Steve Davies
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Posts posted by Steve Davies
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I'm pretty worried about the security out there.
Your sarcasm notwithstanding, the fact that the trespassers had to tell they guards that they were trespassing before they were apprehended is more noteworthy (and newsworthy) than a bunch of conspiracy theorists getting arrested (which happens much more often).
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]'Then one of the other stars of the trip pointed out that on looking through one of the security hut windows, she could see the guards all sitting down eating dinner and watching the basketball game on TV. They did nothing.
'So after a few more minutes and a few more picture taking and filming, one of the crew decided to speak to the guards and knocked on their hut door. All hell broke loose.'
If I were you lot, I'd be more interested in establishing the veracity of this statement.
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BONE?
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Actually, you should have capitalized the L, O and C as well. So you were extra wrong.
Not necessarily.
Articles and determiners should not be capitalised when creating an acronym. G-LOC should therefore be written G-LoC. While the former appears to be the generally accepted way of writing it, it's incorrect from a prescriptive grammarian's perspective.
I therefore submit to you that BQZip was not extra wrong, but only 2/3rds extra wrong.
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The professionals in charge of vetting releases and analysing intelligence can't read good.
"Dozer"
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Damn. Here's to you, R.
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Thanks for the feedback.
The Nellis link doesn't mention that "Evil" Peck's own book on the subject has just come out:
America's Secret MiG Squadron: The Red Eagles of Project CONSTANT PEG
It's getting mixed reviews, mostly because the publisher has clearly not given Evil any editorial input. However, I have read it and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the story - it gives a much bigger voice to the enlisted guys than my book did, and there are some nice anecdotal gems in there, too.
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The SAS (and other British special operations types, presumably) have for a number of years been required to sign a contract that explicitly prohibits them from publishing books once they leave. This followed a spate of books written after Gulf War I.
Interesting to read the Admiral saying that these guys have a right to write about their adventures, therefore.I'd have thought that the US would have had pretty much the same controls in place.
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Turkey is now admitting the incursion.
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Syria now reporting that the F-4 was downed 0.6 miles from their coastline. Turkey is not so far contesting that... BBC linky.
You think they the Syrians might have thought it was one of their own trying to defect to Turkey?
It was going in the wrong direction to defect - came in from the west. Syria said it was very low and fast.
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From the Beeb:
Turkish warplane 'missing' near Syrian border
The Turkish military said it lost radio contact with the F-4 while it was flying over Hata
Turkey's government has called an emergency security meeting amid reports that one of its fighter jets was shot down by Syrian security forces.
The Turkish military lost contact with an F-4 Phantom over the Mediterranean Sea, south-west of Hatay province.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told a news conference there is still no confirmation of what brought the jet down, nor of the fate of its two crew.
He was earlier quoted as saying: "The other side have expressed regret".
Relations between Turkey and Syria, once close allies, have deteriorated sharply since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
'Syrian waters'
The Turkish military said it lost radio contact with the F-4 at 1158 (0858 GMT) on Friday while it was flying over Hatay, about 90 minutes after it took off from Erhac airbase in the province of Malatya, to the north-west.
The private news channel, NTV, later cited unnamed military sources as saying that the plane had crashed off Hatay's Mediterranean coast, in Syrian territorial waters, but that there had been no border violation.
The Syrian coast guard was helping the Turkish coast guard, navy and air force search for the two crew members and the plane, NTV reported.
Witnesses in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia meanwhile told BBC Arabic that Syrian air defences had shot down an unidentified aircraft near the town of Ras al-Basit.
Lebanon's al-Manar television channel - controlled by Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah movement, an ally of the Syrian government - also reported that Syrian security sources had said that "Syrian air defences shot down a Turkish warplane and hit another in Syrian airspace".
There was no immediate confirmation from Turkish officials, but later it was announced that Mr Erdogan would be holding an emergency meeting to discuss the incident with his interior, defence and foreign ministers and the Chief of the General Staff, Gen Necdet Ozel.
Turkish officials are being button-lipped about what brought the plane down, and an exhausted-looking prime minister backed off earlier comments suggesting that Syria had already apologised for shooting the aircraft down.
Lebanese media are much surer. They say Syrian sources have told them they shot down one, possibly two, Turkish aircraft.
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Who's going to fly that FCF??
You guys have flown MiGs that were acquired in much worse shape.
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Example: photo of cockpit panel with gear handle up is factual and releasable. Same photo with person's finger pointing to the gear handle is privileged and is not releasable.
So did anyone get disciplined for releasing that photo?
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Steve, I'm sure the UK could handle anything medically that the US could, but the Air Force doesn't necessarily have arrangements with every specialist that a family might need. No specialist when one's required = family not cleared. For example, if a child needed their teeth cleaned, they would have to be medevac'd back to the US for treatment.
The logic makes sense, Nunya - I suppose that I am just surprised that since the USAF took over operational control of The 'Heath in 1948, they'd have solid relationships with just about every man and his dog by now. I am obviously oversimplifying things, though.
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For the food. Just kiddin Steve.
EDIT: Best Indian Curry I ever had was whilst at a TAC Air Meet at RAF Waddington.
^ Nicely done.
To make sure that you don't have a condition that the medical facility can't handle.
Shame that she's being penalised. Someone should tell the Air Force that we do have hospitals here.
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Out of interest, why does anyone need "medical clearance" to come to the UK?
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UFB. I did not know this.
Even after the dust settled, the Air Force still fucked him. PM me if you want his contact details.
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From the article:
What does seem rather surprising, he adds, is that all those commanders, captains and colonels must have sat through the course and not felt the need to tell someone that something rather weird was going on.Well, what does that tell you?
a) That the course was deliberately provocative and that most attendees saw it for what it was?
b) That they are genuinely concerned about the spread of Islam?
c) Or that they are warmongering bigots who do seriously want to nuke Meca?
d) None of the above
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If they're protected by the Military Whistleblower covenant (or whatever it's called), and senior AF leaders have let it be know that they should not be punished, then how is it that the LOR and FEB came about?
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Steve, great stuff. That kind of research is probably why I'm enjoying Red Eagles so much right now.
A few questions (not scoffs) - If the F-15A/B was introduced in 1976, and the E model in design finalized in the mid 80s, where did they get 20 years of data?
I would also add that the loads on the strike are borderline mutually exclusive from that of the C model. That, and in the early 80s the simulation software that could project that kind of fatigue just wasn't that robust.
Crosswind
Thanks for the compliments on the book. Glad that you're enjoying it (so far!).
My reference to 20 years was, as you point out, incorrect. From memory, I had 1972 in my head for Eagle IOC, whereas this was of course the year of the first flight. My bad. Let's just say then, they had fatigue data stretching back to 1972 - probably enough for them to work with.
I'm no engineer, so I can't answer your specific questions about the robustness of their simulations, but they did use an Iron Bird simulator for extended lifecycle testing of the flight controls and hydraulic systems. It maybe that their Iron Bird also had a hydraulic load testing function. I don't know.
Ref. comparison with the loads experienced by the Eagle fleet, McAir factored in a much more demanding set of criteria - namely that the Strike Eagle would spend much, much more time in the denser, more turbulent air of the low-level environment. I don't have the data for what percentage of time it would spend there, but given that it was to replace the F-111F and was designed specifically for the Fulda Gap scenario, I'd hazard a guess at "the majority" of time.
Again, not an Engineer, so cannot comment on which variables that had an impact on, but they certainly weren't planning for the E-model to be spending time at medium-altitude delivering PGMs from relatively sedate delivery profiles. Since that's exactly what the Strike Eagle has been doing since Desert Storm (with some noteable exceptions), I'd take a wild guess that even if McAir's original engineering calculations were out by 10 per cent, the actual *structural* fatigue life of the Strike Eagle fleet is probably better at this point in time than originally forecast.
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So... I guess that that's who exactly is involved in safety day hear.
Nice.
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An Argentinian olympic athlete uses the British War Memorial for a workout during a commericial for the Olympics.
I'm sure he'll enjoy his stay here during the Olympics.
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I'm pretty sure the design life was originally 8,000 hrs, but a study was conducted saying "yeah they should be though enough for double that as long as we monitor these things".
In any case, what possible level of engineering could project 16,000 hrs of wear and tear on an airframe with a 90% confidence? Especially while we cut maintenance and back shop.
No, the Strike Eagle was always intended to have a 16,000-hour fatigue life, even before it had won the DRF competition.
I think that the study you refer to occurred prior to the competition, when McAir already knew that the NACA 64A aerofoil section used in the Eagle was good for 8,000 hours and used almost two decade's worth of fatigue data from the F-15A to predict that it was good for double that. They therefore left it untouched.
The F-15E fuselage, however, was specifically designed to meet the 16k requirement. Again, they had the fatigue data from almost 20 years' worth of Eagle operational flying, so they knew what they needed to change and what they could leave untouched in order to satisfy the 16k milestone. In the end, the focused on the rear fuselage keel, and developed new manufacturing techniques for titanium - "Superplastic Formed (SPF) Diffusion Bonding (DB)", otherwise known as "BLATS" (built-up, low-cost advanced titanium structure). They also thickened the bulkheads compared to the Eagle.
The Yeager Thread
in Squadron Bar
Posted
Clearly the former in this case, seeing as how he took off and landed the jet (probably just to demo how to do it for the pilot):