Hi!
My stories don't hold a candle to Randy's, but here goes.
These are all KC-135R stories from 1991.
The Big One:
We took off uneventfully and hooked up with our F-117, to refuel/escort him up to his drop point. We had a pre-planned route to the drop point, and then we'd orbit and wait for him to show up off the target(s). As night wore on, we could see a big thunderstorm up ahead (the tanker had NO WX radar).
Unfortunately, we weren't hooked up to the F-117 (then a intercom is available), and, since we were in radio silence mode, we didn't call him to ask him his opinion. We debated back an forth about our course, the thunderstorm, and the drop off point.
Eventually, we decided that we needed to stay on our route, and we would tough it out through the thunderstorm. We were probably at about 25K.
We entered, and it got dark at first, but then we started getting St. Elmo's fire. It was bad, real bad. I was very, very quiet for the whole 45" it took us to fly through the thunderstorm. If you know me, that's almost impossible unless I'm asleep (or reading)!
There was basically very little turbulence, I guess only light, but there was lightning everywhere! And the St. Elmo's Fire! Holy smokes! Our whole pedestal, overhead panel, instrument panel, ALL the windscreens, and all of the fuselage and wings that we could see were TOTALLY covered in St. Elmo's fire, for at least 30"! Wow!
When we finally popped out of the thunderstorm, and had gotten some distance from it, we could look back. We couldn't see the tops! It went on and one forever, up into the sky (in Saudi, when they have thunderstorms, they're BIG!).
Afterwords, in talking with an F-117 guy on intercom, we found out that the route of course doesn't matter at all. They just need to be dropped at the drop point! Crap! Thanks for telling us now! At least we knew we didn't have to do it again!
Where'd He Come From?:
This time we were on the way home, with 4 F4-G Wild Weasels in tow. The F4-G was the anti-radar missle supression system. They would try and get the enemy AA radars to lock on to them and then launch a missle to destroy the AA radar site, which ususally is linked to several missles. Today, the F-16 does that job, or you go in with stealth aircraft and then you don't usually need the Wild Weasel support.
Anyway (not ANYWAYS-there's no such word!), we had the four of them on the wing, and luckily none of them were hooked up on the boom, at that point. I was flying. We were talking to an AWACS. They acted as ATC over there, in addition to being a target detection/warning/vector intercept system. Unfortunately, the AWACs crews weren't trained as ATC for massive numbers aircraft in a small airspace, as we had in Saudi. So, whenever AWACs gave us the all clear, we all had our heads on a swivel.
So, there I was, flying along with 4 F4-Gs on my wing. My AC (Aircraft Commander) got the call from AWACs that we were to return to base, and that all traffic was clear on our return route. My AC turned and looked at us, and said, "AWACs says it's all clear. Rightttttt."
About 5" later I was scanning to the right, and saw a medium sized puffy cloud at our altitude. All of a sudden, a KC-135R popped out of the cloud at 3 o'clock, right at our altitude and heading straight for us, about 1/2 mile away!
Holy crap! I instinctively pushed the yoke almost all the way forward, getting us into a slight negative G situation. As I was doing it, I realized that no one was on the boom, which was good, and I was hoping that all four of them were paying attention at that moment, as I didn't want them to be left up there all alone, to get run over by the other R model. I slowly leveled off, and we looked outside. All 4 our our little chicks were still there, safe and sound! Whew! Momma bird and all her babies were safe!
The Wrong Flight Level:
We were flying out of Cairo West, a thoroughly modern airport with every convenience. We were doing our typical, fly S. down the Red Sea, and then East to S. Iraq to refuel F-15s doing the MIGCAP patrol. I was flying in VMC, which may or may not have made any difference.
At a certain point, we would transfer controllers and they would climb us up from 25K up into the 30s. We got the ATC handoff, like normal, but then couldn't get the next ATC guy on the frequency. No problem, we think, we'll just go back to the last freq.
Well, the ATC equipment back then wasn't as good as the states-I hope it's better now. So, we can back, and....nothing. We try the new frequency....nothing. GREAT! Lost comm.
So, our big concern was our altitude. We knew when we got to this new freq, we normally climbed up. However, according to our AF rules for Lost Comm (which are basically the same as AIM), we were supposed to stay at our altitude until we go a new clearance.
Well, in between trying to get a hold of anyone, we debated what to do for about 20". We decided that neither decision was optimal, and we finally elected to follow the rules and stay where we were. WRONG!
About 10" later, I looked straight out the window, and saw a -737 nose down, diving beneath us. I reached for the controls (we were on AP) to pull up, but I was too late, and the -737 was already past us. I don't know if they had a fish-finder, and saw us early, or if they saw us visually because of the VMC. At any rate, I think if they hadn't seen us, I would've seen them too late, and there would've been a big, messy mid-air. There, but for the grace of God, go I.
About 5" later, we finally heard the new controller on the new freq, and he promptly climbed us up into the 30s, where he expected us to be since the handoff. Sometimes following the rules is the wrong choice.
Have a Great Day!
Cliff
ABY
