The Trip From Hell

I had to pay dearly for my ‘vacation’ in paradise; for every good deal you get in this business, a bad deal is not far behind. But my next trip started innocuously enough – it even looked like another good deal. It was a Stage mission to the Middle East – surprise! – but it began with a flight south of the border, a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico to pick up President Obama’s Secret Service contingent and their vehicles. It came on the heels of his summit with Prime Minister Harper of Canada and President Calderon of Mexico and would end with an overnight stay for us at Andrews AFB, outside of Washington DC, where I have a brother living nearby.

We arrived in Guadalajara easily enough, where the airport ramp was sporting more firepower than a gun show in Texas. The President had already departed on Air Force One, but we had to wait for the Secret Service and their vehicles to arrive. After loading the vehicles, we were soon airborne. We dodged a few thunderstorm cells over northern Mexico and soon crossed into Texas. It was smooth sailing all the way to the East Coast, except for a line of storms directly over Washington DC. One storm cell was nearly on top of our airfield. We considered diverting to our alternate, but the same line of storms threatening DC would hit our alternate airfield before we could arrive there as well.

We called the control tower at Andrews for the latest weather observation. The storm had not yet hit, but it was blocking our path to the runway. However, there was only a light tailwind from the opposite direction, well within our limits for a tailwind landing (normally we land into the wind). So we cautiously probed around the monster thunderstorm and came in from the south. The aircraft isn’t quite as stable while making an approach and landing with a tailwind, but we made it in with no problems before the rain began. We taxied clear and planned for an evening in DC.

The trip didn’t have the markings of the trip from hell yet, but the writing was on the wall. Weather would be a significant factor during each of our subsequent legs, and other challenges would make this mission one for the books, and not it a good way.

As it turned out, our first day would be our best day during the entire trip.