This is a front view of an Air Force T-39 Saberliner. It is a small business jet built on an  F-86 chassis. When I flew the jet is was on it's last leg and headed for the bone yard. I didn't fly it for long as they were replaced by Lear 35's. I took off out of Yokota Air Base, Japan one afternoon. We were climbing out when I started to notice a vibration that bothered me. It seemed to be tied to the engine, changing as I moved the throttle back and forth. It was enough that it made me very uncomfortable. Even though I couldn't put a finger on the problem my intuition told me it wasn't a good thing. I notified Tokyo Center that I wanted to turn back. Twenty or thirty minutes later we were back on the ground right where we had started from. The airplane made one more flight for a training ride around the local traffic pattern after which they found a crack in the wing spar, not a small thing. Instead of the trip back to the Davis Montham bone yard, the bird was towed over to the Yokota AB fire department practice area, essentially junked because it was unfit to fly. I didn't have those moments of intuition very often during my flying career, but when I did I acted accordingly. People occasionally asked me if my job was boring. My answer was always, "yes, and that's just the way I like it." Perhaps sometime I'll tell you about my intuition on an approach into New Orleans.

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