How Navigation Has Changed

Our avionics shop, part of the 72 A&E Squadron, maintained a Doppler navigation radar system on both the B-52 and KC-135 that gave the navigator instantaneous ground speed and drift angle.  Components for that system were installed at the navigator’s position, in the belly, and in wheel wells.  In all, it weighed nearly a thousand […]


Twin Bonanza Gets Her “Dress Blues”

During our scheduling process we knew the painting stage had to be completed as close to a continuous process as possible. We figured it would take two straight days of work and crew availability. The day had come. Now we need good weather, a lot of coffee, pizza and a handful of luck to neutralize […]


Hurricane Hunter

  Shortly after the WC-130s arrived at Ramey an airborne meteorologist became our neighbor in Isabela. His stories were fascinating. He told me that a barometric altimeter is of no use inside a storm cell.  The WC-130 had a pair of SCR-718 radar altimeter indicators setting side-by-side–two independent systems.  If their readings differed by more than […]


The 2004 San Antonio Reunion

Here is wonderful memory…and just in time for the upcoming Ramey Air Force Base Historical Association in Puerto Rico.  I was fortunate to be able to attend the RAFBHA Reunion held in San Antonio Texas. c-121 and troops during a ceremony at Lackland AFB.  Our visit coincided with the retirememt of the NCOIC of the Air […]


“Twin Bonanza” Gets a Primer Coat

The time had come to finish the “Twin Bonanza Project”. For those who missed how the Association obtained the Beechcraft D50 “Twin Bonanza” refer to our blog, “Twin Bonanza Project”, to find out. First of all we had to thoroughly clean the airframe. It took a whole day to properly remove all the dirt and […]