Back in ‘94 I rep’d the Wing at a worldwide airlift /airdrop competition. Everything was graded, including the moment the wheels touched on the scheduled arrival time at McChord, the Tacoma, WA air base hosting the competition.
I had planned the arrival to the second, including which flap setting gave us the best chance of making adjustments.
Beautiful day, so we planned it for a 50% flaps landing, and briefed it that way.
We had our Wing Commander on board, because he wanted to smooze the old buddies he had flown with when he flew -141’s out of there, “back in the day.”
So we cruise in, the crew working like a well oiled machine, map reading and running the descent and before landing checklists.
As we get on short final, we have the timing absolutely shacked. Suddenly, the pilot calls for 100% flaps, completely out of habit. I was like, “What..? No!” And the Co-pilot, hesitating says, “You want 50%, right?”
The Wing Commander, standing next to me immediately chimes in, “The pilot said 100%, so give him 100%!”
The Co- shrugs and puts the flaps to 100%.
The plane pretty much comes to a hover. I mean it just slows to a crawl.
I threw my clip board into the bunk behind me, sat down and buckled in, biting my tongue and counting down our landing, “…5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, +1, +2, +3…”
We touched down 11 second late.
As we parked and unloaded, I watched other competitors come in, comparing their touchdown smoke to the clock… hoping 11 sec would be a typical landing. Nope. Time after time these guys were spot on, landing +/- 2-3 seconds. 😡
The Wing Commander kept to himself for awhile.
——
For the competition, each meter from the target for the airdrops was 1 point, and every second +/- on each airdrop and landing was a point deduction.
In the end, after 3 separate airdrops and 4 landings, we placed 2nd for best C-130 in the world by 2 points.
Still, Chris Joniec was the best Wing Commander I had, in a long career of every type Commander possible.
.
