C5M - Level Kneel Drive Thru

With all the airplanes, military and civilian, that I have seen in flight and static, there is one that I don't need to reference Wikipedia for information.  OK, maybe a little reference here and there because of time.  Back when my hair was darker, it was my job for eight years to know just about everything about this aircraft as a Flight Engineer, and if I didn't know it I had to know where to find it.  Quickly.
There are senses one never forgets.  Smell.  The smell of stale hydraulic fluid.  Engine Exhaust.  Sound.  The sound of a TF-39-GE spooling up - the whine we called Sound of Freedom.  Sight.  The sight from the jump seat of rolling down a long runway watching the runway distance markers count down, knowing you are heavy and it's 32 degrees C outside.  Torrejon, LETO.  Flying over the Alps.  Flying over the Pyramids of Alexandria.  (There are Youtubes out there with this, I know because some nights I go down that rabbit hole.)
I am a veteran of the C5A and the C5B.  3,600 total hours.  I started my relationship with the aircraft in 1983 on the A models.  Going through retro-fit.  Most aircraft have a set of books that carry performance data.  For a brief time, we carried three.  Just depended on the configuration.  Weak Wing, Pylons and Engines.  Books of charts, the good old days.  Performance Data.
In 2015 I returned to KDOV for a 9 MAS reunion.  As part of the weekend's activities, we had a tour of the M model.  To me, a refurbished B.  The aircraft that was set out for us was tail number 0020.  Dover had the even numbers, Travis the odd numbers.  As a B model, I'm sure I had hours flown on this airframe.  Like going home.  I made a request years ago to get my flight records, no answer.  That's OK  I know.  Enlisted.

At one point there was a photo taken of the entire reunion group.  There was the group, with the aircraft in the back.  So the photographer in me took over.  The group photo would never pick me out, but it was the one time there was no one around 0020.  I drifted to the back, and while everyone was saying CHEEZ - I was taking photos of 0020.  I am who I am.  No apologies.

Yep, I'm the one in the back.  Facing backwards, probably.  Great group of people.

In 2015 I would have had a hard time with this shot.  Heavy clouds, uneven light.  Gray airplane paint.  Interior shadows.  And the biggest handicap, me.  In 2020, with lots of practice trying to save earlier shots I can work with this one.  The original shot had lots of noise.  You could go one way, heavy HDR contrast.  Might work.  Or just take some time, levels and curves.

C5M - Level Kneel Drive Thru

NIKON D90/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

18 mm, 1/4000 sec, f/9, ISO 200

-3 EV, Aperture Priority, Size DX

If I knew then what I know now, I'd have set up the shot a bit different.  Thankfully software improves all the time.  There were no people hurt (removed) from this shot, but if someone was more lost than me, they would have been sacrificed.  It was all I could do to leave the power cart there, but it is part of the subject.  Yep, even that smelled great.