Love the Caribou?
- Ramon C Purcell
- Jun 20
- 1 min read
Who loves the Caribou? Here is Pima Air and Space Museum future display #c7caribou #pimaairandspacemuseum
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Who loves the Caribou? Here is Pima Air and Space Museum future display #c7caribou #pimaairandspacemuseum
“The Central Highlands could present challenges. The often austere fields lay between ridge lines or, in one case, sat on a planed-off hilltop that sloped away in all directions. I once watched my aircraft commander make three attempts to land on one. The steeply sloping terrain made judging the landing difficult. All normal visual cues told the brain you were still far above the field, and yet, suddenly there it was, immediately below you, leaving the plane too high to land.
Finally, on the third frustrating try, the pilot, although still too high, decided to put it down anyway. I couldn’t believe he would try it, but I had no control over the situation except, perhaps, to scream.
"On my first C-7 mission, an eight-field schedule in the Central Highlands, I committed a horrendous yet hilarious (to everyone but me) mistake. The crew, usually the copilot, refueled the Caribou by pumping the gas from a nozzle with a long hose into a wing tank that could only be reached by walking across the top of the wing to the vent, halfway to the wingtip. The nozzle looked like the standard kind you’d use to fill your car but had one important difference that I discovered the hard way. A brass cap fit over the end of the nozzle and hung from a bungee cord when removed. I didn’t know this.
I dropped a cargo strap with a big…