I had an experience of a life time. Owen's squadron set up a spouse's orientation flight for us this past Tuesday. We were able to go onto the KC-135 and experience a flight and a refueling. It was so amazing to view an actual refueling. We refueled 4 F-15 over the North Sea. Our pilots were Col Clifton and Capt Jessen Malathu. They were wonderful. We also had a pax monitor Lt Andy Nickles and our boom operator was A1C Jon LeMessurier. We had a show time of 6:05 in the morning, where we went through the events that the pilots go through when preparing to fly. We started by watching the weather briefing. Then they took us into the conference room and we observed the pre-flight briefing. We then went out to the plane and observed them going through all the check list on the pre-flight. We were on the plane for about 1 hr 30 min before take off. Once we took off we flew just east of England putting us over the North Sea. There we circled in the pattern until the F15 arrived to be refueled. We were there about 2 hrs. They let us go down into the boom pod to watch the refueling take place. I was so amazed at how close the planes really do get. I told the boom it would sure take a lot of nerves to do this because of how close they get. It is only about 30 feet from where we are looking from. The boom operator was Owen's boom from when we were in Altus, OK so he let us play around with the boom for a little bit. I got to move it all over. That was awesome because Owen told me later he has never got to even do that. After we had refueled all of the planes we then headed home. We landed around 12:00. It seemed like a long day for us but they said to them it was really nothing compared to what they normally do on a daily bases. I had a great time and would love to do it again. Below are a few pictures and a video I took during the flight. I hope you enjoy.
Col Clifton and Capt Malathu
Col Clifton and Capt Malathu
The boom pod.They actually lay on their stomachs the whole time they are refueling the planes.
A view from the boom pod
An F-15 we just refueled
Me and the boom
A video of the refueling
3 comments:
OH Sara!! How neat is that. I can't wait for my turn. I actually just got an e-mail today telling us that ours is scheduled for May 10. I would love to go, but I'm not sure since our baby boy is on his way. I just might have to wait on a later date, but I can't wait for my chance. I'm glad it was such a cool experience!
Sara,Really neat. And loved the video. Thanks for sharing. Love Mom
How cool is that? What an amazing view. You are going to have so many wonderful experences to share from you time overseas. Who would have ever dreamed of any of this growing up just a few short years ago.
A friend of ours in Goodland (our hairdresser)has a son who has just finished pilots lessons and is working at the airport in Goodland. He will be going to the K State program in Salina next year. I told them about you and Owen and what you are doing now but she didn't think he would be interested in ROTC. I just had to bite my tongue and not push the issue but all the while I was thinking about how much he would be missing if he didn't follow the same path. I think I need to send him this video - what an experience.
God Bless - The Volks
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