After level-off I wandered up to the flight deck to see what was going on. You can see the "glass" cockpit, glass meaning computer generated flight instruments, definitely high tech.
The planes start out in "pre-contact" about 50 feet apart. The "contact" position is at about 12 feet of boom extension. Yep, you are close. You have a "window" or "envelope" that the boom can move freely around in before it will kick you off. On a -135 the window is not that big and it takes a lot of work to remain there. Day time refueling is a little easier as you can see the tanker the whole time, night on the other hand, all you see are rotating lights until you are about 100 feet behind them and then you can kind of see some of the references you use in the day time.
Weather today was a little on the bumpy side so the pilots had to work extra hard to get the gas. Not like pulling up to the Shell station and filling up the tank.
Not sure if you can make out the maroon thing on the glare shield, but the co-pilot went to Alabama. Guess that is alright, they are having a good season, although not as good as Texas! Hook'em Horns!
About the only thing I would have changed about today was my camera. It's a little dated and the focal length of the lens doesn't really accommodate some of what I thought were cool pictures.
2 comments:
Wow, these are really cool pictures! I can't even begin to imagine the patience needed to "connect" these two planes.
When I read this on FB I thought it was Kaye's experience...took me a minute! The boys loved the pictures. I can see you drooling over the cockpit...too bad the B-57's aren't so hightech!
Post a Comment