X-47 carrier based drone
Fueling Up at 25,000 Feet and 350 MPH
- Thread starter WannFly
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midwestpa24
Final Approach
X-47B UCAV, but he likes to be called Hal.
Sluggo63
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Sluggo63
Most Air Refuelings (ARs) take place in the mid-20s. Usually somewhere between FL240-FL270, in a block altitude. For Air Force refuelings, anything that low is probably a C-130 (maybe A-10s).
Here's a chart of all the published AR tracks in the US.
Now, these are the only ones published in the Military Training Routes book, but there are others that are developed locally between a military unit and the controlling agency through a LOA. There are also a lot of fighter refuelings that happen in MOAs that also aren't on the chart. And then, there's always the option for "random AR" where the tanker would coordinate with ATC to air refuel not on a published track. Typically we'd use that if there was weather on the scheduled AR track, or if the receivers wanted more time on the boom after leaving the published track.
35 AoA
Pattern Altitude
Test aircraft....I don't believe they ever did anything with it, though the MQ-25 is in development now, which certainly benefitted from the -47 program. As for the -25, the mission scope has been significantly reduced and is basically just a tanker at this point (or will be). I was randomly onboard CVN 77 when they did the first sea trials/shipboard flight test of the X-47B. My squadron/airwing was deploying on it early the next year, and we had just wrapped up a month flying off of her during pre-deployment workups. Was an interesting show to watch in the ready room as I waited to catch a COD home.
Witmo
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Tim
Is he planning on taking a shot at the endurance record for a 172? Look it up. I doubt anyone will ever break that one.
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Piperonca
Who in their right mind would want to?
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2008/march/01/endurance-test-circa-1958
JohnAJohnson
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JohnAJohnson
Tools
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Tools
hehe, flew S-3Bs, got a few good tanking stories...
1). first time, i’m settled up behind the basket of another s-3, it’s weaving and dodging, i ask fluff, my instructor, do you just take a stab at the perceived center of motion? he replies, tools, let go of the stick... the basket immediately goes motionless!! hmmm....
2). a group of us go up for training behind a kc-10. i’m in the backseat of bird 3... waiting my turn, we would swap seats airborne for this sort of group training, watching tuna. he gets up close and sits for the longest time. we already asked for lower and slower, we were designed for LOW altitude ops. i immediately recognize he’s out of poop. sure enough, he asks for a few knots. the -10 speeds away! he says “no, even SLOWER!”. they say clear left, deploy all sorts of slow flight things i didn’t even know existed and clear us back in, looking a little like a ruffled chicken. tuna gets close, again, can’t gain in close and suddenly his dumps come on! i think hmmm, dumping gas to get light enough to refuel! wish i had a camera for this!
3) my turn, i usually get closer than most and take a shorter stouter stab. i don’t have enough snot to latch... ok, back up a little and take a longer run... no latch. getting embarrassing, back way up, take a step up and head in with authority! WHAM! big old sine wave heads up the hose to a clearly WIDE EYED boom operator! wuppsie, uh, just hang on until it heads back, which it does! with a vengeance! MASSIVE twaaaaaang, i clear out right immediately. uh, that’s a qual for me! me and my cotac eye the probe best we can, it looks fine. retract and wait what seemed like half hour for the 60 second retract time culminating in an extinguished probe light. cool, must be good. RTB. kinda sorta tell maint to take a look at the probe post flight being a diligent pilot. i pass through the hangar a few hours later and see 703 in there with a probe laying on the ground next to it.... wupsie... i pick it up and sight down it, hehe, pretty bent! i ask if i can take it home and hang it on my wall! that was a NO.
also gave fuel, around the boat this happens at ALL altitudes. a “hawk” was be at a guy’s two o’clock about a 1000 ft basket out ready to refuel as he clears the deck if he bolters.
4). i’m the ready 15 tanker, last recovery. i’ve preflighted, i’m geared up asleep in my rack as my jet was parked right above my stateroom. phone rings, go go go... ok, run up there, AE2 paseka has the apu running spinning up the INS, i climb in hit starter one while climbing in and strapping down. postal, my cotac shows up i hit starter 2 as he secures the hatch. we taxi as he straps down. across the JBD, hook up to the cat, spread the wings, start the before start checklist, salute and BOOM, we’re airborne on a moonless night. immediately i’m told to hawk the last plane airborne, except now me too, who is on his trick or treat pass at two miles aft, which means i should be at 4 miles aft and 250 kts, hmmm... i’m half mile ahead of the ship at 300’ and 130 kts... it’s a maneuver flaps max aoa mushy turn to get as close to as in position as possible. vertigo like MAD!! i mark on top about 700’, maybe 170 kts, but basket out ready to go. he’s a trap, yay, report when ready to recover. N O W. it’s another min radius turn, what’s the danger, already a vertigo mess?! i just want this to end before i realize how miserable i am!!! hell, six minutes ago i was blissfully asleep! roll onto the ball doing a quasi daytime pattern at night, boom, grab a wire and it’s all over before it began! wow!!
there’s a thing called a basket slap... one of my squadron mates got one once, ON THE VERTICAL STAB! Yikes! ever so slight overshoot...
the most horrific things happen during inflight refueling!
1). first time, i’m settled up behind the basket of another s-3, it’s weaving and dodging, i ask fluff, my instructor, do you just take a stab at the perceived center of motion? he replies, tools, let go of the stick... the basket immediately goes motionless!! hmmm....
2). a group of us go up for training behind a kc-10. i’m in the backseat of bird 3... waiting my turn, we would swap seats airborne for this sort of group training, watching tuna. he gets up close and sits for the longest time. we already asked for lower and slower, we were designed for LOW altitude ops. i immediately recognize he’s out of poop. sure enough, he asks for a few knots. the -10 speeds away! he says “no, even SLOWER!”. they say clear left, deploy all sorts of slow flight things i didn’t even know existed and clear us back in, looking a little like a ruffled chicken. tuna gets close, again, can’t gain in close and suddenly his dumps come on! i think hmmm, dumping gas to get light enough to refuel! wish i had a camera for this!
3) my turn, i usually get closer than most and take a shorter stouter stab. i don’t have enough snot to latch... ok, back up a little and take a longer run... no latch. getting embarrassing, back way up, take a step up and head in with authority! WHAM! big old sine wave heads up the hose to a clearly WIDE EYED boom operator! wuppsie, uh, just hang on until it heads back, which it does! with a vengeance! MASSIVE twaaaaaang, i clear out right immediately. uh, that’s a qual for me! me and my cotac eye the probe best we can, it looks fine. retract and wait what seemed like half hour for the 60 second retract time culminating in an extinguished probe light. cool, must be good. RTB. kinda sorta tell maint to take a look at the probe post flight being a diligent pilot. i pass through the hangar a few hours later and see 703 in there with a probe laying on the ground next to it.... wupsie... i pick it up and sight down it, hehe, pretty bent! i ask if i can take it home and hang it on my wall! that was a NO.
also gave fuel, around the boat this happens at ALL altitudes. a “hawk” was be at a guy’s two o’clock about a 1000 ft basket out ready to refuel as he clears the deck if he bolters.
4). i’m the ready 15 tanker, last recovery. i’ve preflighted, i’m geared up asleep in my rack as my jet was parked right above my stateroom. phone rings, go go go... ok, run up there, AE2 paseka has the apu running spinning up the INS, i climb in hit starter one while climbing in and strapping down. postal, my cotac shows up i hit starter 2 as he secures the hatch. we taxi as he straps down. across the JBD, hook up to the cat, spread the wings, start the before start checklist, salute and BOOM, we’re airborne on a moonless night. immediately i’m told to hawk the last plane airborne, except now me too, who is on his trick or treat pass at two miles aft, which means i should be at 4 miles aft and 250 kts, hmmm... i’m half mile ahead of the ship at 300’ and 130 kts... it’s a maneuver flaps max aoa mushy turn to get as close to as in position as possible. vertigo like MAD!! i mark on top about 700’, maybe 170 kts, but basket out ready to go. he’s a trap, yay, report when ready to recover. N O W. it’s another min radius turn, what’s the danger, already a vertigo mess?! i just want this to end before i realize how miserable i am!!! hell, six minutes ago i was blissfully asleep! roll onto the ball doing a quasi daytime pattern at night, boom, grab a wire and it’s all over before it began! wow!!
there’s a thing called a basket slap... one of my squadron mates got one once, ON THE VERTICAL STAB! Yikes! ever so slight overshoot...
the most horrific things happen during inflight refueling!
35 AoA
Pattern Altitude
Tools, not sure if you guys ever did "yoyo" tanking, but your last story reminds me of that......or of being launched as the TTLR. Basically have no time to think because either 1) your hawk was a trap or 2) you gave your stone (or in the yoyo case, the last guy is on the ball and you just finished consolidating).....and now departure is putting you on vectors and not-so-patiently asking when you are ready to come aboard. Ok hold my beer, I have about 10k lbs I need to dump real quick, then I get back to you. I remember my most confusing moments being on downwind in the B/WO pattern on those nights because you don't have even one second to just relax before you are trying to empty the ARS, get configured, and now you are on the ball and you probably forgot to turn down the lights or raise your seat again......or grab your brain off the stab.
At one point after the A6 and S3 were gone they tried putting a buddy store on the Prowler. Stories like this make me glad they never got it operational.
Tools
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Tools
oooh, ya, i agree. the s3 was a great overhead tanker, but miserable strike package tanker, too low, too slow.
remind me to tell about the displaced night stack a6/s3 tanking story... the ABSOLUTE scariest thing i have EVER experienced...
can’t imagine the prowler would have a lot of give, don’t really know. the old hoover had lots of bring aboard, the reason it was pretty darn good overhead, and we could loiter for EVER. as mentioned before, an ESCAPAC seat for hours weren’t very comfy.
triple H ops (hoover, helo, hummer) from 7am to noon every day was miserable! another good story about sleeping while flying! swore i’d never do it, until then...
Tools
remind me to tell about the displaced night stack a6/s3 tanking story... the ABSOLUTE scariest thing i have EVER experienced...
can’t imagine the prowler would have a lot of give, don’t really know. the old hoover had lots of bring aboard, the reason it was pretty darn good overhead, and we could loiter for EVER. as mentioned before, an ESCAPAC seat for hours weren’t very comfy.
triple H ops (hoover, helo, hummer) from 7am to noon every day was miserable! another good story about sleeping while flying! swore i’d never do it, until then...
Tools
35 AoA
Pattern Altitude
Haha you're welcome. VFA-15 and VFA-103 were my operational tours, cruised on the Bush and Lincoln, many years after yourself
Just got "out" a year ago and headed to fly with the reserves up in Whidbey near back home. I only flew the fat girl (5wet) in the Jolly Rogers since I had been a legacy Hornet dude prior to that.
Tools
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Tools
Man, MANY years after me? That’s just mean...
Cool, thanks for your continuing service!
There’s only one thing I can think of worse than going on cruise, and that’s going BACK on cruise! I was lucky, one workuo, one cruise. I was a black shoe prior, I guess that was worse. Life in the air wing was gravy compared to that, think Mr Roberts. My COs were Peter Gaskin II, and Dewey Whitmire III, tyrants!
Ok, back to our regularly scheduled program!
Tools
Cool, thanks for your continuing service!
There’s only one thing I can think of worse than going on cruise, and that’s going BACK on cruise! I was lucky, one workuo, one cruise. I was a black shoe prior, I guess that was worse. Life in the air wing was gravy compared to that, think Mr Roberts. My COs were Peter Gaskin II, and Dewey Whitmire III, tyrants!
Ok, back to our regularly scheduled program!
Tools