Pentagon Calls Up Civilian Planes

[Tim47SIP]

Snoopy

You are correct, but I didn't give you all of the info. I pesonally went to the airhead (which I have freinds there and in Ops) and talked to the crew. They were in fact CRAF air craft (which I was also surprized). As you can see by my background, I have a little experience with the military. The point here is that evidently, the CRAF aircraft have been used as well as charter for the past few months. It is just now that the mil is activating a greater number of CRAF aircraft. Hope things work out for the best.

 

[TurboS7]

We can go 7.0 hours with a 39,000 pound payload, usually this amounts to one stop to Europe and two to Kuwait from any of our bases in the U.S. Stops are random and are at approved places on the globe.

 

[greg20]

CRAF Fleet

For those who may be interested, the entire CRAF fleet (by carrier and tail #) is available at this link:

http://www.rspa.dot.gov/oet/craf/TA000103.xls

It's an Excel spreadsheet.

 

[TriStar_drvr]

I am sure that I missed this some where, but are the airlines and crews NOT paid for this mission? Thanks, -Bean:

At my airline, captains are paid an extra $15 an hour and FOs and FEs are paid an extra $12.50 an hour for CRAF flights.

We're busting our butts, much like Turbo is, and many of our crews are running up against the pay cap. I just got home last night, after being up for 24 hours of operating flights and riding in the back of one of our airplanes to get home a day early. I'll be heading out again in a few days. The days can be long, like when a scheduled two hour turn in Kuwait turns into five or six. But I love it. It's the most fun, interesting, exciting, wierd, and many times exhausting flying I'll ever do. Oh, and the Guiness tastes great too!

 

[ATA1011]

Hey Tim, you are wrong about the CRAFT program. Before two days ago all civilian aircraft flying for the military were doing AMC charters, on a mission per mission basis. These aircraft were chartered by choice of the operator. These same aircraft and others are dedicated to CRAFT if activated. When activated the Department of Defense takes these aircraft full-time regardless if the operator wants to or not. This is the second time Craft has ever been activated. All crews work for the company that owns the aircraft. I have been flying AMC charters since 9/11, now im flying the same routes and aircraft under CRAFT. Research it, it's a fact. Cheers

 

[nimtz]

Maybe someone should point out to the Bush Adminstration that all the 'old dinasour airlines' are the ones giving this capacity. I don't see any airplanes from a certain airline with 'sh*t colored tails' hauling the GI's to the desert. Guess the old network carriers have their worth too, huh Georgie!