Aviation groupies who love to ooh and ahh at anything cool with wings, there’s nothing like the bone-shaking rumble of a military fighter jet taking off.
That’s what the lucky few near the tarmac at Casper/Natrona County International Airport got to feel Tuesday night when a pair of Marine F/A-18 Hornets took off after hot refueling.
“It’s not just a sound, it’s an experience,” said Jen McGraw, general manager for the airport’s fixed-base operator Aero Center Casper.
“You don’t just hear them, you feel them take off and it’s an experience you can’t hardly describe,” she told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday. “When an F-18 takes off, I would describe it as almost like a cracking noise — the rumble, it’s like a vibration and a crack you can feel deep in your soul as it goes by.”
Longtime Airport Director Glenn Januska agrees, saying that even after more than 30 years in the aviation industry, he still feels like an excited kid when cool airplanes show up in Casper.
And the pair of F/A-18s qualify.
“We do get a lot of military aircraft that fly in and out of the airport, for an airport that doesn’t have a lot of military presence,” he said. “I’ve been doing this since 1988 and I still — when it’s something unusual or different, or if it’s military, I never get bored with it.”
People around Casper and the airport better get used to that “deep in your soul” feeling of military jets taking off, McGraw said. That’s because the airport this year began fulfilling a new contract to service military aircraft.
Specifically, to do hot refueling, she said.
Hot What?
Hot refueling is a procedure where an aircraft takes on fuel while its engines are still running, McGraw said.
It’s not the normal procedure, but happens more than people would expect. With military planes, it’s more common, and more unpredictable, she said.
“There are a lot of reasons an aircraft will hot refuel,” McGraw said. “Every time you cycle the engine on an aircraft, there could be an issue where they can’t shut down. There are a million reasons.
“Most of the time, it’s for time. Pilots are like truck drivers; they only have so many hours to fly.”
And like truck drivers, refueling often means topping off the pilots as well.
“We throw them a bag of snacks and they’re on their way,” she said, adding that the pilots of the fighter jets that hot refueled this week also got snacks.”
Not Without Risk
While hot refueling is more common with military aircraft, there are times the airport does it for civilian planes, McGraw said. Medevac flights are a good example, or for planes working wildfires.
“We probably do them a lot more than people realize,” she said, adding that it comes with increased risk.
The best comparison, although not perfect, is if someone pulled into a gas station to fill up and left the car running, McGraw said.
“It does have more risk,” she said. “The dangers are, of course, fire and static (electricity) dangers, and the heat from the engines.
“That’s why we call for the firetruck for every one, so if something does go wrong, the truck is already there.”
Unlike filling up your Durango or Mustang, hot refueling can see a jet like the F/A-18 Hornet take on anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 gallons of fuel, McGraw said.
And that large, elongated thing hanging from the bottom of the jet? Most people think that’s a nuke, but it’s a reserve fuel tank, she said.
“Everyone thinks it’s a bomb, but nope, it’s for fuel,” she said.
Planes Are Just Cool
For those who can’t get enough of airplanes, hanging around an airport is never boring, Januska said. There are a lot of people who are big into planes, just like railroad hobbyists.
Every time he posts a unique aircraft that lands at the Casper airport, or a video like Tuesday’s double hot refueling, Januska said it gets a big response.
“I think if we posted a photo of a naked lady and a photo of a military aircraft, we’d get more reaction to the aircraft,” he joked, adding that, “Of course, I would never do that.”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
