“airport authorities” Hmm? an unnamed public official who wishes to duck accountability for public assertions? Fishing for unspent covid relief funds to fix an aging infrastructure?
I have a hard time accepting C-17s just “drop in” unannounced. I can’t imagine any Air Force pilot simply ignoring proper landing authorization particularly given the logistics required for such a visit.
Where do I apply to get my son’s youth group a ride on a C-17 for “training”? As a patriotic citizen I would like to do more than just pay my taxes to ensure that our armed forces are kept honed to a razor’s edge…
The C-17 has 2T (two triple wheels in tandem) landing gear, not 2D (two dual wheels in tandem). Since KSWO doesn’t have 2T weight bearing capacity numbers published, the max weight for a C-17 to operate at Stillwater is unknown.
Landing at a general aviation airport is training? The past couple of years C17s and it’s crew have flown thousands of real missions all around the world. I don’t believe any of its flight crews are having trouble staying current.
Do you really think the AirForce conducts initial training with passengers on board? Do you think they use general aviation airports, that don’t want them there and don’t have the ARFF equipment for that category of aircraft, to conduct training flights, with or without passengers? There’s this thing called: common sense, heard of it?
If the pilots or their OPS would have taken a quick look at the runway information for this airport, they would have clearly found that DDT (Dual Double Tandem) Landing Gear is N/A for this airport.
There is no need for permission or guessing at the aircraft weight, etc, etc. It was N/A for landing at this airport.
So I’m missing something. Did they land on the taxiway? Or just taxi so as to damage the concrete on the taxiway edge yet miss the light? (The paint and yellow light tells me it is a taxiway) I’d say they passed training for being so precise.