Cape Cod...Otis AFB?

 

Speeder -- you need to post some more photos of that cute little blonde co-pilot with the bun in her hair......

 

Yeah, I had never heard of it before I showed up.


Adrianspeeder

 

I went up there twice to Otis..once in 1970 and again in 1974 with the La. Air National Guard. We had a nice ride in the C-124's!! Enjoy watching your travels...all I had back then was a cheap Kodak Instamatic film camera..

 

Trip 103, Summer 2015, Virginia



186 Can’t look this good and work hard too.







187 Even as good as C-17s are usually, it is very rare to get the entire $250 million dollar machine built with parts by the lowest bidder to have not one single problem in the forms documented. I’ve only seen it twice before.







188 Big fancy Chucktown SC bridge.







189 Met one of my passengers for first time in 5 or so years, after 8 years ago now when we both started together as new airmen at Dover AFB.







190 Different view of the big fancy Chucktown SC bridge.







191 “That cloud looks like a bunny.”







192 “I don’t see it.”







193 Raptors One and Two snap to heading 250, to intercept bogies in the weeds ten miles out not squawking.







194 High speed low drag, but I bet we are burnin’ more gas.







195 Milford Trade and Exchange

 

Trip 104, Summer 2015, Arlington VA Flyover



196 Special mission this time with absolute time control for an Arlington National Cemetery flyover. We wanted to get airborne as soon as possible to shake the jet out, but can’t there early, so pilot play time practicing approaches, landings, and go arounds.







197 One button push of the TOGA control on the number three throttle puts the jet into Take-Off/Go-Around mode. Sets everything up automatically for the motors to push, and the pilots to point us away from the ground as fast as possible.







198 Play time is over, left turn head for DC hammer down big time. Called on for a fly over of WW2 USAFF 2nd Lt Stephen Biezis’s burial at Arlington who was killed in action as a co pilot on a downed B-26 in occupied Germany. It is an honor I’ve not been part of before. Luckily our co pilot was a former air dropper out of Charleston, who set the jet up perfectly for the mission computing system to be exactly on point over the cemetery at the exact moment required on time. Amazing side of the jet I don’t normally see.







199 Air Force Memorial in Arlington.







200 Just reach out and touch it.







201 Spooky low level by the Pentagon. I’m not sure which side was hit on 9/11, but it had to start to look like this before going lower. Arlington is at the top of the photo.





202 Second part of the day was heading to my least favorite short runway that doesn’t have much room for error if everything doesn’t go right.







203 You call? We haul! Fits through the door? We’ll chain it to the floor! C-17 worldwide tactical heavyweight airlift 2 day Amazon Prime shipping.







204 Quite happy to pull this mission with my big girl 07007173. Paid for in 2007, and the 173rd C-17 in the USAF inventory. I first met this jet at the factory in pieces before the wings were put on. Later became the Dedicated Crew Chief for one year responsible for her home station care and feedings. Even though a new name is on the side of the jet, she’s always to be mine.







205 What is almost as cool as an aeroplane? My other big boy toy happiness of railroading. Too bad it is Crash Smash Xpress, but I take the shots I can get.







206 Well, why are we here? Got told to expect a loading test of never before hauled cargo. There is a computer system to figure this kind of thing out, but nothing like real world practice.







207 “Uhhh, if we are relying on these antiques for ISIS, things have gotten bad.”







208 Old School







209 Turns out these belong to the Marine Corps ceremonial drill squad, and they wanted to figure out how to move a few if needed.







210 After a bit of thinking, we got everything to fit with legal restraint, and with an on time return I call it a successful day.

 

Always enjoy your pics. Thank you for your service.

 

How long was that runway?

- Jack

 

Short.....

Dang thing looked like a heli-pad.....

 

If that's Quantico again, it's 4237 feet.

 

Looks shorter than that to me. Maybe on the order of 3000 feet max. As ddellwo said, not much more than a helipad.

- Jack

 

Looks shorter because it's a full 200 feet wide.

 

You're right - Here's a link to the airfield diagram: https://www.globalair.com/dtpp/globalair_00339ad.pdf. It's obviously the same runway.

I can't remember ever seeing a runway that wide.

- Jack

 

Great pics as usual Adrian!

 

Quite a few Air Force bases and major commercial airports have at least one 200 foot wide runway, but they are usually at least 10000 feet long. Some AFB's even have a 300 foot wide runway.