EvilEagle

He was one of my roomates at Lakenheath -- that's a fairly accurate description. BUT, that dude can fly the jet! He's in the next Weapons School class...

I graduated from C model RTU in '02 -- it's a full 6 month program, and getting longer. They are now doing NVG's and 4-ship sorties in the B-course. Even before all that, we were there from Mid Jan-Mid July.

Yes, there is a 6 month requirement. Once you are on active duty, you can get in the program and get contacts (highly recommended) but you have to have been wearing them for 6 months or greater when you start UPT or you will have to fly with glasses till you get your wings.

If you really want to know the major advances in fighter tactics, they basically all came from one man. Read "Boyd - The fighter pilot who changed the art of war" Specifically the first half. It talks about rate/radius diagrams (he developed them). It also talks about tactics from Korea through the development of the USAF Fighter Weapons School (he was an instructor). Definatley some good info in this book!

We (C model dudes) don't do much Lowat stuff, but it is a currency that we have to keep. When we do Lowat, we don't fly routes, etc -- we just go fight air-to-air down low. It's a RAGE, but our airspace isn't setup very well for it at most C model bases.

There are numerous options, but most people either go back to teach white jets (UPT), Smurf Jets (IFF) or ALO (Air Liason Officer) with the Army and call in airstrikes. Usually most people get back to their primary MWS. A lot of people will volunteer for a "bad deal" (aka Korea ALO) so they can have minimal time out of the jet (1 year) and they usually get their choice of bases. If you've gone ops-to-ops then you've probably expressed interest in going to Weapons School. After your second ops tour is up, you are PRIME for a remote tour or staff tour (something non-flying). Some guys do weasel their way into an RTU job or some other sort of flying gig, but it's fairly rare from what I've seen.

It all comes down to the mighty $$! That's why the 767 tanker deal got shot down. Man, that would've been nice to get!

Exactly right -- we could go faster across the pond without a tanker -- with them we have to stay at our refueling speed. (for and Eagle it's 310 kts indicated). You usually can't get the tanker to speed up between refuelings, so you are stuck at that speed. Also, we don't tank at high altitude, so staying low (mid-upper 20's) eats at our fuel consumption rate as well.

They are pretty much done after the show. The question really has no answer other than the standard fighter pilot response of "it depends" It all depends on if they are using AB, what altitude and airspeed they are flying. In a clean Eagle I've flown as short as a 0.5 or 0.6 and as long as a 1.6 (could've flown longer with no tactical stuff)

I think the deceased insect thing probably started on a very drunk evening long ago... From what I've heard, cranium, "so to speak" & container started after tailhook. All the other stuff is basically airframe specific. Eagle guys have the most "lingo" that I've heard. We can't say much of anything... a-word b-word g-word 3-letter s-word 6-letter s-word p-word (aka 5 sided wind tunnel) -- it borders on the rediculous, but it's fun. [ 31. March 2005, 13:23: Message edited by: EvilEagle ]

I was at Moody on casual and back again for IFF. I'd live in town, it's a painful drive, but it's much easier to go out if you live downtown. I rented a house when I was casual out by the base, but realize the base is 10 miles from town (speed limit 45 with lots of cops). But, it was convinient for work. (wish I'd lived in town).

You have to be an IP in any current fighter. It's not a very tough assignment to get into. You just have to fly the single seat ejection platform for a while. Some Eagle guys that become aggressors never get out of the Viper community (same with T-clones). The rumor is still floating about the Eagle aggressors, I'm hearing maybe this fall...