Ramstein (Germany)

Woke up around 1000 and manned up aircraft. Kurt and I completed all functional check-flight procedures and practiced some approaches until 1400. Got some more cash and then drove over to Trier, a nearby town that was also located on the Luxemburg border and not far from Belgium.  Later, I wished I'd thought about crossing the border for at least one of them...  The weather was awesome and we had fun exploring - we didn't leave town until 1800 (the time when the maintainers were expected to arrive). After we reached Ramstein again, we were able to pick them up and take them to the aircraft - they spent several hours trying to fix it. Despite all this effort, though, things didn't look good.  Suddenly, though, I noticed that one of the antennas on the aircraft looked the same as the IFF antenna, which was the focus of all the repairs at that point.  Since the other (TACAN) antenna was one we really didn't need in Europe, I suggested we swap it. Surprisingly, that worked! Strange: we'd previously tried swapping boxes, reseating wires and performing other troubleshooting tasks for days and an antenna fixed the whole problem... The maintenance team was finished with work at around 2330 - too late for much flying.  Instead, we planned for a mid-morning takeoff tomorrow.  I was happy until I realized that it might take some time in the morning to get all the diplomatic clearance issues worked out...  Can't complain about finally getting fixed, though!