Oddly, my history books show a different experience for downed American pilots.
Well this is accurate.
Three wheels of fury.
Laundry service was quick. I normally only fly with a 7day bag good for one extra pair in case of emergency beyond that. This was a trip that never seemed to end, “Bingo underwear! Danger danger!”
Well Vietnam, it’s been real. Time to get on to the next one. Next stop, The Philippines.
Public transit and crazy traffic in the Philippines.
Next stop was the last stop of the trip in Hawaii. Met up with ole Dover friends, and had a great time.
Just a few steps from where we had parked the airplane, we were shown this cool plaque. “On this spot Apollo 8 Astronauts Colonel Frank Borman, Captain James Lovell, & Lt Colonel William Anders first touched Earth at 14:37:35 after their historic manned flight around the moon 28 December 1968.”
This was a random path that we had found without researching the trip. Turns out to end up at Devil’s Bridge Trail in Sedona. Glad we did, because it delivered some beautiful views.
Handed the camera off to some other hikers to get a shot of the crew together. Not like she was gonna be able to run away quickly with it, so I wasn’t too worried.
And she selfie bombed me. Didn’t know until editing these shots.
They then handed off their cameras to get a group shot for themselves. “Wait! Is my camel toe showing?” Umm…
Hiked back to the car, and picked up our studying copilot that needed to get some homework done.
Made it back to Maryland from Phoenix. Dover was closed for an airshow, so we were stuck until the runways reopened to head home.
Well what to do? My weakness is piano bars. I’ll spend top dollar to hear songs I like if they are good. One of our crew members was on his fini flight before moving, but I had a hankering suspicion we wouldn’t be done with this trip. All the TV’s are showing Hurricane Harvey headed for bear towards Texas. “Hey boys, I don’t think we will be going home in a few days when Dover reopens. They got a fully crewed and good to go airplane just sitting. I bet we go to Texas.”
Phone call next day, “Can you boys start bringing help into Texas? We’ll bring you around the storm and come up from the south.” “Reach 434 ready to ride!”
We expected to take another load into Corpus Christy, but the call comes down for us to move a load into Lake Charles, Louisiana. “Sure we could try, but isn’t Hurricane Harvey still there?” “Yeah, but you guys can make it by going down into the Gulf and come back up on a north west heading between two rain bands.” “Ohhh." Well, just gonna send it!
See ya!
Comin’ into Louisiana. Heavy flooding.
Staying high to avoid weather, the controllers were wondering if we could make the approach. “Get ready for a show ole son, we can get down with a quickness.” Also could triple that rate if needed by throwing out the anchors.
Lake Charles area flooding.
Rain gear required.
Back for one more night in Austin Texas, and saw this cool retro paint job. Sorry for the potato phone quality photo.
Free beer for helpin’ out the best way we can by heavy weight haulin’.
Next day one more trip to Corpus Christy to pick up DV assets for a ride back to Washington DC. The little FBO was shocked when I wanted 12k gallons of fuel. “It holds that much!?!” “A full tank is over 36k gallons. 12k is just a little splash. Roll them trucks!” “We only have one.” “Damn it.”
Had to get a ride into the terminal to sign for the fuel. “We’ll send for a shuttle bus.” “Naww, I ain’t no fancy business man, I’ll ride the baggage cart tug.”
Back to DC in time to see the bossman taking off. I won't be going out on that trip, because the next stop is home. We won’t be there for long. Weather channel showing another big *** storm around the corner.
Two different weeks, two different hurricanes, one same job of heavyweight humanitarian helping. Blackout poor weather landing conditions? We’ll use Night Vision to find you in the dark. No jet fuel to spare for search and rescue helicopter use? We’ll bring 30,000 gallons of our own, and give you half of it. People in trouble right now? We’ll roll you 75,000 pounds of aid out the back in 15 minutes. $220 million dollar jet break down right before take-off time? We’ll just fix the best damn airplane ever designed, built, and operated to deliver the mission critical airlift you need. For all the problems in the military, and we are far from perfect, no other organization in the world can move whatever wherever whenever. I’m so happy to be part of this puzzle, so let’s roll down to the aftermath of Hurricane Irma the day after.
Next trip was a quick run down to New Mexico. Been to the state before, but not to the airport with the largest world's largest structure composed entirely of wood and glue laminate. Known as ATLAS-I Trestle, it was for testing of EMP hardening on airplanes in the cold war. Really wished we would spend the night there so I’d have time to go look at it closer.
Fill ‘er up Friday.
‘Murica.
You call, we haul. If it fits through the door, we chain it to the floor. 2 day Amazon prime heavyweight C-17 airlift worldwide shipping.
Loaded and ready to ride. If this guy can get his act together, and get out of the way.
Punch it!
Departing shots of the ATLAS-I Trestle. Not exactly sure why this cold war relic fascinates me so, but I’m sure glad I got to see it briefly.
Good morning Yuma Arizona. Gonna have a good time flying around on a low level, 500 feet from the ground, 300 mph roller coaster. Really good looking breakfast spot, but not going to eat too much as I don’t want to puke.
Gotta love a fighter base when you ask for 25,000 gallons of fuel. “Do you mean 2,500 gallons?” “No, I need 25,000. SEND ALL YOUR TRUCKS!”
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