Fighter Jet rides

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Reedster

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Reed
My 50th birthday is coming up, and since I was really young I wanted to fly in a fighter jet for my 50th.

I just got permission to do it (can't believe at my age I still have to ask for permission, apparently some things you never outgrow).

Anyways, I know there are or were a couple of places in the US that offers rides. I am not overly concerned on price, to me the experience and safety (maybe not in that order) is more important than cost.

Anyone have any experiences with any of them, good or bad? Simply based on the website, MigFlug in Tampa looks interesting.
 
I'm partial to locals of JetWarbird School, located in my backyard in Santa Fe (KSAF). As a private pilot, you log that time with an instuctor and fly the airplane. I was quite disappointed that most P-51 rides are not set up that way.

Local instructors say that those people have a good reputation. It's not some kind of Dave Riggs jet ride operation.
 
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zaitcev said:
I'm partial to locals of JetWarbird School, located in my backyard in Santa Fe (KSAF). As a private pilot, you log that time with an instuctor and fly the airplane. I was quite disappointed that most P-51 rides are not set up that way.

Local instructors say that those people have a good reputation. It's not some kind of Dave Riggs jet ride operation.
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I just looked at their website. I definitely like the idea of a school. I am glad to hear that they have a good reputation. I am going to give them a call.

Thank you.
 
Concur. Flew the L39 with Larry and it was a fantastic experience. Aircraft was much more stable than I expected.

(This was my second reply... other one seemed to get lost. Maybe the curse of the newbie?)
 
Happy early Birthday!

I see you are based in Chicago. Gauntlet Warbirds is based at Aurora Municipal Airport (KARR) about 50 minutes west of downtown.
Obviously, I am a little biased as I work for the company :) We offer orientation flights in the L-39 as well as full check-out training. Our instructors are full time professional pilots, and we specialize in aerobatics, warbirds and tailwheel aircraft. You can log the entire flight as training by the way.

Feel free to PM me and I would be glad to answer any questions you have and have you come out and check out our operation if you would like.

Also, here is a link to our site: www.gauntletwarbirds.com

-Steve
 
acropilot said:
Happy early Birthday!

I see you are based in Chicago. Gauntlet Warbirds is based at Aurora Municipal Airport (KARR) about 50 minutes west of downtown.
Obviously, I am a little biased as I work for the company :) We offer orientation flights in the L-39 as well as full check-out training. Our instructors are full time professional pilots, and we specialize in aerobatics, warbirds and tailwheel aircraft. You can log the entire flight as training by the way.

Feel free to PM me and I would be glad to answer any questions you have and have you come out and check out our operation if you would like.

Also, here is a link to our site: www.gauntletwarbirds.com


-Steve
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Thank you.

That is intersting I didn't realize that you had an L-39 there. I knew you had a T-6. I used to fly out of Aurora for years. I rented from Lumanair back when Ma and Pa were there.

Staying local would definitely add to my flight time :yes:

I am probably looking at doing this in July or August. I will send you a pm.
 
Sounds good! I will keep an eye out for it. We started out with just a T-6, now we have a T-6, Extra 300, Decathlon, and L-39.
 
NEFlyer said:
Concur. Flew the L39 with Larry and it was a fantastic experience. Aircraft was much more stable than I expected.

(This was my second reply... other one seemed to get lost. Maybe the curse of the newbie?)
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Thanks for the feedback. I am glad to hear that on the stability, I was definitely wondering about that.
 
NEFlyer said:
Concur. Flew the L39 with Larry and it was a fantastic experience. Aircraft was much more stable than I expected.

(This was my second reply... other one seemed to get lost. Maybe the curse of the newbie?)
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There was a link in your first post. I approved it but normally you can't make posts with links when you are a newbie. Welcome to POA. :)

Once you get to about 5 posts you can add a link or an attachment.
 
Go take an aerobatic course, or a couple hours of chopper time, or get a seaplane rating, or some multi engine time.
40 minutes of droning around in circles in a "fighter",; with a loop and roll might seem exciting for about the first hour afterwards, but that's about it.

Most fun iz had in recent years was at the local airport flying a freshly, restored L2 and a buddy in his C-140 decided to jump us. Well, it was Fight On. After 20 minutes he gave up - said he just got too dizzy to do any more tight turns. How about using your fighter money to take that dogfight school?

denny o
 
You can go flying in an A-4 or F-4 with the Collings Foundation. I believe 8K and 12.5 K.
 
LoneAspen said:
I know these operations are expensive, and worth every penny.

But this one made my jaw drop:

"Mig-21 Fishbed $4,500 per flight hour" :hairraise: :eek: :yikes:

Anything that cost $4,500 an hour better come with a happy ending!
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That's just a third the price of the Phantom two posts up . . .
 
LoneAspen said:
I know these operations are expensive, and worth every penny.

But this one made my jaw drop:

"Mig-21 Fishbed $4,500 per flight hour" :hairraise: :eek: :yikes:

Anything that cost $4,500 an hour better come with a happy ending!
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Depending on what they let me do...:rofl:
 
I heard 21 is a tricky ride. The airframe has a ton of limitations that the pilot must keep in mind at all times. I remember two cases off the top of my head:

- A guy in U.S. was flying with a drop tank and forgot that it's limited to +2g with the tank. Made a sharp turn and the aiplane fell apart.

- A somewhat well-known-in-narrow-circles pilotess in Russia bucked for maximum speed, focused on Mach indicator and forgot to observe limits on indicated airspeed. At some point she pitched down just a bit, descended into denser air, and burned out the engine.
 
I think you can get a ride in a MiG 29 to the "edge of space" for $20-$25k. Although, you've got to head to Russia to make that happen.
 
FlyingIsGood said:
I think you can get a ride in a MiG 29 to the "edge of space" for $20-$25k. Although, you've got to head to Russia to make that happen.
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At that price the visa is no problem.:lol: Heck, you could probably get them to throw in a ticket on Aeroflot.;)
 
Yeah I'd love to get a chance to fly a real fighter jet. First I'd spend the same cash on getting my rotary wing add on to fly copters and my advanced fixed wing ratings.
 
I was fortunate enough to get a ride in an F-16. The best 1.2 hours of my life. Rolls, high g turns, low passes over the runway at 400+ knots straight to vertical, mock attacks etc. At the time I was told it costs the taxpayers about $12k for my flight. I would gladly pay the tax payers that and more for another one.
 
zaitcev said:
I heard 21 is a tricky ride. The airframe has a ton of limitations that the pilot must keep in mind at all times. I remember two cases off the top of my head:

- A guy in U.S. was flying with a drop tank and forgot that it's limited to +2g with the tank. Made a sharp turn and the aiplane fell apart.

- A somewhat well-known-in-narrow-circles pilotess in Russia bucked for maximum speed, focused on Mach indicator and forgot to observe limits on indicated airspeed. At some point she pitched down just a bit, descended into denser air, and burned out the engine.
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yeah, you couldn't pay me to strap into a Fishbed, of any flavor. Have seen what some of the civilian US operators are working with, and that cockpit looks like a death trap. I'm sure it is pretty reliable as it is as simple as a VW bug, but something about flying around in a 40+ year old single engine jet with early eastern bloc ejection seat doesn't sound like a great time to me. IIRC those motors were designed to be throw aways after 500'ish hours, and I would be willing to bet that US operators are getting them overhauled rather than buying new per Mikoyan-Gurevich's original intent.
 
Velocity173 said:
You can go flying in an A-4 or F-4 with the Collings Foundation. I believe 8K and 12.5 K.
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For that kind of cash outlay, getting a heli rating (assuming you don't already have one) would give you x1000 the kicks in return.
And it would have a lasting residual value, even if you don't fly helis, by making you a better FW pilot too.
 
This is where this gets hard for me. I get excited about the Mig, but then reading further I realize how little I know about them.

Growing up during the Cold War, and seeing the condition of their equipment as things fell apart, concerns me more than a little.

As much as going to the edge of space would be cool, that is a bit out of my range (and back to the Russian equipment issue).


The Collings Foundation looks interesting, I just need to figure out what $12k buys me.

Thanks for all the suggestions
 
I've got some time in the F-4 pit, I'd say you'd have a better experience in the A-4.

The best fun ride you could would be a T-38. Simple, handles great, really fast, great visibility, an air conditioner.

Or go to Russia and fly a low level in an SU-24 Fencer, I understand tourists can pay to get dollar rides.
 
Anyone know if the Collings Foundation actually lets you fly their jets, or is it just a very expensive ride?
 
I was just trying to figure that out from their website. I figured it would be worth a call to them this week.
 
OverTQ said:
How so?
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You'd get a much better awareness (and better control) of your position relative to the ground during low and slow operations (e.g. in the flare).
You'd get a better awareness of (and counteract earlier) wind effects in the same situations.
Overall you'd get a much stronger "eyes outside" orientation during VFR/VMC flying, esp. down low.
You'd probably learn to use smoother control inputs (although this might depends on total hours in FW, after a few thousand hours this would come anyway).
You'd probably learn to handle engine out and manage energy better (typical RW "auto" glide ratio is about 4:1).

Henning said:
You'll always be ultra keyed up and ready for your aircraft to fling itself apart at any moment.:lol:;)
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And yes, you might become more aware that you are strapped to a bucket of bolts flying loose formation, even in a FW. :wink2:
 
Fearless Tower said:
Anyone know if the Collings Foundation actually lets you fly their jets, or is it just a very expensive ride?
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Their YouTube video claims it being flight training. It also refers to the experience as flying the aircraft. They go thru academics and cockpit familiarization prior to flight.

If it's anything like the Mustang program, you get to fly most of the time. Outside of take off and landing, I flew almost the whole time.
 

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JimNtexas said:
I've got some time in the F-4 pit, I'd say you'd have a better experience in the A-4.

The best fun ride you could would be a T-38. Simple, handles great, really fast, great visibility, an air conditioner.

Or go to Russia and fly a low level in an SU-24 Fencer, I understand tourists can pay to get dollar rides.
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T-37 & T-38 were the only jet rides I got, I thought the 37 was pretty fun as well.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Anyone know if the Collings Foundation actually lets you fly their jets, or is it just a very expensive ride?
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I'd imagine you would at least get some stick time, at least in dual control aircraft.....I can't imagine being the PIC with another pilot and not letting him/her take the controls. Takeoff/landing I'd imagine would be another story but I should hope that for that much you get something. I'd imagine F-4 or A-4, you'd have the pilot riding the controls if you were doing anything real dynamic, as those guys had a tendency to swap ends and never recover in certain regimes from what the old guys have told me.
 
35 AoA said:
I'd imagine F-4 or A-4, you'd have the pilot riding the controls if you were doing anything real dynamic, as those guys had a tendency to swap ends and never recover in certain regimes from what the old guys have told me.
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I heard it was a similar situation with the Hornet that went in the drink out if Oceana last year.
 
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