OK I am back...

So I have been slacking on posting on here as I have not had my computer. My friend Marci’s computer died and until we can get it fixed I am lending her mine. She is in the middle of 2 masters’ classes and I only stay up on this computer surfing the web for junk so it was an easy decision to give it up for a better cause.

I sat the desk most of the week but did get to fly the last 2 days with the other 2 cheyenne crews. It was a lot of fun to fly with a new crew. Everyone does things different so it’s nice to see what others are doing.

As we drove in to go fly we saw this big dust devil, it was pretty cool and I got these pictures. It was neat to see it swallow an F-16, I felt bad for that crew cheif as I bet it needs to be cleaned pretty good after all that sand.


Can you see a F-16 in this picture...


How about now... (click play)

The first flight was a lot of fun. We flew into Baghdad and the weather was complete crap. We had to shoot an approach down to minimums and then some but it all worked out. It was a nice landing and Makayla a loadmaster that I have flown with many times was on board and she always jokes that she likes my landings, as cheesy as that is it makes me smile.

Marci had the next leg and I finally got to go to Basrah. I have been doing this for years but I have never been to Basrah. It was really anti-climatic other then the controllers would not call Marci a Maam, she was always called Sir. I think it is something to do with the fact that they are still getting used to girls doing this type of things. But it made us all laugh on the flight deck except for Marci who didn’t find it as funny.

Marci then had this landing that felt like she had covered the runway with marshmallows to help soften the touchdown. I mean it was a greaser! So now what do I do, well I told her she could fly the rest of the day as there was no way that I could top that but she refused and made me fly.

On the next leg we had some fun doing a little cloud chasing as the opportunity was there and well… Why not! Everyone was having a great time and I think we worked real well together. So the landing you all are asking about, well I think that I got lucky and found a few of the marshmallows that Marci had put on the runway because it was pretty nice if I do say so myself. I know it’s not all about softness, needs to be on speed, on centerline, and in the zone, soft is only a bonus. But soft is the only thing that people in the back can tell and I think that when someone can sleep through the landing that is the best compliment.


Oh and Amy does this look familiar??? Yep she is still flying and found her long lost sister over the skies of Iraq =)

The next day I got to fly with the other Cheyenne crew and that was a long boring flight of doing circles in the sky. I did get to watch the first 3 Indiana Jones movies, yep you heard me we watched 3 movies in a row. They watched a fourth movie after that but I was done watching movies.

I really don’t enjoy the missions that we just spend 10 hours in the air and not do anything up front. I need to find a way to make better use of the time. I try to read and do but I wish I could be building the plane instead. All this “extra time” has been making me think about a master’s degree but we will have to see about that.

The best news of the week is that today is the last day of me sitting duty crew!!! Yea so as a crew we should be put back on the line and able to start flying again.

Well time to read some more of my book, should be done pretty soon, lot’s of down time sitting a desk for hours on end =)