C-130 ride all in a day's work
Some days you just get lucky.
I mean, you wake up and get ready to go do another routine reporter gig and then out of the blue you get a call asking if you want to ride along with the crew of the fastest C-130 in the world.
A no-brainer. Ya think?
This particular C-130 was a transport plane flown by an all-Marine Corps crew of three pilots and five enlisted personnel. It's referred to as Fat Albert by those near and dear. It carries 25,000 pounds of cargo, 45,000 pounds of fuel, and totes the Blue Angels'
support and maintenance crew to each show site.
It is a very big plane. It did not look as if it had a prayer of a chance of surviving the wild and crazy things up there in the air they said it was going to do, but its crew kept bragging about its "maneuverability and nimbleness."
The pilots were Major Stefan Mueller in the left seat and Major Matt McGath in the right.
The plan was for Fat Albert to demonstrate its Jet-Assisted Take-Off capability. This was explained to mean that solid-fuel rockets would be attached to the sides of the aircraft to allow it to take off within 1,500 feet, climb at a 45-degree angle, and motor on up to an altitude of 1,500 feet in mere seconds.
Mueller told me I would experience a force of 2-G's on the climb-out, followed by a sense of weightless when we went "over the top." Then there would be some fancy-dancing all the way over on one wing followed by a roll and some similar stuff on the other wing. An added bonus, he said, was that at times we'd be little more than a hundred feet off the ground. It occurred to me at that moment that power lines and trees also hung out at that particular altitude.
At the end of the crew briefing, everyone shook everyone else's hand and wished them a good flight. A worthy tradition, I thought.
McGath asked if I got airsick and I allowed as how I had been a flight attendant until recently, but that commercial planes didn't usually fly with quite the abandon he had been describing. To be polite, I accepted the airsick bag. Besides, you never know.
The pilots then invited me into the cockpit, gave me a headset where I could hear them talking to one another, and left me to put on the seat belt - a lap belt, no less - for myself.
And then it started and it was an experience I can only wish for everyone I love in this world. The G forces - about which I confess to having been a little anxious - turned out to be not much more than a hearty nudge. And the weightless was something totally wonderful I'd always thought I'd have to study up to be an astronaut to experience.
I laughed, I grinned and I do believe I screamed "oh, yes" more than once. Quite honestly, I don't know how to describe the experience, except to say that I forgot how to be an adult for the full seven minutes we were in the air.
As I said, talk about lucky days.