Jets really don’t like flying low...

Don’t forget that cycles count in turbines too, so avoiding a fuel stop makes sense on multiple levels.
 
Rockymountain said:
Turbo props Don’t take as much of a hit as jets down low. In the M600, can easily make Naples to San Jose with one fuel stop. The best compromise over ground speed in fuel burn for one fuel stop turns out to be 16,000 feet. 9:47 flight time.
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Thanks but those extra two hours of flight time would have been rough... Instead I used them to unpack, have dinner and give the kids a bath... I'd be pulling into the driveway now if I spent 9:47 minutes flying....
 
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Rick182 said:
Don’t forget that cycles count in turbines too, so avoiding a fuel stop makes sense on multiple levels.
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Very true. When I did the math with the MU-2, it generally made more sense to fly at a power cruise for getting the most miles out of your hour and thus fewest dollars per mile, even with the higher fuel burn. But then when I was on a long leg where economy cruise would save me a stop, it was absolutely worthwhile in every respect.

RudyP said:
Thanks but those extra two hours of flight time would have been rough... Instead I used them to unpack, have dinner and give the kids a bath... I'd be pulling into the driveway now if I spent 9:47 minutes flying....
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This was one of the things I was running into towards the end of the Cloud Nine days. My days were regularly 8-10 hours on the hobbs, still usually 12 hours for a round trip with an overnight spent somewhere. All that meant a lot of time away from family. A jet would've fixed that speed aspect, with the addition of a whole host of other problem$.
 
Dang that F-111 is on the deck!
 
aftCG said:
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jsstevens said:
Dang that F-111 is on the deck!
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Man... the -111. When I was a student at the Colorado School for Wayward Boys (and girls), during one of the summer programs a handful of us went out to RAF Upper Heyford. I was lucky enough to get a couple "incentive rides" in the right seat of the F-111. The "incentive" part worked, and that would have been my number one pick out of flight school. But, alas, it was not to be. The early 90s was not kind to Air Force pilot training students. There ended up not even being one tactical aircraft in our drop. In fact, only 1/3 of us graduating got to go fly right out of school, the rest of the class was "banked," relegated to fly a desk for a few years before getting a plane to fly.

It all worked out in the end. I've (mostly) gotten over it... that is, until someone posts a picture of a RAAF F-111 doing (what I'd like to imagine) is in excess of 300 knots a few feet off the runway.
 
jsstevens said:
Dang that F-111 is on the deck!
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Wasn't there an RAAF F-111C that had to make a gear up landing because one of the wheels had fallen off? Wonder if this is a picture of that one just before touch down.

[edit]

Yep, looks like the one. Same tail numbers.

Story here: http://www.pigzbum.com/crewroom/movie.html

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One should always fly a Learjet low, but slightly higher than the masts! Don Slipper PIC RIP,, perished in a Westwind with Peter LaHaye. Peter developed the lens used in cataract surgery. Peter was a high school drop-out, and self-made multi-millionaire.

The Westwind had just had an "AD" done to the tail jackscrew. The tail came off the jackscrew on that fatal flight. In the aftermath, it turns out the "AD" was not even required by serial number. The maintenance facility went out of business.

Don and Peter were on their way to Teterboro, to pick up a brand new Falcon 50. It was to be the last flight in the Westwind, which Don told me it was a dog to fly.

 
Sluggo63 said:
Man... the -111. When I was a student at the Colorado School for Wayward Boys (and girls), during one of the summer programs a handful of us went out to RAF Upper Heyford. I was lucky enough to get a couple "incentive rides" in the right seat of the F-111. The "incentive" part worked, and that would have been my number one pick out of flight school. But, alas, it was not to be. The early 90s was not kind to Air Force pilot training students. There ended up not even being one tactical aircraft in our drop. In fact, only 1/3 of us graduating got to go fly right out of school, the rest of the class was "banked," relegated to fly a desk for a few years before getting a plane to fly.

It all worked out in the end. I've (mostly) gotten over it... that is, until someone posts a picture of a RAAF F-111 doing (what I'd like to imagine) is in excess of 300 knots a few feet off the runway.
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Indeed. Don't feel too bad, the mid 2000s weren't pretty for us TAMI-21 generation. An 8-engine mule with the turn radius of a PANAMAX is as close as I got the F-16 (nee A-7), latter two which were there spark that drove me to aspire to military aviation, hell wanting to fly outright, in the first place.

Funny story about the -111. One of the two "counseling" sessions I endured during my years as a CGO came as a result of making a -111 v. buff reference joke while navel-gazing, sitting hard broke (again) with engines running in the 8-holed memphis belle at the KBAD ramp. Navigators never did have a sense of humor. Only problem for my O-2 mouth was...the DO was a nav, and I was hotmic. #oops #SWA #noragrets :D

But yes, it largely worked out for me too. Took eight years but I was able to claw my way back to the mighty Talon, where I do most of the fighter pilot LARPing with none of the vault time, and enroute now to an AD retirement check, which wasn't a realistic part of the original plan as an AFRC baby. Spinal/neck health is in pretty good shape too for a 2000+ sortie guy, which is the other silver lining. Twofer.

As such, I've largely stopped looking at gift horses in the mouth since landing in the AGR program a decade ago. Kid loves daddy and his "rocket", and the wife has everything she needs now (medical, jobs, school) less than a 30 min drive (vice 3+ hours the duty station prior). Life's good. :thumbsup:

All that said, I still would have loved to go down a LL route in a SLUF rails loaded, 'Nam style at least one time. Doing it back at the home drome would have been icing on cake.
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