Pictures while using frequent flyer miles

[jzjames]

Why are these the last trips. Ya leavin’ us?

[adrianspeeder]

Why are these the last trips. Ya leavin’ us?

I did another job for a year after my last flight, then finally after 13 years at dover PCSed to a new location.

Adrianspeeder

[jzjames]

Well the aerial photos were excellent! Thanks again.

[bellamor]

That looks fun, one of my dream is to fly a plane in the future.

[adrianspeeder]

Trip 244, Winter 2019, Cuba

151 – Let’s take some Navy junk down to Cuba. Leaving a cold Delaware day.



152 – Best job I ever had!



153 - A cold sunny Virginia day.



154 – Tasty.



155 - Fancy hotel. Let’s hit the bar!



156 – Coors Light time.



157 – Cold raining preflight.



158 – Somehow my rain pants are no longer in my bag. Gonna be a wet fill up.



159 – Double pumpin’ fill ‘er up Friday stacking banks while drainin’ tanks. In the rain.



160 – Hang up the flight suit to dry for this next leg of the journey.



161/162/163/164 – Club Gitmo!









165 - Killer jelly fishes.



166/167/168 – Nice beach.






169 – First time I’ve been here in the daytime.



170 – Ended up having a drag race with another Dover jet on approach. We beat them on the landing, turned onto the parallel taxiway, but they landed long, and beat us to parking by rolling down the runway faster. ATC was not amused.

[adrianspeeder]

Updating the original photos with new links because photobucket is trash.

Adrianspeeder

[adrianspeeder]

Trip 245, Winter 2019, South America

171/172/173 – Interesting trip that took some extra planning ahead of time. Going to be lots of training mixed with a stop that we CAN NOT fail at. Pilot calls me and says, “I’ve requested you for this mission. Make sure we do not get stuck.” Well, I brought a ISU 90 of all the parts that are single point failures.







174 – Plane crackers. No flavor.



175 – Let’s ride!



176 – Good safety RACM, SEND IT!



177/178/179/180 – Mile high mountains.









181/185 – Time to dive down into Eagle County Regional Airport for low approaches and a few touch and gos.










186 - Nice view.



187 – Full send.



188 – Hang on LT, we gotta go!



189/190 – You bring us in nice and pretty and we’ll have a kick ass night in Denver.

[adrianspeeder]

191 – Stop in Denver for a splash of gas.



192 – Fill ‘er up Friday mile high style.



193 – HA! Karma’s a bitch when a pilot changes the game mid mission for who’s buyin’ first round. He played himself!



194 – Puerto Rico.



195 – Pilot called me up to the front after smelling magic smoke. Well, when you pull 360+ amps, 400hZ, 3phase, through stainless steel 2/0 cable for years and years, things get toasty. The book limits 10 mins of max loading when running on a single source of power. Otherwise, no time limit with the load split between the onboard auxiliary power unit and a ground power unit or running engines with integrated drive generators on line. I cut off all four of the 60 amp hydraulic pumps, and we pressed on by not running the hydraulic preflight test until after engines were running turning the gear driven pumps.



196 – Morning comes, and with a ground power cart to assist, we are ready to ride.



197 – Next stop the odds were against me to “win” buying the round, but this isn’t where we are crew resting. Suck it! Off to the next stop.



198/200 – Starin’ into the sun for Central America.





200 – Lizards chillin’ by the runway at Tocumen International Airport.



201/206 – Costa Rica low level.













207 – A shadow somewhere on a beach.



208 – Go buzz the boat!



209/210 - Costa Rica low level.

[adrianspeeder]

211/214 – Costa Rica gas stop.









215 – Pucker factor 10 of ten. “ALL STOP ALL STOP ALL STOP, REACH 232T GO AROUND!” “On the go. Reach 232.” Positive rate, gear up…. Some yahoo was moving unauthorized. P&W power and a sharp controller saves the day.



216 – Leaving Costa Rica.



217 – Somewhere on a beach.



218 – Quick hop across the Gulf.



219/220 – For all the times going to Panama, I’ve always hauled ass as fast as possible through customs to get on with the fun outside the airport. Only fitting that on the trip before my fini flight, one of the last minute crew additions didn’t make the visa paperwork correctly and ground everything to a halt. Worst case, I’d take her back out to the jet and she’d spend the night pretending to be a Raven. A few embassy calls she was good to go, and I killed time with the camera to remember something from my top five crew rest locations.





221/222 – Upper wing inspection good to go.





223 – Wise words.



224 – Good safety and send it. Last time being in Panama.



225 – Full stop at Dover AFB. Only one more mission known as the fini flight up next.

[Ranchero50]

#64 looked like well sites.

[adrianspeeder]

Trip 246, Spring 2019, Romania

The last trip. The fini flight. By this point in time I’ve already been reassigned to be the lead technician of Dover’s avionics shop. Teaching 10 brand new airman how to crawl, walk, then run. Guiding 8 other qualified mechanics how to be better, smarter, and safer. Being responsible for and speaking for everyone else’s mistakes. Standing up to stupid decisions and ideas that will do more harm than good. Lastly, and least favorite, going to daily meetings... I had been in the 736th AMXS for 12 years, but with 8 of them flying not a lot of people had really known me. Well, they found out real quick that I spoke my mind, and backed it up with knowledge from the books and real life examples from the road. This doesn’t always make friends but keeps airplanes bolted together. Three months into this job, my old boss came and said, “We are short. Can you do one more flight?” “My bags are in the truck.”

226 – Fitting that we are broken right out the start of the trip for a bad display unit. Easy install with one on the shelf from supply, but it had the wrong software version. This is the contraption we correct that with. I have airmen that are younger than when XP was discontinued.



227 – The low bid adapter box to make everything work.



228 – Good safety RACM from the last takeoff of KDOV runway 01.



229 – Beautiful day to fly.



230 – Am I happy or somber? Hell yeah to both.



231 – First stop.



232 – Load up some Army junk.



233 – While the loadmasters finish chaining down **** in the back, let’s get these motors fired up for a quick departure.



234 – Not sure if this trip is going to have 25 hours to bump me over the 3500 hour mark.



235 – All safe to send it!



236 – Climbing a stairway to heaven.



237 – Gas stop in Canada with the friendliest FBO agent that always brought us out a pizza, handed me my $100K fuel bills, and came out to my jet for the last time to say good bye!



238 – These Army pax were smart and done this before. They brought their own ladder to set up the hammock hanger for the ocean crossing comfort zone when the seat belt sign is turned off.



239 – Last Atlantic crossing going east.



240 – This trip is cool for another reason. Way back when I was the only Dover airman at Thumrait Oman, my squadron had mass deployed to Romania. I’m busting my balls sweating in the heat, and all my friends are on the beaches of the Black Sea every other day off. Anyway, this trip to Romania will be the last new country I check off the map at number 68.



241 – I see this country also has a surplus of electricity that they have to burn off in giant fans to make wind.



242 – It’s gonna happen!



243 – Made it. Now get your junk off my jet!



244 – Hero shot!



255 – Let the shenanigans begin!

[jzjames]

Congratulations
Happy New Year!

[tsherry]

Great stuff there, Adrian. Quite a career.

[basketcase0302]

From a 3rd generation DD-214 Veteran, congrats on the "shore duty" Adrian.
And thank you once again for standing the watch so that Americans may live another day as free men and women, (and hey she could hand me a $100 mil fuel bill any day LOL)!

[adrianspeeder]

https://youtu.be/9uepjdyV7-E