On 4/30/2023 at 4:50 PM, G550flyer said:

When I first started flying real world, my first jet assignment after training was the mighty C-141B Starlifter. I flew that swept winged, T-tail, 4 engined, bug sucker to the four corners of the world at a blazing speed of Mach .74. It had the old basic INS system with a fancy FMS called an FSAS. It didn't have GPS and you could only load 20 points at a time. Fall asleep and stop loading points and the jet would turn around and return to waypoint 1. This actually happened to some folks crossing the Atlantic. You wake up and find the sun on the wrong side. There wasn't a NAV database so you had to name the point and hand jam the lat long. If the FSAS failed, you pulled the old INS head from the NAV station and dropped it into the center console. Both INSs drifted quickly, so you had to be on top your gross NAV check. It was common to see airliners offset from your course because they had GPS and better NAV systems. On the NATS, everything passed you up except C-130s. We had auto throttles, but they were only usable during low level flying. Though this jet will beat you up and was so noisy that you wore ear plugs under your Davy clarks, it was a long hauler. There was no EFB or fancy NAV displays. The RADAR display had a basic course and waypoint marks. It rocked back and forth during cruise flying figure 8s due to dutch roll.

Though that aircraft was a beast, it flew long hauls along with airdrops, low levels and air refueling. Imagine going from that through the DC-10 and finally getting to the GIII, GV and on to the fancy G550. I hear so many voices that complain about not having EFBs or not being able to import a flight plan. If they knew how many times I have set with the paper flight plan and hand jam every point name/lat long. Imagine being cleared direct to a point that's not in your flight plan and having to search it out in the charts and jam that puppy in. Those voices we hear wouldn't make it in aviation. In aviation, you fly what you are assigned to and operate it as defined. In that HD 787, I can takeoff, climb, cruise, descend and fly an approach to land. Heck, it has more capability than the old C-141B Star Lizard I flew🤣. You can fly anything long haul. I have flown the 5 hour legged GIII literally around the world three times.

Great to read your description of the C-141B. I'm quite sure I saw them as a kid both at Frankfurt (Rhein-Main), and also growing up in California driving around near Travis. I can imagine the food on those flights might not have been the best business/first signature dishes. But maybe that also doesn't matter so much. I've wolfed down everything that's ever been served to me on a plane, except one time the "Western Breakfast" on Air China economy. Chinese porridge breakfast was always good though. I could never understand my friends who so often complain about airplane food.

7 hours ago, Antipodeslonghaul said:

Great to read your description of the C-141B. I'm quite sure I saw them as a kid both at Frankfurt (Rhein-Main), and also growing up in California driving around near Travis. I can imagine the food on those flights might not have been the best business/first signature dishes. But maybe that also doesn't matter so much. I've wolfed down everything that's ever been served to me on a plane, except one time the "Western Breakfast" on Air China economy. Chinese porridge breakfast was always good though. I could never understand my friends who so often complain about airplane food.

Well, having numerous airborne jumps out of side doors of the venerable C141 and also having rode in the back of them for countless hours as a Light Infantry Paratrooper, we usually had MRE's  (Meals Ready to Eat) to eat while being crammed into the web seats 😉Of course, same went for the C130 rides. Now, C17 and C5 rides the USAF usually gave us box lunches for those rides before we boarded. Those were basically sandwiches, chips and a piece of fruit. Not too shabby, but nothing to write home about 😁 When it came to jumping out of various military aircraft, the C141 was one of the easier ones. When you approach the jump door, you simply walk out at a 45 degree angle as opposed to a C130 exit, where you have to jump out, hard, at a 90 degree angle so as to not get banged on the side of fuselage by the prop blast from the Herc's engines. Ah, good times those were 🙂 

On 5/4/2023 at 3:00 AM, Antipodeslonghaul said:

Great to read your description of the C-141B. I'm quite sure I saw them as a kid both at Frankfurt (Rhein-Main), and also growing up in California driving around near Travis. I can imagine the food on those flights might not have been the best business/first signature dishes. But maybe that also doesn't matter so much. I've wolfed down everything that's ever been served to me on a plane, except one time the "Western Breakfast" on Air China economy. Chinese porridge breakfast was always good though. I could never understand my friends who so often complain about airplane food.

Lol, the food was pretty much like standard cafeteria food. It wasn't the best, but it filled the void. There were usually options such as chicken, sandwiches and salads. Now, different bases had different options, especially areas over seas depending on the contract. We called them box lunches because they came in a small white box lol. Some gave them the nickname of box nasties🤣. I tell you what though, when you are at 40 West crossing the Atlantic or mid Pacific on the way to Japan, those meals were life. Some would order two for the long flights. At times, you would hit the grocery store and grab burgers or bratwurst, baked beans or other meats to cook up in the ovens. At other times you would grab a gut bomb from the corner store. I once called in an order for Popeye's in Hawaii and had them deliver two family meals to the entry control point by our parking spot. The meals were not too bad. Every now and then you would get half way across Atlantic, starving and find out they either left out the chicken from your chicken sandwich. You had a salad, but they left out the dressing and fork. Or worst case, the Navigator ate your lunch thinking it was extra😡.

Once I applied and flew presidential airlift in Gulfstreams, the food was finally good. Our flight attendants go to chef and etiquette school and cook on the jets. We had two massive kitchens in our squadron and they would prep a lot of food there to minimize what needed preparing in the jet.They would look up meals on pinterest and make meal options for the VIPs. What ever they chose is what the crew eats. They would serve the pax first and then us. Good times.            

The 787-10 with the HD mod and the 747-8 with the Salty mod are beautiful to fly longhauls, i did already around 1000h flighttime with both airplanes and lucky with them, at least good enough for me.

And i could not say a working EFB is needed for this..

cheers 😉

 

u/KGbow: “I need help with long haulers. I miss them so much!” 😞

Avsim: “Just simulate Iranian, Afghani or Uzbekistani passenger ops with a dinosaur French aircraft!”

u/KGbow: 😞 😞  😞. 

Asobo (after reading sad Avsim thread): “Don’t worry u/KGbow. We know how unhappy you must be without Boeing long haul. Hey WT, get to work on this right now!”

WT: “We got this, fam.”