The Wild Blue Yonder
As I drove into the
parking lot of the Wheeler Downtown
Airport
20,000 people cheered
as it disappeared into the clouds only to return within seconds to buzz the
crowd again The Kansas City Aviation Expo was in full swing and I would soon be
taking a wild seven minute ride on Fat Albert, the Blue Angels monstrous C-130
Hercules support plane.
The scent of jet
fuel filled the air as I walked to hanger number five where I joined several
other members of the media waiting to have our press credentials checked. After
this security measure was taken care of we were seated on a couple of golf
carts so we could be shuttled out to the flight line where Fat Albert and its
much smaller and sleeker cousins, the F/A-18 Hornets waited.
As we approached
the aircraft my mind started drifting back in time to my first ride on a C-130
over 36 years ago.
Merle Haggard’s
patriotic song “The Fighting Side of Me” was playing on my dad’s car radio
which lifted my spirits a little as we drove through the main gate of
Richards-Gebaur AFB on April 29, 1970 .
He dropped me off on the flight line where I watched his car until it
disappeared over a hill. I turned around, took a deep breath and started
walking towards a gigantic airplane hanger where I was told to report.
I was a 20 year old,
wide eyed kid who had never been on a plane or traveled farther than a hundred
miles from home. Once inside the hanger I met up with several other recruits
who were as nervous as I was. After what seemed like an eternity of filling out
paper work we were finally taken to another hanger where we got to practice the
hurry up and wait routine so popular with the military.
Eventually we were
led out on to the tarmac past several planes towards the biggest aircraft I had
ever seen in my young life. I swallowed hard as the cold April wind whipped
across the flight line and wished I could hear that Merle Haggard song again.
I sat down on one of
the wooden benches in the huge belly of the four propeller plane. Several men
wearing headphones with the cords trailing behind them were scrambling around
the planes giant confines securing various pieces of equipment as the enormous
rear ramp doors began closing.
With the whine of
the engines slowly increasing, a Staff Sergeant yelled out that we were sitting
in a C-130 Hercules, the most versatile transport plane in the history of the
military. As the wheels left the ground and we became airborne, I had to strain
to hear the Sergeants last instructions. “Keep your seat belts tight, use the
brown paper bag if you get sick and raise your hand if you have a question. We
will be landing at Lackland AFB in San Antonio ,
Tx
Just like 36 years
ago, a cold wind was blowing across the flight line as we climbed out of the
golf carts. Other than a beautiful white, blue and yellow paint job, Fat Albert
looked just like the C-130 I went to boot camp in. As we eased into the seats running
down each side of the fuselage I noticed that they weren’t wooden now but nylon
and were in a different configuration from my maiden voyage. The ceiling looked
to be about ten feet high with wires and electronic devices occupying every
available space. The steel floor had rollers in various locations for moving
heavy crates and plenty of spots for lashing down cargo. There were only a few
small windows that were much too high to look out. Carefully climbing several
steps that were more like a ladder brought me to the highest point in the plane
which is the cockpit. There was more room than I thought there would be and the
number of gauges and instruments were mind boggling. It looked as complex as
the space shuttle. I think I could learn how to speak Chinese faster than I
could learn what all those gauges mean.
Someone said the
flight crew had arrived and we needed to get outside for a debriefing. A couple
of dozen or so young men from all four branches of the military had gathered
around two pilots when we stepped out of the plane. Like the media, they were
all here for their first ride on Fat Albert. Most of the debriefing was
directed to them, so I didn’t pay a lot of attention until I heard a pilot say
that this would be a maximum performance demonstration of the C-130s
capabilities. “This dynamic flight will subject you to positive and negative
g-forces that could result in motion sickness” explained one of the pilots. Each
one of you will receive a bag to use in case you get sick. If you vomit on the
floor you will be the one cleaning it up. We will endure dives, climbs and
turns at over 300 mph. I was suddenly as nervous as I was in 1970. That was a
nice slow uneventful flight and this flight had all the makings an experience I
wouldn’t soon forget.
I pulled the seat
belt as tight as humanly possible, zipped my camera into my coat pocket and
silently cursed myself for not taking one of my wife’s air sickness pills
before I left home. While the engines warmed up, a step ladder was secured in
the center of the floor. A Marine that wasn’t much more than a kid scampered up
the ladder to a small perch just below the ceiling. He took a seat on a steel
platform approximately six inches by three feet and stuck his head up into a
plastic bubble which allowed him to see outside the aircraft. As another Marine hooked up safety belts to
the young man I asked him why he had such a lofty seat and learned that
traditionally, the youngest man on every flight always sits in this make shift
crows nest.
With plenty of
shaking, vibrating and engine noise we slowly made our way down the runway. I
thought it was strange that we weren’t gaining speed very fast like a
commercial airliner does and wondered if we would even get off the ground
before we ran out of runway.
The wondering came
to an abrupt end when it suddenly felt like we had been shot out of a cannon.
The sudden acceleration was so powerful that it slammed me against the woman
sitting to my left and held me there for close to a minute. I tried with all my
might to get back into a sitting position but couldn’t until we leveled off.
I’m glad they told
us in the debriefing that the next maneuver after the climb would be a dive of
over 300 mph because I would have sworn we were out of control and headed to a
fiery crash that people would be talking about for years to come. We were
descending at such a high rate of speed that a woman’s purse was floating as
she held it by the straps. My stomach felt like it was some where in the rear
section of the plane where my entire body would have been if not for the seat
belt. I now know what weightlessness feels like.
With the ground
probably getting too close for comfort the pilot pulled the C-130 out of the
dive and we all learned what word g-force means. You’ve all experienced it when
the elevator you are riding on drops several floors and stops very quickly. Same
thing on Fat Albert but much worse. It feels like a tremendous weight is sitting
on you and you’re about two feet tall.
Several more wicked
turns and dives caused a couple of the Marines to lose their lunch as we came
in for a landing. The pilots brought us to a full stop in front of the crowd so
the ramp doors could be lowered and we could wave to everyone.
There were mixed
emotions as we departed the plane. A few of the service men thought the ride
was fantastic and couldn’t wait until their next one. The flight crew had that
look like most of us do when we finish our work day. The two Marines that
tossed their cookies had beet red faces knowing full well that their buddies
would never let them live it down. A few others had ash white faces from motion
sickness and I’ll just bet than my own mug was a sick looking green.
It took nearly an
hour for my 55 year old body to get back to normal as I watched the rest of a
fantastic air show from a nice safe place on the ground.
It was an experience
I will never forget and I’d like to give a special thanks to the Blue Angels
for giving me this rare opportunity.
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