4th FCC Stage (OTBH 2017) - Workin' in, above, and around the sandbox on my fourth deployed flying stage. I am a 3500 hour Flying Crew Chief on the Boeing C-17. These are some of my travels from around the world sponsored by the United States Air Force. See more at
www.adrianspeeder.com
001 - Last Coors Lite, Texas rib eye, and bar night before leaving on a jet plane.
003 - Last bit of sand with water.
004 - Damn you AAFES.
005 - Forgot my banjo.
006 - First desert ride.
008 - Desert swag.
010 - This two piece unit is the most comfortable thing I've ever been issued.
012 - Team Dover all over the world!
014 – Rise and shine you silly sleepy head!
015 - There are plenty of things to bitch about on a TDY to the desert. Food, weather, dirt, sand, rocks, non-potable water, laundry, cold showers, and other random nonchalantness that drags out the day. Even the best job I’ve ever had gets taxing with a combined pile of non-constant rest time, bag drags, customs checks, locked doors, dirty gear, small vans, more rocks, no trash bags, demanding flight schedules and beat to [censored] jets.
It’s no one’s fault when everyone does their best to work them along, but without the luxury of time parked with piles of spare parts, the love is lost. Of course the plane safe to fly, but minor quirks come along for the ride. Pushing the bodies, beans, bullets, and bombs in and out of the ‘box makes the night to day to night cycle strum on with a solid rhythm across all the airframes.
Then a phone rings. A soldier is hurt. A sailor is sick. A Marine is wounded. An airman is burned. A contractor is bleeding. No one wants these calls, but they will come. Centers are alerted, references are run, medics are located, and the big board is looked at. “Where’s the closest bird that isn’t broken?” “There sir.” “You, Reach 456, stop loading now, push what you have out, and ready for immediate departure!” Slammed with a new call sign, new diplomatic clearances, new destination filed, and a weary norm takes a new direction.
I believe the jet knows it too. Com 1 has been scratchy and not transmitting from the co-pilots side? Cristal clear. Ramp and door needing a manual override to seat and settle? Locks first time. Number 1 engine lagging on EGT rise after fuel flow? Spools faster off the APU than ever before. Left air conditioning pac discharge temp high? Blows cooler than a Manas Kyrgyzstan winter.
For all the different missions a C-17 can quick turn to perform, I get no greater satisfaction than riding along with a successful Air Evac medivac run. The sum of all the players is greater than the whole to get care to those who desperately need it.
017 – Air Evac medivac
018 - Traded for a kickass patch.
020/022 - Quigley van!
027 - Wasn't sure at first, but this flag has grown on me.
031 – Another day found my crew to be two female pilots and two female loadmasters. I was requested to wear a bow to fit in.
034 - Trouble on my left, trouble on my right,
I've been facing trouble almost all my life.
My sweet love, won't you pull me through?
Everywhere I look I catch a glimpse of you.
035 – You keep that contraption away from me.
036 – Aircrew problems.
044 - She's gassed up and wound up tight ready to ride.
