Planes, Planes, and more Planes

This past weekend the base had a career day. They had a number of Air Force aircraft fly in from various bases. The student pilots sat in on a morning briefing where the pilots and crew of each aircraft spoke about their airframe, the missions of the airframe, and the purposes of the airframe. Then in the afternoon, families were invited to view the airplanes on static display.


Here she is: The Great Herk. This is a C-130 from Little Rock, AK. Little Rock is the training base for C-130's, which will be our next step after Jason gets his wings next October.




The boys referred to this one as the "biggest, baddest airplane" on base this day. This is a B-1 bomber. They were letting military and civilians climb the ladder into the cockpit, but we got in line a little too late. This plane is a monster!




The boys in dreamland. Here's Chris, Brad, and Jason standing near the KC-135 boom. All three of these guys are Air National Guard and commissioned together at AMS in Knoxville, TN this past June. Chris will fly KC-135 refuelers and Brad will also fly C-130's.



Our pilot in his "candy store."




Chris was a crew chief for his KC-135 unit, so he knows a lot about the plane. We all enjoyed hearing about the ins and outs of the plane from Chris' perspective. The guy all the way to the right of the picture is part of the crew and is an non-pilot aircrew instructor. When he overheard Chris giving us the tour, he started firing questions at Chris about how the 135 operates. Chris held his own and gained some respect from instructor!



Mae, Chris and Jason inside the 135! Jaxon and I stayed grounded because the only way to climb up into this monster plane was a ladder.




Here's Jaxon in one of the engines of the KC-135.







A pilatus right off the showroom floor! After serious modifications this plane will be a U-28.




Jason calls this one the "Gucci Tanker" because it's fairly new and has an interior similar to an airliner, including passenger seats. This is a KC-10 refueler. We all climbed up into the plane. Mae and the boys even went down into the boom pod.



Before the student pilots could leave, they had to do a FOD (Foreign Object Debris) Check. They stood shoulder to shoulder and walked the length of the runway in search of trash and rocks that might get sucked up in the plane's engines. Mae, Jaxon and I even helped with the FOD check. Here's a picture you don't see everyday: fifty plus student pilots walking slowly, side by side, looking on the ground for debris.






The happiest baby in the world! Jaxon was a trooper as his daddy took us from plane to plane on Saturday. It was very warm that day and I had the poor kid dressed in long sleeves! It was like another air show for us!