Summer Program

Hello all. As part of an AFROTC detachment, we get to experience a lot of very interesting aspects of the U.S. Air Force. Summer programs are offered, and they are awarded to various cadets on a competitive basis. I elected to sign-up for one and see if I would be selected. Well I was, and I found all this out last spring of course before school was out. I was assigned to go to Altus AFB, which is in a small town called Altus in the state of Oklahoma.

I didn’t know a whole lot about the base at first, but I did some reasearch before I left and I learned about what the mission of the base was, and location and whatnot.

I recently returned from my trip there (I guess I should call it TDY…Temporary Duty for anyone who’s wondering), and I must say that while I only spent 5 days there I learned a great deal about what life in the Air Force is like on a base (that was the intent of the program of course….lol).

For anyone who’s wonderin the mission of this particular base is training for airlift and tanker crews. The C-5A Galaxy and C-17A Globemaster III are based at Altus as well as the KC-135R Stratotanker.

I have some photos I took of the various airplanes while I was at the base (mostly cockpit shots and stuff like that), though I must admit they all turned out poorly (I just bought a cheap disposable camera and I certainly got what I paid for in terms of photo quality, but I figured some of you would like to see some of the photos so I’ll post them as soon as I can get them scanned.

Anyway, of the things we got to experience there were three things I enjoyed the most. First off, we got to fly a KC-135 simulator. So now I can proudly say I’ve performed both a take-off and a landing (yes all by myself) on a KC-135, although it’s just a simulator. 🙂

The simulator itself was simply amazing. It was so realisitic looking. This thing must have costed much more than anything I can imagine. It was a perfect recreating of the KC-135R’s Pacer CRAG cockpit (which has some very advanced pieces of electronics and avionics in it).

Secondly, we got tour of the C-17 (we were taken out on the flightline to a waiting C-17A), up close and personal. We go to go up into the cockpit and sit in the seat. All the electronics were on, and we could even see that the HUD was on and running (seeing a HUD up close with all the green numbers and letters and stuff is really quite neat. There was a KC-135 parked directly in front of the C-17 we were in, and it was kinda like looking at the tanker when you are about to refuel….at least in a way.

Lastly, and probably the most exciting thing we got to do was take a ride in a C-5. We were seated up top behind the flight deck and we were the only “cargo” on board. We took turns going up into the flight deck (and if you have never seen it the flight deck on a C-5 is HUGE!). It was one heck of a view from 25,000 feet!

To top it off, we got to watch first-hand our aircraft get refuelled. I happened to be in the cockpit at the time the tanker was spotted so I watched as it changed in size from a little grey dot to a huge KC-135. I even heard the nice “thud” as the boom locked into place inside the C-5’s receptacle. Our 3-4 hour flight took us all the way up into North Dakota and back.

It was an experience I’ll never forget.

I just wanted to share my experience with you all, and hopefully I can get the photos posted soon.

I must say I’m now more than ever aching to fly KC-135’s. I’m simply in love with them, and I have a great amount of respect for the airlift and tanker community, as without them the Air Force simply would not be able to function. The fighter guys may get all the glory, but they would be nowhere without the “heavies”.

P.S. Before we got to fly the simular the captain that was going to teach us how to fly it, gave us some background on himself, his squadron, and the KC-135.

Did any of you know that with the new CFM56 engines, the KC-135R can outclimb a T-38 to 10,000 feet??!

He told us how much of a difference those CFM’s make in performance compared to the KC-135A models.

He said they are almost overpowered.

The -135 is one hell of an airplane in my opinion.