The trip to Spin began at 3:30 am when the alarm went off. The trip to LAX went smoothly, even with 5 pieces of luggage in some form or another, including a heavy suitcase and an oversize box containing my airplane seat, helmet, rudder pedal extensions, and flying shoes, all necessary for flying Chandy’s airplane. Check-in went great with the help of “Stormy”, a great Skycap who’s misfortune was coming on duty just as I arrived at 6 am. My check-in required a few additional steps due to the oversized nature of my luggage, and included an additional baggage fee and a large, well-deserved tip for Stormy. All in all worth it, compared to shipping everything by FedEx, but unfortunate for those waiting in line after me.
Security was normal and no questions were asked about my parachute, which I carried on. With a one-way ticket to Chicago, I was reminded of DB Cooper. For those of you who don’t know who this is, Google him. Arrival in Chicago was on time and I headed to the baggage claim to reclaim all my bags with the help of a $3 Smarte Carte. Once gathered, I headed to the taxi stand where I was greeted with interesting looks for my excess baggage. In retrospect, I should have written “Spain or Bust” on the big box.
I jumped in the largest cab they had (a mini van for a handicapped passenger) with Mr. Mahmood and off we headed on the other side of the airport to the Cargolux office where Harry Barr, Chandy’s dad, was waiting. We off-loaded my things and took three of the pieces and added them to the palate of stuff Harry already had that included Chandy’s aircraft fuselage and wing. This gave me a chance to see Tom and Harry’s handiwork with the airplane on the “cookie sheets” as they are called.
Harry, Chandy and Harry’s friend, Tom Hodgson, had disassembled Chandy’s airplane in the previous days in Aurora, IL and brought the fuselage and wing up to the Cargolux facility off ORD on Tom’s trailer. Harry and I were scheduled to go with it on the cargo flight to Luxembourg, the headquarters for Cargolux. Harry arrived that morning by about 10 am with the fuselage (he and Tom had delivered the wing the previous day). By my arrival around 2 pm Harry was happy to see someone he knew or perhaps he had lunch thoughts dancing through his head. I checked-in with Cargolux, which didn’t amount to much since the lady we needed to meet, Gina, didn’t come to work until 7:30 pm.
During his previous hours at Cargolux, Harry procured a car from an employee named Carol. She gave us directions to a very large mall in Schaumberg, which was about 30 minutes from where we were. She knew we needed to kill time and sent us off on an adventure. We returned a couple of hours later, having not gone in the mall at all (I learned that Harry is also not a shopper) with Harry’s leftover sandwich and water and highlighter pens purchased at a CVS on the way back to the airport.
Upon returning to Cargolux, we waited to Gina to arrive. We passed the time by reading and taking a walk around the industrial facility that was a bit like playing chicken with numerous semi-trucks arriving to dump their loads. We stayed out of the cargo facility as much as we could, though it was fascinating. Organized chaos describes it best. I’ve never seen so many forklifts at work in one place; it was a beehive of activity and one we avoided for safety issues.
Gina arrived and we got additional information we needed, as well as an education on how to load a 747 and keep it within weight and CG limits. Gina showed us exactly where the Edge fuselage and wing would go (they were not on the same cookie sheet). Just after midnight TSA arrived for our security check before driving us out to the aircraft. We drove to the other side of O’Hare where the plane was being loaded. We passed through the security checkpoint and were driven up to the aircraft, a massive 747-400 just in time to see the Edge fuselage go onboard through the open nose.
Here we met the crew, Captain Tomas Pastorcak from Denmark and Co-pilot Falk Panzer from Germany. We were checked again by a different security person and approved to go on board by the Captain. We were escorted to the upper deck that would be our home for the next several hours. There were six first-class-size seats, a kitchen galley and a bathroom.
We were given the pre-flight briefing by Captain Pastorcak, who did a remarkable job as a substitute flight attendant. The briefing was quite simple and included instructions on where the food and drink was located (no alcohol on cargo flights), but to contact him or Falk if we wished for heated food, as the oven was a bit tricky. Then we waited, and waited. We spoke with Tomas and Falk, and it turns out Tomas and Harry have a mutual friend in Denmark (small world once again). The pilots were curious about the aircraft below. so we explained the mission and gave them each a Team pin. With time to kill, we went below and snapped a few shots of the Edge since there were only four other palates aboard at that time.
After about an hour and a half, Juana came up top and introduced herself. She appeared to be the cargo-loading supervisor and she was not at all happy with the flow of freight from the facility across the airport. Of Puerto Rican descent, (made obvious by her Puerto Rico security card holder, accent and name), this was a woman with a mission—to load cargo—and to say she was not happy that morning was an understatement. I asked her what was the most memorable item that she’d ever loaded, turned out to be a whale heading for a museum. Harry and I both assumed she meant a dead, stuffed whale, but we weren’t sure.
With the eventual arrival of the additional cargo and paperwork for the crew, we were finally ready to go just before 3 am (scheduled departure was 1:35 am). The Captain and Co-pilot invited us up front for the take-off. The taxi out was slow, as the aircraft was heavy and the taxiways at ORD seemed REALLY small for this plane. This particular aircraft weighs 243,824 lbs empty and was carrying 258,060 lbs of cargo and 340,273 lbs of fuel for a total take-off weight of 842,167 lbs!!! Takeoff on runway 14 at ORD took a long run, but it was amazing to realize that much weight can fly. Finally we were on the way to Luxembourg.
Captain Pastorcak and Co-pilot Panzer
Not long after take-off it was off to bed, literally. There are two beds on this plane for the crew, when there is a long trip requiring more than one crew aboard and this was not a long trip by Cargolux standards. What a welcome surprise. It was interesting trying to sleep, due to the movement of the plane and the need to strap down with seat belt for occasional turbulence. A few hours later I was up and wondering about the upper deck, which amounted to eating, talking to Harry or the crew. I’ve never had access to an aircraft or the crew like this and it was an amazing experience, well worth giving up a business-class seat on American to Brussels. Tomas and Falk were great and a pleasure to talk to.
Nearly 8 hours after takeoff, Harry and I made our way to the cockpit for the visual landing into ELLX. It was uneventful as Tomas did a fantastic job with the beast. We taxied up to the cargo facility and were met and off-loaded by Joseph Schlitz, Assistant Manager of Maintenance Sales for Cargolux. We were escorted to Customs and met by Joe in the airport lobby, as well as Tom Hodgson who made the trip over on United to help assemble the plane. Joe took us to a hotel and told us the aircraft would be available for assembly tomorrow. Tom, Harry and I had dinner and it was off for some much-needed sleep and assembly the next day.
Arrival in Luxembourg
Please note: I don’t intend to make each of my posts this lengthy, however this one just happened to cover several events over the course of about 36 hours.
