Grounded inside C-17 Globemaster

On a different plain

Caught in an airwave aboard Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, the motley crowd of mediapersons scurried for something to hold on to.

Cruising at 10,000 ft above the Yelahanka Air Force Base on Friday, the aircraft turned up and down, spun 360 degrees, as the standing men fell to the floor in one dramatic heap. Grounded, the lay mediaperson lay there, learning the labours of the soldier.

“Welcome aboard. Hope you gentlemen are alright,” boomed the pilot, readying the C-17 for another pulsating manoeuvre to impress one and all at Aero India 2013!

Piloted by Commander Major Patrick and co-commander Capt Chris Ross, the gigantic heavy-lift transport aircraft had taken off at 12.06 pm. In the next 36 minutes, Boeing would demonstrate to the media why the Indian Air Force (IAF) had bought 10 of these flying machines and taken delivery of the first on schedule. But first, belted to their seats, the mediapersons had to endure the thunderous takeoff, a cabin without depressurisation, and an aircraft about to show off in style.

Flying to tsunami-hit Japan, the C-17 had proven its prowess as a humanitarian weapon of speedy relief. Landing in rugged, earthquake-ravaged Haiti, the aircraft had transported food and supplies, men and machines. From helicopters to trucks, tanks to earthmovers, the C-17 could take up to 77 tonnes. But on Friday, it had nothing within, but the chattering shutterbugs, the commanders and the “load-masters” Sergeant Jerome Thomas and Sergeant Baker, aptly called so because without them, no cargo would be uploaded.

Loadmaster Sgt Thomas had been on the C-17 for 2,400 hours. So, he knew the tricks. “But it is always challenging. We’ve got to upload and calculate the weight balance for the aircraft, and sometimes even carry a lot of outsized cargo. There are, of course, different ways to do that,” he told Deccan Herald.

By this year-end, when five of these C-17 join the IAF fleet, our airmen would have to figure that out. Five more C-17s will add muscle to the IAF next year, boosting its capacity to send supplies and machines to the daunting borders in double quick time.
An enormous cabin flanked by 54 seats, 27 on either side. That was the C-17 in its skeletal basics.

But that huge space could easily be reconfigured to fit 184 seats. The floor could be flipped to make those quick changes, as crew, Capt Alan Berck demonstrated. Berck and the entire crew had taken the aircraft straight from its Pearl Harbour Hackim Hawaiian joint base to the Japanese Kadena airbase in Okinawa, before flying 18 hours non-stop to the Yelahanka Air Force Station.

Thirty minutes after takeoff, the flight was within 60 km from the airbase and had clocked a cruise speed of Mach 0.74 (about 7.4 miles per minute). Trooping for a 30-second photoshoot inside the cockpit, the mediapersons hurried back. It was then the airwave hit them, flattening them, as the crew wore a reassuring, knowing smile. The aircraft had only entered a cloud. Six minutes later, the mediapersons would be belted to their seats again, as the majestic C-17 Globemaster III touched down for a steep, deep landing. Shaken, stirred, the mediapersons rushed out to file their stories!