I was a U.S. Naval Aircrewman stationed at NAS Brunswick (Maine). Besides the deicing trucks we’d have to get on the wings with a big push broom to get the snow off. Our preflight was 3 hrs long and mine was mostly outside loading weapons & sonobuoys before I got in the plane. The snow makes it a little bit miserable but I picked Maine because of being able to snowboard. The choices at the time for a duty station was Hawaii, California, Florida & Maine & I loved my time in Maine. It would have been nice to see it take off with that much payload. I’m sure with those conditions and that much weight, it would need at least double the distance than without any payload.
