Haven’t done one of these for a while…
So, back in the day…
This one comes with a few memories…
Cafe Acores, George the Crook, Fast Eddies, Matteus Rose, goat cheese and fresh bread, beautiful filigree silver and gold jewelry…
Oh yeah, and winds that would blow your ass sideways… There was a C-130 ‘parked’ on the side of the hill behind the hangars thanks to one helluva crosswind and being too heavy to go around. If memory serves, the entire crew survived though!
One of the scariest landings I ever lived through, approaching from the seaward side, we ‘developed’ a 3000+fpm rate of descent at about three hundred feet, full power, stall warning, figuring we were going to hit the cliff… updraft and a greaser landing… And about half the crew had to go change underwear (me included)…
USAF SOP was to call in from FL300 and get a wind check, if it was too high, they kept on truckin for Torrejon…
Where is it???
Hint- Middle of the Atlantic Ocean…
But does Lajes have a Wal-Mart and Star Bucks ? :^)
Man, when you want to get away from it all. But one big tsunami and you are likely toast.
George the Crook and Fast Eddies brings back memories!
jrg- Hell no! And it’s high enough to shrug off tsunamis!
Randy- Don’t it though! 🙂
Only made it there once on a SMILS project trip with VX-1. Only stayed one night but managed a case of Mateus on the return flight, much to my bride’s delight. She loved the stuff and still talks about it 50 years later.
I remember Lajes. Once a quick-turn in a C-5, don’t remember why, probably heavy load and winds. The other a C-130B flight from Germany to South Carolina, deadhead. Didn’t have the legs for a single hop, had to RON.
And agree about the wind! IIRC, I was tasked to calculate cross-wind gear setting for the C-5 (unmodified A-model)
Flugel- LOL, of course!!!
WN- I can believe it! That crosswind was WICKED!
My now deceased father in law flew air sea rescue out of the Azores at the end of WW2 in Vickers Warwicks in the RNZAF. Wireless operator/air gunner. At his funeral service in the park in the town where my wife went to school in New Zealand, six RNZAF CT4 Airtrainers flew in formation past us. Not organised by us, just accidental but fitting.
I made it to Lajes only one time in the early 1980s. I was the A/C of a C-130H. We were coming out of Charleston AFB, SC on our way to about a week of flying around Europe. This was an overnight flight. Enroute to Lajes we went to min-navaids as there was a stratus cloud layer above us precluding the use of our sextant after having problems with I believe the Omega navigation system. One more loss and we would have been in an emergency navaids condition for over water flight. The navigator was doing his best. When we got about 300nm out from the Azores, which was the maximum range of our radar, we could not distinguish the islands from the thunderstorms in the area. We could also not yet receive the high power low frequency NDB (Non-Directional Beacon) because of the thunderstorms and the VOR/TACAN (VHF OmniRange/Tactical Air Navigation) was not yet in range. Another bonus was that the HF radio was all but useless and we were making position reports in the blind. When we finally got close enough we started getting radio navaids. We were within a few miles of our exact course. We experienced the proverbial MAC Sunrise as we came in. The pucker factor had been high since every thing was trying to go sideways. The landing was a no brainer without much crosswind.
After we landed and got things squared away, it was off to the club for bacon, eggs and beer.
That looks like a cool place , except for the treacherous landings . I wonder if that is pronounced LAH HAYS . I always wanted to go to Kwajalein you been there Sir ?