5/7/09 Altus, OK

5/7/2009 Altus, OK

We left Texarkana in fog and mist, headed west on I-30. Thirty miles later, we branched off onto US-82. We followed US-82 through Paris, Gainesville, and on to Wichita Falls. Gradually, the mist and fog subsided. The first part of the trip had scenery like yesterday - rolling hills. Gradually, the land got dryer - the trees were replaced by shrubs and the other green things disappeared. It also got flat.

Again, we needed the air all day to combat the mugginess. We turned north at Vernon, TX, and came into Altus. We checked in on the base for the FAMCAMP (in the military, everything has an acronym - Family Campground), went there and set up. I was dripping sweat in a few minutes. After getting things set up, we made calls to our niece and husband who both work on-base as contract employees of the Aircraft Maintenance Wing.

AM called a little later; they said they'd pick us up on their "lunch break" at 7:00 pm - they're working evenings this week. They took us to a nice buffet place where we all ate and began to catch up. We returned directly to the flight line.

AM got permission to take us on a tour to and in a C-17. We rode out and walked up the ladder into the tremendous cargo bay. AM demonstrated lowering and raising the cargo ramp and other equipment and showed us where some really innovative designers choose to hide equipment. We saw some cockpit displays and saw how very complex the cockpit is. There are two pilot seats and two more seats in the cockpit; there are bunks behind it for replacement pilots if the flight is going to be very long, involving in-flight refueling. The avionics equipment rack we saw was only half populated. They say computer advances have allowed one black box to take the place of two.

We watched as three C-17's taxied past for a night training flight (this is a training base). Then she shut down the power unit. Finally we rode back to the FAMCAMP and settled in for the evening. We'll see them again tomorrow.

Day 3