Buzz Patterson(@BuzzPatterson):A FLYING STORY: A DAY I GREW UP I was deployed to Germany a million times over the years flying C-141s. We’d fly into Rhein Main AFB on our way elsewhere. Always. The base hotel was cool, the O club and E club were right down the street. It was aircrew nirvana. We’d pile into taxis and head to Sachsenhausen for beers and donor kabobs. The Irish Pub there was particularly spectacular. We knew our limitations and we observed the limits. The next day? We’d rally and fly to the Middle East or Africa. One time, command post “alerted” us for a flight back to the US. We got to the jet and it was broken. The ground guys had damaged the back ramp loading cargo and it wouldn’t close. We sat in the cockpit for 6 hours waiting for them to fix it. They never gave me a reasonable time for it to be fixed and allow us to pressurize. At the same time, I was checking the weather. We were scheduled to air refuel over the North Atlantic and the forecast was for moderate to severe turbulence. Broken airplane, severe turbulence on the AR route, 6 hour wait in the middle of the night, on a little sleep, with 150 passengers. I’m calling it. No. The next morning, the wing commander had me in his office. He was pissed. I explained my side. It was my call. I was young but I knew the regulations. He was a pilot, too, and he relented. (I didn’t have to tell him my dad was his commander).😂😎

2026.07.29 22:32

A FLYING STORY: A DAY I GREW UP I was deployed to Germany a million times over the years flying C-141s. We’d fly into Rhein Main AFB on our way elsewhere. Always. The base hotel was cool, the O club and E club were right down the street. It was aircrew nirvana. We’d pile into taxis and head to Sachsenhausen for beers and donor kabobs. The Irish Pub there was particularly spectacular. We knew our limitations and we observed the limits. The next day? We’d rally and fly to the Middle East or Africa. One time, command post “alerted” us for a flight back to the US. We got to the jet and it was broken. The ground guys had damaged the back ramp loading cargo and it wouldn’t close. We sat in the cockpit for 6 hours waiting for them to fix it. They never gave me a reasonable time for it to be fixed and allow us to pressurize. At the same time, I was checking the weather. We were scheduled to air refuel over the North Atlantic and the forecast was for moderate to severe turbulence. Broken airplane, severe turbulence on the AR route, 6 hour wait in the middle of the night, on a little sleep, with 150 passengers. I’m calling it. No. The next morning, the wing commander had me in his office. He was pissed. I explained my side. It was my call. I was young but I knew the regulations. He was a pilot, too, and he relented. (I didn’t have to tell him my dad was his commander).😂😎

Buzz Patterson@BuzzPatterson

2026.07.29 19:37

Air Refueling: The Most Unnatural Act in Aviation You’re at 25,000 feet, 300 knots, tucked in tight behind a KC-135 or KC-46 like a remora on a shark. The tanker’s boom is dancing in your windshield like a drunken conductor’s baton. One wrong input and you’re either sliding off into the slipstream or kissing aluminum in the worst way possible. This isn’t gentle flying. This is fingertip precision in a 200-ton machine while the tanker is bouncing through moderate turbulence. Your right hand is on the throttles making micro-adjustments, left hand on the yoke, eyes locked on the director lights and the boom operator’s signals. No autopilot. No margin. Just you, the boom, and pure concentration. (OK, I’m lying. We also talk a lot of shit. It helps.🤣 One time, I was flying in a 7-ship C-141 formation flying radio silent from Seattle to airdrop the Airborne on the Czech border. 17.6 hours. We hit 7 tankers over the North Pole and as we were closing for our contact, I put on a truckers hat with a stuffed jackass on the bill, and my copilot donned one with a horse. Thought we’d lighten it up a bit. The boomer laughed so hard he came thru the radio.🤣) I’ve held the boom for it for 45 minutes straight in weather that made the boom look like it had a mind of its own. You’re soaked in sweat even at altitude. One moment of lost focus and you lose the contact, or worse, damage the receiver or tanker. We’ve all seen the videos. Nobody wants to be that guy. I’ve seen guys land with the boom still stuck in the AR receptacles. We call those guys “unicorns.” 🤣 Air refueling is where comfort ends and warfighting begins. It’s ugly, sweaty, intense…and when you finally top off, disconnect, and slide away with a thumbs-up from the boom operator, you feel like you just won a knife fight in a phone booth. Now, put the autopilot on, give the jet to the copilot, grab a cup of coffee, and exhale. Jobs done…until the next time. Who else has “danced with the boom”? Drop your wildest refueling story below.

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