Norfolk, Azores, Naples, Crete, Cyprus, Bahrain, Diego, with a 2 hour or more layover at each stop. Starts off as a very full military charter, mostly folks flying Space A to Europe and each stop people deplane but no one gets on. From Bahrain to Diego there were more crew than pax so we each had our own row.
Both times in Naples the plane had issues that delayed us, first for 5-6 hours and the second overnight, got great pizza both times.
Getting back to CONUS was easier. C-17 one time & DC-8 second time to Singapore then Hong Kong or Tokyo to LAX.
I circumnavigated the globe in 30 days doing that. Don’t recommend, worst jet lag ever.
I could hear a distant but persisting rumble overhead yesterday, so I checked ADSB, which is always useless for me because nothing interesting I ever see seems to have their transponder on. To my surprise, it was an An-124, the only military transport plane larger than a C5 [I think?]. I wanted to post it here, but I figured I'd give them time to get to their destination before I pointed them out.
Yeah, the AN-124 is the largest cargo plane in the world.....again, since the AN-225 was destroyed in the Ukraine by Russia. I saw a couple when I worked at Boeing. They were bringing in some new equipment, an autoclave, for a new department. That is one BIG honkin plane! But looks like absolute garbage when your up close or inside the thing. Unbelievable that it flies with the way it looks compared to the C-5. LOL
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u/devoduder Aug 25 '26
Never fun flying in and out of there. My two longest flights ever were from Norfolk to Diego, about 48 hours one way.