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Great last flight...

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VVJM265

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2005
Posts
497
Thought I'd post this here since my next career is with NJA...

WOW! I had my last flight in the Navy yesterday. What a great way to end a career!

We took off early from NGP with the wx right at 200’, 5SM and busted into the clear blue at 6000’. I went over 5000 total Navy hours as we passed over San Antonio on our way up to COS.

I haven’t flown into there, or anywhere in the Rockies before, so I was soaking up the beauty of the scenery. ATIS was calling the wx 4000’ sct, >10 SM so we took vectors to the visual for RW 17R and backed it up with the GPS approach. I waved it off in close for a GPWS flap warning, which was confusing since the flaps indicated at approach. We had our pilot/passengers, a rescue crew for a broken T-44, get a visual confirmation on the downwind, went ahead, and landed. (It seems that the cold wx there was apparently playing havoc with my tired TC-12B that was used to the warmer climes of south TX; we latter had to use the stall warning heat to get the vane to test during the pre-start checks in COS, and we had no further problems with the flaps the rest of the day.)

Taxiing into the JetCenter, I noticed that the H800 we were parking next to was a QS tailed bird. I found the crew inside relaxing while Columbus worked out what their next leg would be. Small world, the CAPT had done his IOE with my buddy from the Navy who has been at NJA for quite some time now. After chatting with those guys, I felt more psyched than ever to start indoc next week.

We took off and headed south to LRU where we have a T-34 det. The wx over the mountains was clear and we were able to get some great photos. We went into the goo over ABQ and had lots of snow during the descent into NM. The wx at LRU was about 800’sct-bkn, 7 SM in light snow. It wasn’t quite as cold as it had been in COS, so the airplane was a bit happier. We shot the GPS RW 12 and parked next to a couple of Citations. Although they weren’t QS birds, I still smiled since I’ll be starting in the Ultra at NJA.

After a quick turn around and saying goodbye to some of the fellas there, were took off on the last leg. There was a solid overcast over most of Texas, but we were in clear blue VMC on top at FL250. We finally had the wind at our backs and the FMS showed 325 knots over the ground. The guy I was flying with is a good friend, has been my colleague in the office ground job for the last 18 months, and we had flown together many times before. We reminisced as we headed home.

The wx back in Corpus was 500’bkn, 10SM but the winds were 90 deg off at a steady 15 knots. It wasn’t anything that I haven’t seen before, but I still had to work a little for that last landing. I shot a coupled ILS down to 500’, put the slip in and brought it down onto RW 13R for the last time.

Maintenance gave us the hot spot, “rock star” parking right next to the hangar. My wife, who pinned my wings on nearly 18 years ago, daughter, office staff, Skipper of the squadron I instruct with, and several others were waiting as we shut down. Of course, they made sure I got thoroughly wet with champagne as I stepped onto the ramp. As I filled out the yellow sheet, it started to sink in that this was the last time that I would fly a Navy aircraft. It seems surreal that 20 years has come and gone.

In the final analysis, I have had an absolutely great career in the Navy, but it is time to move on now. Whoever is starting NJA on Monday, I look forward to meeting you and the start of another 20+ great years of flying!!
 
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Congrats on the last flight and I hope you will enjoy your next career move as much as your last Navy flight.

Welcome to NJA!
 
Congratulations on a helluva career thus far. Thanks for the story, it relights the motivational fire every time I read one like this. It's to bad positvie, excitement filled posts are a rarity here at FI.
 
Great, just what we need....more squids.
Just kidding, this old Marine had to give you a hard time. Welcome aboard!
 
welcome to NJA think you will love it here and there are plenty of military folks here to share war stories with.
 
Sounds like a great last flight...Have fun with the new job and remember the happiest ex-military aviators are the ones who truly "get out" when they get out
 

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