Quote:
Originally Posted by Killer Bee
very cool! C17 - the sports model of the C5 
we left NAS North Island in this one headed for Kuwait.. during the flight brief, the young airman warned us about air sickness during a scheduled in flight refueling scheduled over the east coast..
I asked him if I could go to the cockpit to watch and he said no one had ever asked him but he would find out.. few minutes later he returned and said the captain would allow only one in the cockpit and I was it 
4-5 hours later the airman woke me up an took me up front and they let me sit in the forward facing seat behind the pilot! can't even describe how awesome it was to experience the approach and fueling boom connection from the cockpit of a c5.. they made several approaches and breakaways for training so I got to see it a few times..
but then..... something went wrong and one of the probe components broke! I was suddenly escorted back to my seat in the back and we made an emergency landing in Gander Newfoundland 
we had to debark and the kind folks there called some of the concession staff in and they opened up the terminal for us, can you beat that for hospitality?!
after a few hours - back on the road... only to stop in Rota Spain and break down there for three days
been half-way around the world a couple of times in a C5 but never flew in a c17
fascinating plane, even if the passenger seats face backwards and no windows LoL..
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yes sir,i'm not surprised they opened up in Gander for you.wonderful people.on 911 when US airspace was closed,i forget the exact number but something like 265 planes coming accross the pond,diverted to Gander,50 or 60 made it Halifax and so on and so on.Gander has something like 7000 or so folks live there and there was something like 5000 or 6000 people stuck on airplanes.the folks there went out to the airport and brought people home,put them up in makeshift dorms at schools,let them use phone,took them shopping for supplies,whatever they needed.wonderful people looking after people at a horrible time.there's a broadway play called 'Comes From Away" cause that's what Newfoundlanders call about people not from there,they're come from away.it's a tremendous story,my wife,who is a Newfoundlander,took her mother to Toronto a couple years ago,to see the play.very emotional.