Cadets from NY-292 got a surprise when they returned after some O-flights. 4 US Army UH-60 helicopter from Ft. Drum stopped to re-fuel. The pilots and crew gave Cadets an all access tour and answered questions.
I have pictures, I just can't figure out how to post them here.
Very neat. We once had an MV-22 divert to our airport on meeting night one summer, and we also had the opportunity to check out the aircraft and talk to the crew for a bit. It still stands out in my mind as the coolest squadron meeting I've been to. I have a picture or two, but it's beyond potato quality.
To post pics, you have to first host them somewhere, writing your post here and clicking the "insert image" button, pasting the images' URLs in between... or you could make an album and just post the link.
1 Huey is still way cooler than a squadron of UH60s >:D
Quote from: Flying Pig on April 27, 2015, 02:07:28 PM
1 Huey is still way cooler and noisier than a squadron of UH60s >:D
FTFY. ("WHOP WHOP WHOP WHOP WHOP WHOP....")!!!
Spam
(and yes, you have a beautiful Huey)!
You guys have never lived until you have heard 50 Hueys in formation. Saw it often in VN. A sound and sight that I will never forget.
Sadly I dont think anyone will ever See 50 UH1s flying together ever again :(
I saw an air assault battalion in the air once in North Carolina. Nowhere near Ft Bragg. Just north of Charlotte, must have been early 80's. It started as a menacing humming, throbbing noise in the distance, then it turned into the unmistakable sound of 30, 40 Hueys flying in formation right over my head. I thought we were at war, there were so many. Doors open, troops inside...truly a sight to behold.
We WERE at war, Kevin, and still are; just the enemies, the weapons and tactics have changed! We will still be at war (cold and hot) with both sets of enemies (the old, but now returning Nomenklatura warlords and the barbarians) for decades to come, which is why the cadet program and AE missions are still so vitally necessary.
Those probably were the Redhawks (A CO, 2nd of the 82nd Avn Regiment) with one of my brothers in law, from Bragg. He had the company for a while, and I got some O flights with them and later in the Blackhawks. The other bro in law had just transitioned back from training Royal Iranians to fly model 214s in Isfahan in 79 and said that was "it", after getting shot down in Nam four times in loaches he was out.
Every "touch a jet/helo" opportunity like the one referenced by the OP is a vital link from cadets to the real mission. That's especially important these days when we're necessarily being kept off of active duty bases so much due to, well, the war.
V/R,
Spam
The pilots and crew were awesome. They even unplugged the battery because "a few buttons are live all the time and it would be very bad if you pushed them"....
Quote from: stixco1 on April 29, 2015, 12:10:01 AM
The pilots and crew were awesome. They even unplugged the battery because "a few buttons are live all the time and it would be very bad if you pushed them"....
There's a series of things that need done. But I disconnect the battery anytime I do tours or any displays. You just never know what someone knows. It would be pretty hard for you to get anywhere near finishing a start before I could Tase you...... But yes, in the right order you could do some damage.
Quote from: Flying Pig on April 29, 2015, 01:17:33 AM
Quote from: stixco1 on April 29, 2015, 12:10:01 AM
The pilots and crew were awesome. They even unplugged the battery because "a few buttons are live all the time and it would be very bad if you pushed them"....
There's a series of things that need done. But I disconnect the battery anytime I do tours or any displays. You just never know what someone knows. It would be pretty hard for you to get anywhere near finishing a start before I could Tase you...... But yes, in the right order you could do some damage.
Even on -135's and C-141's we disconnected the battery before any kind of staic display or tour. It's just safer that way.
And we checked every switch and circuit breaker before we reconnected the battery again because we don't like "surprises"! :o.
Kind of reminds me of my first airshow at Kokomo Air Base, in Indiana a (more than a) few years ago.
An F-111 was there with those big wing tanks (or were there N-bombs simulators? I am not sure!)
A long line of cadets are waiting to see the cockpit. A cadet asks the pilot "Are those N-bombs?" The pilot smiles then looks at him, while saying "the Defense Department neither accepts nor deny when..." Or the mantra they were required to recite when anyone asked about N-weapons. It was funny at the time for me.
The Huey we have has a gigantic water bucket attached and grown adults still ask where the weapons mounts are.
That's OK, mount rockets, start fires, then use the bucket for putting the fires out!
>:D
Quote from: Luis R. Ramos on April 29, 2015, 12:07:44 PM
Kind of reminds me of my first airshow at Kokomo Air Base, in Indiana a (more than a) few years ago.
An F-111 was there with those big wing tanks (or were there N-bombs simulators? I am not sure!)
A long line of cadets are waiting to see the cockpit. A cadet asks the pilot "Are those N-bombs?" The pilot smiles then looks at him, while saying "the Defense Department neither accepts nor deny when..." Or the mantra they were required to recite when anyone asked about N-weapons. It was funny at the time for me.
"It is DoD policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear devices".
I was always instructed to just say, "we don't discuss that" However, the submarine pulling into the York River and spending a week off loading ICBMs that are then stuffed into 18-wheelers and escorted inland by US Marines in V150 Dragoons with M240G's....... Nothing to see here folks....nothing to see >:D
Quote from: stixco1 on April 29, 2015, 12:10:01 AM
The pilots and crew were awesome. They even unplugged the battery because "a few buttons are live all the time and it would be very bad if you pushed them"....
You gotta watch non crew/non maintainers in the cockpits all the time. We did a night lighting evaluation inside a blacked out engine test cell on a two seat Hornet (F/A-18) at Pax River one year when a (non rated) person sitting in the rear cockpit, who WAS told to keep her hands to herself, accidentally hit the wing fold switch. I can't tell you how terrified she sounded as the motors slowly wound up, sounding VERY loud in the quiet building, as the wing tips folded up, ka-CHUNK. Someone can lose fingers, a hand, a head, or worse when people start actuating control surfaces, gear down lock overrides, etc. with powered switches in the cockpit.
You also have to do a more complete preflight, after "touch a jet/plane" days and airshows. I've heard guys tell me they've pulled empty beer cans and drink bottles and hats and sunglasses out of their air intakes, and have found missing pitot and other covers and pins, leading to complete borescopes of their air data vents to ensure someone didn't stick crap into their baro alt and airspeed ports (which has happened)! People also have a habit of wanking the control surfaces and picking at the coatings too. I had just spent hours with two test pilots completing a control rigging/rudder pedal eval on one of the flight test (DT) JPATS T-6s back in the 90s when some weiner schnitzel came bopping into the hangar while we were on break, and started playing with the controls, undoing the "perfect" rig we had come up with. Argh.
V/R,
Spam
(PS, Pig - I always got a chuckle at the idea of all those tourists at Busch Gardens with zero idea there were live assets being moved past them).
Quote from: Luis R. Ramos on April 29, 2015, 12:07:44 PM
Kind of reminds me of my first airshow at Kokomo Air Base, in Indiana a (more than a) few years ago.
An F-111 was there with those big wing tanks (or were there N-bombs simulators? I am not sure!)
A long line of cadets are waiting to see the cockpit. A cadet asks the pilot "Are those N-bombs?" The pilot smiles then looks at him, while saying "the Defense Department neither accepts nor deny when..." Or the mantra they were required to recite when anyone asked about N-weapons. It was funny at the time for me.
What base was that??? There's never been a Kokomo AFB, IN. Were you possibly thinking about Bunker Hill AFB which was later renamed Grissom AFB after Astronaut Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom?
And that was an SAC FB-111A and those were 600 US Gallon Fuel Tanks.
And I can neither confirm or deny if the FB-111A carried "Special Weapons" but Wikipedia is your friend.
Our OV-1 Mohawks carried 150 gal drops on the inboard hard points and we constantly got asked at airshows if they were bombs. Had fun with a few people once in awhile. During Desert Storm, they carried 300 gal ferry tanks on that same hardpoint and they really looked mean. Of course, we killed them with film.
Quote from: bosshawk on April 30, 2015, 06:15:24 AM
Our OV-1 Mohawks carried 150 gal drops on the inboard hard points and we constantly got asked at airshows if they were bombs. Had fun with a few people once in awhile. During Desert Storm, they carried 300 gal ferry tanks on that same hardpoint and they really looked mean. Of course, we killed them with film.
The pen is mightier than the sword! ;D
P Hall, it was my mistake. As it was during my first iteration on CAP, it was 1985 or 1986 so the correct name slipped. The correct name was Grisson AFB. The town closest is Kokomo, Indiana.
So I hope you can forgive what the passage of 30 years will do to someone! And someone's mind...
I do not need Mr. Pedia nor you, as you are still bound by the oath you took when you started your service. >:D
I will just turn to the National Museum of the US Air Force. The website http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=408 (http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=408) does state the F-111 carried Special Weapons!
Quote from: Luis R. Ramos on April 30, 2015, 04:27:35 PM
P Hall, it was my mistake. As it was during my first iteration on CAP, it was 1985 or 1986 so the correct name slipped. The correct name was Grisson AFB. The town closest is Kokomo, Indiana.
So I hope you can forgive what the passage of 30 years will do to someone! And someone's mind...
I do not need Mr. Pedia nor you, as you are still bound by the oath you took when you started your service. >:D
I will just turn to the National Museum of the US Air Force. The website http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=408 (http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=408) does state the F-111 carried Special Weapons!
Mr Ramos, if you only knew...
That airshow was my intro to CAP Hype.
We were told that we could arrive the day before, announce who we were, and sign in.
So I arrive Friday by public transportation. Go to the gate, announce who I was and identified myself. The guard says "I will try to find someone."
It was four hours later when they "found someone."
My lesson for that Friday, You just cannot walk into any military base in a heightened security status whether CAP or otherwise, back then as it was a SAC base, nor now for different reasons, without special permission.
Quote from: Luis R. Ramos on April 30, 2015, 04:27:35 PM
P Hall, it was my mistake. As it was during my first iteration on CAP, it was 1985 or 1986 so the correct name slipped. The correct name was Grisson AFB. The town closest is Kokomo, Indiana.
So I hope you can forgive what the passage of 30 years will do to someone! And someone's mind...
I do not need Mr. Pedia nor you, as you are still bound by the oath you took when you started your service. >:D
I will just turn to the National Museum of the US Air Force. The website http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=408 (http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=408) does state the F-111 carried Special Weapons!
My favorite thing about Grissom is the airport city code, GUS. I have always thought that was very clever.
My favorite airshow fun with the commoners is to tell them that the generator props on the APQ-99 pods (EA-6B and EF-18G) are special high-efficiency, high-altitude props. Lots of people fell for it.