Taxi trials and tribulations in Turkey - personal account of flying a C-20G Gulfstream IV

Approach, Nov, 2002 by Vince Lowell

I have a CH-46D background and find it hard to believe the same Navy owns the tired Phrog and the sleek, technologically advanced, C-20G Gulfstream IV. It has been my good fortune to transition from the steam gauges of the H-46 and the steamy climes of Guam to the all-glass, fully integrated cockpit of the high-speed, medium-lift C-20G, based at Andrews AFB.

Although both are logistics aircraft, the C-20G is a miraculous machine that can fly nonstop from Hawaii to the District of Columbia at 45,000 feet and 500 knots. With this kind of performance, to steal a line from Jimmy Buffett, latitude and attitude change very quickly when you climb into the cockpit and enjoy the exhilarating shove of 27,700 pounds of thrust from the twin Rolls-Royce turbofan engines.

I was a new aircraft commander in the C-20G international-overwater transport. I felt good as my sleek jet and top-notch crew zoomed toward Istanbul, Turkey, on the first mission of our detachment. Our mission was to pick up a submarine admiral and his aide, take them to Naples, Italy, and return to det homeplate in NAS Sigonella.

We checked the weather and NOTAMS and got our diplomatic clearances. To get a good idea of our fuel burn, we used the fleet numerical's great optimal-path-aircraft-routing program. We also studied the FLIP sections for the Ataturk (Istanbul), Turkey, airfield and the Italian, Greek, and Turkish airspace we would transit. The 1801 international-flight-plans form was completed to cover our day trip. None of the crew had operated from this airport, nor had anyone else in the squadron as far as I knew, so we didn't want any surprises. I had survived a tour as a loop, and I knew admirals and surprises are a volatile mixture.

Not many tactical complexities are involved when you fly logistical or VIP aircraft. However, a crew must know many mundane details to operate the aircraft in a professional, safe and expedient manner. We recognized one such detail: Where would we meet the admiral at the Ataturk field? We queried the ASCOMED and the U.S. Defense Attache Office in Istanbul. We also called the admiral's office and had a cellphone patch directly to his aide. The aide gave a vague idea of the pickup point--the military side of the airfield.

ASCOMED may have known something we didn't because they scheduled two hours, rather than the usual 45 to 60 minutes, for our ground turn in Istanbul. Nonetheless, the pickup point didn't seem like a critical safety-of-flight issue. I figured we would get better info on the ground in Turkey.

We landed, cleared the runway, and requested taxi clearance to the military side of the field. We didn't know exactly where the military side was since it is not marked on the FLIP-airport diagram or in the Jeppesen publications. Nonetheless, we got taxi instructions to park at a spot near a building marked "Base Ops" on the FLIP diagram. That news seemed encouraging until we arrived at the spot, and found no military aircraft or anything to suggest we were on a military installation.

We parked and shut down, hoping to get more info from the handlers. We were relieved to find a guy in civilian clothes, whom we later learned was a USDAO Air Force sergeant who spoke English. He said we were not on the military side, and he would coordinate approval from the Turkish Armed Forces for us to taxi to the correct side. He departed, then relayed a message to us through the Turkish handler to reposition to the military side and to expect a follow-me vehicle.

We felt confident we had overcome this minor hurdle but still did not know our exact destination on the field. After restarting and calling ground control, we requested a progressive taxi to the military side. We were cleared to taxi via mike and cross runway 24. As we approached the hold-short for runway 24, in IMC conditions and with twilight approaching, we spotted two parked vehicles facing us. They were in the center of the taxiway on the other side of 24 with their headlights on. They fit my follow-me vehicle paradigm, so we taxied across 24 and followed the yellow stripe down the somewhat narrower taxiway on the other side.

Feeling good to be clear of an active runway, in darkening IMC conditions, we waited for the vehicles to turn around and lead us to our destination. Our paradigm shattered when the vehicles held their position and flashed their headlights at us. I stopped the aircraft, and my crew chief volunteered to talk to the drivers. He returned and told us a fence was around the next bend in this taxiway, and the Turks in the cars believed the opening in the fence was too narrow for our aircraft. We decided the crew chief would ask for a ride to the fence line to assess the clearance.

The taxiway was too narrow to make a U-turn. I later surmised, from the Turkish-military aircraft parked in the revetments, that this taxiway was for military aircraft with a short wingspan. Unfortunately, wingspan limitations were not detailed in the NOTAMS or the FLIPS. We had two not-so-delectable options: Press forward and attempt to negotiate the narrow space, or shut down. If we shut down, we would get the tow bar from our tail compartment and try to coordinate with the Turkish handler to push us back with ground clearance--on an active runway, in darkening IMC conditions, in a foreign country.