(upbeat rock music) - Hey, everyone, and welcome to Behind the Wing, the 315th Airlift Wing's official podcast. I'm your host, Major Wayne Capps, and we've got a special edition for you this month. We're actually in the United Kingdom, so we're not in Charleston right now. I'm here with the C17 crew. We're here at the Yeovilton Air Day air show in southern England. We're gonna have a blast and this whole podcast is gonna be dedicated to the 315th spending a little time over in England. We're gonna spend this weekend's air show at Yeovilton and then next weekend another crew is coming over, and we're going to RAF Fairford and to the Royal International Air Tattoo. So this whole podcast, I wanna cover both of those air shows, so you can get a little peek behind the curtain of what we do here, showing off our C17. So welcome to Behind the Wing. (upbeat rock music) So my first guest for this podcast is Major Gabe Chavarria, we call him Chevy. What's going on? - Oh, nothing much, just enjoying the day here at Yeovilton. - So Gabe is a pilot here with the 315th. He's actually the 701st Airlift Squadron, who's flying this mission. We're gonna talk about what you can expect here at Yeovilton and have a good time. Tell us what's going on here. So, so what you do think about, this is your first time here. What do you think about the Yeovilton Air Day? - It's pretty impressive, actually. All the aerial demonstrations they have, all the aircraft they have on display, and really it's just the crowds of enthusiastic people to see what's going on here today, so it's pretty exciting. - So they say about 30,000 people are gonna walk through this C17 today, so it's kinda crazy. I've been out here all morning, and I think we've already had 30,000 people come through, what do you think? - Yeah, I've been talking a lot, been answering a lot of good questions, so yeah. I think I agree with you on that. - So what's the best question you've been asked all morning? - Really, it's funny. A lot of questions about the crew rest area and about bathroom facilities are usually, you get a lot from the kids. You know, "Hey, where do you take naps?" "And if you need to go potty, where do you go for that?" - So my best question this morning is, these two little girls were sitting there and, the guys around them were asking about the C17 and everything. The girls were probably 15, 16 years old, and she was like, "How much do you make a year?" (cash register rings) I was like, "Wow, you guys are starting early." (Gabe laughs) But really, we've got a lot of people here, it's probably 80 degrees or so. Nice and sunny, nice and sticky right now. But it's not like Charleston, so we've got people walking all around us. We've got a gentleman here staring at us right now, as we're doing our podcast. Show-- Oh, he came all the way from Australia. Come here, what's your name? - Robert, Robert Smith. - Hey Robert, what do you think about the Yeovilton Air Day? - I've been here, it's my third time here, and I brought my cousin from South Africa, that's where I originate from. I've brought him all the way from South Africa to come here, so it's pretty good. Next week, we're at Duxford. - Okay. - 'Cause it's the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force, would you believe? 1918 to 2018. And on Tuesday, your president is gonna be in London! - Yes, he will be! - Yeah. - All right. - And we're gonna have a 100 plane flyover. It's gonna be really good. - And I will be there, thank you so much Robert. So that's kind of the response we've been getting. Everybody's extremely excited to tell us about themselves and tell about what they've got going on. What do you think? - Yeah, I've been hearing from all, you know, all the stories and what people, all the distances they've traveled. A lot of Australians, a lot of New Zealanders here. It's cool to see people come long distances to come enjoy the airshow, so that's great. - So, so far we're about halfway through the day. What's been your favorite part? - Just really, just talking to the people, engaging with them. Talking about, I'm truly passionate about this airplane, so really just kinda giving them my story, giving them stories about what we do, especially in the 315th. It's been a great opportunity to kinda show our mission off to everybody. - So what is your story? - Well, I was active duty for 10 1/2 years. I started off at Charleston in the 14th, went to Hawaii for three years, and then I wound up at the schoolhouse in Altas teaching for about 16 months. Got out, went to the International Guard in Martinsburg for about two years, to kind of help stand up that C17 program there. And Delta Airlines as well, and then a spot opened up in the 701st, and I had to come back home to where it all started, so I'm happy to be here. - Nice, we're glad to have you on this one. So this is my probably fourth year in a row being at Yeovilton. It's a small airshow, but it's my favorite airshow, and everybody kinda asks, "Why is if your favorite airshow?" Because everybody's just so nice. You know, it's 80 degrees, you've got guys standing over here without a shirt. (man cheers) They don't really know how to deal with heat here in England. (laughs) You can ask them, and it's pretty funny. They just don't know how to deal with the heat. So there's just various stages of dress (laughs) throughout the whole airshow. But I always say this is my favorite just because everybody's so nice. They're waiting an hour and a half, possibly two hours in line to get to see the flight deck, and there's not a grumbling person among them. - Yeah, I agree. I mean, I was looking through the bubble upstairs and just seeing the lines in the back, and people are really patient and really polite, and asking a lot of great questions. - Yeah, and if this was in America, there would be some angry people by the time they got to the flight deck. - Yeah, I agree. - But yeah, you know one guy said it best. When I was asking him how long he was waiting in line, he said, "Well, we're British." "We queue, that's what we do." (laughter) - That's definitely different from back home, that's for sure. - Yeah, so thank you so much for taking time out of the day. I know you've got a lot of people here to talk to, but we're gonna find out a little bit more about Yeovilton Air Day, and we've been talking to Gabe with 701st. Thank you so much. - Thank you. (upbeat rock music) - So I'm walking through the aircraft, and a gentleman stops me and asks me if I was at the Charleston Air Show, and James is sitting right here beside me. James, where're you from? - We're from close to RAF Fairford, a little village called Down Ampney. And this aircraft flew over our house yesterday. - So that's when we came in. So James was actually at the Charleston Air Expo not too long ago. - No, no, April. We were over there, we stayed for a week, and we had a fantastic time. The weather was beautiful, and the airshow was great. - So what brought you to Charleston? - Last year we went to Barksdale. My passion is B-52s, and I was trawling through the American airshows. RAF Fairford has regular visitors from Charleston, and it just so happened to fit with our week in April, so I said to my wife, "Let's go to Charleston." It's a beautiful city, we stayed in Kiawah Island, and one of the days we spent at Charleston Air Force Base, and really enjoyed the show. So what'd you think about Charleston Air Force Base? You know, when he asked me if I was part of the airshow, I was actually one of the announcers this year. I was the guy, "Ladies and gentleman," "if you look to the left, the C-17." You know, that was me, so it's pretty neat how small the world is, and we all come back to the C-17 sometimes. - Well, I have to say that American announcers really grasp the enthusiasm and excitement of the moment. - We were actually talking about that just a little while ago. I was kinda laughing. The British announcers here sounds like 1950s television. (laughter) - Yes, yeah. - You know? It is very, very slow, very deliberate. Where we're, you know, I have my best Michael Buffer when we're out there. But we had a good time, and it's just so different. It does sound like 1950s television. - It does. - He's just way too proper for me. (laughter) - But no, it's a great airshow, and it's nice to compare our civil aviation sort of restrictions as opposed to America. You know, the MiG-15 flew so low You could almost reach out and touch it. - Yeah, I was actually getting something to eat just a minute ago and I almost had to get on the ground. This thing flew right over the food tents. - Yeah, no, it was a great show, really enjoyed it. And as I said, I like the way it's punctuated by civil airliners, so you get an American Airlines jet come in, or you get a Southwest jet come in. And it's just fantastic, it's great. - So how does this air show differ from the one at our base in Charleston? - The flying display is very different, and obviously the static, because you know, the Americans fly big, and the Americans fly beautiful. So you've got some real crowd-pleasers, such as a gigantic 747, which is Boeing's 747 on display the Dreamlifter. But it's just really nice to see how it's done across the pond. But the disappointing thing was when I turned up, there were no lines and lines and lines of C-17s. And when I spoke to it-- Because we went in the C-17, we went in the cockpit of one of the static C-17s, and I said, where are they all? He said, oh we flew them out to other bases to create space for you to park. (laughs) - Yeah, exact-- Well, we have to have room! - When we went to Barksdale, there were lines of them! - What I thought is interesting, when I first came here, this is not a complete air show. This is like a festival. You guys have everything here. There's cosplay people, we had a whole group of Star Wars characters on the plane. Last year, we had superheroes. It was actually pretty funny. Got some great pictures of the crew. You can see them on our Wings Facebook page. It's hilarious. But we've also got a car show, you've got rides for the kids. An air show in America is just that, an air show. You guys kind of make it a big community festival. - Well, to be fair, you did have a strongman pulling a C-17. - (laughs) We did, we did. That was the weirdest thing, because he pulled it down a hill. I think they just let the brake off. If he's listening, sorry. I was there, the brakes went off, and that's-- I think I could have pulled that C-17. (James laughs) Well thank you guys, James and his lovely family here. They're walking through the C-17. He's got a Charleston hat on, and I kinda smiled. Little bit of home. So thank you so much for taking time out of your day... - No worries. - To chat with me. - It's nice to see you. (dramatic rock music) ("My Country 'Tis of Me") We're kicking off the second half of our podcast on the Royal International Air Tattoo in Fairford, UK. We're having a blast. It's been a long road for us. We spent a little time in Yeolvilton. We hopped on down to London and hung out at Buckingham Palace for the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force, had a blast there. And we're going to talk about that in just a second. But I've got a good friend with me right now. I love to catch up whenever I get a chance. Flight "leftentant", not "lieutenant", flight "leftenant", Leslie Woods. Thank you for being on the podcast with us. - It's great to see you again, Wayne. - So we have a long history. Leslie was my exchange officer back in the United States, and I've come over to spend a little time with her before, so we've got this working relationship with the Royal Air Force. But she's here working media just like I would at any air show in the United States. So tell me how busy things are and what's going on with you. - So things are fairly crazy busy, I think you'd probably say out there in America. Where you guys call it public affairs, we call it media ops, but our jobs are essentially the same. I've got a team here of about 20 colleagues here at the Royal International Air Tattoo. And it's all about telling the audiences, the great public, about the RF 100th year, what we're actually up to in our centennial year. - So speaking of the 100 year anniversary, speaking of the RAF 100 anniversary, last week I was at Buckingham Palace when you did an incredible flyover, and you were actually in one of the planes. Tell me about that whole experience and what happened. I was sitting on the ground. We could see the queen, the royal family, and we were right there by NBC. It was great, but there was a lot of people. So tell me about from the coordination point of view, and from the logistics point of view of what you all did. - So it's the biggest fly past we've ever done. We only rehearsed it once in the air. You can imagine it's all the jet planes to get in the air at one time. Almost 100 air craft come from all over the UK, different types, helicopters, fast jets, big ones that we call monty engine like your C-17. And we had some different elements in there, such as we spelled out 100 with some typhoon jets. That was a surprise for the queen. Whenever I actually told her that, and apparently she smiled, I don't know if you saw it. - I did, I did, I did, I could see her from where we were standing. She was actually waving, so it was wonderful. - But it was an amazing experience to be in one of the actual air craft. So I was flying in the Voyager, and I was looking after some of the air cadets, and I was actually media minding BBC's Blue Peter. I don't know if you know that children's program. And so I had an eight year old, a ten year old, and 12 year old to look after, such is the life of a media officer. And we all sat in the window. And it's a big jet. We flew in from the Suffolk coast. We actually all flew over to the North Sea to form up. And it was actually a three hour flight to hold off of the North Sea to get in formation to then fly in over London. So we flew in at 1,000 feet for what felt like a very long time, and it's a big jet, and it was shaky, and a lot of people were actually sick unfortunately, the little kids were sick. But it was an amazing experience, and coming in over the villages and the towns. Schools had turned out. They'd basically said to the kids, go outside and look. And I could see from 1,000 feet, people all over the country waving up at us, which is an amazing thing to do. And coming in over London, I actually had to look out the window and look up to see the top of some of the buildings. We were that low. - Yeah, it was absolutely insane. I was a little uneasy. Because we saw a helicopter above you guys. It was taking pictures. It was absolutely amazing. - We're past masters at that. We do a lot of air-to-air photography, and I think it's really quite cool that we practice flying in formations. So we have the red arrows that are world-renowned, but we still praoctice flying in formation with things like helicopter, and big air craft. You wouldn't think we could do it, but it's pretty cool when it happens. - So what's the significance? Why did you do it? - So we did it to give the queen a very nice surprise. She's obviously our big boss. We are the Royal Air Force. It is our 100 years, so we wanted to do something that marked everything from origins in World War One to ride up to the brand air craft that we only had delivered three weeks ago. The F-35s have just come home to their new home to R.F. Morrow in the UK. And it was nice to kind of show to everybody something a little bit of our history so all of our old jets right up to the new jets, the helicopters that we're very proud to fly. It was just a really cool thing to do to mark the birthday. - Switching gears, let's go back to the Royal International Air Tattoo, and tell me about what's going on today. It's the largest military air show in the world. And I didn't know that until yesterday. So give me a rundown of the air show. What's going on, and what it's like actually being here on the ground. - So, it's very hot today. It's almost 28 degrees, which for us in Britain is a really warm day. - So you don't understand. For all our listeners in Charleston, we're laughing here. She says it's very hot. It's about 78 degrees, zero humidity, and I look around, and some of the Brits are laying ont he ground. It looks like they're melting. - The new sunburn. - (laughs) It looks really funny. You know, and somebody wrote on our Facebook page. They're very concerned. They said make sure you bring your sun lotion, it's very hot. And we kind of chuckled being from Charleston. And we just kind of laughed and said, "Okay, if you only knew." - Wayne hasn't told you this is that actually when I went out two years ago and spent some time with him in Charleston, they actually wouldn't let me outside because they were concerned that I was a fair-skinned Brit girl, and the humidity, I think it was WTF and ridiculously high. And they wouldn't let me outside, even though I had an air conditioned truck to drive around in. So yeah, no, I get where you're coming from. - So Leslie visited in August, and she came from England, so we were a little concerned about her when she walked from the truck to the building and she was completely red and didn't know what to do. So yeah, we had a good time. Now going back to the air show, tell me about your experience and what's going on here. Give the listeners an overview of the airshow in general. - So you're right, it is the biggest military air show in the world. We're very proud to host it here in Britain on what is a U.S. Air Force base. As ever our closest allies, it's always nice to play nice with our American buddies. There are going to be a good couple of hundred thousand people here over the weekend. The tickets have sold out today. And there's air craft from all over the world. You've got the static displays. You've got the flying displays. You can look at them here behind me. Different air craft from around the world will take to the skies and show the best of what they can do to impress the public. What we've got later on, and I'm really quite excited about this, is a 617 squadron, the Dam Busters, never before seen. Three aircraft in the skies together. The Lancaster from 1943, the Tornado in it's final year of retirement, and the brand new F-35. That's coming a little bit later, and I can't wait for that. - Oh that's fantastic. So before we finish, Leslie, I have to ask you one extremely important question. Why in the world do you guys have beans for breakfast? - Uh, I don't know, and I still don't know why you call sausages links and why your bacon is not like our ham. (laughter) You eat weird stuff. I don't like the grits. I'm sorry, I just don't like them. Okay, so you heard it here. Leslie doesn't like the grits. You're probably not going to be allowed in South Carolina anymore, just so you know. Thank you so much for joining us on Behind the Wing, our official 315th Airlift Wing podcast. We're gonna talk to some more people, we're gonna walk around and show you exactly what's going on, talk to our air crew who are in this sweltering heat right now showing off the jets. So thank you, Leslie, and I appreciate you coming on the show. - It'd be great to see you again next year, Wayne. (rock music) - Well, to close out the podcast, it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks. Sunday is the last day of the Royal International Air Tattoo here in Fairford, UK. I'm talking with First Lieutenant, Casey Griffin, from the 701st Airlift squadron. And he's been one of our pilots on the crew, and he's been kinda taking the reins of everything here on the ground. So, Casey, tell me what you think of RIAT. - RIAT's a total blast, honestly. Everyone out here loves... They absolutely love aviation as we do, so it's really neat to see the smiles on people's faces. - So what's been your highlight so far? - Oh, that's hard to tell. Just the amount of people who have come to the jet who we get to cycle through and get to see upstairs and actually see the compartment and just give them a tour of the jet and just see how happy everyone is. They've been waiting hours to see it, so... - Right now, we're sitting in the C-17 as people are literally going past us staring at us, asking what we're doing. Yeah, and as we're doing this podcast, there's actually literally hundreds of people in the side of C-17. You can probably hear them behind us. They're walking up and down. They're waiting at least an hour to an hour and half to see the flight deck. The air show's absolutely amazing. There's aircraft demonstrations. But we're here to talk about the C-17 and what people are saying about our aircraft. So what's been the reaction that you've seen so far? - People are just amazed at the sheer size of it for one, that it can get airborne. And especially when we tell them the kind of cargo we can carry, tanks, other helicopters, stuff like that. And all the troops and personnel as well. They're just totally blown away. And how much gas we can carry, too. - So we've had a good time here at RIAT. Right now, I think the Italians are flying around outside. And I like the differences between the announcers when everybody gets up. It's pretty interesting, and you've got little children like this little girl right here. And you've got grown children like us, who are hanging out and learning all about the C-17. So what's your favorite moment of the day so far? - The little kids that come up to the cockpit, honestly. They just are amazed and hopefully, maybe one day, they get inspired to become pilots or loadmasters or some sort of air crew. And just the sheer excitement is amazing. - So yesterday I was sitting on the back of the ramp, and I heard one of the young girls say, "I want to be a pilot." And then one of our female pilots was sitting beside her, and she said, "You know, that's how I got started." And they just talked and talked, had a long conversation about airlift and air power and aircraft. And then education, they talked about what it takes to become a pilot. You know, you see sparks in kids' eyes sometimes as they're coming through here. And you know, you look at it and go, okay. How many of these kids do you think we've influenced or touched during the time here? We're here for three days enjoying it and roughly, 400,000 people are at this air show, and I know at least half have come through the jet. Are you pretty proud of what you do in the Air Force seeing all of that come together? - Oh absolutely. I mean, I've had plenty of kids, especially the cadets who are the Royal Air Force cadets, they're super enthused, and they were like, "What's your biggest piece of advice for us?" And I said, "Stay motivated, keep a good attitude, "keep your head up, and get your education. "And just don't give up. "It's gonna be tough to get through it, but it's "definitely worth it, and they'll enjoy it." - Well, that's perfect advice to live on, and we're gonna close out the podcast on that. Casey, thanks so much for taking time out of your day. I know you've got a busy day ahead of you with hundreds and hundreds of people still ahead of us. And we will see everybody back in Charleston. Make sure you check out future and past podcasts. We can't wait to share some of what we do with you guys. So you've been listening to Behind the Wing, and I'm your host, Major Wayne Capps. And I hope you've enjoyed our podcast, all the way from England. Thank you so much. (rock music) Mic one, check one two. Check one two. Mic levels are good. Mic levels are good. The mic's kinda close to your mouth a little bit. - Put it in my mouth. - Yeah. I almost had somebody sit in my lap a minute ago. Here we go. (laughter) Sorry, people are moving me out of the way. (laughter) - It's your jet. - I know! - Mike will edit. - Mike is awesome. - So the tornado, a little history. Well, never mind, I'm not even gonna go there. I like it, I like it, very good. So what do you think? (rock music)