TMCnet News
Still on Guard: Charting a C-5 over the ocean [The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.](Charleston Gazette, The (WV) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) June 12--Over the next few weeks, Charleston Gazette reporter Davin White will be reporting on the West Virginia National Guard's efforts in the Middle East. He'll soon be embedded with the 1st Battalion, 201st Field Artillery Regiment in Kuwait. Look for his stories and blog at wvgazette.com and read about your friends and neighbors still on guard overseas. ABOARD A C-5A GALAXY, CROSSING THE ATLANTIC OCEAN -- At 29,000 feet and about dusk along the Eastern Seaboard, 1st Lt. Nathan Mueller pointed out thunderstorms to the north. A radar screen in front of Mueller displayed a smattering of green, Doppler-type patches of volatile weather to the left -- off the path of the 167th Airlift Wing's C-5A Galaxy cargo plane. "Hopefully, it'll stay that way all night," he said. If the plane had taken off earlier Wednesday evening, the pilots might have flown right through it or been working to dodge the storm, Mueller said. Lt. Col. Marty Timko, the co-pilot on the flight to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, points his finger upward to indicate a commercial airliner that's flying overhead. "He's pretty much 8,000 feet above us right now," Timko said. Timko and Mueller fly the C-5A for the West Virginia Air National Guard's 167th Airlift Wing, based in Martinsburg. Mueller, 32, of Gerrardstown in southern Berkeley County, points to a digital screen that displays green letters and numbers. It's sitting in the cockpit between him and Timko and shows the estimated time of arrival at Ramstein. We're looking at about 3:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, he said into his headset. All the airmen wore headsets to speak with each other on the plane. Before departing from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, the pilots and other members of the 11-man crew charted their course for Ramstein. Each day, and depending on wind patterns, organized tracks of flight are set that serve "basically like highways in the sky," said Timko, 40, of Warrenton, Va. The availability of GPS systems has made paths of flight so accurate that "guys can fly right over top of you," provided they are at least 5,000 feet overhead, he said. The C-5A was on a track dubbed "X-ray" and it flew over Newfoundland and then was headed toward Ireland on its way to Germany. To monitor their course, Timko and Mueller checked several markers. Mueller made sure the navigation equipment was working near the last marker in North America before the plane headed out into the open Atlantic. The C-5A uses a GPS system that's independent of other navigation equipment on the aircraft. It even features a device that attaches to the windshield of the cockpit, similar to the GPS device you would Velcro or suction to your car's windshield or dashboard. But Mueller explained that if you get off course over the Atlantic Ocean, you wouldn't hear "recalculating" like you would with your TomTom or Garmin. "You're just going to go out into the pitch black night," he said. Timko soon asked air traffic controllers for permission to fly at 31,000 feet. "Cooler temperatures means we can climb to a higher altitude," Mueller said. Earlier in the day, it was so hot in New Jersey that Mueller decided it was best to not take an additional 22 passengers to Germany. That's because he was also working with a loaded cargo hold and a short runway, and the pilots needed to really fire up the engines to lift off. To keep from overheating the engines even more, the pilots also delayed takeoff for a couple of hours to let the temperature drop. The more weight on board, the more engine thrust and time it takes to get the C-5A into the air. In flight, Timko and Mueller easily jumped from questions about cabin pressure and fuel levels to friendly chatting. Mueller checked to see how long Timko's breaded chicken strips had been cooking in a small kitchen down a narrow hallway behind them. Tech Sgt. Al Rigdon, an engineer with the 167th Airlift Wing and resident of Rocky Mount, Va., gave Timko and Mueller updated information about the fuel levels. He also told Timko it might be best to stay at or below 35,000 feet because the pressurization was running a little higher than its normal level. Timko wasn't worried, and said the C-5A wouldn't reach that altitude until it was over the United Kingdom. After a while, Mueller left the cockpit to get some rest. "Co-pilot's airplane and radios," he said to Timko, who repeated the indication into his headset. Maj. Jason Seibert, a resident of Frederick, Md., hopped into Mueller's seat and told Timko there's a new sheriff in town. Within a couple of hours, dawn was breaking over the Atlantic. Later, Mueller would land the C-5A at Ramstein. Reach Davin White at [email protected]. ___ To see more of The Charleston Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.wvgazette.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544) |