The Great Cross-Country Thread: Rules, Regs, Destinations and Sea Stories

[brownshoe]

Wow how times have changed, in my day when I wanted to go on leave I went next door to 45 or down to the tower to check for a free ride, usually no problem. I always got a free ride there, but had to buy a ticket back. So what, at least one leg of the trip was free!

I can remember chocking an A-4 at hangar 67, Cecil Field on a weekend, with seaweed sticking out of a "buddy store" converted to carry, umm, "things." In this case "things" were many Maine lobsters, and of course I reported this incident to the proper authorities. (I was rewarded later.)

Steve

Edit: I'm only kidding, this stuff never happened, and nothing like this ever happened at VA-44, we at 44 were of course all "Dudley Do-rights." (Gotta cover my tracks.)

 

[bunk22]

I didn't do a single T-34C cross country in two years. I lost out of easy flight time no doubt but for me, the T-34 was just too slow and way too uncomfortable. Even with a thick ass cushion, my ass and back would start hurting within 30 minutes and throughout the rest of the flight. At least my mind was occupied on Contact flights. The BI and RI flights were killers at times. Now when I get to the T-6 next year, I plan on doing cross country's for I hear it's more comfortable, a bit faster and has longer legs.

 

[Gatordev]

I never really thought of a CCX as "easy flight time." The flying was good, but coming back to 6-10 gradesheets while flying your onwings during the week was kind of brutal.

 

[zipmartin]

When I was doing my instructor tour in VT-22 in K'ville in the early '80's, myself and another instructor were invited to bring a couple of TA-4's to Osh Kosh and participate in the airshow which was doing a tribute to "Military Training Aircraft Through the Years." (We had both worked for Warbird members while in college.) We went to the Skipper and he gave the OK to go but said "Absolutely do NOT fly in the airshow. Static display, yes. Flying in the airshow, NO." We grabbed a couple of studs and went for the weekend, getting training up and back. When it came time to leave on Sunday, the Warbird guys were pleading for us to do a formation fly-by. We said we were sorry, but it would mean our wings if we got caught. But we worked around the restriction placed on us. The end of the airshow featured a parade of military a/c doing flybys, starting with a Jenny, proceeding through the years and ending with a T-33. We worked it so we were in position on the runway ready for take-off with the parade of aircraft flying overhead. As soon as the T-33 was overhead the numbers, we released brakes and executed a section go and departed, making it look like we were part of the flyby, but we were just "heading home.":icon_wink

 

[bunk22]

I never really thought of a CCX as "easy flight time." The flying was good, but coming back to 6-10 gradesheets while flying your onwings during the week was kind of brutal.

My life was much easier than yours being an associate IP, no onwings (though they were offered to me later on) and I set my on schedule. Gradesheets, that many, would suck ass as I alwasy tended to write a lot.

 

[Gatordev]

My life was much easier than yours being an associate IP, no onwings (though they were offered to me later on) and I set my on schedule. Gradesheets, that many, would suck ass as I alwasy tended to write a lot.

That's true. Not having 2 onwings to come back to would have helped. Now CCX w/ IUTs was much nicer.

 

[MackOhare]

Great stories so far guys. Interestingly enough, I went out for a flight on Sunday afternoon, and as I was driving down 63rd st to the the tarmac, what do I see: 3 T-45s parked right along the fence next to the Million Air building -- one of them was actually a Marine bird -- didn't even know they had their own T-45s, that was a first for me.

First time I've seen jet trainers in a long time, but the best part was two of them (1 Marine and the other Navy) taxi'd right in front of us during pre-flight and did a formation take-off while working on our checklist, another first as I've never seen them take-off before. Didn't see the third one after I landed, so they might've left on their own. My instructor said they were there since Friday. Probably nothing to exciting for you old hands on here, but it certainly made my day, particularly the coincidence of it all.

 

[VFA-203 Forever]

Great stories so far guys. Interestingly enough, I went out for a flight on Sunday afternoon, and as I was driving down 63rd st to the the tarmac, what do I see: 3 T-45s parked right along the fence next to the Million Air building -- one of them was actually a Marine bird -- didn't even know they had their own T-45s, that was a first for me.

Mack,

The Marines don't actually "have" their own T-45's. One side below the horiz stabs usually states Marines, The other side, Navy. RAG Hornets and Prowlers state the same.

 

[MIDNJAC]

edit: I'm an idiot

 

[D_Rob]

edit: I'm an idiot

+1

 

[nittany03]

Gouge for wannabes: if you don't want to sound like a wannabe, don't call it the "tarmac." That's a word used only by clueless reporters. It's the "line" or the "ramp."

 

[IronMaiden]

3 T-45s parked right along the fence next to the Million Air building

when I lived in Long Beach there would always be hornets parked next to the Million Air, I've always wondered why they were there.

 

[puck_11]

Mack,

The Marines don't actually "have" their own T-45's. One side below the horiz stabs usually states Marines, The other side, Navy. RAG Hornets and Prowlers state the same.

Actually they are either a Marine or a Navy jet, not both. One in every six jets (maybe seven) is a Marine jet.

 

[MIDNJAC]

Actually they are either a Marine or a Navy jet, not both. One in every six jets (maybe seven) is a Marine jet.

Okay, I was gonna say that in my previous post, but then D_rob said it was true........maybe I'm not crazy after all

 

[nittany03]

Actually they are either a Marine or a Navy jet, not both. One in every six jets (maybe seven) is a Marine jet.

Yes, but they are assigned to the Navy. We just paint "MARINES" on them because we're nice that way.