Cubi Point NAS

October 15, 1970

Our orders were to fly from CCK to Kadena AB in Okinawa, on to Cubi Point NAS in the Phillippines, then back to CCK.

That approach and landing at Cubi Point was tough. There were 4500' mountains on 3 sides of Subic Bay, so under radar control I descended over them to a few hundred feet above the bay. When we broke out of the weather I flew a visual pattern along the edge of the bay to stay clear of the cloud layer and the mountains. It was an awkward approach to make, with a very short final approach. I made a rather puckering dive to the runway, but I made a good landing out of it.

I felt a little better about my approach and landing when I talked to one of the maintenance men at Cubi. He had watched the airplane ahead of us (also a CCK bird piloted by a Lt. Colonel from the 345th). He said they had landed about 3000' long, bounced so hard he could hear it, then skidded on down the runway in a crab. Then at the end he turned off the wrong way. Made my approach sound like the model of precision by comparison.

I had less than 3 hours sleep the night before, so on the last leg I took a nap. The approach to Taiwan was much easier and I made a good GCA into CCK. I was so exhausted that after a quick supper I went to bed at 6:30 PM and slept for 13 hours.