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Frankfurt, Tuesday, 1995-05-16 02:00 local (Z+2)
Hello, all....
I had a very interesting but terribly exhausting day. Only once, when I was flying for Evergreen, can I remember being so tired.
My present situation is interesting. We're sitting on the ramp at Frankfurt after having brought 468 troops from Kuwait. Another crew is flying the airplane to New York. We (the cockpit crew) and a bunch of flight attendants are on the airplane to get home quicker and, for the cockpit crew, to make some money. So what we have here is a passengerless 747 with center rows being converted to sleeping quarters for the trip. You lean the seats in front of your row forward, the seats in the row back, and steal cushions from another row to double-cushion your four seats. Some of the more inventive individuals have gotten a great number of blankets and made a “tent”. There is, of course, a fair amount of joking going on as to what will happen in some of these tents once the lights go off. Since these people are mostly in their 20s, I suppose most anything might happen. Personally, I will fall asleep immediately since I've spent just a few minutes under 12 hours today in the cockpit—more if you count time spent on the ground.
The day started with a 1.5 hour delay at Athens. The Greeks don't have a modern air traffic control system. They have no enroute radar, so they have to maintain separation by allowing 10 to 15 minutes between aircraft on a route. It's the start of the tourist season here, and it's already overloading them. At the suggestion of the local Tower representative, the captain and I visited the tower to plead our case. They were quite friendly, explained their problems—and upped our takeoff time by 10 minutes, explaining quite frankly that it was a reward for having listened to their problems.
I flew the 4.5 hour leg to Kuwait. Great weather and we flew right over Cyprus. C.J., you will remember Larnaca, Limassol, Paphos, Nicosia, etc. We went right alonside all of them—fond memories. Then just prior to getting to Kuwait, we went right alongside Ras Tanura, where Jean and I lived in Saudi Arabia. Visibility was excellent.
When we got to Kuwait, things got complicated. The first problem was that the Kuwaitis were unsatisfied with where our military had directed us to park the airplane. They wanted it moved—5 feet. Yes, just 5 feet. It seems the nose gear wasn't parked right on the painted mark, and someone felt the need to exercise their authority. No tug big enough to move a 747 was available, so we had to start a couple of engines to move it.
The next problem was that with all troops loaded, the Kuwaitis couldn't find our flight plan. After a lot of discussion, I wound up going to the Kuwaiti government equivalent of the FAA on the field to file an international flight plan (which I had only done a couple of times before over 3 years ago) while the captain stayed and pacified the passengers, who were now sitting in an airplane with the inside temperature exeeding 100°—outside was 97°—because with this many passengers, the air conditioning can't handle it on these old airplanes when you're only on auxiliary power.
All traces of the Gulf War have been removed from the airport. However, we did see several large scorched areas from the air.
Then came the 7.3 hour leg to Frankfurt. We were plagued with route changes, and the more tired I became the more difficult it was to understand the foreign controllers. Really frustrating, and I knew the captain was wondering why in hell I was having so much trouble. He was, of course, tired as well. Neither one of us had slept more than 3 sound hours the previous night. When we got to Frankfurt he said the only criticism of my performance he had was my difficulty in understanding the controllers. However, the written evaluation he is required to give (he's a “standards captain”—I have to spend 75 hours with a standards captain) contained nothing critical.
Well, I think I hear an engine running, so maybe we'll get going soon. I'm fading fast anyway. Uh-oh, the engine just shut down. We're due to get into New York at 04:00 local. Actually, at this point I'd just as soon go to a hotel in Frankfurt. Stay tuned for the continuing saga.
Home, 1995-05-16 16:00 local (Z-7)
From out-of-bed to in-bed, Athens to home—44 hours. I may be too old for this.
Bye for now...Terry
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