Great Day Flying

John, God bless you and your family for standing on that wall for me and my family. My wife looked at those pictures and said our military is truly GREAT! Thank You Again, JC
"Freedom is not Free"
 
hack4alivin said:
Great story and pictures John, thank for sharing them. Is it typical of flying the F15’s over the US armed, and has that always been the case?
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It happens all the time, every day, but we are not armed. Aim-9 heat seeking missiles cannot be simulated by the on-board computer. You have to have an actual missile on the rail to determine valid heat signatures, tracking, and not biting off on flares. The radar missiles are usually simulated, but we frequently carry those to get used to aircraft handling characterstics and to keep maintenance in practice with loading/unloading, and not slicing their heads open on a fin.

In each of the above cases, the missiles don't have motors or warheads.

There are armed fighters on alert nation wide, and they scramble for real world events every day and/or for practice. For those of you flying across the Gulf, to Canada, Mexico, or the Bahamas, or near the National Capitol Region, squawk and talk prior to crossing the ADIZ, or you just might get to fly formation with an armed fighter and lose your ticket for a while. Also, don't forget to check your NOTAMS. This president travels quite a bit (he and his queen's entourage).

Additionally, there is testing going on all the time, especially down here near the Gulf. Most fighter bases carry bullets on nearly every mission, but they are only 20mm, and we only carry 940 of them, and if you hold the hammer down, you'll run out in 9.4 seconds, so not too much to worry about.
 
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WOW!!

this REally brings back memories while I was stationed in DM, Tucson, AZ as an avionics guy. Got tricked into enlisting, said I can fly out of high school, and got pissed and got out after my 4 years. got my private and enjoyed that in AZ and here in FL. Wish I could fly for the USAF though. Life is different now though.

Great pics, and Good luck!!
 
Great story and pictures. My dad retired from the US Airforce 10 years ago. Thank you for serving our country.
 
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Doesn't have a damn thing to do with boats... but THANK YOU! Those pics almost gave me a woody- more so than looking at anyone's 100 foot yacht.

I think every red-blooded American male fantasizes about being you in that cockpit. I'm sure it took an incredible amount of work and dedication to get there.

Curious- what's the "vintage" of that tanker?

Hey- since your Dad and I are neighbors...tell him I'd be happy to swap an offshore fishing trip for some grouper and snapper for a ride :)

Thank you for your service.
 
+100 on the pics & stor. Plus a big thank you to your family for "giving you up" for our service!
 
LmannyR said:
WOW!!

this REally brings back memories while I was stationed in DM, Tucson, AZ as an avionics guy. Got tricked into enlisting, said I can fly out of high school, and got pissed and got out after my 4 years. got my private and enjoyed that in AZ and here in FL. Wish I could fly for the USAF though. Life is different now though.

Great pics, and Good luck!!
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I'm still waiting for the movie contract my recruiter promised me....oh yeah, that and lifetime medical. But seriously, mine had me "Come on down and swear in after the first of the year." We had finalized my training by Sep 1984. That cost me a 9-month pay raise delay on every promotion I've had for over 24 years - bastards.
 
Hampton, you know I'm one of your biggest fans! You are the man :thumbsup: Question, I noticed you are banking in some of those pics. Is this irrelevant to what you have going on? In other words, does the earth's horizon go away and the tanker becomes your new horizon? Once you are in formation with the tanker do they let you know about course chnages and do they have a cadence like the blue angels so you can turn with them at the exact same time?

I was yacking it up today with a F18 pilot who owns a Sea Ray, although I don't think he's on CSR. Man, would I like to trade a few days of work with you!
 
CSR_Admin said:
Hampton, you know I'm one of your biggest fans! You are the man :thumbsup: Question, I noticed you are banking in some of those pics. Is this irrelevant to what you have going on? In other words, does the earth's horizon go away and the tanker becomes your new horizon? Once you are in formation with the tanker do they let you know about course chnages and do they have a cadence like the blue angels so you can turn with them at the exact same time?
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Excellent observation and excellent questions. Basically, yes.

During my rejoin and initial hookup, the tanker was in a turn. Once I get close, I don't even think about the horizon. I fly completely in relation to the tanker. Though I didn't hear any turn cues yesterday, they will frequently call "Tanker 01 starting left turn....Tanker 01 rolling out." It's more of a heads up than anything.

When I was younger and dumber, we used to practice 360 degree rolls in tight formation. It's not hard as long as the leader keeps the speed up, gets the nose up, and keeps fairly steady back stick pressure on the jet with a consistent roll speed. In the simulator, I've rolled every heavy aircraft I've ever flown. If you don't do it exactly right, you'll auger in.

PS - We may have lost another brother tonight.
 
Awesome pics! From one ex-AF guy to another. Thank you for your service!
 
John,

This is a great post. I often regret not going into the military after high school. As everyone else has mentioned here, I am truly appreciative of your service and enjoyed the pics and the story. I can only Imagine what your daughter is telling her friends now!
 
Aerobaticflyer said:
Absolutely beyond cool! :smt038
Can you adopt me so I can get a ride? :wow: I'll do house chores and you'll hardly notice I'm around. :grin:

I'm not worthy.......see below:

DSC01215.jpg
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Nice plane! Beautiful job. My last RC project was an Extra 330 1/3 scale. About an 8' wingspan. Had a Zenoah engine, 20 inch prop, smoke system, push-pull rudder, and servo per aileron setup.

I built it from scratch and took me about a year to build. Flew great and scared the hell outta me when flying to think all of that time and money could go South in about 1 second. I enjoyed it very much even with a tight sphincter.

I won several trophies for Most Spectacular flight with it though. The Lomcovak with plane disapearing in its own smoke was one of my favorites.

Then I moved into RC Helicopters after getting bored with planes. Sphincter really tightened up then! I had one with floats that I used to fly off of my old boat.

I got out of the hobby before all of this 3D stuff became popular. I have enough room on my property to make my own RC field and may get back into it someday.
 
tobnpr said:
Curious- what's the "vintage" of that tanker?
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Most KC-135s are late 50s to 60 models. The first one flew in 1957. The last one that was delivered was in 1965. A lot of upgrades since then.

Most now are flown by the Air National Gaurd or Air Force Reserves.

They are based on the Boeing 707. They are in the process of replacing with something. It was going to be the KC-767, but there is an internal fight now between Boing, Airbus, DoD and others.
 
Missing pilot in F-16 crash identified, search on-goingSHAW AIR FORCE BASE, SC (WIS) -

Officials at Shaw Air Force Base have revealed the name of a missing pilot after two F-16s collided 40 miles off of Folly Beach.
Authorities say Capt. Nicholas Giglio collided with another Shaw F-16 in mid-air over the Atlantic Ocean around 8:30pm Thursday.
Air Force officials said the fighters were assigned to the 20th Fighter Wing. The aircraft were participating in night training maneuvers, officials said.

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11324477

I heard this story on the news this morning and immediately thought about this thread. I just checked and the missing pilot is not John. I am sorry to hear about the loss of the pilot.

John, where you part of this exercise?
 
Check out the time and the last line of post #52 above. I was working CONR. I was in the rescue effort. We immediately coordinated for tanker support from 2 KC-135's that were flying on the East Coast. The first one delivered 20,000# of gas which allowed the 2 remaining F-16's (one made an emergency landing into Charleston) to stay airborne at least another 2 hours.

We used all of our resources to determine the tracks of the two airplanes, the collision point, the possible location of the downed pilot considering the altitude of the potential ejection, the location, and the winds aloft. We quickly found the debris field, but, there was 0 moon, 2-3 foot seas, 72 degree water, light winds... 2 F-18's came on station with targeting pods which can assist in "Seeing" in the darkness. Rescue helicopters took turns searching and flying back for gas.

I stayed late last night coordinating efforts from several different agencies including those who may have had the ability to determine where any emergency locator beacon signals were coming from. No luck there. Still working.

To everyone who was enjoying this post, thank you very much for your recognition. For those who may have wished you had chosen this path, it can be very rewarding, but it can be very costly too. It's easy for the those who may pass quickly. It's hard on every else - especially the families.
 
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