Thought you guys would get a kick out of these pictures from a few weeks ago. The entire ramp area was flooded between the B and C concourse. Not much fun to wrench on airplanes in.
Hey Rob, have you ever surved on a wheel chock? You haven't lived until you've surfed on one... or used a plastic pallet cover (read giant plastic bag) as a parachute off the baggage loader! Either way, that's a LOT of water!
Back in the pre 9-11 days,[1980's actually] I had a job working ground crew. After the shift, we would have one of the transporters drop us [about 6-10 guys/gals] at the end of the runway, and we would lay down in the grass just a couple feet off the end of the concrete behind the short fence, and watch the planes take off over us. There was a good 1000 feet between the end of the runway and the road, and it was not un-common for a fully loaded 747 to pass less than 200 feet over top of us. Sometimes the jet blast would be so strong you would think it was gonna lift you off the ground. This was all done at 3:00 a.m., when there would be about 75-100 UPS planes departing. Airport security and management was aware of it, and let us know that they would not tollerate any monkey business, but as long as we were behaved, they looked the other way and let us have our fun. A couple days a month, they would reverse the traffic pattern and have jets land from the south. It was kinda boaring because there would only be about 1 landing every 20-30 minutes at that hour, but it was MUCH more exciting watching a plane literally drop out of the sky and miss you by 100-150 feet, and then have the vortex vapor trails come down on you! That was a loooong time ago. Lord knows they wont let you do stuff like that now!
i flew out of there a few times while in the army , i didnt have any trouble then but thanks for the pics...
My best friend said he had a friend who lived at the end on a runway. They used to drop copious amounts of acid and lay on the roof of the house and watch the planes fly over.
Believe me, there's a HUGE difference in watching a loaded 747 going 150 feet over you, as opposed to 500 feet [minimum residential clearance].... A HUGE difference And, yes... Sometimes chemical enhancement would be involved in our expirences as well.
The Jalopy Journal
