F-106 pilots at 318th

dfs346

dfs346

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DFS346
Dear fellow pilots, here's a real long shot. Does anyone have a father or grandfather who flew F-106s at 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, McChord AFB, Washington, in the 1970s? and would be willing to share some memories? Many thanks.
 
McChord has a nice little air museum:

https://www.mcchordairmuseum.org/

They actually have an F-106 cockpit ground trainer that you can climb into and make missile-firing noises.

The museum is currently closed due to Covid, but send an email and see if they have any contacts from that period. They publish a newsletter and a past issue may have been about the F-106 era.

Ron Wanttaja
 
A post by Mike W Trefethen (ex 456th FIS) at https://forum.f-106deltadart.com/ mentions Russ Weber (or Webber) as an F-106 pilot with the 84th FIS at Hamilton, who may have been previously with the 318th. A post at key.aero mentions Randy Plumb (probably Randall L. Plumb, ex 354th TFS) and Harve Wallace as F-106 pilots at McChord. Any contact details would be appreciated.
 
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NordicDave said:
These guts from this era were badassed. With all the Gen 5 fighter avionics today, hard to imagine single pilot jet fighters with steam gauges and minimal avionics.
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I remember watching a Duke Cunningham interview where he’s talking about manually setting flaps while fighting... Hard to imagine/compare.

NOW. Ask the old gunfighters to manage complex sensors and systems spread across hundreds of miles...

Just... different.
 
John Bussard said:
I remember watching a Duke Cunningham interview where he’s talking about manually setting flaps while fighting... Hard to imagine/compare.

NOW. Ask the old gunfighters to manage complex sensors and systems spread across hundreds of miles...

Just... different.
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Agreed. Different challenges. Those guys fought the jet a lot more than we do today though.....as in the jet was trying to kill them always. The kids these days laugh at how archaic my low lot Hornets were when I was in their shoes, and giggle about how many times I must have had to land single engine or worse (it wasn't as bad as they think). If those old guys heard about what we had in a 1987 model year F/A-18, they would poop themselves. Technology and capabilities have fundamentally changed by a factor of 10 several times since these guys were hooting around in century series fighters, doing PARs on steam gauges to mins at 170 knots in jets that didn't stop and wanted to depart (and that is just the basic, forget about it, administrative portion of flight). What is archaic to the current generation of new guys probably couldn't have even been imagined in the era these folks grew up in. Digital FBW, flying around at 50+ AoA (not useful but possible), integrated avionics and glass cockpits, reliable guided air to air missiles, a real gun, space bombs, etc etc. Well, yeah, maybe by the mid/late 1970's that stuff was reasonably expected or in development, but not when those jets began active service.
 
35 AoA said:
...as in the jet was trying to kill them always.
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I had a CO who had attended USAF TPS as a Navy guy and got some flight time in many cool jets, including the F-104, CF-101 and X-29.

He said the CF-101 was the worst thing he had ever been in (and he had 60+ types in his logbook). The first generation artificial feel of the controls felt like he had no connection to what they plane was doing. He was doing some tight turns as part of the profile and felt the plane just squat at one point and the AoA dramatically increase. He shoved the stick to the panel and put his other hand on the drogue chute ready to pull it since if it departed as it would go into a flat spin at the drop of a hat. The Canadian pilot in the back seat, who had 2000 hours in it, said they routinely would operate in that regime fighting the US F-106s but "Death" said it was just an awful feeling that he was going to go from little control input to a complete no control input other than the drogue chute situation.

https://www.historynet.com/one-oh-wonder.htm
 
Pugs said:
I had a CO who had attended USAF TPS as a Navy guy and got some flight time in many cool jets, including the F-104, CF-101 and X-29.

He said the CF-101 was the worst thing he had ever been in (and he had 60+ types in his logbook).
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X-29 is pretty damn exotic......that's a very small and particular moment in time to have had that opportunity. Funny what he said about the (C)F-101. I remember chatting with one of the crusty old sim IPs in meridian one time, who had done an F-101 exchange (USAF). He said basically the same thing, it was complete garbage.
 
Here's a specific F-106 pilot whom I would like to contact. Does anyone here have a father or grandfather who knew Major Frank Loesch of 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, back in the 1970s? I think Major Loesch is still alive and might be living in Galveston, Texas.
 
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