Well, good for you. How much time in type is in your log?
I can tell you they don't normally do heavy banking with a weapons load
Oh, really. What's the angle of bank in each of these photos?
Posted on 03/30/2006 6:34:05 PM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Yeah. The USAF sure has saved a lot of money by purchasing single engined aircraft. Yup.
Somebody about two years ago did something similar from Hill AFB and died. My hubby knew someone about 10 or 15 years ago who also managed to do the same thing in the same general area. Sad. I'm glad this one was able to eject.
There were four aircraft flying in formation, it's possible that one aircraft passed through another's wake and flamed out, that could just as easily have happened to a two engine jet. Just glad the pilot got out.
The shadows look weird, but the jet is "right-side up," if not necessarily straight & level.
To-may-to, to-mah-to...and trust me, having worked with more than my fair share of fighter jocks (I have been in charge of two aircraft maintenance units in the fighter world,) I can tell you they don't normally do heavy banking with a weapons load (two 500-lb laser guided bombs on the right wing, and what looks like at least one cluster bomb on the left) just for fun. If I were a betting man, I would say that jet from the New Jersey Air National Guard at Atlantic City is flying at a Red Flag or Air Warrior exercise at Nellis...
I will take your word. 5.5G...doesn't really take that much to get to that kind of loading...IIRC, when I had a Viper ride, we put it to 5.2G on post-takeoff turnout. We got it all the way to 8.7G...convinced me I was better suited for maintenance anyway!
That sounds exactly like what my buddy who flies A-10s told me once. I have some friends who have flown the B-2 and B-52, and they described the BUFF as driving an 18-wheeler whereas the B-2 is almost like a Cadillac.
Well, good for you. How much time in type is in your log?
I can tell you they don't normally do heavy banking with a weapons load
Oh, really. What's the angle of bank in each of these photos?
This picture is a little hard to see, but I can discern the standard AIM-9 on the wingtips, AIM-7 (more likely AIM-9) on the station just inboard from the wingtips, something I can't really ID (travel pod? 370-gallon fuel tank?) on the next station over, 600-gallon tank on the inboard station, and an ECM pod on the centerline. Very small load.
This one, has an AIM-120 on each wingtip, AIM-9s inboard of wingtips, empty pilons on the next inboard, 600-gallon tanks inboard of that and an ECM pod on centerline. That's very light for an F-16...
You're kidding me, right? These Misawa Air Base Wild Weasel wannabes (everyone knows the REAL Wild Weasels are F-105s and F-4Gs) are carrying AIM-120s on the wingtips, AIM-9s inboard of that, AGM-88 HARMs inboard of that, 600-gallon tanks, and ECM on centerline. Again, very light for an F-16.
Now, you want to talk about a heavy load, try this guy a few seconds before the pic was taken.
Do you really mean to tell me he would be doing all that banking with all those Mk-82s onboard? How about this guy?
Or this one?
is carrying what looks like a GBU-32 JDAM on the #3 and #7 pylons. Still, that's hardly a heavy load nor very heavy maneuvering...and it looks like an Israeli Air Force F-16. The "so-what" of that little nibble of trivia is that the Israelis do fly their jets a bit more aggressively than the USAF rules allow.
What's with the two guys laying down with construction cones on their heads?
And best of all, I forgot to mention the kitchen sink!
Ah, yes...the F-15E Strike Eagle, with LOTS of cluster bombs!
F-16 pilot isn't hurt in crash $27M fighter jet goes down; it's first in Utah since 2002
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Ron Taylor looked up to see a helicopter flying east over Antelope Island on Thursday afternoon and let out a sigh of relief.
The medical chopper overhead meant the pilot who ejected from an F-16 fighter jet before it crashed into the bay had been found.
Taylor, the Antelope Island State Park manager, had been asked earlier in the day to head out to Carrington Island, about 18 miles west of his station, to help in the search but had been called off when other rescuers reached the crash location first.
Hill Air Force Base officials said the $27 million fighter jet went down at 2:11 p.m. The pilot ejected safely, landing in an area of mixed mud and sand, and was reportedly in good condition, with some "bumps and bruises," said Col. James Post, 388th vice commander.
The pilot, who had not been identified, was part of a four-jet training mission over the northern Utah Test and Training Range, involving pilots from the 421st Fighter Squadron, a unit of the 388th Fighter Wing. The squadron is scheduled to deploy to the Middle East in the next few weeks.
Post said the aviator, who was flying at more than 350 miles per hour at about 2,000 feet altitude, had been struggling to diagnose engine troubles for some time when he made the decision to eject.
An emergency response team from Hill responded to the crash location, about two miles east of Carrington Island, near the area of the Great Salt Lake where the Tooele and Box Elder county borders meet. Post said the crashed aircraft was carrying some small munitions when it went down.
A board of officers will convene to investigate the cause of the crash, the Air Force reported. Air operations at Hill have been suspended until a preliminary investigation is completed.
The crash was at least the second involving a U.S. Air Force Fighting Falcon this month.
The Defense Department reported that U.S. Navy divers on Wednesday were searching the ocean floor, off South Korea's west coast, for the wreckage of an F-16 that crashed there March 14. That aircraft's pilot also ejected safely and was rescued by the South Korean Air Force.
The last reported crash involving an F-16 from Hill occurred in June 2003 in Iraq, when a 388th pilot ejected safely following a power loss to the aircraft's single engine.
It has been more than three years since the last fatal crash involving an F-16 in Utah. In the fall of 2002, two pilots - one veteran reservist and one young active duty officer - were killed in separate training accidents occurring within weeks of each other.
A spate of crashes at Hill in 1998 prompted the replacement of the then-wing commander. During that year, one pilot was killed and others injured in five accidents involving six planes.
The F-16 is a single-seat fighter aircraft, it is capable of flying at more than 1,550 mph and can make turns withstanding up to nine times the force of gravity.
mlaplante@sltrib.com
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Salt Lake Tribune correspondent Dana Rimington contributed to this report.
Link here: http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3658029
That's a flare used to decoy infrared missiles.
Thanks! I'm accustomed to seeing them dispensed in pairs, I guess...
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