RSS Feed One of the Nation's Most Honored Weekly Newspapers |
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
Hey hey hey!
Considering it was the first time I'd been on an airplane of any sort since I was twelve, I'm actually rather surprised I did as well as I did. I only got really nauseous when they did the "combat landing," where they stall the huge plane in the air for a few moments before diving down at the runway and, as soon as they touch down, throwing it in reverse and applying the brakes. And I think that mostly had to do with the brake smell. If you think the brakes burning in your car smell awful, try the brakes on a C-130. Ugh. It was a fabulous experience, though. I got to ride in the cockpit, along with Kathy from the Vidalia Advance. They gave us little vomit bags in brown envelopes, which Kathy told me she had never had to use (now there's an incentive to NOT use one!). I kept mine as a strange little souvenir. So they have us strapped in to this little bench seat in the rear of the cockpit, out of everyone's way… sort of. To anyone that's seen a Blue Angels show, remember the guy that sticks his head out of the top hatch and waves an American flag around? Yeah, he was pretty much almost sitting on my head for that part. It was pretty funny. In fact, after watching the whole process of getting Wally into one of the F-18s and interviewing one of the other pilots, the crew of Fat Albert was pretty… normal. It was kind of a relief to see the hula girl glued to the front dashboard of the plane. When we got over to where they were parked, Kathy and I wandered around taking pictures while the crew extolled the virtues of flying on a C-130, laughing and joking with each other. The pilots themselves (there were two) were very professional, of course, as were the crew when the time came, but it was neat to see them joking around after everyone else was so tightlaced (and that doesn't just refer to their flight suits… wow). It might not get the same response as having flown in one of the F18s, but flying in Fat Albert was definitely an awesome experience that I wouldn't trade for anything. I thought I was going to fall over when the prospect of doing so was mentioned to me in the first place. And then watching the performance the next day from the ground and being able to say "Oh, I was flying in that yesterday while they did that" was probably the coolest thing ever second to actually doing so. Of course, it made me feel a little motion sick to watch all the maneuvers I'd done, but since I was on the ground, all was good. I definitely want to thank anyone reading this who was in any way, shape or form responsible for getting me up in Fat Albert. The flight definitely made my day for several days hence! Katelyn Moore is a journalist with the Forest-Blade. She can be reached at katelyn@forest-blade.com
|
for larger version       Ads have a Patent Pending. Click Here for More Information |
||||||||||||||||
