535th Wahine Spouse Flight April 2, 2011

Yesterday was one of the coolest days I have had since living in Hawaii. It was the spouse flight for the squadron! Now I did this at Charleston and it was cool, but this my friends was AH-MAZING!


The morning started out early for a Saturday. After showering and getting ready, I had to make sure I had all the correct patches, for we were wearing the guys flight suits. After we situated the kids with S. ( watching a friends kids too...so for the day he had 4 kids!) We were off for our 8:30 show at the squadron. I had just enough time to drink half a cup of coffee and eat no breakfast before JBAKE and E picked M and I up to head over.


We had a brief, briefing on what the C-17 does here in Hawaii. Just a glimpse of how much work our husbands really put in at the "office". Then there was a drawing to see which 2 people would be up in the cockpit for take-off and 2 more for landing. I unfortunately did not get to do either...darn you number 13! Then it was off to the bus for the quick ride to the plane. The jet is so big. Sometimes I forget how much crap can go in the back of it. I have seen them up close many a time and still it takes your breath away when you start walking up into it. Holy HUGE!
There was only 20 ladies and plenty of seats so we had lots of room to move around and sit where ever we wanted.

It is a little unusual taking off in a jet like this. It isn't like a regular airline where you can see out the window. There are windows...at the jump doors and above 2 of the seats. So it can make you a little disoriented. No one got sick or even felt ill. We were all a little dizzy or rather tipsy! Once in the air they let us get up and basically do what ever we wanted. We went to the windows and started taking pictures, and goofing off doing funny pictures.



The highlights of the flight, other than spending it with the lovely ladies, were:
*North Shore of Oahu. We could see Haliewa, Turtle Bay.
*East shore of Oahu. Kaneohe, and Kaliua
*North Shore of Molokai. Good gracious there were some amazing cliffs. If only we could have been closer and with no doors! It looked a lot like Jurassic Park. (even though that is on Kauai)
*MAUI!! JBake and I were up on the cockpit for the last half of Maui and the beginning of the Big Island.
*Big Island. Volcano, lava fields, coffee plantations, amazing coast line. I think the first island I want to hop to is the Big Island. I was in awe of its beauty. The volcano, the beaches. Oh MY!






North Shore of Oahu

Kaneohe and Kailua

Cliffs of Molokai

View of the Big Island and Volcano












By this time most of us were very hungry and just ready to get back to Oahu. We had about a 35 minute flight back and most of just sat back and talked. We landed with a big bump...but all survived. They opened the back of the jet once we were on the ground. We cheered until we all looked and realized how sick it was making us. Goodness I was dizzy. I couldn't look. Once we stopped and we all cautiously looked out we were parked right in front of another 17! So cool!

We headed back the squadron fully anticipating on leaving, when we were told they had a whole spread of food for us! Sandwiches, veggies, sodas, hot wings and cake! It was great..since I hadn't eaten breakfast and my stomach was eating my spine. It was a great end to a fabulous morning.
I spent some time with old friends and even had some laughs with new friends!