If you think Spirit Airlines is barebones, try flying on Space-A, where you might get a bench seat on a military cargo plane.
Knut and his mother are rejoining his dad for a while. I look forward to his report about the thrill of the parachute jump when the plane arrives in Seoul.
Lots of leg and head room. I wouldn’t complain.
Yeah, but I hear that military cargo planes are noisy.
Do they supply the parachutes or is it BYOP?
The plane is a C5. I don’t think civilians like me get a chance to ride in those things.
I don’t like the look of that luggage storage.
Oh, a C5…that’s a nice step up from the C124s and C130s I got to ride in as a kid way, way back in the 1960s. I still have the set of dog tags I had to wear when riding on military transport. Also good to know that the military hasn’t changed that much. Hope they have a great time!
Individual seats? Lighting? AMC is going sofffffft! I remember feeling lucky because the ride back from Elf One that time was a C-141, not a C-130 (although you might not have known from either the noise levels or the interior fittings)… so there was only one refueling-and-crew-change stop. Wouldn’t even be that on a C-5 or C-17.
Civilian research bods get to go on big noisy things from CC to Scott Base (… OK , and McMurdo) in either USAF C-17 (huge) or RNZAF C-130J (smaller). Both noisy, and, until laptops and noise cancelling headphones… very boring!
The toilets on those transports are not to civilian standards, with what seems like a whole army to one single unit. I suggest you go before take-off.
.
(OT) If you want to prepare yourself for debates I highly recommend you watch this.
“Responding to Charlie Kirk on the US founding”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=EAjskIgXaMM
How many Sinclair C5s could you get in one of those?
(OT) A children’s song for your grandchild:
How To Spot A Fascist – Hilarious Children’s Song Parody About Trump, MAGA and Authoritarianism”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=POclg1uogZ0
PZ, having flown the C-5 for 6+ years, the photo is of a C-17 cargo hold. If they flew more than one aircraft, the other may have been a C-5 but this is the “smaller” cargo jet. :)
Follow-on comment. The C-5 has a dedicated area for passengers with airline style seats.
Many moons ago when I was young and had hair, I took a trip from Edmonton AFB to Resolute Bay. (An air traffic control centre for polar flights and a refuel point for Ferry Command in WW2) in a Hercules (C130). Webbing seats and a film wrapped helicopter in the hold. A gravel runway (the whole island is gravel) with the remains of a couple of Ferry Command failures dragged off to the side. Ahh, memories. (had a blizzard on July 14th).
larpar #1
You could even say it has Max Headroom.
I got to take one flight in a C130 about 10 years ago.
I volunteer for the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, and was offered a ride-a-long on a training flight from AIRSTA Sacramento to Lake Tahoe. The back-end crew was being requalified in all their various jobs, most notably dropping rescue equipment out the back ramp.
(If your boat is sinking 200 miles offshore, a C130 will reach you but then what? It’s not like they can land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Well, they string together a bunch of bags: a liferaft, exposure suits, food and water and a radio, first aid, and so on. Then, the plane flies over you and the pilot coordinates with the crew in back to drop the string such that it drapes across your boat. Then you can pull everything in to use while waiting for a cutter or Good Samaritan to arrive.)
Naturally, this business requires practice, and I got to go along, once. We flew the short distance (by air) to Lake Tahoe and dropped on one of the USCG Auxiliary boats there. The AUX then picked up the rescue string and returned it to the station.
1) Beautiful view out the back!
2) The crew enjoyed it, too—leaning out on their tethers, or sitting on the ramp with their legs dangling.
3) Toilet NOT up to airline standards, can confirm!
I was about to say at least he wasn’t travelling with his knees up around his chin and had room to take a stroll. Hope he arrived safe and well.
We flew SpaceA a couple times when we lived in Korea… to and from Hawaii for hospitalization, and to and from Okinawa for vacation. Everyone got earplugs, and boxed lunches. It was good that we were all readers, ’cause you weren’t talking.