My iPhone video from the open ramp of a C-130 performing aerial refueling over the Pacific Ocean of F-18 Hornets from VMFA (AW) 225 during training exercises at MCAS Miramar.
July, 2019 video credit, John Deckert
We did a little Plein Aire work this morning, taking it to new heights. Aerial refueling from Major Sheldon’s C-130 to Captain Sasso’s F-18 over the Pacific Ocean at 10,000 feet altitude and about 300 mph air speed.
The experience was the most exciting and beautiful thing I've ever done. It was NOT scary. The man that hooked us up into the harness with a walking tether was on loan from the Blue Angels and he was just the best. Scratch that, the whole crew was the best, but CW was really special even beyond that. We wore foam ear plugs and the ear cups in the helmet on top of that. You couldn't hear someone standing right next to you or even talking right in your face, unless you at least lifted the helmet off your ear. The C-130 is made for carrying very heavy loads, 58,000 pounds of jet fuel for example. Ours had a light load and it felt like you were in a noisy balloon . . . smooth. Out at the end of the ramp the ride was smooth too in the center of the ramp. I sat to the right and Alec to the left. The jets came to us from the left side and slid over to the right side for refueling. So, my iPhone was held in the smoothest air flow. a little past my left shoulder, the center of the ramp. The closer you move to the side of the ramp the more violent was the buffeting of the wind stream. This was almost 300 miles per hour. At the side of the ramp the wind will open zippered pockets and empty them. Alec felt that the jet gave a sense of raw power and speed but I thought of it as a graceful floating beautifully shaped sculpture. They are cumbersome, heavy, angular machines on the ground but in the air they are magnificent, lovely, and serene. Yes, even that. Serene. The pattern these planes flew during this operation was like an extremely large oval. When I checked the photos I took afterward I saw that we had been flying out over the Pacific at one part of the ellipse and over Tijuana over another part of it. Afterwards both Alec and I made a similar comment. Normally I have a fear reaction when getting too close to the edge of a precipice. Alec too. But neither of us felt anything like that during this event. It was exhilarating for both of us. We are here to gather reference material for various kinds of aircraft at the Marine Corps Airfield named Miramar, near San Diego. Alec is a skilled sketch artist and I was getting photographs of the whole thing to later turn into paintings.