After 13 months of Air Force pilot training, over 200 hours of flight time in the T-6 and T-1, countless 12-hour days, check rides and hundreds of thousands of dollars of jet fuel, I finally found out tonight, at our class’ Assignment Night, the plane I will fly for the Air Force: C-17′s at McChord AFB in Tacoma, WA. I am incredibly excited and grateful as this was one of my top picks on my dream sheet. Overall our class got great drop with nearly everyone getting their top choice of plane.
The C-17 is an awesome plane, the newest of the Air Force’s airlift fleet. It has the most advanced avionics, electronics, capabilities of any of the heavy aircraft. The main feature of the C-17 is its ability to land on small, dirt strips in remote operating areas while carrying up to 170,000 lbs of cargo…oh yeah, and it can stop in approximately 3,000 ft. For more stats and info on the plane check out this page on Wikipedia.
Definitely more to come on my new plane, but just enjoying the moment for now. Thank you to all the taxpayers of America that let me fly around everyday as my job!
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I love this A/C wish I knew more about it hopefully one day I can work on this A/C god willing.
Hey Lt. Schaefer (I’m guessing it’s Lt…)
Awesome post! And like you, I absolutely love the C-17. It’s probably one of the baddest planes around.
You dont know me, and I dont know you… but I have a few questions if that’s okay. First off, my name’s Cory Howe with Detachment 160 AFROTC at the University of Georgia. I would love to do what you’re doing for the rest of my life, and I just cant imagine me doing something else. I plan on getting my Private Pilot’s here sometime this fall and winter…
But I was just wondering what paths did you take, and what does it take to become an USAF pilot???
I know you have to have a good GPA, which I’m set with. Do well on your AFOQT, I’ll be taking this spring…and that’s about it.
If you know of any insider info and things I need to know before pursuing any further, that would be awesome!
Thanks for your time and I look forward to getting a response soon!
Very Respectfully,
Howdy sir,
My son (SSgt, USAF, crew chief) is headed for McChord as an instructor with the FTD. He seems to be as excited about working the C-17 as you are flying it. He has spent the first eight years of his career at MacDill working the KC-135. I wish all of you mission success & Godspeed. Doug Olson, MSgt USAF (Ret.)
@MSgt Olson,
That’s great that your son is headed to McChord! I’m coming up on 2 years here and my family and I love it! If he’s a crew chief then chances are that sooner or later I’ll bump into him on the flight line. Tell him he can contact me anytime if he has any questions about McChord or the Seattle-Tacoma area, I’ll help out however I can. My e-mail is on the “About” page.
Mr. Schaefer,
I happen to ‘land here’ after Googling C-17. I had been listening to a broadcast on the controversy surrounding continuing the C-17 program. For the record, I don’t know enough about the pro’s or con’s to have an opinion either way. But from my brief read on the aircraft, it seems like a remarkable vehicle.
If the DOD doesn’t want to continue production, why couldn’t Boeing do a civ variant? You would think FEDEX, UPS or somebody would snap these bad boys up? That would at least keep the factory open for a few more years. Is civ cargo a practical application for this aircraft?
@ Chuck,
You’re right that it is a remarkable vehicle. As for being able to make a civilian variant I think it would be possible, but I’m not sure if it would be economical. Right now they run about $230million a piece. Even if you stripped down all the military accessories I’m not sure that it would get the price tag down low enough to entice FEDEX, UPS purchasing them. I’m not very knowledgeable when it comes to commercial aviation, but just doing a quick google search a new 737 runs anywhere from $50-$75million. A new 747 runs just upwards of $200million, but it can also carry almost double the cargo of a C-17. Of course, the C-17 is attractive because of its ability to land on a 3,000ft dirt strip. So I guess the only way I can imagine the major shipping companies jumping on board is if they have a large, unmet need to ship large amounts of cargo to super-austere locations that conventional platforms can’t land.
All this to say, I don’t know, hahaha. If Boeing can figure out a way to make money off of it though I’m sure they will find a way to make a civ variant.