Refueller
The story I have the privilege to share on the website tonight is one from Capt (ret.) John Thompson, who served an impressive 36 year career with the CAF.
In fact, John provided me with three incredible short stories but I plan to only share one at time because they are too good to post all at once.
This particular story is one that involves a military task that has always amazed and bewildered me over the skill, nerve and concentration required to do it safely and successfully. Of course I’m talking about mid-air refuelling. It’s common place for the other branches/elements to slag the Air Force (regardless of nationality) but no one is going to begrudge them a compliment for the fine technical skill, teamwork and prowess necessary to achieve this feat.
If you haven’t seen videos of what it looks like do yourself a favour, open a new window in your browser and search “mid-air refuelling” and then be prepared to be left in awe of how beautiful and dangerous it is. John’s story will highlight the latter aspect, the danger, which he experienced and has graciously shared.
Thank you John for sharing your story.
All the best,
Boeing 707 Story
True Story: I had the opportunity to fly in the Boeing 707 out of Trenton as the refueller.
The CF use to use the Boeing 707 to refuel jets going across the Atlantic by letting out refueling lines at the end of each wing tip. We flew to Goose Bay and stayed overnight and that's where we met up with two CF 18 Hornets and two CF-5 Freedom Fighters.
It was Fall, and there was a massive storm that had just gone through Goose Bay delaying our departure for Andoya, Norway. We ended up staying in Goose Bay another three days waiting for the storm to either dissipate or track away from our route to Andoya. But the storm was still out over the Atlantic, and we took off anyway thinking that it should be clear enough by now to get through it. However, we caught up to the storm and we couldn't fly around it because of the size of it and so the aircrew decided to try and fly over it.
Just as we were at the top of the storm the jets had to plug in to refuel. This is the juncture where the jets have enough fuel to get back to Goose Bay if needed or refuel to carry on across the Atlantic. We are now just over 40 Thousand feet; commercial aircraft normally don't fly that high, they can but they wouldn't have the fuel load we had and when you have a heavy fueled Boeing 707 at that altitude there's not a lot of lift to carry it. The air is rare! It was explained to me later by one of the pilots that the aircraft is in danger of going nose over into a flutter like fall out of the sky.
The Boeing was becoming unstable, rocking back and forth and bouncing around the sky as the pilots were doing their best to control the aircraft. When the refuelling lines were let out, the lines were flopping all over the place. One jet did get in the basket at the end of the line and got its fuel, but the others couldn't plug in because of all the turbulence.
During the refuelling there were two navigators near the back and on each side of the Boeing directing the jet pilots and communicating with the Boeing pilots. I was in the back sitting in front of one of the the navigators watching as a CF-5 was trying to plug in. He made several attempts and kept hitting off the basket. Finally the CF-5 on his last try hit the basket, veered into the wing vortex of the Boeing, losing control of the jet, and did a complete barrel roll over the back tail of the Boeing, missing us by feet. The Navigator, as I instantly looked at him seeing what I just saw, was visibly shaking.
The crew knocked it off immediately, the jets flew back to Goose Bay and we turned around and dumped 15 thousand Lbs. of fuel over the ocean and landed back in Goose. The fuel dissipates in the atmosphere when released.
Everyone went to the bar that night. We waited another day and then flew to Andoya without incident. It was an unbelievable trip with lots of drama not to mention a close call with a midair collision over the Atlantic.
I'll never forget that week.