Question About A Real Rhino

[Weasel Keeper]

Good summary. I worked a lot with the 82d when I was doing OT out of Eglin. Pretty cool capability, all in all. Of course, I'm dreading the first time I shoot a missile at QF-16, but I know the day will come.

Yeah, that day will come. The F-4G I was crew chief on (69-7207) has been a reef in the Gulf of Mexico (shot down) since 1998. I agree it's a more honorable way to go than spend an eternity baking in the desert or worse...sold for scrap.

 

[JimNtexas]

Thanks Big Wave for an informative post. I had no idea we had a law that required tests against full sized airplanes.

Back when Dinasoars roamed the earth I got to shoot an AIM-7 at a drone in the Phillipines when I was in F-4Gs. It was a thrill, and it would have been even more fun if the rocket motor on the Aim-7 had actually fired. My pilot was happy though, he got to manuver behind it and fire an AIM-9.

Do line crews ever get to shoot at a QF-4, or are they for testing only?

 

[Big Wave]

Hi Jim(NTexas)--

Combat Archer (the air-to-air Weapons System Evaluation Program--evaluating line men/machines/missiles--run by the 83d Fighter Weapons Squadron at Tyndall) is allocated a small number of full-scale targets (QF-4s) per year. Same rules--if they're not hit by the instrumented (vice warhead) missiles, they get to shoot again.

We had a period when the 83d hit a few of our QF-4s in the tail with instrumented missiles, and we brought the airplanes home. We gave the 83d a hard time for it, as repairing the QF-4s to put them up on their next target mission came out of our operations/maintenance budget..."if you're going to hit them, please kill them, wouldja?"

 

[Weasel Keeper]

I think my ANG F-16C unit is supposed to take part in Combat Archer next spring, but we'll be at Eglin just down the road from Tyndall.

 

[Gorilla]

It saddens me to see these magnificent aircraft shot down. I don't agree that being a fish refuge is a better fate than being correctly stored. Imagine if they had done that with hundreds of P-38's, P-47's, P-51's, and F-86's. You'd have essentially new aircraft ready to restore and fly again. People are so desperate for P-38's; look at Glacier Girl. Guys risked their lives to recover a P-38 buried 100' in ice in Greenland. It was squashed like a bug, yet it flies again.

That said, Combat Archer is cool. Firing an AIM-9 at a drone was a rush. The guys that fly chase have an even better job. They carry multiple warshots AND some 20mm. When the drone is too badly injured to recover, they get to go in and unleash the dogs.

 

[DaveGriffin]

Bud in my unit took an approach end cable after blowing a tire on takeoff last week. No shakes, no puking, no Mayday calls...just a standard approach end cable arrestment with a shredded left tire. Amazing.

"I'm sure it was a spectacular recovery, but without the possibility of a ramp strike or crashing into 8,000 ft. deep of cold ocean water, I bet it didn't have the same sense of urgency that every Naval Aviator faces on every routine carrier landing."

MAGNUM!!

Your anecdote is a great example of my point about the diffence between USN and USAF aviation. What is routine for the every Navy pilot on every carrier flight, is an "amazing' act of airmanship for an AF pilot.

Don't get me wrong, you guys are good, some of the best in the world. And we couldn't fight the GWOT without you. But Navy/USMC carrier pilots are the absolute best, head and shoulders above.

 

[Mud Eagle]

But Navy/USMC carrier pilots are the absolute best, head and shoulders above.

Yup...the next time that the winner of a war is decided based on how well you can land on a boat, the Navy is really gonna kick ass.

 

[DaveGriffin]

Yup...the next time that the winner of a war is decided based on how well you can land on a boat, the Navy is really gonna kick ass.

Mud Eagle,

It's all abou getting as close as possible, as fast as possible, to the bad guys so we can engage and destroy. That's what the Navy/USMC does.

The AFEWs take months and months and months to deploy and become operational.

 

[Draginass]

Dave's no naval aviator. I've never met a Navy pilot that was nearly the conceited d**khead as he is. He's probably a second wiper on the hangar deck dumping the honey bucket out of the CODs.

 

[stonewall]

"I'm sure it was a spectacular recovery, but without the possibility of a ramp strike or crashing into 8,000 ft. deep of cold ocean water, I bet it didn't have the same sense of urgency that every Naval Aviator faces on every routine carrier landing."

MAGNUM!!

Your anecdote is a great example of my point about the diffence between USN and USAF aviation. What is routine for the every Navy pilot on every carrier flight, is an "amazing' act of airmanship for an AF pilot.

Don't get me wrong, you guys are good, some of the best in the world. And we couldn't fight the GWOT without you. But Navy/USMC carrier pilots are the absolute best, head and shoulders above.

The "amazing" was sarcasm, Dave. Should've guessed you wouldn't pick up on it.