Speakeasy forum: Don't tell anybody.

Maybe, you'll appreciate this, I flew on a C-47 while in the military. This was a USMC brand and it was the 1st flying I got an abundance of "pucker power". It was a flimsy passenger airplane with cargo I'm sure. As we all had to move forward in order to balance the plane as we're tail heavy. Next, I ask, "why is there oil on the wing"?. "Oh, that's OK, we know there is some". That was the old Corps, now everything is helicopter this or that. Understand, this was in the 70's, the USMC throws nothing away.

So, I guess that wrong airport landing was a test, the C-17 can do it? I wonder how heavy the plane was or loaded at all? -----Willy

Willy could be right.....I remember when my first husband was in the Navy during VietNam and they were constantly testing huge cargo planes via short runways just to not only make sure that the planes could do it and take off from them again, but also to test the pilots to make sure they didn't 'pucker' so bad that they screwed it up. I wonder how many of these 'accidental' mishaps are really accidental when you think about areas all over the world, including the Middle East where they don't always have a 'developed and up-to-date' type landing strip where a cargo plane would be better suited than a helicopter. Heck, there are thousands of small airports here in the USA where wind tunnel type flags still are used instead of a tower manned by a person for landing and takeoff.