Pictures while using frequent flyer miles
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From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
Trip 020, Winter 2014, Uganda
001 – One with flap problems and the other with a slat stuck in transit? We’ll take an intersection departure from Charley please.
002 - Big kids Spanish juice box.
003/004/005 – Beautiful Spanish morning.
006 – Diplomatic clearance into Africa didn’t come through, so shut ‘er down, and head back to the hotel.
007 - Shoulda paid more attention in Spanish class.
008 – Your lips taste like sangria.
009 – Big big fan of dinner.
010 – Pub Los Arcos in Rota Spain
[youtube]v-0OQxEAaqc[/youtube]
011 – After some paperwork delays, my first African sunrise.
012 - African Grand Canyon.
013 – P&W power.
014 – African views.
015 - African super dirt road highway.
016 - African metropolis.
017/23 – So the wikipedia tells me this airport was famous for the divert of a hijacked jet, and Israelis comin' in to get all their hostages back. Should be a good time...
023/024/025 Legit hotel in Africa.
001 – One with flap problems and the other with a slat stuck in transit? We’ll take an intersection departure from Charley please.
002 - Big kids Spanish juice box.
003/004/005 – Beautiful Spanish morning.
006 – Diplomatic clearance into Africa didn’t come through, so shut ‘er down, and head back to the hotel.
007 - Shoulda paid more attention in Spanish class.
008 – Your lips taste like sangria.
009 – Big big fan of dinner.
010 – Pub Los Arcos in Rota Spain
[youtube]v-0OQxEAaqc[/youtube]
011 – After some paperwork delays, my first African sunrise.
012 - African Grand Canyon.
013 – P&W power.
014 – African views.
015 - African super dirt road highway.
016 - African metropolis.
017/23 – So the wikipedia tells me this airport was famous for the divert of a hijacked jet, and Israelis comin' in to get all their hostages back. Should be a good time...
023/024/025 Legit hotel in Africa.
Last edited by adrianspeeder; Jul 19, 2021 at 03:14 PM.
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From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
026/027 Not too bad.
028/29 - Wake up the next mornin' and this is outside my hotel room.
030 – You ain’t at a legit African airport without an old dead L-1011 sitting on flat tires.
031 – Pilot, copilot, one load, and me head in the next day to two engine taxi the airplane to the main terminal to pump a **** ton of gas that they weren’t able to truck out the day before.
032 - Little hoses are my favorite for pumping gas for hours instead of minutes.
033 – West Nile Virus
034 – Ready to launch. These bugs ain’t no joke, we gotta go!
035/41 – We’ve left the bugs behind for dodging some monster African storms. I bless the rains down in Africa.
042/046 - Rollin' into Kenya.
047 - Hey look what's sittin' in the dirt in Kenya. Another dead L-1011.
048 - Friendliest guys I've ever met in Kenya that were around the jet. Prolly had my picture taken with every one of 'em and on all their facebook pages.
049 – Nairobi Kenya, Feb 2014. For the first time on this African safari trip, I had to do a little bit of work. The airport authority wouldn't let us use thrust reversers to back away from the terminal where our parking spot was, and insisted we get a pushback. Not a thing to do with noise, but to snag that $5k pushback fee. Next, the rattiest Uke rolls out without a towbar. Most commercial airports have a 767 or DC-10 bar that works with our nose gear no problems, so I thought for $5k, this was a sham.
“Where is your towbar.”
“Sir it is broken!”
“So can we back out ourselves?”
“Sir, you must have a towbar!”
Not looking to get in an argument, and because we actually did bring a towbar on this mission, let’s just play along. I’ve also found most commercial airports don't like you hanging out on the taxiway while we go through our convoluted engine start checklists compared to civilian world with fast as possible to make money engine start procedures. The A code agreed, and we decided to go with the engine runnin' pushback. I stood ground through the start sequence because it’ll take a minute for the loads to roll the towbar around some rolling stock and down the ramp.
“Is this lugging and chugging crate even going to have the ummph to move us?”
“Sir it will go!”
“Let’s roll!”
To his credit, the driver slowly got us most of the way out of parking, and %100 blocking the taxiway. I brought the show to a stop, had the pilot set brakes, and motion the driver to back up to unload the weight of the jet on the towbar. His frantic pulling on the shifter wasn’t working, so the driver shut down the motor. Finally went to neutral, but then it won't crank. “So there I was,” with an engine running C-17, blocking 2 or 3 other jets now, pinned tight to a dead Uke, with the pilots askin',
“Chief, what’s goin' on down there? We gotta go!"
Yelled at the guy to get on the radio for another tractor so we could pull it back enough to yank the pin, and we’ll back ourselves away from this mess. Minutes later, the littlest 3 cylinder diesel New Holland baggage cart tug makes it's way over. I knew she had no chance of budging a 50 ton Uke, but they tried anyway.
“Screw this.”
Got my toolbox from the jet, and with some resentment they let me pull the two batteries from the New Holland and wire them in series for the 24v Uke. Fired that joker up, backed him a hair, pulled the pin, undid the bar for the loadmasters to winch up the ramp. Came back to the front to reconnect the nose wheel steering, pull the pins, and let’s wrap this checklist up. By that time, I noticed the Uke had driven away before giving the batteries back to the New Holland. Just don’t stall that unit. Ooops, looks like they did. Oh well, had just enough room to steer to the left around 'em. Onward to the next stop!
050 – Embassy rep traded a patch for a coin.
028/29 - Wake up the next mornin' and this is outside my hotel room.
030 – You ain’t at a legit African airport without an old dead L-1011 sitting on flat tires.
031 – Pilot, copilot, one load, and me head in the next day to two engine taxi the airplane to the main terminal to pump a **** ton of gas that they weren’t able to truck out the day before.
032 - Little hoses are my favorite for pumping gas for hours instead of minutes.
033 – West Nile Virus
034 – Ready to launch. These bugs ain’t no joke, we gotta go!
035/41 – We’ve left the bugs behind for dodging some monster African storms. I bless the rains down in Africa.
042/046 - Rollin' into Kenya.
047 - Hey look what's sittin' in the dirt in Kenya. Another dead L-1011.
048 - Friendliest guys I've ever met in Kenya that were around the jet. Prolly had my picture taken with every one of 'em and on all their facebook pages.
049 – Nairobi Kenya, Feb 2014. For the first time on this African safari trip, I had to do a little bit of work. The airport authority wouldn't let us use thrust reversers to back away from the terminal where our parking spot was, and insisted we get a pushback. Not a thing to do with noise, but to snag that $5k pushback fee. Next, the rattiest Uke rolls out without a towbar. Most commercial airports have a 767 or DC-10 bar that works with our nose gear no problems, so I thought for $5k, this was a sham.
“Where is your towbar.”
“Sir it is broken!”
“So can we back out ourselves?”
“Sir, you must have a towbar!”
Not looking to get in an argument, and because we actually did bring a towbar on this mission, let’s just play along. I’ve also found most commercial airports don't like you hanging out on the taxiway while we go through our convoluted engine start checklists compared to civilian world with fast as possible to make money engine start procedures. The A code agreed, and we decided to go with the engine runnin' pushback. I stood ground through the start sequence because it’ll take a minute for the loads to roll the towbar around some rolling stock and down the ramp.
“Is this lugging and chugging crate even going to have the ummph to move us?”
“Sir it will go!”
“Let’s roll!”
To his credit, the driver slowly got us most of the way out of parking, and %100 blocking the taxiway. I brought the show to a stop, had the pilot set brakes, and motion the driver to back up to unload the weight of the jet on the towbar. His frantic pulling on the shifter wasn’t working, so the driver shut down the motor. Finally went to neutral, but then it won't crank. “So there I was,” with an engine running C-17, blocking 2 or 3 other jets now, pinned tight to a dead Uke, with the pilots askin',
“Chief, what’s goin' on down there? We gotta go!"
Yelled at the guy to get on the radio for another tractor so we could pull it back enough to yank the pin, and we’ll back ourselves away from this mess. Minutes later, the littlest 3 cylinder diesel New Holland baggage cart tug makes it's way over. I knew she had no chance of budging a 50 ton Uke, but they tried anyway.
“Screw this.”
Got my toolbox from the jet, and with some resentment they let me pull the two batteries from the New Holland and wire them in series for the 24v Uke. Fired that joker up, backed him a hair, pulled the pin, undid the bar for the loadmasters to winch up the ramp. Came back to the front to reconnect the nose wheel steering, pull the pins, and let’s wrap this checklist up. By that time, I noticed the Uke had driven away before giving the batteries back to the New Holland. Just don’t stall that unit. Ooops, looks like they did. Oh well, had just enough room to steer to the left around 'em. Onward to the next stop!
050 – Embassy rep traded a patch for a coin.
Last edited by adrianspeeder; Jul 28, 2021 at 02:24 PM.
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Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2004
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Likes: 27
From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
Last edited by adrianspeeder; Jul 28, 2021 at 02:25 PM.
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Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2004
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From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
051/052/053 – Leaving Kenya for Burkina Faso.
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/c...g?format=2500w
054 - Cruzin’.
055/056/057 - Kickin' back watchin' Africa fly by.
058 – Why is everything on fire?
059 - Another African highway.
060 - Prepare for landing.
061 - Charlie! The meadow is on fire!
062/063 - Was hopin' to see some wildlife. Like a giraffe or somethin'.
064 - Got the hookup of some local beer and cokes for 5 cents each.
065 - The great debate of how to sleep on the jet. I prefer the crew rest section floor between the CRACM seat and left avionics rack. Lots of loadmasters like the ladder setup with a hammock.
066/067/068 - Normally sitting behind the copilot or pilot seats on takeoff, we'll watch for birds and such. With this brush runnin' right up to the runway we were ready to call out for lions...
069 – By the last stop, look more fire...
070 – Prepare for landing.
071 - Last stop. Pure nothing around. This has been a great trip, but now we need a **** ton of gas to get home. From a tiny hose. Dammit.
072 - 200k lbs please. Dammit. Only had enough ummph to fill one tank at a time.
073 – Slowest refuel ever.
074 – Hero crew shot.
075 – Finally unloaded, fueled, ready for a long flight home. Not going to miss the number of bugs with West Nile Virus on this one. Otherwise a good trip.
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/c...g?format=2500w
054 - Cruzin’.
055/056/057 - Kickin' back watchin' Africa fly by.
058 – Why is everything on fire?
059 - Another African highway.
060 - Prepare for landing.
061 - Charlie! The meadow is on fire!
062/063 - Was hopin' to see some wildlife. Like a giraffe or somethin'.
064 - Got the hookup of some local beer and cokes for 5 cents each.
065 - The great debate of how to sleep on the jet. I prefer the crew rest section floor between the CRACM seat and left avionics rack. Lots of loadmasters like the ladder setup with a hammock.
066/067/068 - Normally sitting behind the copilot or pilot seats on takeoff, we'll watch for birds and such. With this brush runnin' right up to the runway we were ready to call out for lions...
069 – By the last stop, look more fire...
070 – Prepare for landing.
071 - Last stop. Pure nothing around. This has been a great trip, but now we need a **** ton of gas to get home. From a tiny hose. Dammit.
072 - 200k lbs please. Dammit. Only had enough ummph to fill one tank at a time.
073 – Slowest refuel ever.
074 – Hero crew shot.
075 – Finally unloaded, fueled, ready for a long flight home. Not going to miss the number of bugs with West Nile Virus on this one. Otherwise a good trip.
Last edited by adrianspeeder; Sep 6, 2021 at 10:02 PM.
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From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
Trip 021, Winter 2014, Maryland
076 – Bravo alert! Launch the jet for an important task! Through the entire process, no one other than one guy that did get the message that the trip isn’t needed knew we never should have taken off. We as a crew started to notice things were off when calling into the first airport stopping point, and they didn’t know who we were or where we should park. “Who are you guys again???” I put the jet to bed, as there was no user waiting to load up, and met with the rest of the crew at command post. By then it was figured out that the trip was scrubbed before any of us were even initially called to fly. Dover command poster from the previous shift wrote it on a sticky note, but not in the logs. “You gotta be ****ting me!” Also, “Hey, could you guys bring the jet back to Dover tonight?” The pilot then turns to me, “Hey chief, you still always fly with an emergency six pack of Coors Light?” “Sure do on the bus! Let’s all have a drink heading too the hotel.”
077/078 - Shortest mission I had with a .9 hours of flight. Not a lot of time for pictures.
076 – Bravo alert! Launch the jet for an important task! Through the entire process, no one other than one guy that did get the message that the trip isn’t needed knew we never should have taken off. We as a crew started to notice things were off when calling into the first airport stopping point, and they didn’t know who we were or where we should park. “Who are you guys again???” I put the jet to bed, as there was no user waiting to load up, and met with the rest of the crew at command post. By then it was figured out that the trip was scrubbed before any of us were even initially called to fly. Dover command poster from the previous shift wrote it on a sticky note, but not in the logs. “You gotta be ****ting me!” Also, “Hey, could you guys bring the jet back to Dover tonight?” The pilot then turns to me, “Hey chief, you still always fly with an emergency six pack of Coors Light?” “Sure do on the bus! Let’s all have a drink heading too the hotel.”
077/078 - Shortest mission I had with a .9 hours of flight. Not a lot of time for pictures.
Last edited by adrianspeeder; Sep 2, 2021 at 08:28 PM.
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From: St. Louis, MO
Nice thread Adrian. I am glad I stumbled across it. I will keep an eye out for more posts. Thanks you for your service! When I was in college in the '80's a good friend's father flew for TWA. He took us to their training facility in Kansas CIty, MO and we got to fly an L1011 simulator. I flew L-1011's into the dirt all over the world. 
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Joined: Dec 2004
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From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
Trip 022, Spring 2014, Poland
078 - Dover’s swamp.
079 - Always like getting gas on a USAF installation from a pit with an R12 pump truck since two big honkin' high volume and pressure lines fill with authority.
080 - Atlantic sunset.
081 - Crazy Polish gas truck. Pumpin' at the speed of slow. Friendly guy and nice views around Warsaw Chopin Airport otherwise.
082 - Angle of the dangle outta there to the next stop.
083 - Lithuania countryside.
[img][/img]
084 - Vilnius International Airport Lithuania
085 - Vilnius TV Tower
086 - Nobody beats the Wizz.
087 - Headin' back home through Poland, needed a near full load of 230k lbs of gas. Five trucks and 3 trailers usin' every drop from I could get.
088 - And lastly another first for me of seeing the northern lights. Normally don't cross the ocean at this higher latitude up from Iceland to Greenland.
078 - Dover’s swamp.
079 - Always like getting gas on a USAF installation from a pit with an R12 pump truck since two big honkin' high volume and pressure lines fill with authority.
080 - Atlantic sunset.
081 - Crazy Polish gas truck. Pumpin' at the speed of slow. Friendly guy and nice views around Warsaw Chopin Airport otherwise.
082 - Angle of the dangle outta there to the next stop.
083 - Lithuania countryside.
[img][/img]
084 - Vilnius International Airport Lithuania
085 - Vilnius TV Tower
086 - Nobody beats the Wizz.
087 - Headin' back home through Poland, needed a near full load of 230k lbs of gas. Five trucks and 3 trailers usin' every drop from I could get.
088 - And lastly another first for me of seeing the northern lights. Normally don't cross the ocean at this higher latitude up from Iceland to Greenland.
Last edited by adrianspeeder; Sep 6, 2021 at 10:03 PM.
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Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2004
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Likes: 27
From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
Trip 023, Spring 2014, Djibouti
001 The shadow looked more impressive in person.
002 Atlantic dawn
003 Atlantic sunrise
004 Four flowin’, turnin’, and burnin’.
005 Italy bound
006 Mount Etna on the east coast of Sicily.
007 Good morning Sicily.
008 Nice beer for breakfast.
009 I forgot what they called this, but it was great.
010 Plaid shirts are what the cool aircrew members wear.
011 Full tourist mode in the Elephant Square.
012 Heads will roll.
013 Mo beer!
014 Big man on campus.
015 Beautiful Mediterranean
016 Hammer down big time at .77 Mach.
017 Angle of the dangle diving at the ground.
018 Angle of the dangle diving at the ground.
019 Speed brakes! Whoaa back!
020 “Gear down, before landing check.”
021 Runway headin’ short final into Djibouti.
022 Fill ‘er up chief!
023 Ghost town ‘round here.
024 Gas stop at the next stop with the biggest fuel truck I’ve ever seen.
025 We figured the dark spot with no lights are where the three Great Pyramids are at.
001 The shadow looked more impressive in person.
002 Atlantic dawn
003 Atlantic sunrise
004 Four flowin’, turnin’, and burnin’.
005 Italy bound
006 Mount Etna on the east coast of Sicily.
007 Good morning Sicily.
008 Nice beer for breakfast.
009 I forgot what they called this, but it was great.
010 Plaid shirts are what the cool aircrew members wear.
011 Full tourist mode in the Elephant Square.
012 Heads will roll.
013 Mo beer!
014 Big man on campus.
015 Beautiful Mediterranean
016 Hammer down big time at .77 Mach.
017 Angle of the dangle diving at the ground.
018 Angle of the dangle diving at the ground.
019 Speed brakes! Whoaa back!
020 “Gear down, before landing check.”
021 Runway headin’ short final into Djibouti.
022 Fill ‘er up chief!
023 Ghost town ‘round here.
024 Gas stop at the next stop with the biggest fuel truck I’ve ever seen.
025 We figured the dark spot with no lights are where the three Great Pyramids are at.
Last edited by adrianspeeder; Sep 11, 2021 at 08:18 PM.
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From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
Trip 024, Spring 2014, New York
089 - Another trip finds a beautiful Delmarvalous day for flyin'.
090 - Airfield fire department asked if they could use a few minutes of our time to familiarize themselves with the C-17. Gave a full aircraft tour of opening and all exits, danger areas, crew seating, engine shutdown, battery disconnection, and any other situation I could think of so I don't die in a fire.
091 - They do have some pretty bad *** rigs as well, but didn't have enough time to check out their toys.
092 – Loaded up, blast off, and climb for a short trip up to NYC.
093 - Washington Monument down there.
094 – Customer had us take a quick hop up to NYC. Never been there before, so this will be fun.
095 - Lots of stuff flyiin' on the fish finder here. Controller was non stop talkin'.
096 - New York City
097 - JFK. Make a hole. Inbound fat, dumb, and happy.
098 - Third biggest airport I've ever seen. Very balanced takeoffs and landings with the same crews on the same routes over and over to be as smooth as can be. Then we show up, need escorted, stopped all kinds of traffic, had our pictures taken a thousand times from paxs, ground crews, and other flight crews on other jets.
099 - Tower came back on and said we were lookin' good.
100 - I think this was the jet that asked us to pause for a picture, and said welcome to New York.
101 - Our captain said to watch out, Red Sox in town for the night. Might have to check that out.
102/103 – Walk around check.
104 - Normally the customer is usually all business with a quickness, but their boss asked if we would like to take pictures with the jet.
105 – Hero shot.
106 – Dover doin’ work ole son!
107 – 40th floor hotel. Pretty sure I’ve never been in a taller building.
108 – Times Square.
089 - Another trip finds a beautiful Delmarvalous day for flyin'.
090 - Airfield fire department asked if they could use a few minutes of our time to familiarize themselves with the C-17. Gave a full aircraft tour of opening and all exits, danger areas, crew seating, engine shutdown, battery disconnection, and any other situation I could think of so I don't die in a fire.
091 - They do have some pretty bad *** rigs as well, but didn't have enough time to check out their toys.
092 – Loaded up, blast off, and climb for a short trip up to NYC.
093 - Washington Monument down there.
094 – Customer had us take a quick hop up to NYC. Never been there before, so this will be fun.
095 - Lots of stuff flyiin' on the fish finder here. Controller was non stop talkin'.
096 - New York City
097 - JFK. Make a hole. Inbound fat, dumb, and happy.
098 - Third biggest airport I've ever seen. Very balanced takeoffs and landings with the same crews on the same routes over and over to be as smooth as can be. Then we show up, need escorted, stopped all kinds of traffic, had our pictures taken a thousand times from paxs, ground crews, and other flight crews on other jets.
099 - Tower came back on and said we were lookin' good.
100 - I think this was the jet that asked us to pause for a picture, and said welcome to New York.
101 - Our captain said to watch out, Red Sox in town for the night. Might have to check that out.
102/103 – Walk around check.
104 - Normally the customer is usually all business with a quickness, but their boss asked if we would like to take pictures with the jet.
105 – Hero shot.
106 – Dover doin’ work ole son!
107 – 40th floor hotel. Pretty sure I’ve never been in a taller building.
108 – Times Square.
Last edited by adrianspeeder; Sep 26, 2021 at 01:12 PM.
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Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2004
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From: Dover AFB DE / Harrisburg PA
109 – Times Square.
110/111/112 – On the next day off we braved the subway to roll to a Yankees game.
113 - Great New York breakfast. At NYC prices... 43 bucks!
114 - So one of the most interesting things I've gotten to see in my life is the WTC complex.
115/117 - Standing at the South Tower pool, I mentioned to my crew that here is the reason we do what we do.
118 – North Tower pool.
119 - This tree survived the attack and was replanted among the new trees at the memorial. I was really moved by this whole visit, and for sure suggest everyone take the time to see it in person. The sons of *****es that caused all this destruction had the nerve to come into our house, hurt our people, and for what? I really don't know, but I'll be glad to do my part to keep them fighting far away.
120 – Wandered over to Wall Street.
121/122 - Lit up ready to ride!
110/111/112 – On the next day off we braved the subway to roll to a Yankees game.
113 - Great New York breakfast. At NYC prices... 43 bucks!
114 - So one of the most interesting things I've gotten to see in my life is the WTC complex.
115/117 - Standing at the South Tower pool, I mentioned to my crew that here is the reason we do what we do.
118 – North Tower pool.
119 - This tree survived the attack and was replanted among the new trees at the memorial. I was really moved by this whole visit, and for sure suggest everyone take the time to see it in person. The sons of *****es that caused all this destruction had the nerve to come into our house, hurt our people, and for what? I really don't know, but I'll be glad to do my part to keep them fighting far away.
120 – Wandered over to Wall Street.
121/122 - Lit up ready to ride!
Last edited by adrianspeeder; Oct 17, 2021 at 10:05 AM.
