Fly Air National Guard

Today I had the opportunity to go on an orientation flight with the WI Air National Guard. My district chairman is a Captain with the 128th Air Refueling Wing that flies out of General Mitchell Field in Milwaukee and was able to sign Brian, my district commissioner and I up for the VIP/Orientation flights that the wing has been able to conduct again following a hiatus after 9/11. Brian went in June with our state senator, while Mike and I went today.

The wing flies KC-135R refueling tankers. The planes are about 50 years old at this point and are expected to serve until 2040 as of the last published information. For more info on aircraft, follow the link in the first sentance.

The program started with a brief orientation about the aircraft and mission of the wing. Following this, there was a typical safety briefing, but with a lot more puns/jokes than what you see on an airline. We did have to go through screening, just like the airport plus we had all been cleared by the Pentagon prior to being officially invited. After that we rode a shuttle to the aircraft and got settled in. The seating on the plane is not airline standard, it is capable of carrying cargo as well as its fuel load, so the seats are easy to secure if needed and consist of canvas over steel pipes running along the fuselage of the plane. Thankfully we weren't required to stay seated long, just enough to get to altitude and then the descent to landing.

For the actual flight itself, we flew out to Nebraska and looped around to near St. Louis where we met up with the aircraft that were to be refueled (more on that in a second) and then headed back towards Milwaukee. Everyone had the opportunity to sit in the cockpit to chat with the pilots and see how the controls all functioned. Everyone was also invited to lay down next to the boom operator (the boom extends from the back of the plane to refuel the other aircraft, the operator flies the boom to line it up for the other pilot to connect to) and see how the controls worked.

The highlight of the flight was when the other aircraft arrived. We were very fortunate to meet up with a pair of F-117A Nighthawks out of Holloman AFB in New Mexico who were heading to an airshow in western WI. This apparently a rare occurance and the flight crew was as geeked as the passengers were. All of us got to take lots of pictures of the planes both from the few windows and from the boom operator position. I took about 50 pictures to make sure I got plently of quality shots. Click here to see some of the pictures posted on my Ofoto account.

From there on the flight was uneventful. That was one of the coolest things I have had the opportunity to do in a long time. I would certainly not skip another chance to do it again.