Travels and other things

After leaving Qatar to fly up to Kuwait, I took this picture out of a small window in a C-17. The windows are not that big and there are only a couple on each side of the aircraft.

This is looking down at the Arabian Sea ( if you live in a country by Saudi Arabia) or the Persion Gulf ( if you live in Iran). We were going north from Qatar, so its maybe Yemen or some other country on the coast.



The inside of a C-17 can be fitted for various combinations of seats or cargo. Each 3 rows of seats are on a movable pallet that can slide in and out just like cargo. The side seats are always there, but can be folded against the wall. If I have a choice about where to sit, I pick a side seat because of the legroom and its not nearly as close side to side either.

This picture was taken on my 4th attempt to get back to Afghanistan, the other 3 flights were just warm-ups. As you can see, it didn't go exactly full either.

I've just gotten back from 2 weeks at home and all that relaxation. The trip both ways wasn't any fun at all though. Most times the weather didn't cooperate, the airline have enough trouble on clear, sunny days.

As you can see, the weather at home was cold and snowy most of the time. It didn't get above freezing, but that just meant I could lay around the house and not be doing anything outside.


I took this picture the morning we went to the airport, that tall guy is Nick towering over his Mom.

I've shown pictures of a Hip before but I have never got to look one over until now. The russians are totally about function, this aircraft is built tough with no frills at all.
An American Company operates this one with civilians doing work that I didn't want to ask about. Needless to say they had some heavy machine guns on it. No back doors either.
I wasn't too suprised to see U.S. made radios and navigation equipment in it, stuff I have worked with in many civilian helicopters in the states.