At one point in his career, Hugh Sheffield was a training pilot for the US Navy. The US Navy trained all their pilots on the ground and in the air. Go figure. Go Navy!
The planes used as trainers were "old school" and were manual in their operation. The training pilot would sit in the rear seat and the trainee would be in front, so the more experienced pilot could see what the trainee was doing.
A common practice in flight training at that time was that when the experienced pilot wanted control of the plane, he would say, "Show me your hands." As the trainee lifted his hands, he would have to take them off the controls, thus
giving the trainer control of the plane.
(Spoiler alert) These airplanes also had foot controls as a redundancy.
Now for the story.
The trainee dutifully showed Hugh his hands...while simultaneously taking control with his feet.
Hugh then said, "Show me your feet."
Honestly, I have no idea if that really is a thing. How could a pilot lift his legs up so high in a tight cockpit for them to be seen? Sounds dangerous.
Anyway, it went back and forth two or three times with Hugh telling the trainee to show him his hands or feet. Finally, he had to tell the guy bluntly to give him control of the plane. Sheesh! Oh, and by the way, they were able to land safely.
*I'm sure there is a moral of the story somewhere in there, but that's not what this is about.
**I'm 95% sure the plane was not a bi-plane, but just in case...:-)
***I have no idea if the trainer was the one shown. I just found the pic.
