Originally Posted by
kalyx522
Tanker and tiptip, thank you both for the info (good info!) I really appreciate it, it's hard to get this kind of info elsewhere.
btw tankerdriver, what do you mean turning left for hours on end at FL 250??
Every KC-135er has as tory like this: In the early days of OEF we had a crew that was assigned refueling with the Navy, so they bolted the drogue on back and they launched with as much gas as conditions allowed that day. Of course, when they arrived out in the area 2 hours later, they checked in to hear a KC-10 finishing up the AR with their receivers.
Now they had no recievers, couldn't dump their gas into a 10, but they did have bingo plus 120, or something like that so they had to stay in their left hand orbit at 250.
Hours later, when they were light enough to actually land, they asked every 30 or 40 minutes to go.
13.9 hours after departure, they landed at the same rodent infested airport they had taken off from and had never offloaded a drop of gas.