Fog

Today was very exciting, so I hope you will find this a better entry than the last one. It started out with the most beautiful morning I have seen since I have been here, and probably ranks in my top three ever with the sunrises in the mountains of CO Springs and Germany. When I left my house, it was in dense fog. Call me crazy, but I LOVE fog. It reminds me of camping in the Shenandoah mountains of VA, and I love how mysterious everything looks taking shape as you get closer. It's like you're in your own little world and everything else is just briefly slipping in and out. Also, since we set our clocks back last weekend, the sun had already risen for my drive, so the fog was lit up and sometimes you could see the blurry shape of the sun poking through on my left as I drove south. Then, as I made the last turn onto the road that goes around the north end of the runway to the base gate, all of a sudden the fog was behind me, the sky was a brilliant blue and there were beautiful wispy cirrus clouds stretching across it. The trees along the road made a corridor of incredible fall colors, with the sun lighting up all of the bright reds, oranges, and yellows. England makes me wish I was a photographer. Or that I could take pictures while driving without driving off the road or causing an accident.

After lunch, Greg took me on a tour of all of the fighter squadrons' buildings, since I am now moving more into my role as their main contact for weather support. They have some pretty cool setups and facilities, and the walls are covered with past and present pictures of aircraft over impressive background scenery. (For the record, if the unbelievably gorgeous poster of an F-15 formation over the White Cliffs of Dover was to disappear from the lobby of the 493rd sometime in the next two years, I have NO idea who could be behind it...).

When we got back, we were over in base ops talking to them about taking me across the flight line to the helo squadron's headquarters when a call came in about an in-flight emergency; an F-15 had an engine malfunction and was coming in to land in 5 minutes. One of the guys, LB, jumped up to go out and respond to it, and Greg asked him if I could go with him. He said yes! So we ran outside, jumped in the base ops pickup truck and flew down the flightline towards the north end of the runway. As we were driving, LB explained that we were supposed to watch where the plane hit the runway, then follow it all the way down to the side area where fire crews and crash recovery crews would meet it. The purpose was to look for FOD (anything that might have fallen off the aircraft) and to clear the runway as soon as possible for other aircraft to land. When the plane landed just past where we were waiting, LB pulled out and stepped on the gas and we sped along like a chase vehicle as the plane taxiied to the designated area. It was so exciting! When the plane came to a stop, firefighters in silver spaceman-looking suits jumped out of the waiting trucks and cleared the area before anyone else could approach. After the situation was under control, LB drove me around some different areas of the airfield and explained a lot of things about the pavement, the airfield signs, the different areas, and the procedures that are followed in certain situations. It was all so interesting, and I learned a lot about how weather affects ground crews as well as aircraft operations.

Tomorrow should be a fun day too. Not only is it Friday, but the weather flight is doing a group run (my idea) at PT tomorrow, then there is a wing awards luncheon where Greg and Cody (one of our forecasters) are up for wing-level awards after winning at the OG level, then a squadron hail and farewell in the afternoon complete with families and kids in costumes, then OCF meeting! Plans for the weekend are still undecided, but I'm excited about tomorrow. That's all for now!