Warbird Information Exchange

I just got a couple shots from my cousin Caroline who's currently flying F-16s with the 4th FS in Iraq. Not bad for a farm girl from Wisconsin

Capt Jensen with a JADAM on her F-16 in Iraq Oct 2007

Tanking from a KC-135

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Don't touch my junk!!

That's cool Jack! Thanks for sharing. So when do you get a ride?

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"If I had to fight the same war over again, I'd sure want to fight it from the cockpit of a Corsair."
-Archie Donahue

Are you kidding! I'd puke my guts out and die before
the thing made it off the ramp!
Besides she's more interested in coming out and flying in
some of the warbirds!

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Don't touch my junk!!

She looks like she would make a great Skyraider pilot.

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Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

Eric, I was thinkin' more like Phantom !

Sorry about the thread drift, Eric, I'm over in O'Fallon, IL this weekend with nothing to do, anything going on over in Creve Couer on saturday?

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If God had wanted man to fly behind a flat motor, Pratt Whitney would've built one.

Well, I'm in New York until Sunday afternoon, but I know my friends are having a Stearman Formation Clinic there this weekend. You should go over there and go through the museum.

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Eric

"I spent most of my money on alcohol, women and skyraiders....and the rest of it I just wasted."

Sumthin about a woman in a flight suit...

OK, now I will be the one to ask...what it the pylon looking thing off the end of the left wing on the tanker? Looks like something off of a B-47 or an old 707 pod? Is the Air Force that tight with their budget that they are using stuff that old???

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Earn my respect and never lose it.
Demand my respect and never gain it. -Me

...just another plane dreamer.

That is called the original HOSE and DROGUE refuelling method designed in late 1940s.

Was built same time as the more common seen on KC135 - Boom - and used thru the 1950s and 60s mainly in USAF service.

The USN mainly use it nowdays and USAF uses Boom.

The USAF KC-135 fleet was modified late 1990s to be a 3 point refueller so it can refuel more aircraft then just 1 services type in general use. Same with the KC-10s

The USAF was late to modifiy the KC135 to hose pod as most other air force have their tankers with it.

Don't forget that the allies in the GWOT -- mainly UK and France -- also use the hose and drogue.

Good lookin girl, but Jack...make sure you tell her we're impressed with the wall-to-wall single 500-pound JDAM loadout on that Viper.

Now, for a man-style bomb load, reference:

Geez Randy,
That's cool!!!!

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Don't touch my junk!!

I took that one heading westbound one evening with the sun low on our nose, going out to work with a Spanish unit in western Afghanistan.

3 x GBU-38 (500-pound JDAM)
1 x GBU-31V1 (2,000-pound JDAM)
4 x GBU-12 (500-pound LGB)
510 x 20mm

Randy, looks like Eric's Skyraider without a prop! Must not be much fun in a gear up landing!

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

randy
back in the days when i deployed for the 1980 iran caper, we had several F111A's loaded up with 48 Mk 82's.. and i did several firepower demos at nellis with the same load.. couldn't sweep the wings cause the outboard pilons wouldn't pivot, but it seemed like it rained 82's all day. the 111 wasn't much of a fighter but it sure could go like stink low level and run most everybody else out of gas...

take care

jcw

The hose & drogue pods attached to some KC-135 are actually British-built by FRL (Flight Refuelling Limited). They're more useful than the BDA (boom drogue adapter) as they've got real hose response for those who use the probe.

Having refueled with both Boom/UARRSI & Probe/Drogue (when I was on exchange with RAF's 47(SF) SQN), I find both to be great fun!

As you might expect, it's somewhat easier to establish contact with the boom, but easier to stay in contact with the hose...

A modified version of the FRL pod with a variable speed drogue is in use on MC-130H & MC-130W for special operations.

Also of some minor interest, is the DoD's recent adoption of the NATO Refuelling regulation, ATP-56(B). My refueling guidance has gone from 68 pages to 385 pages! A one-size-fits-all regulation to help standardize NATO ops...


Back O/T - hard to believe it's been 13 years since females have been allowed in fighters. The first, Kelly Flynn, was in my class at a different base & I heard her selection on the conference call, the USAF's prepared reaction quoting current regulations, & followed the ensuing political fallout.

My outdated, chauvanistic sense of chivalry doesn't like it anymore than I like them in spec ops (I grew up watching MASH - they're supposed to be nurses we can flirt with!), but the evidence proves they're doing a tremendous job.