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Fly-by

Yesterday, during their normal flight training exercises, military planes did fly-overs of all the hospitals in Hawaii. They did it to acknowledge the hospital staffs for their work during the pandemic.

The plane that flew over the Maui hospital was a fuel tanker. It came by at about 1:25pm, which is during my students’ independent work time, so I could go outside and see it.

The pictures don’t look like it, but the plane was flying really low. It was loud. It flew past only one time, but it was cool.

4 Comments

  1. Carol

    One could make a remark about the fuel extender dangling at the rear there, but I am a classier person than that (ahem). Instead, I will share how amazed I always am when I see mid-air refueling taking place. Hands of the brain surgeon must be needed to accomplish that via the controls in the cockpit.

    We had several Blue Angel and Thunderbird flyers over B’more recently for the same purpose. Honestly the first time I’d seen them (I don’t “do” air shows) – it was something to witness. I guess when you can’t give the health care workers any time off or let them enjoy any community activity, a fly-over by military planes is as good an acknowledgement of their dedicated work as one can expect…

    Lord, have mercy.

  2. Lauren

    How cool! I’m so glad you got to see it, too. Isn’t it odd how cameras – no matter how good they are – can never capture what we really see?

  3. Mark

    Here in Missouri, because Whiteman Air Force base is their “home”, we were thrilled by a B-2 Spirit low-observable (stealth) bomber that did this for our hospital and front-line workers. Just one pass, but I felt like I was seeing Batman give a salute when it banked and turned.

    The plane over Maui is a KC-135R Stratotanker. Our former brother-in-law flew those up in Alaska, and took my wife and me on a tour of one. Impressive plane for its age. They are, indeed, loud. He told a funny story about one mission:

    The small jet had just taken on a load of fuel, and disconnected from the boom. The fighter jock maneuvered up alongside the big tanker, and then began doing barrel rolls, and the one large loop-de-loop, returning to the original position.

    “Too bad you boys can’t have fun like I can,” he radioed over.

    “Really? The captiain of the tanker said. “Back off about a half mile and watch.”

    The fighter put some distance between himself and the tanker. For ten minutes nothing happened, so he came back in close and asked, “When are you going to do it?”

    “I already did,” came the reply.

    “You didn’t do anything!” the fighter jock complained.

    “Sure I did. I got up, walked around to stretch my legs, used the bathroom and got a cup of hot coffee. To bad you fighter jocks have to be strapped in one seat for five hours. With no coffee to drink.”

    • Brad

      Ha! I love your comment, Mark. Truth be told, I was feeling a little short-changed, because Oahu had fighter jets fly over their hospitals, and to my untrained eye, the tanker plane looked like a commercial jet, which (before the pandemic) were constantly landing here. Now I know how much better the tanker is. Coffee!!

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