Hmmm, Tuesday already...
Oct. 10th, 2006 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpOur group left for the airport on schedule this morning, at 8 am, after having learned that the Antonov was expected to arrive on time at around 9 am. The weather, which for the past few days has been very pleasant, with plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the 70s, turned cold overnight. It was about 42°F when we left this morning, and cloudy. I was dressed in a shirt and undershirt and had my windbreaker along just in case.
"Just in case" occurred when we got to the airport, where the wind was blowing briskly (the pilot later told me he had a 30-knot crosswind in addition to a downwind component). The plane arrived a bit late, after having encountered some headwind, and because of the crosswind - which is air that moves perpendicular to the layout of the runway, which tends to blow the approaching aircraft off to the side - the pilot couldn't allow the plane to flare - or pitch back slightly - and then float through the ground effect onto the runway: he just drove the monster onto the runway's surface as smoothly as you please.
I was among the first group to board the aircraft after it landed and had been inspected by customs officials. The wind was blowing so hard, nobody wanted to leave the plane after inspecting the cargo, so we stayed put until the crew raised the nose and deployed the unloading ramp, whereupon everyone quit the plane for some grip-n-grins:
The work went fairly quickly (the cold was an incentive) and even some last-minute issues having to do with air conditioning of the spacecraft's container were solved without too much sweat. The rail consist left almost 5 hours after the plane landed, and arrived at the полтинник about two and a half hours ago.
The Astrium team is planning to start work tomorrow fairly early, and I'm on the schedule to start supporting work at 5:30 am, so I better get to sleep soon.
Cheers...
"Just in case" occurred when we got to the airport, where the wind was blowing briskly (the pilot later told me he had a 30-knot crosswind in addition to a downwind component). The plane arrived a bit late, after having encountered some headwind, and because of the crosswind - which is air that moves perpendicular to the layout of the runway, which tends to blow the approaching aircraft off to the side - the pilot couldn't allow the plane to flare - or pitch back slightly - and then float through the ground effect onto the runway: he just drove the monster onto the runway's surface as smoothly as you please.
I was among the first group to board the aircraft after it landed and had been inspected by customs officials. The wind was blowing so hard, nobody wanted to leave the plane after inspecting the cargo, so we stayed put until the crew raised the nose and deployed the unloading ramp, whereupon everyone quit the plane for some grip-n-grins:
The work went fairly quickly (the cold was an incentive) and even some last-minute issues having to do with air conditioning of the spacecraft's container were solved without too much sweat. The rail consist left almost 5 hours after the plane landed, and arrived at the полтинник about two and a half hours ago.
The Astrium team is planning to start work tomorrow fairly early, and I'm on the schedule to start supporting work at 5:30 am, so I better get to sleep soon.
Cheers...
