The stars have aligned again

Yep, I don't know why they keep aligning for me but the stars have aligned again. I am on my way home!

I did some geocaching in Scotland and I'll get thoughts pics updated when I can, just need to get ready to fly right now.

See you all soon,
Aloha!

This is what I do

Just another fun day in the skies. I got to be the mission commander for a 2 ship formation over here. First I never thought I would be flying formation in combat and now I am leading a 2 ship into some crazy terrain and doing airdrop inside of a valley that I can't climb out of if I lose an engine (yes I could make it out but I would have to follow the river all the way out).

So I want to talk about it for a bit but I think I will just show you instead. Enjoy.


I hope you liked seeing a little bit of what I am doing over here. I'll try and post another video of a cool place we land at later. I have never had 2 days off in a row but I had today and got tomorrow off so I don't know what to do with myself.

On a good note it looks like I will be coming home sooner than I originally thought too so I might be home before the holiday weekend!!! OK well I need to go eat, have a great day and I know that I am having a good time over here.

Flying the Line

Yesterday we got to fly to another dirt strip and I was looking at what it does to the plane when we land on unimproved surfaces and it is pretty scary.

This is the main axle that holds on the main gear and you can see how it has been peppered with rocks. MX wraps up all the brake lines but you can still see that the valves and everything get really beat up.

Here are some of the vent lines that are normally pointing straight down and ROUND. This plane also had a rock hit the wing, or so they think it was a rock and it put a 2”x8” gash in the leading edge. So I really wonder what it is really costing to bring the beans and bullets to the soldiers as we are beating up the plans pretty good.

I just added up our numbers and we have hauled over 556,000 lbs! These numbers may not sound high but half a million pounds in a C-130 over 30 days is a LOT! In fact that is more than I hauled during a 90 day deployment to Iraq.

The good news is that I am staying busy and doing a lot of good moving everything around over here. Hope everyone is doing well and I will see you all soon as I am about a month out from being home. Aloha!

Long Day in the Sky

Well we had a long day flying and we didn't even go that far. I guess with the bad weather and having airfields close on us didn't help the day but it sure reminded me why I like to carry extra gas. I know that they (USAF) doesn't want us to carry extra gas but maybe in a big jet it makes a difference but in a slow ugly Herk it really doesn't cost that much more to take extra gas and I am glad that I do as today I tapped into it on more than one occasion.

Everything worked out and it was only a little hairy once when the field was socked in with clouds and there was no way into the field (for the flyers out there the ILS and PAR was down) but after holding for about 30 minutes there was a shot. They weather lifted and we could get in via a TAC approach and life was good. We were about 15 min from Min fuel where we would have gone somewhere else and hoped that we could get in to there the first try because if we needed 2 tries that would be all we would get... It did feel good as we moved a lot of stuff and made a difference.

Oh I don't know if I told you all but I was in Pakistan yesterday bringing in a lot (like 50,000 meals) of food for the victims of the flooding that is going on over there. Yea it took 3 trips and the back was completely full each time. I hope it makes a difference and we keep helping out if they need it.

Well it was a long day and I they are telling me to go to bed so I can do it all again tomorrow. Have fun and I'll chat more later, Aloha!

Silly Comm Guys

So I am trying to save a little money and not buy the internet for my last month here. The internet cost $100 a month and is close to dial up speed, this may sound like a huge rip off but being able to email and stay in touch via my room in the desert is really convenient! So plan B was this free wifi that they put up for everyone on base. First a short history lesson...

The USAF let people onto hotmail and what not for a few years then they banned it for all. Then I noticed in 2004 that they started letting people use hotmail and such overseas when they were deployed, that was nice! Then they killed it again on all the computer but let you use hotmail on some morale computers. Well this goes back and forth but this year the USAF has given access to not just hotmail but youtube and facebook to everyone on all work computers, yea I don't know how that is going to help productivity but hey, the people are happy. Now I am connected to this "morale net" and it won't let me access my blog web page... Some things just make me scratch my head. Anyway I can post via email and update it when I go to work and get on an official computer.

So long story short if I hold my laptop up against the corner of my room I get a pretty good internet connection (yes I will need to build a desk/shelf) and I am saving $100. So I will give this a try for a few days and see if it's worth the savings. The only catch is that the internet that you pay for is for 30days, no more no less so now that I am getting close to 30 days I should buy it sooner rather than later if that is what I am going to do...

Yes as you can tell I have had too much time off from flying. We got to fly yesterday but it was 12 hours off from our normal sleep schedule so we were all really tired when we got back. Now they are trying to keep us on this new schedule and it is hard to get adjusted to the new bed time.

OK I am going to try and go to bed in a bit, have a great weekend, Aloha!

It's HOT!!!

Well it's official, it's HOT!!! Here is the accuweather for today, if you don't believe me here is a link to the accuweather forecast.

Monday 7/26/2010

Hotter with sizzling sunshine

High Temperature: 109°F

RealFeel: 115°F

Today I went for a walk to the BBQ chow hall to get some good (better) food and Luke made a few comments on how long the walk was. It was only about 15 minutes but in the heat it did feel a bit longer. The food was ok, but not the best I have had here, the grilled chicken was the best today, I guess that is why Wes put 3 chicken breasts on his plate.

When the 3 of us were on our walk back Wes decided to by some new DVD from the bazzar, I guess it is some new movie that just hit the theaters, then the 3 of us went to find a geocache. I had tried to find this one before but no luck, after reading the hints the cache had moved but still no luck. We were all dripping sweat and I was getting a little frustrated that we could not find it. The neat thing was this cache is right on the wire and we climbed up and saw a house less than 100 yards from the fence. I guess I knew that we were close but I didn't really realize how close we are to the locals. There were a few kids out flying kites and I noticed that they are the same kits that are hanging in my room. I don't know the history of the kites in my room but maybe the person before was in contact with the locals more than me.

So after we got close to our rooms I was so hot that I needed to stop sweating. I went into our squadron break room and cooled down for a few minutes. The plan was to go and find the last few Geo's today but in this heat I really don't feel like walking around outside, in fact I don't feel like doing anything. The gym sounds nice till you walk inside and it's about 90 in the gym, I just don't feel like sweating that much today. My room is surprisingly cool, don't have a thermometer but it feels less than 85 and as sad as that is it feels cool.

I think I will jut try and read in my room today, if it gets too hot I might go to one of the other areas on base where they have better air conditioning and hang out there till the sun goes down.

I hope everyones weekend went well and everyone is enjoying the summer time fun, I am trying here but it's just not the same as being home.

Oh I don't think I posted this yet but these are some of the mountains that we fly by over here, yes they are very tall, 22,000+ feet! And there are others that push 27,000 in the area! Yea notice the snow, remember the temperature... Yea these mountains make the rockies look like foot hills!

OK time to get some real work done, Aloha!

Last day of tower job

I am sitting up in the tower again. Today has been interesting in that sometimes I know that we mess up in the plane and today I now know that tower can mess up just as easy. Nothing bad at all but just good to know that we are all human and we all make mistakes.

My sister Amy is in Cheyenne with her boy toy B and they might be going to the Rodeo today. I got to go for one day in 2007 but then I was in Iraq in 2008, Hawaii in 2009 and now in Afghanistan in 2010. It would seem that I am just not meant to go to the rodeo. I know that I am not a huge rodeo fan but it would be fun to do some people watching as I am sure it draws a unique crowd.

The good thing is that I am about halfway though this deployment, so that means only a month to go, ok a little more but I am trying to think positive. I still don’t know when I have to be in Little Rock but my fingers are crossed for Dec. If the man makes me move in Oct it will be a busy time for us to try and find a place in Little Rock. The good news is that I have been looking at houses and they are a lot cheaper than in Cheyenne. They are about $100 a square foot, so I just need to decide how much home I want and that is how much I would pay. I don’t think I will be getting a 3 car garage as they just don’t have them there but I am hoping that I will not need it to finish the plane. I do think a lot of the houses have big yards so maybe a riding lawn mower is in my future =)

OK well I guess I should get back to work, I can piece together an email with all the distractions up here but it’s hard to use this time to study like I should be doing. Wish everyone the best and I’ll write more when I can. Aloha

Life in the Tower

So I have been working a desk rather than flying for the last 2 days. I am working as the Supervisor of Flying, that means I sit up in the Control Tower and I am the eyes and ears for the Operations Group Commander. It’s kind of neat as I see the helos buzz the tower and I got the best view of the airfield but on the other hand I am sitting down and working 2 computer, 2 phones, and 4 different radios, not really as fun as flying.

The neat thing is that the tower is on the other side of the base and I got to get some geocaches over here =) Yea I am getting close to finding all of them on this base, there are 28 and I need 9 more…

I should have one more day of this duty then back to the flying. It was a neat to work in the tower but I am ready to get back to flying.

Have a great weekend everyone and I’ll see you all soon.

We're Moving!!!

I just found out where I am going to be moving to... Little Rock, Arkansas Yep I am going to be a C-130J model instructor at the school house. I know so many questions, no I have never flown a J model before so yes I will have to learn. No Little Rock was not my number one choice but the good thing about it is that I will not be deploying for a few years!!!! I am so excited that I will be able to spend time at home and work on the plane with out these 2 month interruptions.

This is the C-130J, from the outside small changes (6 blade props, and a little longer), form the inside all new, they got ride of the Navigator and Engineer so I will be doing a lot more work =(

I am off to fly now, have a great rest of the weekend and I'll write more when I can, Aloha!

My New Home

So first I figure I should show you where I live first:

This is what they call a B-Hut, it's basically a home (or a fancy fort for a 12 year old) made of 4x8 sheets of plywood. Yes you can imagine it's thermal properties mirror that of plywood, so hot outside=hot inside.

As you can see these are everywhere. At one point they said these were to be just a quick temporary lodging for soldiers and/or office space till we got something more permanent, I think I heard that statement back in 2004.....

This is what it looks like inside, ours has 8 rooms and we are really lucky that we each get or own room, a lot of the other people are 2 to a room.

Here is a panoramic shot of the room, left is the wall next to the front door to the building, far right is the side of the building. It really is not that bad, it's more room than I am used to. The photo does not show that the interior walls of the building don't go all the way to the ceiling so there are sheets to block the light, but not the sound. It is a 24/7 quite zone in my room.

This is a 300# bomb that they found digging about 60-70' from my room, they work us up and made us evacuate (how rude) but EOD found out that it did not have any explosives in it and they thought that it was an old Russian bomb and that it is safe. You can also see how close the flight line is, and yes this is less than 15' from my B-Hut.

OK well it's bed time for me, I hope you all enjoy the update, I have more to post but will have to wait for more time. Aloha!

Now we're Cooking!

Very hot with scorching sunshine; extreme heat can be dangerous for outdoor activities

108 °F

Now how is that for a forecast???

Well I am sorry I have not updated this thing but I have been flying my butt off!!! Once I landed here at Bagram AB I have done nothing but try and keep up with the pace. We have been flying nonstop and during my down time (what down time) I have tried to get back in shape and do a little geocaching.

So what’s it like, well you can start off with HOT. I had an emergency today as our air conditioning went out, after much calling/walking/searching I found the breaker box and the tripped breaker and “Saved the Day” by restoring some cool air to our home.

I am living in what they call B-Huts. It’s basically a shack made form 4’x8’ sheets of plywood. The neat thing is that I have my own little cubical inside the shack, but the not so neat thing is there is more than just my crew in one of these buildings so there is always people walking in an out. I am pretty lucky as the maintainers are doubled up in the same size rooms and there are Army folks that are living in huge, and I mean HUGE tents, yea so big that 800 soldiers call one tent their home, yea now that is crazy!

The flying is great, it’s what the C-130 was made for, or at least it is pushing its performance envelope. We are landing at fields that have less than 4000’ of runway and at a field elevation of over 7500’! For you folks that don’t understand how airplanes fly let me help you: airplanes need air to fly, these places don’t have any and when it’s 40 degrees Celsius outside (about 104F) let’s just say aircraft performance less like a sports car and more like an overloaded dump truck trying to drive up Waipo Valley (very step road) with flat tires. Also flying around here you have to keep your eyes (and radar) out as 15-18,000 foot mountains are the norm, and 20,000’ plus do exist!

My crew is doing very well, I have a new copilot and navigator but they are learning quickly and are a valuable asset as it takes everyone to make it work when you are flying in an environment like this.

Well I will try and update this a little more frequently and I’ll try and post pictures when I can. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and think of me when you think it’s getting hot where ever you are. Aloha!

Romania

I made it to Romania and as soon as I checked in to the hotel and had some breakfast we headed out to find a cache in this country. We were 0 for 2 at first and that was pretty disappointing as I was trying to show 2 friends what geocaching was all about.

But then we hit it big, yea the first (and only) cache we found was in a nice park. There were other caches nearby but people were cutting trees down right were we needed to go =( Any way it was a lot of fun and we got to see the world's second largest building, The Palace of the Parliment Yea it was pretty big!

I think this is the front, this thing was so huge that any of the sides could be the front!

And I think this is the side profile, note how huge this place is, I guess that's why it's the second biggest, time to find the #1 biggest...

After walking around for a few hours I am back in my room trying to decide when I need to sleep as I will be leaving soon for more flying.

Just wanted to give you all an update when I could. Aloha!

Midnight Over Iceland

This is what it looks like over Iceland at midnight, they said it doesn't really get dark here this time of the year. This was a cool stop as it was my first time to Iceland, oh and no we did not see the volcano :(

Yes this is me at 0130, CRAZY!!!

There was a geocache there but I couldn't get off the airport side to the parking lot side to get it :( oh well I got 2 in England today!

I am heading out very soon and I'll try and update one last time before I get to my new home.
Got to run,
Aloha

Its that time again...

I am on my way for another deployment. This should be another short one (about 60 days) but this one is to Afghanistan instead of the all too common Iraq. It has been about 2 years since I have flown in the stans so it will be a nice change.

Again they keep reminding me that I am getting old as I keep getting "green" crews to fly with. I know it will be fine, and I'll teach them most of the things that they need to know but it will be a challenge for the first few flights as the learning curve is very steep.
I'll try and keep this thing updated as I do during deployments so you all can see what's going on. There are rumors that I will be busy but we will have to wait and see.

Ok only 4 more hours of flying till I make it to St johns, take care and I'll write more soon, aloha!