Previous Eds.: (You know it's bad when you can form a compendium!!)
I: Jet engines and you
II: General Aviation and you
It is with great relief that I am able to write this for you, TalkBass. Today's installment of the "Aviation and you" series comes after a scare I had up close and personal with a C-130 this morning. The Herc.
*Shown for size reference. Not this exact plane/location/day, but the model/configuration is the same.
My co-worker is driving the company truck, an F-250, and I'm in the passenger seat. We are trying to get to our hangar, which is near one of the runways. It is late into March, yet Winter will not be defeated. Snow has assaulted our city and airport, requiring airfield maintenance crews to pile up snow in certain spots.
Well, a lot of these piles are in extremely inconvenient spaces. Case in point:
The C-130, above left, was taxiing on the non-movement area. This area is uncontrolled by the tower, so no clearances or call-ins are required while running engines or moving around here. Conversely, vehicles are also permitted to travel as long as they do not attempt to access runways (boundary marked by ||: ).
As we are driving up on the road, we stop as required to check for oncoming traffic. Unfortunately for us, the gigantic snow pile obstructs any meaningful view of traffic. We listen and hear nothing. Five seconds later, we are now turning the corner and the C-130 is now turning to exit via taxiway Echo [E] instead of the usual taxiway Foxtrot [F]. This could mean big doo-doo.
I exclaim to my coworker, "you need to back up, dude". He asks, "wing tips don't extend past the guide lights, do they?". "Sometimes", I reply.
No movement on our half and the C-130 is rapidly approaching us.
"BACK UP, DUDE".
"Uhh, yeah. Good idea".
The truck speeds backwards about 20 feet and the co-pilot side of the wing tip passes over our truck. There is about 10 feet of clearance between the top of our truck and the bottom of the wing, but that isn't my biggest concern.
For anyone familiar with the Herc, intimately or not, you know it's a huge ass plane. That means huge ass engines. The props came our way and for whatever reason, my coworker had ceased backing up, thinking we were in the safe zone. We weren't. Sitting on the passenger side, I was approximately 15 feet away from HAPD, or as I will call it: HUGE ASS PROP DEATH.
Now, 15 feet might seem like plenty of distance. But if you refer to the first image in this post, you'll notice a small green dot near the front of the plane. That's a worker in high visibility clothing. Kind of small, no? That means huge ass props.
We escaped with our lives. Nothing was damaged, no injuries. I might have a few HAPD nightmares for a while, which could kill me in my sleep, but for all intents and purposes, I made it out today.
Lesson here? If a huge ass plane is coming your way, DO NOT ASSUME you'll be safe. JUST GET OUT THE DAMN WAY.
I: Jet engines and you
II: General Aviation and you
It is with great relief that I am able to write this for you, TalkBass. Today's installment of the "Aviation and you" series comes after a scare I had up close and personal with a C-130 this morning. The Herc.
*Shown for size reference. Not this exact plane/location/day, but the model/configuration is the same.
My co-worker is driving the company truck, an F-250, and I'm in the passenger seat. We are trying to get to our hangar, which is near one of the runways. It is late into March, yet Winter will not be defeated. Snow has assaulted our city and airport, requiring airfield maintenance crews to pile up snow in certain spots.
Well, a lot of these piles are in extremely inconvenient spaces. Case in point:
The C-130, above left, was taxiing on the non-movement area. This area is uncontrolled by the tower, so no clearances or call-ins are required while running engines or moving around here. Conversely, vehicles are also permitted to travel as long as they do not attempt to access runways (boundary marked by ||: ).
As we are driving up on the road, we stop as required to check for oncoming traffic. Unfortunately for us, the gigantic snow pile obstructs any meaningful view of traffic. We listen and hear nothing. Five seconds later, we are now turning the corner and the C-130 is now turning to exit via taxiway Echo [E] instead of the usual taxiway Foxtrot [F]. This could mean big doo-doo.
I exclaim to my coworker, "you need to back up, dude". He asks, "wing tips don't extend past the guide lights, do they?". "Sometimes", I reply.
No movement on our half and the C-130 is rapidly approaching us.
"BACK UP, DUDE".
"Uhh, yeah. Good idea".
The truck speeds backwards about 20 feet and the co-pilot side of the wing tip passes over our truck. There is about 10 feet of clearance between the top of our truck and the bottom of the wing, but that isn't my biggest concern.
For anyone familiar with the Herc, intimately or not, you know it's a huge ass plane. That means huge ass engines. The props came our way and for whatever reason, my coworker had ceased backing up, thinking we were in the safe zone. We weren't. Sitting on the passenger side, I was approximately 15 feet away from HAPD, or as I will call it: HUGE ASS PROP DEATH.
Now, 15 feet might seem like plenty of distance. But if you refer to the first image in this post, you'll notice a small green dot near the front of the plane. That's a worker in high visibility clothing. Kind of small, no? That means huge ass props.
We escaped with our lives. Nothing was damaged, no injuries. I might have a few HAPD nightmares for a while, which could kill me in my sleep, but for all intents and purposes, I made it out today.
Lesson here? If a huge ass plane is coming your way, DO NOT ASSUME you'll be safe. JUST GET OUT THE DAMN WAY.
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Glad you got through it ok! That's the 2nd terrifying airport story from you I can recall reading on here! 
