His journey from the Dayton area to service not only with the Air Force but with the New York City Fire Department was a long and winding one. But Gitman is happy to return home for this weekend’s air show.
“It’s really cool to have the stars aligning to be able to get back to Dayton, the place I grew up,” Gitman said in an interview.
The Lockheed C-5 is a longtime Dayton Air Show fan favorite. A monster of a cargo airplane, the C-5’s cargo compartment length of nearly 144 feet is longer than the Wright Brothers’ first flight of 120 feet on Dec. 17, 1903 over the dunes of Kitty Hawk. (The craft’s total length is almost 248 feet, some 75 meters).
The C-5 stands higher than 65 feet, with a wingspan of more than 222 feet, making it the largest aircraft in the Air Force inventory. Its ailerons are the size of the wings of a Cessna 172.
It’s so big, that it’s important for the C-5 to arrive early so that show crews can literally build the show’s static displays around it on the Dayton airport tarmac, Gitman noted.
Though plans can change due to orders, weather, maintenance issues and other conditions, the plan as of Tuesday was to arrive in Dayton around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Gitman’s journey was an unusual one. He didn’t begin flight training until he was 37 years old, well past the age most military pilots begin training.
He’s a full-time pilot as a reservist serving while on a military leave of absence from the New York Fire Department, where he serves on the lower East side of Manhattan.
“I got very, very lucky,” he said.
How does a former Fairmont and Butler High School student go on to those kinds of careers?
As Gitman explains, he graduated from Florida State in 2004. He spoke with an Air Force recruiter at a Tallahassee, Fla. mall, who quashed early hopes of an Air Force career.
“He told me I didn’t have a STEM degree, you’re not going to get a pilot’s slot,” Gitman recalled.
He moved on, moving to Texas where he explored the possibilities with the U.S. Marine Corps and a firefighting academy in the Austin area. He ended up training as a firefighter before an opportunity to apply for an opening in New York arose.
“I always wanted to live in New York City, too,” Gitman said. “It seemed like a good point. ... So I moved up to New York, just took the test.”
The odds were against him. Tens of thousands of applicants can be drawn to FDNY openings, but he was called to a Fire Academy class in July 2008.
Of course, in 2008, the Great Recession changed everything. Hiring was temporarily frozen in New York, just after he got in.
And in time, he obtained a private pilot’s license while living in New York. He was able to step into an Air Force hiring window, encouraged by a fellow New York firefighter who also served.
“I got very, very lucky multiple times in life,” Gitman said.
Flying a C-5M is a trip, he acknowledges.
“It is pretty amazing,” he said. “You don’t realize you have an apartment building behind you. You’re flying, it’s almost the size of football field, 223 feet of wingspan.
“It flies very, very well,” he added. “It’s very powerful.”
The distinctive C-5 can carry oversized cargo globally and can take off and land on relatively short runways. Both the nose and aft doors open, letting crews simultaneously load and off-load cargo from both ends, the Air Force says.
This year’s air show is Saturday and Sunday. Gates open at 9 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. both days. Look for performances generally to start around 11 a.m., weather and conditions permitting.
Visit daytonairshow.com for ticket information.
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