DC-8 Rescue Page 2

DAY TWO;

We went to a rental store located about two miles fromt the airport and rented a 5 ton fork lift. As dad was driving it down the road it began to rain. We had not brought any rain gear so once at the airport we were all quickly soaked. We loaded the now cut up first class section from the 747 onto the 2 ton truck and hauled it into town to a scrap metal company.

The water was so deep that it nearly came to the floor of Cody's 4x4 truck. The company checked that our load was not radio active because old airliners are known for using depleted Uranium for ballast.

By the time we were back at the airport it was late in the afternoon, and we had to have the forklift back before closing time. While we were away from the airport Bush left for Washington DC, his vacation was now over. We watched a C-5 Galaxy loaded with the President's Limos take off.

It is so amazing to watch one of these huge beasts lift into the air!

Next we loaded up all the trash laying around form our cockpits and took it all in to the local dump, it's amazing how much of it there was.

After that we hooked the 747 to the forklift and carefully lifted it onto the truck.

It sounds simple, but in reality we had to move slowly to be sure not to further damage the cockpit and it was very time consuming.

We were so close on time I was actually counting down the minutes out loud so Dad would know when to hit the road.

We set the cockpit down and unhooked only to discover the rear of the cockpit was much heaver than the front end and the truck leaned to one side. We had to hook the forklift back to it and move it over more to couter balance the weight, then Dad took off to return the forklift.

That evening we hooked the truck to the trailer to discover a new problem, the DC-8 was not forward enough on the trailer, it's weight was perfectly centered and the tongue stayed in the air without a jack! This would not do, we had to have weight on the truck for safety. By now it was time to call it another day as the sun went down again.

Once again it was a raining morning. At the airfield the trailer problem was finally solved by hooking a bunch of chains and straps to the frame of the truck and wenching it forward a fraction of an inch at a time. That was not easy with a eight thousand five hundred pound object, and it took a while just to move it six inches, but that shifted the weight we need to get the trailer to sit on the truck. The rest of the morning was spent tieing the the cockpits down and setting up all of the overload signs and lights.

Finally, we hit the road! Dad had to drive the truck way over on the sholder, otherwise we took up two lanes due to the 747. We held our breath everytime we drove under electric lines and stop lights. The DC-8 often came very close to hitting them as we drove through small towns. There were many times dad could not avoid hitting tree braches. In one Texas town in particular, my brother had to drive right down the center of the road to stop incoming traffic, we forced them to turn down side roads because the airplanes took up both lanes on main street. Let me tell you, it takes a very different mindset to drive like this! Sometimes you're not sure if that oncoming car is going to go ahead and stop :)

The surprise on people's faces was funny to see when they realized we had huge cockpits for our load. The trucker's comment's on the CB was fun to listen to also, for some reason they always seemed to think Steve's 747 was a space shuttle cockpit, I guess because it is white.

The rain was a real pain and several times we were forced to pull off the road until it let up. It was also the reason we did no make it out of the State before dark. We finally gave up and found a motel. After we sat down in our room we realized we were worn out. Pulling the cockpits down they highways had forced us to be on the alert all day, when you get to a point that you are about to relax something always comes up, whether it be a bridge, a low tree, a town, or a car parked on the side of the road. The experience had kept us so keyed up we hadn't noticed how tired we were. Falling asleep behind the steering wheel certenly had not been an issue. :) The good news of the day was that the Port of Entry we had to drive through was closed for the day! That meant no hassle from the Texas Department of Transportation for us!

DAY FOUR;

It was Labor Day Weekend and Arkansas would not let us drive, so we would have to go home until Monday. We drove on up the road to a truckstop near the Arkansas border and got permission to park it there for the weekend. We decided to weigh on the scales to see how much we weighed, we were within a few hundred pounds of being over the 25 thousand limit. The truck could easily handle the weight, but the permit limited us to twenty five thousand. Our current route assigned us took us over the DOT scales in Arkansas, and the truck needed more fuel which would add even more weight.

After we were finished with the scales we parked with the 18 wheelers. I'm sure there were plenty of drivers taking a second look over the weekend.

As you can see from the pictures, the diameter of my DC-8 is definately larger than the big rig trailers.

On the last day of our trip all went well. Someone had cut a strap and stole the sinch, but everything else was fine. The route assigned us took us around the port of entry this time so we were happy. Soon we were home and we parked the rig to take a celebration photo.

Success at last!!!!!!!