F35 approach

Ed Haywood

Ed Haywood

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Big Ed
Sitting at MacDill AFB watching a pair of F-35's work the pattern. A few interesting observations:

1. Approach is a lot like I fly in my Decathlon: chop power abeam the numbers and fly continuous descending turn to runway. Most other fighters I've watched seem to prefer a flatter approach from 1-2 miles straight in.

2. VERY high angle of attack on approach. Slow airspeed too, doesn't look much faster than a 172.

3. Looks like pilots are in a banked slip on short final to maintain runway visibility, due to high AoA.
 
USAF overhead is "supposed" to terminate at 1 mile and 300'. If the penguin drivers are shorting it they are shining their ass or screwing up.

Your 1) describes the pattern for all fighters in VFR conditions (from an overhead)

The single engine guys also have to do SFO patterns from hi key / lo key and those might be cut shorter to get the power off profile correct.
 
Viper is what F-16's are called by most people.

I'm guessing you refuse to refer to the A-10 as anything other than a "thunderbolt II"?
 
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You guys do realize as an Eagle driver he’s making a joke, right?
 
tsts4 said:
You guys do realize as an Eagle driver he’s making a joke, right?
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Yes, we all realize it, the poster who took exception to the .mil centric internal joke probably didn't.

ETA: and it's Thunderbolt II, not Lightning II.
 
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donjohnston said:
Viper is what F-16's are called by most people.

I'm guessing you refuse to refer to the A-10 as anything other than a "thunderbolt II"?
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Yes I'm aware. The name of the jet is still the FF.

Nah, the Hog is the Hog. Mostly because if you remind the FF drivers of their jet's name they get spun up about it, if you call the Hog the TB2, the Hog drivers look at you like you are a moron. :D

RyanShort1 said:
I thought by now people knew Viper, I mean, the Demo team that they send to airshows doesn't go by "Fighting Falcon" either...

https://www.instagram.com/viperdemoteam/
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Just because they call it "Viper" doesn't change the name.
tsts4 said:
You guys do realize as an Eagle driver he’s making a joke, right?
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Indeed.

When I would brief with those guys I'd always ask if we were using the actual names of our jets (Eagle and FF) or made up names. "Because if we are using made up names you guys can be 'Vipers' and we'll be flying the F-15 Womb Cannon" Always gets a giggle.
 
tsts4 said:
You guys do realize as an Eagle driver he’s making a joke, right?
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If you have to explain the joke, it's not a good joke.

Or if it requires knowledge of the posters biography, family history and SSN, it's not a good joke.

Or if it requires prior military knowledge and it's posted on a civilian forum, it's not a good joke.

It's like when a guy is trying to adjust the rotate alignment on a Selectric II typewriter but they don't realize the R2 upstop is bent. Hilarious.
 
donjohnston said:
If you have to explain the joke, it's not a good joke.

Or if it requires knowledge of the posters biography, family history and SSN, it's not a good joke.

Or if it requires prior military knowledge and it's posted on a civilian forum, it's not a good joke.

It's like when a guy is trying to adjust the rotate alignment on a Selectric II typewriter but they don't realize the R2 upstop is bent. Hilarious.
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So this is Civilian Pilots of America? I thought I was on POA.
 
donjohnston said:
It's like when a guy is trying to adjust the rotate alignment on a Selectric II typewriter but they don't realize the R2 upstop is bent. Hilarious.
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You're right, that's hilarious!!!

I think it's funny that all the "in the know" keyboard warriors are so quick to correct me that "it's called the Viper by the guys who fly it dumb@$$" but then think that humor between the actual fighter pilots is beneath them. Ahhh..... interwebs.

Lighten up fellas!
 
donjohnston said:
If you have to explain the joke, it's not a good joke.

Or if it requires knowledge of the posters biography, family history and SSN, it's not a good joke.

Or if it requires prior military knowledge and it's posted on a civilian forum, it's not a good joke.

It's like when a guy is trying to adjust the rotate alignment on a Selectric II typewriter but they don't realize the R2 upstop is bent. Hilarious.
Click to expand...

Just because you don’t get it doesn’t make it unfunny to everyone, it’s just unfunny to you. No one said jokes on POA have to be universally funny.

Evil has posted enough here and over on the Red Board IIRC, that I happen to know he flies F-15s (hint it’s in his user name) even though I don’t know him personally, Just figured someone that’s been on the board a minute would know that—my bad for making that assumption.

This thread is about a military asset performing military procedures so you kinda got to expect that subject matter experts would weigh in and I don’t recall a POA stipulation that posters refrain from comments that I guess some would have little to no knowledge about.

I mean if bag wearers want to poke fun at each other who am I to judge.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Very bad day. I had just left Fort Bragg a few months prior. Had several friends hurt that day. Unbelievably bad luck for the wreckage to impact where it did.
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Yeah it was a tragic situation. Remember it well. ATC took most of the responsibility in that approach didn’t coordinate the SFO with tower and the controller on position didn’t understand the profile of an SFO. A bit hard to understand since F-16s were based there and the SFO is a common approach at F-16 bases.
 
Timbeck2 said:
Announcer voice on:

In case anyone is confused by the term "bag wearers" it is in reference to the flight suit military pilots wear.

Announcer voice off
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Negative. “Pickle Suit” is the correct jargon. ;)
 
Velocity173 said:
Negative. “Pickle Suit” is the correct jargon. ;)
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Negative to your negative. Depends on your frame of reference. For USAF non-rated folks it’s bag wearers at least for the last 30-odd years— and it’s not a term of endearment. We use that really referring to the mouth breather wearing it and not the flight suit itself. IOW flight suits only become bags when occupied. Back in the day before we transitioned 100% to BDUs in the USAF (circa late ‘80s), the green fatigues were sometimes referred to as pickle suits.

For me a bag is something we put fuel in when we don’t have storage tanks available.
 
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donjohnston said:
It's like when a guy is trying to adjust the rotate alignment on a Selectric II typewriter but they don't realize the R2 upstop is bent. Hilarious.
Click to expand...
I actually got that one. The very first bit of IBM hardware I ever trained on was the 1052, which if you haven't seen one is a Selectric with an IBM System/360 wedged in between the keyboard and the print mechanism by means of contacts and solenoids. I have a Selectric III in the basement that I picked up at a business that was closing, but I don't know that I want to go far enough back to my roots to get it spiffed up again. For one thing, even if it worked flawlessly I have zero use for a typewriter... like everyone else, I guess.

I'll return you to the fighter discussion, sorry for the side trip.
 
donjohnston said:
If you have to explain the joke, it's not a good joke.

Or if it requires knowledge of the posters biography, family history and SSN, it's not a good joke.

Or if it requires prior military knowledge and it's posted on a civilian forum, it's not a good joke.

It's like when a guy is trying to adjust the rotate alignment on a Selectric II typewriter but they don't realize the R2 upstop is bent. Hilarious.
Click to expand...

I always find myself a tremendous disadvantage on the military references. I’ve never been in the military, although I did have a repair contract at Scott AFB on some printers.

I can’t identify most military aircraft, I don’t know their little letters and numbers, but I do know they protect me and protect the freedoms we enjoy.

amongst some in real life and on the Internet boards, that’s a crime in some sort of way. I just don’t see it the same.

to those that know the difference between an F 16 and an F 18, particularly because they did it for a living, I say thank you.
 
I spent a couple of years in a crashpad full of Southwest pilots. Most of my military knowledge (including the various forms of ****-giving) comes from there. It was a lot of fun - like being in a frat house full of grown men. My liver whimpers just thinking about it. ;)
 
Timbeck2 said:
Announcer voice on:

In case anyone is confused by the term "bag wearers" it is in reference to the flight suit military pilots wear.

Announcer voice off
Click to expand...
Once upon a time in a Naval Aviation safety mag there was a cartoon about 'jargonomics'. One of the panels was a brownshoe in bag in McDonald's ordering 'two sliders and a bowl of dog, please,' with the counter kid looking very confused.

...and in the words of Christopher Titus, "Just because you didn't get it doesn't mean it wasn't funny." :D

Nauga,
who has the gouge
 
Rgbeard said:
I can’t identify most military aircraft, I don’t know their little letters and numbers,
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Do not fret. The Air Force PA and historical people can't either, and said imposition for attention to detail is in their actual job description mind you....
upload_2021-3-28_18-3-17.png

You can't make this stuff up....
 
^^^ I'm dumb. Someone is going to have to explain that to me!
 
Looks to me like Non-USAF aircraft silhouettes on USAF artwork/patch. Not knowing what unit this represents it could also be the wrong type aircraft altogether— fighters on an airlift or tanker unit patch. Probably just grabbed fighter looking clip art in whatever Microsoft product they were using with no clue to what they were grabbing in the “all military aircraft look the same to me” mode.
 
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If that's supposed to be a missing man formation... I think someone misunderstood, or it just didn't translate to the patch artwork well.
 
DaleB said:
If that's supposed to be a missing man formation... I think someone misunderstood, or it just didn't translate to the patch artwork well.
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I think you’re right— that’s the USAF mortuary affairs shield. Looks like they fixed it on their website. But to be honest I think that’s something relatively hard to represent in 2d in a small space at the top of artwork.
 
I don’t know. To me it looks like a Vigilante being chased by Flankers.
 
Back when we wore green pickle suit zoom bags, we hung out in the lizard lounge.

I was TDY at Bragg, standing in the parking lot of what used to be the ROTC barracks when the burning parts came flying over the airfield fence.

That was a bad day...
 
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I'll cut them a break on the silhouettes. They look pretty close to F-16s to me, though I guess I can see where they do have "a certain Sukhoi something" about the wing profile. And yeah, small size, 2D, yadda yadda.
 
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