[Flashorn]

Hey Guys!!



Congratulations on the STAR. We couldn't of asked for better Mods.

kellie made a wise decision asking you both.



FLASHORN. !http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
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[coastie65]

Thanx Flash. I did give it some thought though. Then I realized that Aurora was carrying the load all by her lonesome due to mph getting married and the fact we only had two mods and it seemed to be spread awful thin. As I told Kellie, we have a lot of good and capable members that would fit the bill.

[AuroraDizon]

Coastie is right there are a lot of qualified people out there and many of you were closely considered. The selection was a little rushed due to MHP being married, Kellie's departure and me having a lot to do right now by myself. Thanks Coastie, a lot of what goes on with moderation goes unseen and it can get pretty hectic around here sometimes. It is nice to not have to have so much weight on my shoulders.

[rgreen4]

For someone who has never been over there, they cannot comprehend the RAIN. I was stationed at NAS Cubi Point for the last 14 months of my service. While the average Annual rainfall for most U.S. locations is about 30" it was over 140" at Cubi. And that fell in 3 months. NOB Subic and NAS Cubi Pt were the only Naval installations authorized to use a non-descript black umbrella as an official part of the uniform rather than the traditional rain gear. It is hard to describe to someone that in that climate when you wore a raincoat (black for Naval Officers) that you were as wet inside from the sweat as you were on the outside from the rain. The never ending rain.

The weather reporters express amazement when during a Hurricane that some location gets up to 20" of rain in a day, they should spend a month in the Western Pacific during rainy season. We had one storm come through and got over 30" in 24 hours, it ate away at the hillside behind the lower part of the base, caused a mud slide which came down killed a Filipino who was working under his truck on the road up to the admin area, came down through the Armed Forces Courier Service building, killing several more and came out covering the taxiway and almost reached the runway. For about a week if you had to make a long roll out, you had to stop, turn around and taxi back down the runway to get past the dirt pile.

[Knifeblade]

B-) Well done, RG and Coastie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[coastie65]

Thanx Knifeblade. Hey rg, I remember we were doing an unrep (underway replenishment) in NAM. We were in a line and passing the stuff down the line as it came aboard when one of those monsoonal downpours hit. The guy next to me only had one thing to say. He said something to effect it sure was nice to finally get a "Hotel" shower. We had to laugh at that.

[Knifeblade]

!plane landing.bmp!

Man. kind of recalls the above coastie. Not exactly my experience, but the plane we being transported in pretty much had a very similar and equally well..... irritating and exciting fast abort. Needless to say, someone really droppe the ball, by giving landing instructions.

[g4acre]

hello Kellie, I have been working long hours & just got to read news letter about you leaving.sorry to hear that and you will be missed. G4acre

[g4acre]

and a BIG congrats to
h4. rgreen4 and coastie65 G4acre

[coastie65]

:^0 Man, I hope that C17 ( I think) is leaving and not coming.

[Knifeblade]

LOL, that big bird was actually coming in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I used that pic. to sort of convey what we went through in the "Pines a few or more years back.

[coastie65]

The ATC must have been on a coffee break. :D I was on a commuter flight from Washingto Dulles back to Richmond. It was a twin engine turboprop ( Otter). We were on our take off roll when the pilot suddenly hauled back on the throttles about the time we left the ground. That thing plopped back down on the runway and he made a quick turn off on to a taxi way. About that time we heard a big roar and when I looked at the runway, there comes a big ol 747 heading out and we had nearly gotten run over by that thing. The only thing the pilot had to say was "that some other fellow had decided that he wanted to go ahead of us" and we had to abort the take off.

[mjd420nova]

Rgreen: I had spent many a shore patrol assignment riding the ferry boat back and forth from Subic Bay to Grande Island in those torrential downpours. After I got assigned to a ship, were spent three tours to the Gulf of Tonkin. Subic was one of the R&R ports we came back to, many a time we arrived in the rain, spent 6 soaking wet days doing repairs and maintenence topside in the rain, left for thirty days only to return and find out it hadn't stopped while we were gone and didn't miss anything. I did experience a winter on Treasure Island in San Fran Bay when it rained so hard that the water was coming backwards out of the storm drains. Coastie: Unreps were a horrid experience as we always used hand lines if a helo wasn't available. When a helo was used, thirty guys would man-handle a ten ton pallet of fthe deck by dragging it into the hanger bay. Needless to say, none of the ice cream ever made it to the mess decks or freezer. Many a time we would be doing a refueling from the Sacramento(AOE-3) on one side and a re-arm from the Katmai on the other side. Toss in the Big E on the other side of the Sacto and we would get 20 foot waves washing down the decks on both sides. I hate salt water showers.

[joshuav]

great work you two you RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!B-) :^0 :D

[rgreen4]

I don't think he's coming in. Two things, first of all, most of the runway appears beyond the work crew. While the mountains appear in the distance, if he were landing he would already be on the deck. Second, looking at the cloud of dust behind the aircraft, he is at full power.
While it is possible to take off while there is an obstruction at the far end if situations demand it (the photo was taken in Afganistan), you would never ever land in that situation. On takeoff, you know how much runway you need, and you have more control over the situation. You can taxi out to the numbers, turn around with you tail over the end and start your take off. If the runway is 10,000 feet, and you only need 5,000, then you would have room to clear a work crew at 8,000. Note that the work crew is aware and watching, incase they need to run. While these aircraft aren't fast, they do have a good combat climb rate.
Talking about the rain. The hairiest landing I ever had to make was at Cubi in the rain. We were coming back from Clark after taking a patient up there in the evening. The wind was out of the west so we had to land counter to the normal pattern, coming in over the mountain (over base housing) and landing heading toward the island. As we touched down, we got a gust of wind from the bay, and turned the HU-16 45 degrees to the right on the rain slick runway. I grabbed all the throttle I could find, it straightened up and we went around again. The second pass was a little more normal. The HU-16 was grossly underpowered, but it did have reverse on the blades so you could use the engines to slow down. It's wierd to back up an airplane.
I had a BSA Troop meeting that I was a little late to and they knew it was me - they heard the AC go over (twice) and I wasn't there. We only had three qualified left seaters while I was there. That landing was about as bad as a night carrier trap (I had a few of them too) on the USS Randolph which didn't have the drop center lights that the later revisions put on the Essex class boats.
I found this photo of the USS Yorktown on a Navy dedicated website. The photo date is 1 Jun 1969, and I didn't leave the Squadron until the end of June, so somewhere on that boat, I should be (along with several thousand others). She looks like she's getting ready to recover aircraft, because the landing area is clear, otherwise all the aircraft up front would be sitting on the fantail. They got moved several times over a 4 hour cyle. First they would be on the fantail with the launching aircraft in the center waiting to get on the cats. Then immediately after launch, the parked aircraft are moved up front to clear the landing aircraft. When getting ready for another launch, they get moved to the fantail again, etc, etc. Also - no helos on deck - only during launch and recovery are they missing.

You can notice the dark smudges on the white lines in the landing area that is where the wires are. They are kept greased to reduce the wear and the grease gets on the deck. Real nice when the deck is wet, it's called hydroplane city. We never put one over the side, but we had a few close calls.
I guess I've gotten a little off topic.

[coastie65]

Speaking of unreps, this one of em. We were along side the USS Castor doing the old High line routine. No Choppers for us. Did you notice that all mail came byway of AO ? No fuel, no mail. We had em two days in a row one time and couldn't take on fuel from the second AO. We hooked up the hose and made like we were getting things ready until the mail came across and then we broke the connection and told them we ha topped off all tanks the day before, boy were they mad. They couldn't go home until they had expended their load of fuel. Anyway, here we are:

!http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
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[Adama]

> > You can notice the dark smudges on the white lines in the landing area that is where the wires are. They are kept greased to reduce the wear and the grease gets on the deck. Real nice when the deck is wet, it's called hydroplane city. We never put one over the side, but we had a few close calls.
>
> I guess I've gotten a little off topic.
[/quote]
You got a little off topic, RGreen....?

At any rate, that's a beaut of a ship! It's amazing to me that you and Coastie can look back and say, Hey I was there!

Edit - I was trying to copy/quote your whole comment, but the picture wouldn't come out.
Message was edited by: Adama

[Knifeblade]

Yeah, coastie, same questions came to mind when I snagged the pic. to convey my experience. I would have beat feet the H* out of there if I saw a big boy like that landing. The caption was for a landing, so that's what I reported, to give fair credit to the pic. taker.

[coastie65]

Hey Knifeblade, I didn't do track in school, because in the words of one, I was so slow, I couldn't get out of my own way. You can bet I would have found some speed if I saw that big boy bearing down on me. Unlike that flattop, we only had a crew of 160 Officers and men. My berthing area was just aft of the 5" mount and our head was just forward of it. We had to walk through the upper handling room below the mount to get to the head. I won't go into the effects of heavy seas on the toilets up there, when the ship reaches the crest and drops into the trough. Nuff said.

[Knifeblade]

;), not too much different in a KC-30 that hits a trough when you know.