In San Diego, the airplanes pass right over top of you as they land. An impressive sight for anyone, but especially so for a kiddo like mine who's had something of an airplane obsession since he was two years old. Mr. Mark works at Fed Ex, loading and unloading planes and doing all sorts of other jobs around the facility. He got permission to guide his grandson and us (lucky us!) around the work site and even to take us onto a package plane! We watched the plane land as we made our way to Fed Ex to meet up with our friends.
Mark showed us the belly and the tail and the engine of the plane and described some of the policies and procedures involved. For example, there is a dotted-line grid that all personnel must stay outside of for safety's sake once the plane is cleared. The boys carefully toed the line.
Mr. Nicco, just a bit giddy.
One of the other technicians said that as long as we Did. Not. Touch. we could sit in the engine! Wowzers! Nicco was a little freaked out. He thought he might get sucked in. Mason flat out refused to sit up there by my boy. I kind of don't blame them, even though they would not have been allowed anywhere near the engine if it were still running and there was a remote possibility that they could get hurt. Still. A bit daunting for young boys.
Sometimes the pilots of the planes get to name their vessels. This one is named Matteo.
We climbed up and up the staircase to the cockpit.
The boys sat in the jumpseats...
And checked out the cockpit...
So many buttons and switches! You have to know what you're doing to drive one of those machines!
We even got to go inside the cargo area. That was cool. Mark explained how the cans are loaded and positioned and locked in place.
There was one window that wasn't sealed up and it happened to be right over the wing, the same place where we sat on our way to San Diego. Nicco thought that little fun fact was worth pointing out.
The Fed Ex employees have their routine down to a science. They can load those planes quickly, but even so, every now and then they have to squish themselves up against the wall to let a giant, heavy cargo can pass by. If they didn't squish up against the wall, they would be squished flat.
The plane looks a lot bigger with just empty cargo space than it does all full of seats and people.
Checking out the rollers and locking mechanisms.
After we saw the inside of the big plane, we got to see the little Cessna up close.
The boys were fascinated. I loved watching them touching and observing everything. Real life learning. I love it.
The sun went down on our tour of the ins and outs of the Fed Ex operation.
We loved the experience. It was fun, interesting, and educational. Bonus! "It's not every day you get to do something like this," said my boy.
We left our friends and had dinner at the hotel. Room service night, I think. After dinner the boys fought over the remote. "Who do you think you are," laughed the Daddy. "I'm Mr. H! I'm your boss!" laughed the kid "Now give me the remote!"
We settled in to watch The Gremlins, but Nicco fell asleep before it ended. We'll save it for another day.
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