Local Restaurant Supports Maryland Wing Flight Crews
by ANN Staff
Some would say that Marylanders are maybe just a little too fond of crab cakes. After all, they did make it the official State Food. But Maryland Wing pilot Capt Mike ‘Pinky’ Hogan disagrees. He’s enthusiastic that the wing has added crab cakes as in-flight meals on all wing missions.
“They beat the hell out of the normal garbage they feed us in the Ops shack,”
“We’re really proud to do our part to support our hometown heroes,” said Jed Buford, a marketing director at Local Seafood, a Maryland restaurant chain famous for its menu, and especially its crab cakes. “But it’s not a huge deal. Mickey, the guy who closes at night, just tosses any we have left on the warning table into a bag and drops them off at the airfield on his way home. It’s not even out of his way.”
“Normally I like to eat them open face with some tartar sauce,” said Maj Ted ‘McFlighty’ Sims. “But it’s a little hard when you’re the PIC. And the greasy fingerprints on the glass cockpit. So, I just get it as a sandwich.”
Major Greg Kohl, Wing Director of Operations, explains “In-flight service has proven to be difficult, so smaller members have been assigned as stewards. We’ve assigned Orientation Flight Profile 7 as the ‘cabin crew orientation’, to teach Cadets how to serve in-flight. On Flight Profile 7b they work on correct wine pairings.”
“I’ve given a lot of O-Rides to the smaller Cadets,” Maj Sims says. “It’s great to watch them experience the wonder of flight!”
Cadet Dillon Littles, who lives up to his name, stands 5-foot, 3-inches high and weighs in at 95 pounds. He is preparing for his orientation flight, commonly called an ‘O ride’, by exchanging his camoflage blouse for a white jacket. He will be serving the in-flight meal to the pilots on his flight, Maj Sims and Capt Hogan.
“Some folks say it’s like servitude or demeaning, I guess,” Cadet Littles shrugs. “But I get to practice the skills I learned on KP at encampment last year. Plus I get to fly a lot, and we’re learning stuff that other Cadets never do. There’s a senior from Rhode Island who’s teaching us wine pairing. He’s in a country club or something, I think. He seems like he’s drunk a lot of the time, which makes sense, since he knows a LOT about wine.”
Maryland isn’t stingy with the bounty of their state. The Wing is working to partner with other wings within flying distance in a sort of ‘culinary exchange program’.
“It’s been amazing,” says Maj Sims. “We’ve swapped with Pennsylvania for cheese steaks, New York for pizza, North Carolina for barbecue, Connecticut for clams. Just all over the place. It’s a good chance to work on cross-country navigation and a have good feed. The only down side was this one time we took a couple bushels up to Maine Wing to swap for live lobsters. The cooler wasn’t closed tight enough and on the way back one of those bastards got into the footwell. He nearly took off my toe when I made the turn for short final.”
With only two pilots, there’s a little breathing room in the small cabin of the Cessnas that are the majority of Maryland’s air fleet. But when there’s a full crew, Cadet Littles, is relegated to the baggage compartment.
“Its a little tight back there with the food, the coffee maker, the snack packs and the drink cart,” Cadet Littles says. But, overall, he’s had a positive experience.
“I do like all the flying. Well, most of it. The return flights from Boston are kind of rough, with the beans and all.”
