harrisonjones

Several people have asked me about the photo at the header of my blog. I took the photo of the MD-11 (affectionately known as the Mighty Dog) parked on the taxiway at Kuwait City in April of 2003. An interesting time in Kuwait. Quite often the ramp would be full and a taxiway would be closed and used for parking. As usual, after the troops were unloaded from the military charter, we had several hours to wander around and kill time while waiting for fuel and our ferry flight back to Rome. You can tell it was windy because the rudder appears to be missing since it is displaced against the stops to the right. The gust lock doesn’t stop the rudder from moving, but it’s dampened by trapped hydraulic fluid. A brisk wind in Kuwait usually results in the photo below.

 The sandstorms appear rather suddenly and you always hope they didn’t blow in from Iraq, bringing whatever chemicals they happen to be playing with.

The “follow me” truck would drop us off at the runway and the mechanics in Rome had the honor of changing all the engine screens and filters to clean out the sand. A fun time was had by all.