Today was supposed to be one gravy day. A quick blast down to Sigonella NAS on Sicily – a two hour flight that would put us on a deck by noon with plenty of time to tour around. Guess what?
As we performed our Before Engines Start checks, the flight engineer, Dale Hoth press-to-test his nacell overheat lights and got no response from #2 - not good – you can’t tell if things go bad in a #2 engine and a fire broke out – the first indication would be a fire on #1, and by then the entire wing would be engulfed. Tough to fly on one wing.
So, he and the maintenance troops immediately went into search mode, looking for the problem. We hung around for a while, shivering in a cold cockpit, but as the easy solutions proved innocent, Darrell, Conrad, and I grabbed a shuttle bus and went over to the snack bar to get some coffee and stay warm.
As luck would have it, the cappuccino machine that was out of order yesterday was now fixed, so we savored a round or two of the frothy stuff – waiting around as our day slipped away.
Finally, they found a busted wire on a temperature probe. With some help from Aviano‘s electric shop, they were able to fix it and get things buttoned up in relatively short order.
We all jumped in our seats, rushed around to get checklists re-accomplished and get the hell out of Dodge. Just as we asked for permission to start engines, an F-16 on a nearby munitions loading ramp next to the control tower declared an emergency when a 2000 pound bomb fell off one of its shackles and sat there dangling beneath the plane. That immediately ceased all operations at the airfield. We couldn’t start, and the tower said to be prepared to evacuate our airplane, depending on the severity of the incident.
finally, after about 45 tense minutes, things calm down enough for us to start up, taxi out and takeoff – now 1630 in the afternoon!
Two hours later, we were flying past Mount Etna, watching the steam rising from its peak, marveling at the people living immediately below. Again, we landed just after sunset. It took over an hour to download our cargo, refuel for Wednesday, and hang around till the crew bus picked us up.
The drive into Catania was interesting – the base seems to be out in the middle of nowhere, and the closest town with lodging, a good 45 minutes away.
Italian driving was very impressive – people wanted to pass? Everyone just moves over and lets them go down the middle – something that would be unheard of in the States. The basic philosophy in close quarter driving is whoever has the bigger car, or has a nose out front first, or has greater courage, gets the right away!
How they survive is beyond me, but everyone knows the rules that can drive to them – fascinating to watch.
We stayed at the Jolly Hotel – must be a big chain because they’re expensive hotels and all over Italy and southern Europe. The price was $80 a night and the room was little bigger than out master bath– a single bed with a small walkway between it in the closet. A vanity with a TV on it. Italian television is the boring I’ve ever seen - nothing but game shows and old talk show all night long! There were four pay channels where you could get movies, but they were over a year old and expensive.
Dinner was around the corner at the American Café – we were the only ones in the place. Now it’s 9 o’clock and we have three servers hurrying all over us. One girl is very tight jeans was our favorite – didn’t speak a bit of English, but we didn’t mind a bit – it was nice to just watch her maneuver. I had another spaghetti dish, a beef steak, salad, and red wine. Delicious!
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