-71 Pilot



## Rifleman62 (25 Aug 2017)

http://www.loopinsight.com/2017/07/18/sr-71-blackbird-speed-check/

I am sure most people here have "read about this story for years but hearing it from the pilot’s mouth is pretty cool".

Also in the comments section of the video:

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

In this talk at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Vietnam-era attack pilot and retired Air Force major Brian Shul, author of "Sled Driver: Flying the World's Fastest Jet," reveals fascinating details of piloting the SR-71. Using his rare aviation slides and stories as a vehicle, he tells a broader inspired story.


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## Loachman (25 Aug 2017)

I cannot thank you enough for posting this. I've not seen any better video on Youtube, and this really deserved its own thread, so I split it off.

The original link did not work for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wigZsFypdyI was the one given in the comments on the first video and did work.

I _may_ have, many years ago, done one (and one only) of the things that Major Shul did. It _may_ have involved a different windsurfer.

Thanks again.


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## Jarnhamar (25 Aug 2017)

I couldn't stop smiling, this is really a great video. Awesome build up too.


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## Good2Golf (25 Aug 2017)

Jarnhamar said:
			
		

> I couldn't stop smiling, this is really a great video. Awesome build up too.



The Air Traffic Controller was probably smiling too, because he knew that, short of the Space Shuttle checking in for a groundspeed check during re-entry, "One-thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-two knots across the ground" would do a fine job shutting everyone else the heck up. ;D


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## jollyjacktar (26 Aug 2017)

Thank you Rifleman and Loachman.  Enjoying the speech very much, what a guy.


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## ironduke57 (7 Sep 2019)

Hi people!

Found this an another forum and thought of you guy´s/girl´s:

LA Speed Check
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg73GKm7GgI

I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing! 8)

Regards,
ironduke57


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## FJAG (7 Sep 2019)

ironduke57 said:
			
		

> Hi people!
> 
> Found this an another forum and though of you guy´s/girl´s:
> 
> ...



Brilliant.  :rofl:

 :cheers:


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## Loachman (7 Sep 2019)

For the most impressive part, watch "Brian Shul - From Butterflies to Blackbirds" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kIMTJRgyn0


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## BeyondTheNow (4 Jan 2020)

A friend of mine just shared this on his FB, an excerpt from the book _Sled Driver: Flying the World’s Fastest Jet_, by Brian Shul.

This is certainly a feeling I’ll never have the opportunity to experience, but the author does a fantastic job capturing the nostalgia and joy in the moments he describes, and relaying them perfectly so the rest of us can at least imagine how it must’ve felt. 

A terrific, funny little excerpt...I’m curious to read the book now.



> There were a lot of things we couldn't do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact. People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun would not be the first word I would use to describe flying this plane. Intense, maybe. Even cerebral. But there was one day in our Sled experience when we would have to say that it was pure fun to be the fastest guys out there, at least for a moment.
> 
> It occurred when Walt and I were flying our final training sortie. We needed 100 hours in the jet to complete our training and attain Mission Ready status. Somewhere over Colorado we had passed the century mark. We had made the turn in Arizona and the jet was performing flawlessly. My gauges were wired in the front seat and we were starting to feel pretty good about ourselves, not only because we would soon be flying real missions but because we had gained a great deal of confidence in the plane in the past ten months. Ripping across the barren deserts 80,000 feet below us, I could already see the coast of California from the Arizona border. I was, finally, after many humbling months of simulators and study, ahead of the jet.
> 
> ...


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## rnkelly (4 Jan 2020)

Love that story, check this out.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyHH9G9et0


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## Loachman (5 Jan 2020)

I've just merged previous related postings regarding Major Shul with this latest one.

I never tire of watching his videos on Youtube, and am about to do so again, now that I've been reminded.


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