Any USAF pilot can fly a fighter break, it's not just the squids. (;-)
Yes, but ... The USAF (trash haulers in particular) is (in-)famous for 10 mile straight in approaches. And you did say **ANY** USAF pilot can do fighter breaks.
I will say that watching F-15s do fighter breaks is cool. Just wouldn't want the pilots to spill their ice-tea on the way to the OC. ;-p
OK, OK, no AF bashing. My dad was a NAval Aviator. HE used to joke that the Navy could land his entire wing before the AF landed on final approach.
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True.
Naval Air transport pilots routinely practice short-runway and evasive take off and landing procedures as part of their routine flights, and I'm sure it's the same for USAF MAC pilots as well. They need to keep up their quals (i.e. for high threat locations like Iraq and Afghanistan), and I've been on many a routine NAVAIR flight in the states which felt pretty tactical, i.e. plane flys evasive pattern inbound, even using flairs if over a military base, airport lights come up 3 seconds before the plane touches down (i.e. small civ. airports), plane comes up the the terminal, wheels around, back cargo door opens, passenger door opens and ladder drops down, 25 Reservists toss their seabags in the back on their way up the ladder, the plane is taxiing before the door is closed, rotating as we are getting safety instructions, jinking left and right and dropping and adding altitude on the way out...etc.. Pretty interesting, the first time around. After a while, ya just bury your head in a Readers Digest during the flight, remember to take something Dramamine before the flight, and just get used to the Air-a-dales playing their games.
Back to the civilian jet; the pilot could well be a military reservists or ex-military, but any pilot in his right mind would want to put his plane down ASAP if there were any hint of a hijack or hostage situation. His defensive options are pretty minimal in the air.
Most civilians are used to the "commercial jet as bus", and forget that these things can really perform when they need to.
SFS
Yeah ..... but they all flare to land.