7,000 A-10 hrs

Wow! i am so jealous. What I wouldnt give to be able to be a Warthog pilot but Im too old.
 
He just needs 1,760 more hours to have a full year at the controls!
 
Nice congrats, may you have another 30 years of flying
 
Looks like he still uses paper on his knee boards and I read he uses binos as well. Old school.
 
Mid 80’s when the A-10 was the bastard child of the AF, a defense department funding bill had an amendment giving them to the Army...it was stripped out of the final bill...but was quite the conversation in O clubs by Aviators on both sides. Early JAAT was a riot working F model Cobras and A-10s...all Eye balls, 1/50k maps, optic sights in the Snake and maybe some Binoculars in the A-10...Shifting off 2.75 Rockets impact on the inbound run worked well...to see over the nose required the Warthog who was inbound at 200 ft agl required them to do a pop up maneuver turn inverted to acquire the target roll back to nose down and let the Gau 8 go...Maverick engagement at the time were difficult at best with out a laser spot to direct them at a target...and at this time they did not have the capability. High ADA threats eliminated that option. First time I ever heard the phrase ‘Sorry hard to talk when I’m upside down’

Worked a lot with early Warthogs as our unit ran a two week school in Germany, putting A-10 Aviators in the left seat showing our side of the process...the relationship was that close in the early days. Even then five years before Desert Storm the AF was trying to kill them off.
 
E646DBE0-78FE-4D94-A9DC-90A2548801FE.jpeg

This was the Squadron sign hung on the dorm for my Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets outfit. Motto was “Go Ugly Early” which could be a reference to the A-10 Warthog or the after result of a night out at the Dixie Chicken.

Anyhow, cool story. Thanks for sharing
 
It’s hard to imagine now how simple the first A-10’s were...never having even an autopilot and no sensors to direct weapons. I think it was starting around 89 that upgrades allowed them to see a laser spot for targeting the first time...believe me one heck of an upgrade. The lack of two seat trainers also kept it simple as your nickel ride in an A-10 you were the PIC.
 
Goes to show that a good airframe can give decades of service. Hats off to the Lt Col on his accomplishments.
 
Warlock said:
It’s hard to imagine now how simple the first A-10’s were...never having even an autopilot and no sensors to direct weapons. I think it was starting around 89 that upgrades allowed them to see a laser spot for targeting the first time...believe me one heck of an upgrade. The lack of two seat trainers also kept it simple as your nickel ride in an A-10 you were the PIC.
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Those A-10s were hand flown by a single pilot into theater from the States. And they are slow. They brought along their own tankers.
 
Domenick said:
Those A-10s were hand flown by a single pilot into theater from the States. And they are slow. They brought along their own tankers.
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Can confirm. As a tanker guy, the only time we groaned louder than when we saw we were dragging A-10s across the Atlantic was when we had to drag AC-130s. That was miserable.
 
Sluggo63 said:
Can confirm. As a tanker guy, the only time we groaned louder than when we saw we were dragging A-10s across the Atlantic was when we had to drag AC-130s. That was miserable.
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Haha. You know you're slow when the *tanker* has to give you a few knots. :cool:

Nauga,
pedaling as hard as he can
 
nauga said:
Haha. You know you're slow when the *tanker* has to give you a few knots. :cool:

Nauga,
pedaling as hard as he can
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A few knots and a toboggan.
 
Velocity173 said:
Looks like he still uses paper on his knee boards and I read he uses binos as well. Old school.
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While I agree that binos in jets are old school, you might be surprised that paper kneeboard cards are still the norm. Never seen anyone fly a tactical jet without one. Though some of course also fly with iPads and foreflight in place of paper nav charts/plates/etc. I remember when I was doing my ATP practical a couple years back how I felt quite naked or missing something when all I had was the iPad scratchpad. IMHO not a good replacement for note taking in a tactical environment. Or more importantly, there is a lot of info on the card that you may need to reference quickly in the flight, but sporadically, which wouldn't lend itself to bringing a tablet out of sleep, possibly inputting a passcode, and OBTW it would likely have to be a classified tablet which is annoying to deal with as well (though I have used them in a CAS environment for specific things).
 
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35 AoA said:
While I agree that binos in jets are old school, you might be surprised that paper kneeboard cards are still the norm. Never seen anyone fly a tactical jet without one. Though some of course also fly with iPads and foreflight in place of paper nav charts/plates/etc. I remember when I was doing my ATP practical a couple years back how I felt quite naked or missing something when all I had was the iPad scratchpad. IMHO not a good replacement for note taking in a tactical environment.
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Absolutely. I always had paper for 9 line MEDEVAC or CAS. Fortunately, never had to use either one. Still use paper today. Work with young guys though that are all iPad and FF.
 
Clicked on this thinking I'd know the guy - he's at Whiteman so no, but congrats anyway.
 
Not aviation but in my tank I still used a map board and grease pencils. Even scribbled notes all over the white turret in a pinch. We have the BFT for those of you that know what that is but using a touch screen with gloves, dropping down inside when scanning outside and using a keyboard on a moving tank is, well...... not much fun. When I started flying and discovered a kneeboard, I bought one for the tank and carried it through 2 full combat tours. It always worked, never needed to boot up and never froze while working up a grid for either a SPOT report or a call for fire. Gadgets are cool and make life easy, when they work.. To survive, one must know the old ways because things WILL break.
 
red4golf said:
Not aviation but in my tank I still used a map board and grease pencils. Even scribbled notes all over the white turret in a pinch. We have the BFT for those of you that know what that is but using a touch screen with gloves, dropping down inside when scanning outside and using a keyboard on a moving tank is, well...... not much fun. When I started flying and discovered a kneeboard, I bought one for the tank and carried it through 2 full combat tours. It always worked, never needed to boot up and never froze while working up a grid for either a SPOT report or a call for fire. Gadgets are cool and make life easy, when they work.. To survive, one must know the old ways because things WILL break.
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Retired tanker where I used to work had a sign on his office door that said "A computer with a bullet hole in it is an anchor. A map with a bullet hole in it is a map."
 
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