I’ve seen a photo where all the soldiers on a C-17 flight from America to Europe (and then, later on, to the Middle East?) were sleeping, unsurprising.
No in-flight entertainment. But is there a lavatory? If they want to eat, do they have to pack food of their own? Are they allowed to use smartphones?
For longer flights full of many passengers, there’s a comfort pallet that is basically a modular lavatory on a pallet. The seats are like that as well. I’ve been on flights that had the modular airline style seats installed and also ones with just the normal outboard seats. It’s actually much better with the latter. If the flight has airline seats, you can expect to be crammed in that seat the whole flight. Otherwise, as soon as the plane takes off, everyone scatters to find a small piece of real estate to make a little nest and fall asleep. These are the best flights, because you can actually lay down completely and wrap up in a sleeping bag. The bag is often needed as the flights can get pretty cold. My longest flight was from Alaska to Australia. There was a ton of room, because the entire center was just parachutes, it wasn’t too full of people. We slept all day on the plane, woke up and put our parachutes on, and then jumped out into the Bush. No passport required.
Space-A flights are also like this. A perk of service is the ability to jump onto Space-Available flights for free. So if there is a cargo plane flying from California to Germany, and you want to take trip to Europe, you can hop on the plane. There’s often lots of room on these flights. I’ve known families who flew back to Europe in an empty plane with no other passengers besides the flight crew. Picture a pair of small children just running around a large, empty flying warehouse with a metal floor.
If you want to eat, bring food.
No flight entertainment other than what you bring. You can use your phone, but there is no wifi. You’re free to read, listen to music or watch movies, though.
In early 1984, my FIL passed away,right after we moved off the quarantine station, and my wife and I flew from Hickam AFB to March AFB aboard a cargo flight. It was cold and uncomfortable. As the only passengers, we sat in sideways-facing jump seats.
That is how I flew from March to Edwards(Guam) back in '78.
During the 1989 pilots strike in Australia. PM Bob Hawke allowed the allowed Royal Australian Air Force planes and pilots to provide passenger services. For a short time they were the country’s largest domestic airline.
I had a couple of Syd-Mel flights in that period. It was bring your own stuff. At that stage there weren’t smartphones and the only mobiles were the 1G “luggable”. A Sony Walkman was the usual entertainment. All passengers were encouraged to take a loo break before boarding.
It’s also noisy as hell. Or at least was on the C-141s & C-130s of my era.
Speculating on smartphones:
In 1956 I got a hop on a MATS flight from Las Vegas to Alameda in a B-25. They had 2 passengers, me and a WAF officer. Guess which one of us got the bombardiers’ seat. The crew chief helped me with my parachute and briefed me on evacuation procedures. Since I was low man on the totem pole it was my job to open the escape hatch in an emergency. That was a section of the floor that fell away when you pulled a latch.
Once on board you couldn’t see anybody else. The pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer and WAF were seated up front and I sat on the escape hatch between the gun blisters. That thing was really small. It was all engines. When they did the tach check at the end of the runway it felt like it was coming apart.
The take off was memorable because it’s like a Piper Cub with huge engines. It’s noisy and it seems to lurch from side to side as the engines synchronize. Everything smoothed out in the air. We crossed the sierra Nevada through the Yosemite Valley. The gun blisters were covered with plexiglass. I had a great view. We landed at Alameda Naval Air Station. My folks lived a couple of blocks from the North Gate, so I walked home.
There is a lavatory (in the C-17, C-5, and C-130), forward and just below the cockpit. Bring your own food but there are usually a couple of pallets of bottled water stowed in forward lockers, and sometimes coolers of sports drinks strapped onto a bulkhead if they are carrying a crew. The ground crew can install the passenger module, sardically referred to as the “comfort pallet” or “lux box” but as @Bear_Nenno says, you’re better off with the jump seats becaue you can bring a sleeping bag and use seat belts or a cargo net to make a secure cocoon. It will be cold, noisy, and the air will be extremely dry, so bring some thermals, Peltors with an audio jack, snacks, and plan on drinking a lot of water.
The C-17 is pretty stable, especially if it is carry a substantial load. The C-130 is more lively, and while I’ve never flown in a military Twin Otter, it’s kind of like riding a bucking bull even in mild wind and you are elbow to asshole with nineteen of your new best friends (in jump configuration, anyway).
Stranger
Do the pax pallets still have rear-facing seats?
I’ve always seen them installed facing forward but it’s a standard 463L pallet interface, so I don’t think there is any reason you can’t install them facing aft.
Stranger
My first time in a military aircraft was a C-2 COD flying out to USS Enterprise. I puked during the series of turns lining up to land on the flight deck. Super embarrassing, but at least it was dark (the fuselage is almost windowless and there is similarly scarce or non-existent interior lighting IIRC, plus the seats were arranged like a conventional small passenger plane, front or rear-facing, don’t remember which, with only two seats tops either side of the center aisle, so it’s not like everyone could see).
I very nearly puked on a C-130 in Iraq, which would have been worse, because it’s bigger, with a lot more people, and plenty of light. Plus, seating arranged with inboard seating facing outward, and outboard seating facing inward, the length of the plane, so a lot of people would have been able to see). Anyway, I managed to doze off just enough and for long enough to get through the worst of the motion sickness, but it was difficult because they made us keep our body armor and helmets on, and of course I had my M4 slung across my chest too, so it was really hard to position the head just right to keep it from nodding forward or to the side (if I had managed to fall asleep like that, not having anything to rest my head on but the seat back itself, I’d have probably woken up with a neck injury).
I caught a half-dozen or so “Space Available” MAC (Military Airlift Command) flights back in the early ‘90s from the East Coast (usually McGuire AFB, Dover AFB, or Andrews AFB) to Germany and back to visit my family who was stationed there at the time.
I flew on C-141’s and C-5’s. As I recall, the seats always faced aft (towards the rear of the plane). I never sat in a jump seat. The C-141’s had one or more pallets of seats secured to the deck. The C-5 had a small permanently installed seating area somewhere, as I recall. But I’m sure they could also install pallets of seats.
As for meals, you could pre-purchase a meal for $5. The airman would toss it to you sometime after takeoff. That was the only cost of the flight.
As others have mentioned, they were very loud inside. You had to wear earplugs the whole time to avoid permanent hearing damage.
I did a lot of time in C-130s. Sitting sideways in the old web seats and very very noisy.
I flew space-A a few times – once from Pearl Harbor to California, then on to Illinois; a couple times across the Atlantic; and a couple times across the US.
The most memorable was in '84 or '85. The first leg was from Langley (VA) to Scott (IL) aboard a small executive-jet sort of thing, maybe a Gulfstream; I was on emergency leave so they kicked an O6 off the plane to make room for me. (I was a fairly junior E5 at the time.) Second leg was from Scott to Travis (CA) aboard something like a 707 or 727; it was a medevac flight with all the seats facing aft, and the safety talk before takeoff was delivered by a guy who looked like he should have been playing pro football. The third leg was from Travis to NAS San Diego aboard a C5; there were only two or three other people in the pax compartment with me.
C-5s had a second deck forward and above the cargo deck for passengers. You had to climb up a steep narrow ladder but the seats were normal (rear facing) airline seats. The ladder was difficult if you had gear.
I flew on C-5s several times from Fort Hood to NTC, really Norton Air Force Base.
I knew a few young women who took those flights. They all independently told the same story - each of them got chatted up relentlessly by the airforce guys from one end of the flight to the other.
They seemed to enjoy themselves though so I guess the guys weren’t too pushy.
The only problem I had on a military flight was when I caught a hop on a P-3 Orion. They don’t waste any time getting to altitude, and I had an excruciating earache for the entire flight. One of the crew noticed and told the pilot, who made a more gradual landing descent to help me out, which I appreciated.
8 years active duty and I never space-A’d even once. Never had an opportunity. What riding on transports I did was duty. With all the shortage of creature comforts that implies.
14 years and I never space A’d either. Never seemed reliable enough to be of use while on active duty. I cringed every time an AFN commercial would come on talking about how great it was for people who could be flexible with their travel plans. Because that pretty much rules out everyone in the military, even on leave.
That’s exactly why I never even tried. I never had the flexibility to not have to worry about if I had a return flight or not