Day One – Killer sinus headache! Every summer it seems I have to learn how to swim all over again. I inevitably take in water through my nose somehow. After the first week of getting back into the pool, I end up with a sinus infection. I’ve never been a great swimmer, but I’ve completed…
Welcome to Hey Eng. I’m interested in the history of flight engineers and enlisted flyers in the USAAF and the USAF. Why do pilots say “Hey Eng!”, where and how did the phrase originate? I’ve wondered why there weren’t FEs on bombers after World War II but they remained on cargo aircraft. In addition to…
As we make our way from St. John’s Newfoundland to Ayr Scotland the drone of the turboprop engines of the 130 lulls me into a relaxed, almost meditative state. The airplane is behaving as it should. The cockpit is in order. There is nothing to look at except the ocean as it passes slowly beneath…
My military career is winding down quickly, quicker than I’d like really. The last fifteen years or so of my time in the military I’ve traveled the World. I’ve been to some places that I’d like to return to. Then there’s the other places, the places that I have no desire to return to. Most…
Typically deployed USAF air crews have crew names. These names are usually given because of some attribute of the crew, usually not complementary. Sometimes a crew will come up with a name on their own and the name sticks, if they’re lucky. This was the case on my last C-130 deployment. Some members of the…
It took me a few weeks to realize what was going on. After the WHO called it a pandemic, I noticed a shift. When Trump declared it a national emergency, I felt a little more. It took about a month before I could identify and figure out what was happening. For the first time in…
