ClearedHot

Another Friday afternoon at Laughlin back in 1991. I taxi out to the hammerhead and finish up my before tafeoff checklist. As I pull up to the hold short line, I look to the north and see a T-38 very low on the horizon. I watch him for a few moments and he seems to be sinking even lower. About the time I am thinking he is not going to make the runway, I hear the radio click in, "Overrun 13 center go around". No response and the T-38 continues to drive in scraping across the tumbleweed. Again the radio comes to life, "OVERRUN 13 CENTER GO AROUND, USE BURNERS, LARIAT ON GUARD". I am now mesmerized as I watch the T-38 touchdown about 500 feet short of the runway with the burners cooking and rocks flying everywhere. He stumbles back into the air and pulls closed to a full stop on the outside. I take the runway and fly my sortie uneventfully. A couple hours later I pull into the parking lot of the dorms. I lived on the second floor and as I walk up the building I see my buddy who is a few classes behind me and lives in the room next door. He is leaning on the rail with a big frown on his face. I walked up, opened my door, grabbed a few beers, and tried to cheer him up. I told him it could be worse, “you should have seen the poor guy I saw today, he planted one in the overrun and it was funny as hell”. He looked at me and his face turned red. I didn’t know if he was going to laugh or attack me. We had a good chuckle and I took him to the club where we drank beer until the little oriental woman behind told us to get the F^%k out and go get some sleep. [ 01. February 2005, 13:11: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

Viewed from directly overhead and heard on RSU Freq at Laughlin just before my best friend took the barrier at 150kts in a T-38 with an engine stuck at MIL and his thumb holding down the mic button. "S @ # T !!!!!!!!, a few seconds of loud noise...man that sucked, click."

A guy in my UPT class (Scott Anderson), wrote a book about UPT, RTU, and flying in the Guard. The book is called "Unknown Rider" and you can find it on Amazon.com for $6.00. Scott's first book "Distant Fires" is another great read. Unfortunately, Scott was killed in a crash in 1999.

Aces-High as far as I am concerned, they should make an IMAX tanker movie. I will never say another word after they way the 135's helped me in OEF. Came into indian country and did a tobagan all the way down to 2000 AGL to help me cover a crash site and recovery. Be proud of what you do.

I know professional reading is not always a popular subject so I almost never mention it on here. I do think it is a responsibility if you are going to make the USAF a career. I had a great boss early on who would actually assign the Lts a book each month then take us all to breakfast to talk about it. We all would grumble and complain but the books were not that bad. Some of the books were on leadership but most of it was about airpower and stories from guys who flew in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. I actually learned a lot in spite of myself. Now I am a bit older and the lessons are starting to make sense. I am not the greatest leader in the world but I have been in a position to influence decisions and tactics so I am glad I have a foundation to base my inputs on. As I have said before I am currently on an exchange tour with the USMC attending a school called the School of Advanced Warfighting (SAW). The USAF has a similar school called the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS). These are both strategic level schools that focus on campaign design and the reading load is immense. I typically read a book a day, usually around 1500 pages a week. And I thought going through Weapons School was tough…It can be tiring at times, and I am thankful it is only for a year, but it has changed the way I think. If you are really interested in learning about how we fight, why we fight, and how to solve problems, I suggest you take a look at one of these schools. My personal opinion is that anyone who is going to be a flight commander, DO, or CC should have done some basic reading on leadership. I am not talking about the freaking L model or whatever it was they taught us at SOS and ACSC, I mean something like Churchill’s Biography, or Robbie Risner’s book. Interesting books that will give you tools to be a leader and avoid stupid mistakes. Ultimately your job will be to take care of people. I have had great bosses that I would have followed anywhere. I have had knuckleheads including one who called me off my Honeymoon to go to a F@#$ing Blue Flag, both taught me the type of leader I want to be and the type of leader I want to avoid. Okay, off the soapbox, back to talking about flying and drinking beer in Austin.

Try Amazon.com and you will find them even cheaper. I won't get on my soapbox about professional reading, but if you think you might make the military a career, you can build a personal library for very little cost on Amazon. While we are recommending books let me add my favorite; If you are only going to read one book to increase you understanding about our current military try; The Transformation of American Airpower ; by Ben Lambeth. It is a good read that explains how American airpower has matured since Vietnam. There are some real good stories that may place current USAF and USN aircraft and tactics into perspective.

No tanks and the camera angle was great. Then they digitized a C model doing a low-level for dramtic affect. It also had a section with A-10s mixing it up with HH-60's. At one point they had a scene with a 7 ship of HH-60's flying together, how much maintenance effort did that take? [ 30. January 2005, 18:40: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

Noseartgal hit it on the head, while it may be nice to draw the extra cash, you open yourself up for a whole new set of TDYs. We had a guy who spoke Korean and he was deployed (non-flying), several times. Career wise, I think it slowed him down as he was slow to get hours and upgrade since he was gone so much.

The message I posted was for the people who view this board and have a greater appreciation for things aviation related, not the average Joe Bag of Donuts on the street. Thanks for the tip Joe. [ 30. January 2005, 09:09: Message edited by: Clearedhot ]

I was stationed at Nellis for three years and I grew up in Miami. The runway in the film was Nellis.

For a little comic relief I thought I would provide a review of the IMAX Fighter Pilot Operation Red Flag film now showing at the new Air and Space Museum. My family all flew into DC last week for a medal presentation so I ran them out to the museum. My nephew wanted to see the flick so we all paad our $8.00. First let me say there are some great flying scenes, but within the first twenty seconds I started to chuckle. They show an F-15C doing and unrestricted climb out of Nellis, but the cool factor stops when he rolls over on top and checks in with "Miami Center". There is some great footage of low-levels out on the range but they mix mission and pictures from the F-15C and F-15E. Watching this film you would think every aircraft in the USAF has 10,000 gallons of Napalm to drop. You would also think all we do is fly around and drop flares every two seconds. The only part of the film that really bothered me was when the digitized a few F-15's down low for dramatic effect. The real views were enough for me to wish I was back flying. All in all a decent flick, but don't expect a realistic experience of flying at Red Flag.

AFIT is now another form of in-residence IDE. It is a 10 month program vice 18 and you will get a masters degree. I have several friends who went last year and they commented that it was a LOT of work. In addition to the academics for your major, you will also be required to complete distance modules for ACSC. I did ACSC in residence and would recommend that program over AFIT based on quality of life. After IDE there are a limited number of slots (approximately 30), to attend the advanced studies group (ASG), in courses like SAASS, SAW, SAMS, and NOPC. I am doing SAW right now and I will get a third masters degree from the program. There are proposals for O-4 level fellowships and opportunities to spend one year at a civilian institution while working on a masters degree, but the manning issues are becoming a big reality. As an O-5 you may have an opportunity to spend a year at Stanford, Harvard, or one of several other NDU fellowships. If you have any other questions, PM me and I will give you whatever info I have.

1/25/2005 - COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFPN) -- Air Force officials here are investigating alleged academic cheating here, they said Jan. 25. The investigation involved 20 officers accused of cheating. Seven have been cleared of all allegations, and 13, including an instructor pilot and 12 student pilots, remain under investigation. Officials said that under current procedures, an investigating officer is appointed to research the facts of the case. Based on the facts and legal advice, appropriate action is taken. The actions could range from no action, removal from pilot training, nonjudicial punishment, administrative discharge process or court-martial.

Fun...maybe. Help your USAF career...not really.

I was sitting in the RSU at Laughlin when one of the Portuguese pilots in the class behind us called initial for runway 31…we were on runway 13! What followed can best be visualized by watching the Thunderbirds perform the bomb-burst. There were T-38’s everywhere. Of course when he landed his english skills suddenly got a lot worse…

That was so disturbing; I had to watch it twice. Before this video was posted, I truly thought Gunship crews were the most disturbed aviators out there, I now understand that is simply not true. Cheers to the Viper dudes…I think.

If you want to be a smarta$$, try another site. You are the one who said a search on the internet was fruitless, when you didn't even try. All to often people are too lazy to try a search on their own. When you get to Laughlin, go to the BX, they have (or at least use to have), a large selection of desktop models painted in XL colors.

It took me 3.5 seconds to type "Texan II model" into google and get the following link. Texan II Desktop Model

While I was at Laughlin a buddy we had a nice IFE with a T-38 and low fuel. We were flying out in the area when a CB popped up right over the field. The SOF is screaming for everyone to get home as fast as possible. I made it back just in just as the feces was starting to hit the oscillator. My buddy, who was right behind me gets a 70 knots wind sheer on final and goes around. It’s obvious he is not going to land at Laughlin so he decides to head for Kelly. Back in the day there was a procedure for diverting with low fuel (I presume it is still the same)? First you set MIL power and accelerated to 500 kts, then you looked at a chart in the checklist for the distance you had to go. The chart would then tell you what altitude to climb to. So my buddy points east and does the procedure. As I am taxiing back in I hear the SOF ask him “How much gas do you have”, followed by “mumble mumble”. A few seconds later the DO gets on the radio and says “How much gas do you have…tell the truth”. He is halfway to Kelly and his answer is “250lbs”. Without wasting a breath the DO tells him to go to Hondo. For those that don’t know, Hondo is the 4000’ field where they used to conduct the flight screening program and about 4000’ too short for a T-38. In the end my buddy flys an approach at minimum speed (I forget the formula, SETO +10?), and lands safely at Hondo. I think he flamed out on the taxiway. In the end they sent a stan-eval crew from Randolph to take the jet back to Laughlin with half a tank of gas. As very interesting day in the T-38 world.

3800+ hours on the Cross pen set my folks gave me when I finished UPT.

IFE in UPT, expect the IP to take it. IP in the real world, it depends. In most crew aircraft you will fly proficiency-training sorties with an IP and there will be multiple crew positions and experience levels on board. For example I flew sorties where I had two co-pilots and an aircraft commander who needed to fly precision approaches to close out their semi-annuals. I also had an AC onboard who was doing an IP prep ride. The regulations do give some guidance, at least within AFSOC. As I recall it says that during an IFE a “Qualified” pilot should land from the left seat (due mainly to nose wheel steering). When I had a problem it always depended on the nature of the emergency, the experience level of the individual, and who was in the left seat.

I have a Navihawk and love it. Although I also wore a G-shock on the other arm during OEF so I could see the time at night. The only bad thing about the citizen flying watches is that they don't have a backlight.

To my knowledge he was chief of MX at Moody during the first gulf war. If he did go forward, it does not reflect in his awards, not even an Air Medal according to his bio.

Yeah lets have a four star without any combat time for CSAF...

DOC