- Nov 26, 2006
- 7,628
- Boat Info
- 2008 44 Sedan Bridge
- Engines
- Cummins QSC-500's
Straight Drives
It's time. I'll be 50 this fall. My boss at my desk job has told me 4 times to quit flying - I keep getting it extended. They actually cut my aeronautical orders off 02 May, but I had them reinstated for another month - now I'm done.
Last Saturday (22 May) - ECP Grand Opening Flyby (New Northwest Fl Airport)
Took off with 3 Eagles from Tyndall at 1110:00 (11:10 AM and zero seconds) - Was supposed to have 4, but at the last minute, we added an F-22 Raptor to the program, and we only had approval for 4 jets.
After takeoff, I turned the formation NW and we flew around the large gatherings of Sea Rays over at the barrier island - nice, calm, banked up 3-ship in tight formation. Then, we circled back across the runway and flew past again, different angle, tighter turn. 2 more passes, one was straight and level in a tactical (spread out) formation at higher speeds, then we climbed out aggressively to get above a scattered cloud layer to go over and survey the new airport from above 10,000 feet.
I set up a bow-tie holding pattern 10 NM West of the target at 2,500' - we dodged puddle jumpers (small airplanes) for the next 20 minutes or so. I didn't have the National Anthem timing yet, so I kept trying to contact our ground FAC (guy with radio at ceremony), but no luck. A guy in our squadron contacted our FAC by cell phone (intermittant) and we talked to him by radio - song was to be 1 minute, 24 seconds, and it would start at 11:38:00. I started doing math while attempting to align my holding pattern to match the desired run-in. In the bow-tie pattern, I fly perpendicular to the inbound route, then lean away 30 degrees. Each turn back is toward the target, back to perpendicular, then lean away. The reason for this is that the programs tend to be random at these events. I need to be able to make my run-in from 10 miles at any second.
I fly 10 miles away so they can't see/hear us and so I can adjust timing on the inbound leg without turning (adjust speed). At the appropriate time, I left my holding pattern and turned inbound to intercept the ground track I had decided on and descended down to 1000 feet - "Cleared Close." We were a little behind, so I pushed it up a little. At 6 miles, the radio call comes in - "They haven't started the song." I verified the call, then turned steeply outbound and began looking out for traffic. I maneuvered to reset the holding pattern from a course well South of the pre-planned area (due to the high-speed 180 degree turn back out).
Just as I began to turn into holding, the call came, "It started, 1 minute 24!" I turned inbound from a random point, and began to angle in to the ground track, descend, call my formation to tighten up, and start doing math - REAL FAST MATH. Let's see, what's 9 miles divided by 72 seconds times 100 knots.... "42 seconds" comes over the radio (1/2 way point). I'm still angling in and off track. I look over my left shoulder to spot the field that I had marked as a good 1-minute point. I was just past it, so I accelerated again, then looked out to spot my target - I could't see it - too low. A quick glance at my situational display that I had programmed in holding - 30 degrees right. As I start the turn to align "30 seconds."
I see the road that would nearly lead me in. I adjust my flight path, look up, and see the new runway and tower. I check slightly right to align, then the guy in my squadron starts singing the last few words of the national anthem over the radio to help me adjust timing. As I look out, the crowd was a hundred yards North of the pre-briefed spot, so I check another 10 degrees left and check my altitude and airspeed - 1000 feet and 300 knots is the correct answer. I was at 1000 feet and accelerating through 400 knots - better answer.
I level my wings, adjust my power to make it easier for my wingmen (not too close to afterburner settings - they make the power adjustment very erratic), and ride it out for the last 10 seconds. "Home....of the....brave...no wait...BRAVE...... - "MARK!" I transmit. The guy in the squadron really did say "no, wait....Brave." He was hearing the song over the broken cell phone connection.
I pushed the power back up and started a moderate climb and slight right hand turn to show the tops of the jets. I could see that we were going to go back up through the scattered deck, so I picked a hole to pass through - a little over 45 degrees nose high. Over the radio comes "SHACK!" - perfect timing. Better lucky than good any day.
Back over to the pattern at Tyndall. A buddy of mine took off as we passed by - F-22 vertical climb to 22,000 feet, then he rolled it over and dove back down to 1,600 feet and rejoined on my left side for 2 photo passes over the sea ray crowd - 3 Eagles and one F-22 in close formation. Then, we split, he went to do a touch and go at ECP, and we broke out into tactical formation for a couple of high speed, high G passes over the crowd (in the traffic pattern). That was last Saturday. More on yesterday to follow.
Last Saturday (22 May) - ECP Grand Opening Flyby (New Northwest Fl Airport)
Took off with 3 Eagles from Tyndall at 1110:00 (11:10 AM and zero seconds) - Was supposed to have 4, but at the last minute, we added an F-22 Raptor to the program, and we only had approval for 4 jets.
After takeoff, I turned the formation NW and we flew around the large gatherings of Sea Rays over at the barrier island - nice, calm, banked up 3-ship in tight formation. Then, we circled back across the runway and flew past again, different angle, tighter turn. 2 more passes, one was straight and level in a tactical (spread out) formation at higher speeds, then we climbed out aggressively to get above a scattered cloud layer to go over and survey the new airport from above 10,000 feet.
I set up a bow-tie holding pattern 10 NM West of the target at 2,500' - we dodged puddle jumpers (small airplanes) for the next 20 minutes or so. I didn't have the National Anthem timing yet, so I kept trying to contact our ground FAC (guy with radio at ceremony), but no luck. A guy in our squadron contacted our FAC by cell phone (intermittant) and we talked to him by radio - song was to be 1 minute, 24 seconds, and it would start at 11:38:00. I started doing math while attempting to align my holding pattern to match the desired run-in. In the bow-tie pattern, I fly perpendicular to the inbound route, then lean away 30 degrees. Each turn back is toward the target, back to perpendicular, then lean away. The reason for this is that the programs tend to be random at these events. I need to be able to make my run-in from 10 miles at any second.
I fly 10 miles away so they can't see/hear us and so I can adjust timing on the inbound leg without turning (adjust speed). At the appropriate time, I left my holding pattern and turned inbound to intercept the ground track I had decided on and descended down to 1000 feet - "Cleared Close." We were a little behind, so I pushed it up a little. At 6 miles, the radio call comes in - "They haven't started the song." I verified the call, then turned steeply outbound and began looking out for traffic. I maneuvered to reset the holding pattern from a course well South of the pre-planned area (due to the high-speed 180 degree turn back out).
Just as I began to turn into holding, the call came, "It started, 1 minute 24!" I turned inbound from a random point, and began to angle in to the ground track, descend, call my formation to tighten up, and start doing math - REAL FAST MATH. Let's see, what's 9 miles divided by 72 seconds times 100 knots.... "42 seconds" comes over the radio (1/2 way point). I'm still angling in and off track. I look over my left shoulder to spot the field that I had marked as a good 1-minute point. I was just past it, so I accelerated again, then looked out to spot my target - I could't see it - too low. A quick glance at my situational display that I had programmed in holding - 30 degrees right. As I start the turn to align "30 seconds."
I see the road that would nearly lead me in. I adjust my flight path, look up, and see the new runway and tower. I check slightly right to align, then the guy in my squadron starts singing the last few words of the national anthem over the radio to help me adjust timing. As I look out, the crowd was a hundred yards North of the pre-briefed spot, so I check another 10 degrees left and check my altitude and airspeed - 1000 feet and 300 knots is the correct answer. I was at 1000 feet and accelerating through 400 knots - better answer.
I level my wings, adjust my power to make it easier for my wingmen (not too close to afterburner settings - they make the power adjustment very erratic), and ride it out for the last 10 seconds. "Home....of the....brave...no wait...BRAVE...... - "MARK!" I transmit. The guy in the squadron really did say "no, wait....Brave." He was hearing the song over the broken cell phone connection.
I pushed the power back up and started a moderate climb and slight right hand turn to show the tops of the jets. I could see that we were going to go back up through the scattered deck, so I picked a hole to pass through - a little over 45 degrees nose high. Over the radio comes "SHACK!" - perfect timing. Better lucky than good any day.
Back over to the pattern at Tyndall. A buddy of mine took off as we passed by - F-22 vertical climb to 22,000 feet, then he rolled it over and dove back down to 1,600 feet and rejoined on my left side for 2 photo passes over the sea ray crowd - 3 Eagles and one F-22 in close formation. Then, we split, he went to do a touch and go at ECP, and we broke out into tactical formation for a couple of high speed, high G passes over the crowd (in the traffic pattern). That was last Saturday. More on yesterday to follow.
