Royal, I wrote this to a friend and thought of your forum. Pain in the butt to register just to post this but hey, enjoy... Eilene (Joe Z's daughter)
Reminds me of a saying I saw written on the inside flap of the urinal on a C-130 cargo plane:
"Men with short stacks or low manifold pressure; stand close"
Of course the guys pointed it out since I would have no reason to use the urinal. I did avoid the floor right near the urinal though, since it always was a little sticky. Women have to use the "Honey pot" and as tradition goes, whoever used it first... had to dump it. So all the guys would hold back until one of them would have to go #2. Us women could always hold it if we needed to. Speaking of the lovely Honey Pot... Wow, I'm getting nostalgic... It literally was a metal can with a seat on it and a plastic trash liner to hold the contents. Good loadmasters used 2 bags for extra measure. I remember the can was elevated on a platform that was surrounded by a privacy curtain. But get this, the curtain was only halfway around just so that the front portion of the plane's occupants couldn't see you. The back area where the cargo door is was wide open and illuminated! Which meant, you could see the silhouette of the person on the pot. This was good and bad. Good because you could see if anyone was on it,... wouldn't want to "Ooops" anyone. Bad because everyone could see your outline and tell how you approached the pot. I say "approached" because it was very much like an aircraft landing.
Let me explain... You had to get up on this little platform (about 2 foot off the ground) and you had to step up backwards to get into position. Then, you would unzip your flightsuit and take it off your shoulders and carefully tie the arms of the flightsuit around your thighs. This seems strange but if you didn't tie them, the arms of your flightsuit could end up IN the pot and it would only take one time of that for you to form a ritual of tying them around your legs. All of this is, of course, as you are bending over, still hovering trying to land on the seat. Now, I must tell you that the C-130 Hurcules is affectionately known as the 4-Fan Trash Can, after it's 4 propellers and the fact that it is used to haul just about anything. However, being a prop-job it usually flies lower to the ground than other cargo aircraft and so the incidence of turbulence is... well... COMMON. So you're busy hovering... tying... squatting... and BUMP, you're face down on the floor with your flightsuit arms tied around your legs like a noose and your bare butt sticking up in the air for all to see. I saw it happen several times actually. Quite funny. Oh and no, it never happened to me, although I had a few close calls! Luckily, I was never that shy at "landing" in public!
Incidentally, the urinal vented directly to the outside, so it was in-flight use only. Oh you could use it on the ground, but then anyone outside the plane would know someone was using it! Can someone say, "yellow clouds"?
Eilene
Reminds me of a saying I saw written on the inside flap of the urinal on a C-130 cargo plane:
"Men with short stacks or low manifold pressure; stand close"
Of course the guys pointed it out since I would have no reason to use the urinal. I did avoid the floor right near the urinal though, since it always was a little sticky. Women have to use the "Honey pot" and as tradition goes, whoever used it first... had to dump it. So all the guys would hold back until one of them would have to go #2. Us women could always hold it if we needed to. Speaking of the lovely Honey Pot... Wow, I'm getting nostalgic... It literally was a metal can with a seat on it and a plastic trash liner to hold the contents. Good loadmasters used 2 bags for extra measure. I remember the can was elevated on a platform that was surrounded by a privacy curtain. But get this, the curtain was only halfway around just so that the front portion of the plane's occupants couldn't see you. The back area where the cargo door is was wide open and illuminated! Which meant, you could see the silhouette of the person on the pot. This was good and bad. Good because you could see if anyone was on it,... wouldn't want to "Ooops" anyone. Bad because everyone could see your outline and tell how you approached the pot. I say "approached" because it was very much like an aircraft landing.
Let me explain... You had to get up on this little platform (about 2 foot off the ground) and you had to step up backwards to get into position. Then, you would unzip your flightsuit and take it off your shoulders and carefully tie the arms of the flightsuit around your thighs. This seems strange but if you didn't tie them, the arms of your flightsuit could end up IN the pot and it would only take one time of that for you to form a ritual of tying them around your legs. All of this is, of course, as you are bending over, still hovering trying to land on the seat. Now, I must tell you that the C-130 Hurcules is affectionately known as the 4-Fan Trash Can, after it's 4 propellers and the fact that it is used to haul just about anything. However, being a prop-job it usually flies lower to the ground than other cargo aircraft and so the incidence of turbulence is... well... COMMON. So you're busy hovering... tying... squatting... and BUMP, you're face down on the floor with your flightsuit arms tied around your legs like a noose and your bare butt sticking up in the air for all to see. I saw it happen several times actually. Quite funny. Oh and no, it never happened to me, although I had a few close calls! Luckily, I was never that shy at "landing" in public!
Incidentally, the urinal vented directly to the outside, so it was in-flight use only. Oh you could use it on the ground, but then anyone outside the plane would know someone was using it! Can someone say, "yellow clouds"?
Eilene
I'm in California still at Travis AFB. Getting close to retirmement already, can't believe it's been 20! 
