A/C: McDonnell Douglas DC9-32CF
Ship:164606
Routing: KNUW-KPDX-(KSUU)-KNZY-KNUW
Mission: Squadron airlift/Line flight
1st leg: KNUW-KPDX
Flt duration: 35 Minutes
Alt: 24,000ft
This is a trip report of a mission I was on a few weeks ago. We were carrying some squadron personnel down to San Diego and back, so this was just a day trip. Our report time was scheduled for 1325L with a take-off time of 1525L. This was a Monday after drill weekend, but I decided to to drive home instead of spending another night in Oak Harbor. I got up around 9, to get ready for the trip. It was just a one day turnaround, so I decided not to bring any overnight stuff, which isn’t very smart because “Murphy” works at my squadron and the chances of us breaking down are close to 65%. The average reliability of our aircraft is less than 75% because 2 of our aircraft are almost hanger queens. Today, I would be flying on one of those hanger queens, aircraft 606. I get into my flight suit and rush out to the car(because i’m running behind schedule again) to head up to the base. It’s a 2 hr drive to the base, and the traffic is bad all the way there because of the rain and flash floods from the recent rains we’ve been getting in the Western-Washington area. Seattle and the Puget Sound area is drowning in down pours, overflowing rivers. It does rain a frequently here, but the amount of rain is quite low compared to other parts of the country, (if you get what I’m saying). We only get drizzle and mist, but the rivers and creeks are not able to handle these torrential downpours and constant heavy rains and overflow quickly. Because of this, many roads are closed and we’re forced to use traffic diversions to get around the many road closures. I take I-5N to Whidbey Island and get up to the base around 1315L. I gather my stuff from the car, and walk into the hanger and head up to the ready room for crew brief.
I briefly stop into Ops to pick up the flight packet and the load bag with has the loadmaster item, such as the cargo loading manual, the hazmat handing guide, extra Weight and balance data sheets(Form F’s), blank Logistics Flight Reports(or LFR’s), other forms needed for VIPs, cargo, and customs decs. I go into the brief and pass out the flight message to the rest of the crew, which tells us the following:
Mission #: RS-XXX
What aircraft we’re flying as in ship number: 606, or sicko-six as she’s also known, because she practically breaks down everywhere.
What configuration: This case, all pax, 100 seats on 8 pallets.
Flight routing: KNUW-KPDX(KSUU*)-KNZY-KNUW
Who we’re carrying: XXX Squadron
How many pax: 79 + 5 crew= 84 souls on board.
How much cargo: 2400lbs, all seabags and 3 cruise boxes.
We discuss the mission and things that might arise during the flight as well as on the ground. We discuss safety and emergency procedures. This is what we call mission analysis. The weather conditions at NAS Whidbey today are low clouds, rain, and low vis. The aircraft is coming in from another mission and it’s running late because of a mechanical issue when they landed in Denver. The anti-ice annunciator was lit when the crew-chief was doing the through flight inspection after they landed in DEN. They decide the item can be differed to fly the aircraft back to Whidbey after they determined the anti-ice was working but the sensor was bad. So they MEL’d and headed back up to NUW. We however would be delayed due to the fact that the discrepancy would have to be fixed. So our departure time would be delayed UFN. The planned routing was to make a stop in PDX and SUU*, with SUU being subject to change(we ended up not having to stop in Travis and went straight to North Island) to take on fuel because of the wet runways and the fact 606 is our heaviest aircraft with the palletised seating, the heavier landing gear, and the 400lbs of added ballast she was given when she was converted from civilian use to military. Of the civilian DC9’s the Navy picked up, the IB aircraft were the ones most screwed up weight and balance-wise. The ones that came from AZ, KL, and ONA were fine, but the IB ones are terrible, to the fact we have to stop everywhere for fuel because of weight restrictions. Anyway, Our max fuel load for the leg would be 21K, and our max-TOW is 104.5 due to the wet runway. I go to the terminal to get the updated pax numbers and bag weights. The squadron is at the terminal and I meet with the lift coordinator to verify all personnel are accounted and that they have the correct bag weight. The weight he has is about 47 pounds over what is on the manifest which isn’t a big deal. We aren’t that weight critical. Just as I’m finishing the paperwork, I see 606 taxiing in to the park on spot 3 in front of the Air Terminal. She shuts down while the fwd and aft stairs deploy.

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Photo © Rolf Wallner

A pic of her in 1981, before her US Navy career
The loadmaster on the incoming mission extends the handrails on the fwd air-stair and hands their manifest to the terminal rep. The baggage cart comes out to the aircraft. Some of the passengers load their bags onto the cart, before rejoining the rest inside the terminal. I do the turn over with the off-going loadmaster. He does his post-flight, (which includes dumping the sh*tters) while I do my pre-flight which isn’t much. Just ensuring I have my manuals. I go down to the bag hold to inspect it to verify that I have my barrier net (required regardless whether you’re carrying cargo or passengers, I also verify that I have the required number of cargo straps, brown-line fittings, side and end restraints, (none of these are needed because we’re in an all-pax rig but have to carried as per Naval Aviation instruction). I stow my bags in the row behind the first row on the port side. We block off the first few rows to accommodate crew and aircraft items. The delay has forced us to hold off on boarding until the maintenance has been completed. A few of the passengers come out to load the bags. I instruct the flight attendant to tell them to fill up the aft baggage compartment first and put the remaining bags in the fwd. No pax can be on the aircraft while mx is being completed. I sit in the first row, recline the seat and close my eyes for a few moments to catch a little catnap before we board. With people running u and down the aisle, I chat with the flight attendant and one of our pilots.

I go out and take a few pics of the aircraft and the engine as we continue to wait for the guys to finish up.




The mx I finished and the paperwork is routed and closed out, as we board the aircraft. It’s now 1710 and we’re just boarding. The passenger’s board through the aft stairs so it allows us to conduct our duties before we depart. The maintainers close the engine nacelle and button up the clips and at this point, we’re ready to close the door and be on our way. I continue to fill out my Form F with the numbers and fill out what should be my Centre of Gravity numbers and MAC percentages. All the numbers have line up according to what is written in the weight and balance binder. The Form F needs to be completed before door closing. The pilots get a copy, I get a copy, and one goes over the side to the ground crew before we close the door. Form F completed, I give one to the flight deck, pass one to the director and raise the stairs, lock the stair hatch, and close the cabin door. I arm the slide and get out the safety demo before we taxi. The flight attendant calls for the hydraulic pumps to be turned on, so he can bring the stairs up. The engines start up, followed by the double chime form the flight deck indicating ready to taxi, to where we chime back to respond as cabin ready. The rear flight attendant starts off reading the safety demo, minus the over-water brief since we’re not operating an over-water flight. After the brief, myself and the aft FA do a visual cabin check ensure cabin bags, seatbacks, tray-tables, and window blinds stowed for take-off. We meet in the middle and return to our j/s for departure. The rain has let up and it’s enough that we don’t have to go to Travis AFB for more fuel.. So the expected fuel burn on take off is adjusted by the pilots Dusk has set in at this point as our departure time is called at 1750L. We taxi by a P-3C Orion on the remote ramp with all of its engines removed as we cross the closed intersecting N/S runway. We’re the only ones in line in to take, but we hold short because of a USCG C-130 is finals. The Herk lands and exits the runway, as we enter the threshold and line up for the departure. The floodlights illuminate ahead of the wings so that the runway appears to look dry somewhat. I also spot some coyote or wolf sh*t on the hash-marks. Brakes on, the engines spool up to full-power, and the aircraft lunges into the take-off roll. The space between the bumps in the runway gets shorter. As we speed up to rotation. With heavy load, we take up a large portion of the runway as we lift off the runway, heading N/NW before making the left-hand turn heading south over the water. We fly own the coast of Whidbey Island. We make the switch back over Useless Bay crossing over the west side of Island turning left and heading east as we overfly PAE down just off the RH side of the aircraft. We pass through 10,000ft as the signal for cabin crew to check the cabin in the after take-off checks. Myself and the aft FA meet in the middle. I go back up front and notify the cockpit the cabin is secure. I spot the altimeter at 21.5 still climbing but at a less pitch attitude to avoid intersecting with the traffic near Seattle. We’re still heading S/SE towards the western Cascades before we make the right turn due south towards PDX. We level off about 20 minutes at the cruise altitude of 24,500ft for the 35 minute flight to PDX. Myself, and the #2 FA decide not to do a service on the first leg with the short flight time and the forecasted turbulence. There are few bumps as we pass over Mt Rainier, before heading south towards Mt Adams and Mt St Helens. We begin the gradual decent into the PDX area. We make a few coordinated turn to sequence into the arrival pattern. I make a walk through in the cabin ensuring all seat belts are fastened. We then get the Prepare for Landing announcement from the CrewChief. The FA in the rear makes the landing announcement, as I walk back up forward ensuring seatbelts are still fastened as well as seatbacks, tray-tables are upright and window shades are open. The sharp whine of leading-edge slats deploying, hanging in the wind slowing us down as evidenced by the intense rumbling of the cabin. The nose lowers as we make the approach into PDX. The engines are almost at idle as the landing gear is lowered into place. The engines power up and down we flare for the landing and cross over the threshold, pitching and rolling a bit before the main-mounts both stablise and the nose gear finally hits the deck. We roll to a slow crawl as we exit the runway and make our way over to the FBO on the north side of the field. I look out the window and its pouring raining out. We taxi along the taxiway to the Shell Flight Services ramp and swing the 180 degrees before we park the aircraft in front of the GA hanger. We block in, I disarm, and open the forward cabin door. I extend the fwd air-stair and lock it in place. I meet the fueller at the bottom and give the fuel load. These guys will fuel up the aircraft for us, which gives the CrewChief an opportunity to complete his through-flight inspection. The aft FA deplanes everyone through the aft stairway and takes them into the hanger while we fuel. Our instructions prohibit us from having passengers about during fueling evolutions. The one exception is that there is a fire truck positioned around the aircraft. That’s the only time we can have pax aboard during fueling.

2nd leg: KPDX-KNZY
Flt duration: 2hrs, 20mins
Alt: 37,000ft
I complete my Form F for the next leg down to San Diego. I punch in the numbers for the MTOW, ZFW and MLW. Our TOW is 107.9, and that includes the 24k of fuel onboard. The fueling ends, the CrewChief signs the bill, and the aft FA reboards the pax through the rear door. The passengers boarded, we get a quick headcount to ensure we didn’t lose anyone(which does happen). 79 pax and 5 crew. The hydralics pumps come up so the aft stairway can be retracted. The pilot completes his final walk-around, and comes up the stairs. The pilots and CrewChief pile into the FD. I retract the fwd stairs, and lock the hatch into place. My “Stairwell Open” lights go out, and close the fwd cabin door. I then re-arm the slide girt-bar in the floor fittings. After a few minutes, the engines start up and the lights in the cabin flicker momentarily as the power switches from the APU to the engines. The aft FA makes his through-flight departure brief which is to remind passengers to ensure seatbelts are fastened, seats, window shades and tray-tables are upright. The “cleared to Taxi” signal is given as we head out towards the departure area. I look out the window and 737’s from AS and WN wiz by as we make our to the hold-short line on the runway. We go clean on to the runway, and right into the take off roll since we have a longer runway at PDX. The speed kicks up to the take-off speed for rotation. We lift off the runway just after 7pm on the westbound climb-out, banking slightly from side to side as the wheels are retracted with the tell-thumps of the gear doors locking in place. We make the turn south minutes after take-off as there are no altitude restrictions in place since there is no conflicting traffic out over the ocean tonight. We continue our climb as the aft FA and I do the after take-off checks. We meet in the middle and I communicate to the FD that cabin and galley’s are secure. I ask the FD when it’s clear to serve in the cabin, and I get the thumbs up to signify that now is a good time. The expected turbulence is forecast closer to San Diego, so the sooner, the better. We get the cart out, and put the candy and sodas on the top. Each item is $.50 while Gatorade is $1.00. We work our way through the cabin aft to fwd offering the snacks. We sell a few items and move the cart back to the rear of the aircraft. The aft FA packs the money away puts all the stuff back in the galley compartments. I go back up front and have a seat in the first row. I recline the seat and get a little catnap. It’s dark in the cabin with the exception of a few reading lamps and the rear dome light in the aft galley illuminated. I pass the time by reading the latest edition of the Navy Times, catching up on what’s going on the Navy. About 1hr out from San Diego, I decide to run through the cabin with a trash bag to collect some trash before we land. The aft FA is tasked with getting food when we get to San Diego. Rubio’s, the favourite place to eat at NZY is closed by the time we get there, so it’s Taco Del Mar for us tonight. I inform him that i’ll escort the passengers into the terminal, supervise the bags being unloaded while he just goes to the base ops and borrow a truck. I give him my order as well as the CrewChief/pilots orders. We begin the descent somewhere off the coast of the LA area. We pass over the Channel Islands near Santa Barbara, Catalina, and San Clemente, as we vector the arrival into San Diego. San Diego is a funny and difficult approach. It doesn’t really matter which runway you’re landing on, you’re going into conflicting traffic with NZY being just across the bay from SAN, which is just insane and dangerous if you ask me. We make the wide southerly route adjacent to Point Loma for the straight-in approach to NZY. We head south for about 4 miles and make the LH turn to shoot the approach. The double landing chime is sounded as the gear is lowered. Again we do the compliance check with the seatbelts and all. I go back to the j/s and buckle up. We land for a smooth touchdown and do the long roll-out before we taxi of the runway. We head to the Transient Line at Halsey Field to drop our passengers off. We pull into the neutral area of the ramp. We join a group of C-130’s on the ramp, 2 USAF and one USMC KC-130J. The one USAF 130 is an AC-130U gunship no doubt from Eglin AFB. We pull into spot 3 next to a C-9 from VR52(one of my old squadrons) in Willow Grove, PA on an RON. After parking the aircraft, I again disarm and open the fwd door, deploy the fwd stairs. I go down the stairs and walk into the terminal to check to see if there are any Space-A passengers wanting to go to NUW. NZY usually does, but it’s close to 10pm , and even the most determined Space-A’ers give up when the arrival time of a Navy C-9 is up in the air, which it usually is. If we had to compete in the real world, we would be out of business in less than a week. As I walk in the terminal I look around and it’s empty with the exception for the few passengers we brought in, who darted for the vending machines. I jump over the scales at the AMC check-in desk and poke my head in the office and ask if there are any Space-A’s. The guy says nope, so we’re empty back to Whidbey. Great, so I walk back out to the aircraft. I sit down for a few minutes to fill in a block or 2 on my Form F, and then tidy up the cabin to help the FA who is out getting food for the ride home. Speaking which, he calls one of the pilots because the Taco Del Mar doesn’t exist anymore, and the only places open is McDonalds and Subway. Everyone agrees that McD’s will have to do for tonight. I go and finish the Form F, and at this point we’re waiting for the aft FA to return with the dinner for the leg home. I sign the Form F and hand it to the FD. I go and raise the aft stairs so that when the food arrives we can just go. I walk to the back to the back of the cabin and walk down the rear stairs, and clear for hydralics. I call up to the FD and tell them they’re cleared to turn on the hydraulic pumps, and I pull the lever to raise and lock the stairs.

3rd leg: KNZY-KNUW
Flt duration: 2hrs 30minutes
Alt: 37,000ft
The food arrives and FA #2 climbs up the stairs. I walk down to give the Form F to the ground agent. I go back up the stair, and retract and lock the stairs and hatch, and then close the door. The slide girt-bar is then engaged. I give the FD a copy of the Form F and take a seat in the first row since there aren’t any passengers. The Crew Chief keeps the flight deck door open during the taxi and when we’re about to turn on to the runway, he turns around and gives up the thumbs up to ask if we’re ready, I wave to acknowledge yes, and he closes the door. We pull onto the runway, and the flood and nacelle lights come on. The engines rev up to full power, with brakes on, and then like the first leg, the aircraft lunges forward into the take-off roll. We race down the runway with a sharp rotation since we’re only at 97,000lbs of weight. We rotate of the runway and out over the Pacific Ocean heading west before we make the left turn southward to avoid hitting Point Loma which is dead ahead on take-off. We then make the right hand turn 180 degrees to head north to follow the California coastline, before we head inland all the way to Seattle and Whidbey Island. After take-off, the loadmaster(myself), and the aft FA share the duties in cleaning the aircraft before tuning it over to the maintenance guys back at the base when we arrive. We draw straws to se who cleans the boggs(just kidding). We vacuum the aisle and seat rows as well as the seats themselves. I clean the fwd galley and in front of the fwd j/s. I made sure the deck is wiped up and other things. I make sure all cargo loading straps, brown-line fittings, end and side pallet restraints are accounted for so we don’t have to file a broken missing tool report on missing rig gear. We make a slight course change over Northern Oregon, heading east just a bit to go around weather and conflicting traffic near Portland. There are a few bumps with the storm system moving in off the Pacific over Portland. We begin to see a trail of lights with the I-5 Expressway down below leading up to the Seattle area. We begin a gradual descent over the Seattle. I look up in the cockpit and see the altitude warning indicator set at 15,000 which means we’re beginning to make the final descent. We’re about 20 minutes from landing at NUW, the throttles are brought back almost to idle as we begin a sharp rate of descent towards the field. The slats are lowered with all the surfaces hanging in the wind with the speed and altitude rapidly decreasing. The lights of PAE and Everett Naval Station pass below us and the blackness of the water is all we can see until cross over the San De Fuca area of Whidbey Island. We begin the approach to the base coming in from the east on a westerly approach. The lights from the runway is visable, and the gear is lowered approximately 1.5 miles with the Copilot calling the field in sight. The CrewChief calls out “3 green” (which means the gear is fully extended) and the PNF calls out a “roger, 3 green”. The aircraft flares for the touchdown as we come down on the runway just before midnight and roll out for the last turn-off. We taxi past the Prowler ramp as we head for our hanger. We pull up to the terminal, and we’re parked on spot 2 next to one of our other aircraft, BuNo 159113 is parked on spot 3. The engines shut down, brakes on, and the I lower the fwd stairs. I hand the last Form F to the pilots for them to take into Maintenance Admin to plug in the numbers. I go over to the line shack to retrieve the lav service cart to dump the lavatories as part of my post-flight. I plug up the nozzle to the lavatory service port on the port side of the fuselage below engine 1. I pull the plunger the releases the human waste into the hose. I pull the cord that starts the engine that sucks it all into the cart and fills the tank with fresh water/detergent. This is the only disgusting job that I have to do. I unplug the hose and secure the hatch on the port. I pull the waste cart back over to the line shack. I go back on the aircraft to grab my stuff, and turn the aircraft over to the maintainers. I grab my bags and head into the hanger to return the load bag to Ops. After I put the bag back in ops I head out to the car for my 2hr drive home to Seattle.