Saw the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels today

shawn474 · May 2019

The static display of the c-130 Spectre was legit....talked to the pilot for awhile. The thing seems to be like a flying munitions factory - the weapons capabilities on this thing is something to behold. This is a list of the armament:
2× 20 mm M61 Vulcan cannon
1× 40 mm (1.58 in) L/60 Bofors cannon
1× 105 mm (4.13 in) M102 howitzer
(Latest armament)
1× General Dynamics 25 mm (0.984 in) GAU-12/U Equalizer 5-barreled rotary cannon
1× 40 mm (1.58 in) L/60 Bofors cannon
1× 105 mm (4.13 in) M102 howitzer
Their flag was flying at the entrance. It was intimidating to say the least. For fear of offending someone, I won’t state what it said but if that thing was headed for me, I would hightail it out of there. It’s slow as molasses but more than makes up for it with how much firepower it has.

Also, the a-10 demonstration was very cool as well. They had the pyrotechnics out to simulate the rotary cannon discharging rounds and pyro on the ground to simulate targets. If you hear that cannon, it’s only a matter of time before everything in the vicinity is leveled.

pitdogg2 · May 2019

afterburnt wrote: »

nooshinjohn wrote: »

The Stealth jets (F-22/F-35) hooks 'em and the Super Eagle fries 'em… It can carry up to 24 air to air missiles in just one of the load-out scenarios. In others, it will carry bombs and missiles of various types. The Raptors and Lightnings lock the targets up and sends the acquisition data to the F-15, which will fire on the targets.

I don't get how the 15's can be in missile range and not be targeted themselves?

Could be the stealth planes are jamming and attacking radar sites that they're not able to see the other aircraft and you could drive a school bus up their ying yang...
Just a hunch.

nooshinjohn · May 2019

https://youtu.be/Nhm_7yWZsQA

afterburnt · May 2019

@pitdogg2 you may be right, they retired the last of the EA-6's and the EF-111's are long gone, so they must have something up their sleeves.

JayCee · May 2019

afterburnt wrote: »

You should have took the Area 51 job, you could tell stories about flying Null Set airlines,

Not in to "commuting" to work. LOL. But, I've had thoughts of what if I had taken the job. Would've been the coolest experience I couldn't talk about

afterburnt wrote: »

...my best was seeing General Yeager break the sound barrier for the 50th anniversary and then some chick do it in a Black Bird.

Very cool. The house Yeager and the guys of the his day used to hang out in @ Edwards is still there...or at least it was in the 70's. I used to camp near it and the survival school when I was in Boy Scouts. Think it was a base commander's home at one time and they filmed there for the Right Stuff.

Have seen the Blackbird fly and it's pretty sweet. NASA used to have a white variant parked at the Dryden Flight Research Center. During the airshows they'd bring out the Air Force copy and have red covers over the windows. Pi$$ed fuel all over wherever they parked it.

Great you were able to experience both!

JayCee · May 2019

afterburnt wrote: »

nooshinjohn wrote: »

The Stealth jets (F-22/F-35) hooks 'em and the Super Eagle fries 'em… It can carry up to 24 air to air missiles in just one of the load-out scenarios. In others, it will carry bombs and missiles of various types. The Raptors and Lightnings lock the targets up and sends the acquisition data to the F-15, which will fire on the targets.

I don't get how the 15's can be in missile range and not be targeted themselves?

A standoff aircraft. Fire, forget and be 100 miles north of the target. As John said, say any more and he'd have to kill you. Do you like how I use him as my fall guy?

nooshinjohn · May 2019

Saw the Blackbird buzz the tower when I was in Iwakuni, Japan. If you thought a B-52 was loud, you would be wrong. The SR-71 would leak fuel about as fast as you could pump it into her tanks. Amazing that they could fly at all without burning up on the ramp first.

JayCee · May 2019

afterburnt wrote: »

@pitdogg2 the EF-111's are long gone, so they must have something up their sleeves.

Another cool jet...my first airframe was the EF-111. I still have the original training material on it. My first incentive flight was on a KC-135A over Maine while refuling 2 111's off the coast. From the boom pod it looked like a dinosaur when the wings were extended. One 111 could jam something like the entire state of CA with it's capabilities and was part of the first wave during Desert Storm I.

afterburnt · May 2019

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Saw the Blackbird buzz the tower when I was in Iwakuni, Japan. If you thought a B-52 was loud, you would be wrong. The SR-71 would leak fuel about as fast as you could pump it into her tanks. Amazing that they could fly at all without burning up on the ramp first.

Heard you couldn't light that JP-7 with a match.

nooshinjohn · May 2019

Everything has a flashpoint. Still amazing they could make a fuel that could run a ramjet and have it not be flammable from the exhaust coming out the backside.

afterburnt · May 2019

"Every man has got a flash point. You and I have. Afterburnt has reached his. And very obviously, he has gone insane."

nooshinjohn · May 2019

A couple other concepts to wrap your brain around... the Rods of God, and Casaba Howitzers...

afterburnt · May 2019

"Gravity is not only a good idea, it's the law!"

Mikey081057 · May 2019

afterburnt wrote: »

@nooshinjohn no, this is:

F14 may be making a comeback I read somewhere recently.

Mikey081057 · May 2019

And while not a fighter jet this was a bad mo fo too

muncybob · May 2019

I was into airplane models kits when a kid. I remember when Dad was stationed at Beale AFB I bought one of the last kits available of the Blackbird. I say one of the last kits because DOD(or somebody) recalled kits due to showing too much detail.

Mikey081057 · May 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGBVgsjd2S8

afterburnt · June 2019

Scratch one AF reject

afterburnt · June 2019

https://www.history.com/specials/secrets-in-the-sky-the-untold-story-of-skunk-works/full-special?fbclid=IwAR1TYbyIDzvSH5nuIRC6x0EjHDeDWB3o1Gl61u4P6u-4_3D6gABkc91sB2k

jflail2 · June 2019

JayCee wrote: »

afterburnt wrote: »

@pitdogg2 the EF-111's are long gone, so they must have something up their sleeves.

Another cool jet...my first airframe was the EF-111. I still have the original training material on it. My first incentive flight was on a KC-135A over Maine while refuling 2 111's off the coast. From the boom pod it looked like a dinosaur when the wings were extended. One 111 could jam something like the entire state of CA with it's capabilities and was part of the first wave during Desert Storm I.

Was that at Pease? That was the last place dad was stationed before he retired and I think they had EF-111s there.

JayCee · June 2019

jflail2 wrote: »

Was that at Pease? That was the last place dad was stationed before he retired and I think they had EF-111s there.

Yes, my first duty station, and I was the last maintainer to leave the base when it closed (BRAC). My last memory was sweeping the main hanger. I must admit, in my previous post, I typed EF-111 but was replying to another post and mistakenly did so...not sure of previous years but FB-111's were flown, not the EF. FB was a Fighter/Bomber and the EF was a jammer. We also had the KC-135A Tanker (air refueler). When did he retire? I left Nov of 1990.

We were the 509th Bomb Wing and our mission was alert/nuclear commitment in the event the Ruskies pushed their luck. The 509th has a long history and mother AF decided to keep the 509th rather than deactivating. The unit (not me) moved to Whiteman AFB, MO, and became the new, at the time, B-2 wing. 509th was the original group that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima (Enola ****) and it carries on the bomber mission, to date, and the motto, "Defensor Vindex"-Defender Avenger. The 509th patch is designed around the history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/509th_Bomb_Wing

EDIT....
LOL...I type "Enola G...A....Y" above and Vanilla bleeped out G...A....Y.

nooshinjohn · June 2019

The 509th made the run on Nagasaki too, with the bird known as Bockscar...

jflail2 · June 2019

That's crazy Jaycee. I'm pretty sure my dad was the squadron chief (or whatever you call it) for the 509th OMS. The squadron that ran all the de-icers and all that stuff.

jflail2 · June 2019

Just texted with him Jaycee and he was indeed 509th, and was the "support branch chief".
He left in something like February or March of 1990. We moved to where he retired to about 6 months ahead of him. He had to get his time in so he could retire E-8, if I recall correctly.

BlueBirdMusic · June 2019

I love this thread and the Blue Angels. When I vacation on the Florida-Alabama Gulf Coast, I make a point to drive to the Pensacola Naval Air Station to see a practice session and the incredible planes in the Museum. I put model planes together as a kid, and my favorite plane was the Hellcat, and there is one at the Museum.

During the 1990's and early 2000's, the practice sessions were not as formal as now. Then the practice sessions started about 8:00 AM and the 20-30 people just walked to the edge of the flight line. Now the sessions start at 11:00 AM (to accommodate the crowd/late sleepers) and the event is like the regular shows.

I remember the difference in security at the entrance of the Naval Air Station prior and after 9-11 when I visited in 2002. Later on a visit in 2003 or 2004, the S-3B Viking that President Bush flew to the aircraft carrier to greet returning sailors was there. I felt so proud of our military.

I live in Marietta GA about six miles North of Lockheed. I soon learned that the F-22 has a really unique engine sound (shawn474 called it "sound signature") as the planes were flown after leaving the assembly line. Often, I would hurriedly run to my front yard to observe the plane and its F-15 chase plane. The landing path on return would be over Hwy 41 just at the end of the runway, and I would see the F-22's much closer occasionally. WOW!

I have been to several Blue Angel shows in Marietta. One of my memories in 2009 or 2010 was an F-14 Tomcat warming up the crowd. I was at west end of the runway when it took off and it went straight up. Seeing those wings change and the sound of the dual engines was awesome.

I worked at Lockheed in the early 1970's in Avionics and IT. My father worked there for about 25 years and was on the roll-out team of the C5 Galaxy. I remember seeing an F-100 Super Sabre at the Lockheed Military Appreciation Day in May 1968. It flew over the runway and actually broke the sound barrier. Lockheed was far out in the country then, and I-75 had not been completed.

Plane that George Bush Sr flew.

JayCee · June 2019

jflail2 wrote: »

Just texted with him Jaycee and he was indeed 509th, and was the "support branch chief".
He left in something like February or March of 1990. We moved to where he retired to about 6 months ahead of him. He had to get his time in so he could retire E-8, if I recall correctly.

I was an analyst and worked in "Maintenance Analysis". Tracked all the statistics on the aircraft, did special studies on parts/failures and was also a database manger for the data collection systems used for each airframe. Tell him I was on the DCM staff and worked in the big hanger one floor above the DCM, Scheduling and MOC.

Ask him if he remembers AFTO Form 349's? My first job at Pease was reviewing them after the flightline documented their maintenance. Errors on the form?...I circled them in RED and sent the 349 back to the shop for correction. He'll probably cuss at it and laugh.

I was a lowly A1C at the time and may have crossed paths with him.

JayCee · June 2019

@jflail2, Also, I used to get farmed out to the MOC during exercises. I'd have to plot boards and broadcast, "Safety, security, flowplan", over the flightline radio. Very likely he's heard my voice!

jflail2 · June 2019

@JayCee What a small world it is. Kind of a bigger guy with white hair. Also very jaded at that point in his career, hah. I'll ask him about the forms and the exercises, as he's enjoyed the back and forth texts on this.

nooshinjohn · June 2019

Perhaps the two of you should get a room? Errrr, that would be the Navy, sorry.

Maintenance forms... the Air Force has forms for everything, including taking a dump. The air wing of the USMC had its fair share as well, but a lot less than the flyboys had to contend with. In my shop all we had to do was sign off that the work was done and that we inspected our work.

JayCee · June 2019

jflail2 wrote: »

@JayCee ...very jaded at that point in his career, hah.

We used to call it being SACemsized. An old Strategic Air Command mentality! Here's my going away picture...only 3 guys signed it because everyone else had or was PCS'ing. I was the last guy to close my shop and the maintenance side:

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Perhaps the two of you should get a room? Errrr, that would be the Navy, sorry.

LOL, it is a small world...even smaller, I'm told, in the Navy

.

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Maintenance forms... the Air Force has forms for everything, including taking a dump. The air wing of the USMC had its fair share as well, but a lot less than the flyboys had to contend with.

Can't disagree...a necessary evil. Now, it's all done close to, if not on, point of maintenance via PC. I know, no one likes documenting maintenance after a long day turning wrenches but, truth is, nothing gets better without documentation and looking for trends. I could make or break a shop when they needed manning or parts were failing for unknown reasons. I was everyone's best friend when they needed to quote numbers or help. Worst enemy when it came to briefing what they did (or did not do).

nooshinjohn wrote: »

In my shop all we had to do was sign off that the work was done and that we inspected our work.

You were an engine mechanic if memory serves? I can't imagine not having maintenance data for hard breaks. Day-to-day, what we'd call support general, oil changes, NDI, etc. I can understand. Did job A and it was so many manhours...easy to extrapolate. But I've done significant engine studies, for example, on C-130J's downrange with weird stuff happening. Spectrum analysis of oil, PHD's and major universities involved.

Same methodology goes for audio components....any industry for that matter....reliability is based on trends, predictability, preventative maintenance, refinement, etc. Rinse, repeat.

Saw the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels today

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