Originally Posted by
MAGNUM!!
I'm gonna cry listening to you guys. Got drug across the Atlantic by a -135E from Pittsburgh. Guys were great, but it was miserable. 300Kts the whole way with a 100 kt headwind and no ability to push it up...couldn't spare the gas. Every time I was fragged with a -135E, I thought of that Seinfield episode about toilet paper..."can't spare a square." Seems like the -135Rs can't give away all the gas sometimes!
I may be wrong, but those of us in the ANG/Reserve 135 tankers tend to push it up more than the AD tanker units do. However, in a fighter drag, we do have to watch the fuel. Our number one priority it to ensure our customers have enough gas to reach their destination or alternate. We'd love to get you there sooner, and will if possible. Believe me, we want to get to the cold brews at the end of the flight just as badly as you do (chances are one of us in the tanker has cold ones on ice aboard just begging us to land). If we can push it up we do. It's the AD tankers that are more closely monitored by TACC that don't want to fly any faster than the plan.
However, times are changing, we in the ANG are being pressured to carry less "slop" and fly best range so as to save fuel (burn time not gas). Be it E or R, AD/ANG/Reserve, the fuel situation will be tigher going forward. Morale speed is on the endangered list.