Light the fires
Aug 3, 2022 13:55:24 #
Facebook post by the local Air Force Base. They are the Depot for the F-15 and after working them they do a test flight that includes high speed run. In the days I worked on the base I enjoyed seeing them stand that airplane on its tail and light the fires.
Aug 3, 2022 14:24:48 #
Aug 4, 2022 09:50:02 #
I agree. At my last air show, the F-18 pilot did a low, high-speed pass, went vertical and hit the after burner. You could feel the pounding in your chest from what is essentially a continuous explosion even when it was a couple thousand feet in the air.
Aug 4, 2022 11:14:14 #
fourlocks wrote:
I agree. At my last air show, the F-18 pilot did a low, high-speed pass, went vertical and hit the after burner. You could feel the pounding in your chest from what is essentially a continuous explosion even when it was a couple thousand feet in the air.
Aug 4, 2022 11:25:07 #
MikeJ
Loc: North Georgia USA
They can be a bit noisy! In the early 60's I worked at Brookley AFB (Mobile, AL) which was prime for the F105. When they ran those things up, the windows in my office (an old barracks building) would rattle and telephone conversation was almost impossible. Also there was an engine overhaul shop where they rebuilt multi-cylinder radial engines and the test stand runs were almost as bad as the jets.
Aug 4, 2022 11:50:34 #
MikeJ wrote:
They can be a bit noisy! In the early 60's I worked at Brookley AFB (Mobile, AL) which was prime for the F105. When they ran those things up, the windows in my office (an old barracks building) would rattle and telephone conversation was almost impossible. Also there was an engine overhaul shop where they rebuilt multi-cylinder radial engines and the test stand runs were almost as bad as the jets.
Yes, noisy. With the exception of one 5 year period, I have lived on, or near military air bases since 1964.
Aug 4, 2022 12:49:51 #
Aug 4, 2022 12:52:28 #
We were vacationing with my parents near Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Michigan near Lake Huron. As I recall, Dad and I went to the base for a round of golf. A B-52 was doing some touch and goes. Always fun to see.
Aug 4, 2022 14:05:18 #
There was a Federal Prison Camp on Eglin AFB in Florida where I worked for a couple years. My drive to work route (and then going home) took me past the end on the main runway for the base. There were many times an F18 was taking off or doing a touch and go just as I passed under them. When they hit the AB it sounded like I'd get blown off the road.
Aug 4, 2022 15:02:59 #
frankco
Loc: Colorado
I watched the first F15s land in Germany about 45 years ago. They had a ceremony about a month later. An F15 demonstrated what I believe they referred to as a Functional Flight Check where the pilot nosed the plane straight up and put it in afterburner. To this day it's hard to believe there was a human being in that plane; it took off like a bottle rocket, straight up.
Aug 4, 2022 16:15:28 #
Tdearing wrote:
Nice shot.
The base keeps a repository of their own, and other bases, pictures of aircraft and they rotate the use of pictures for these kind of posts. I am pretty sure this picture was from RAF Lakenheath in England. Actually, I lived and worked there some years ago but these aircraft were not based there at the time... we initially had F-4 and transitioned to F-111 before I left.
Aug 4, 2022 16:21:38 #
wrangler5
Loc: Missouri
frankco wrote:
I watched the first F15s land in Germany about 45 years ago. They had a ceremony about a month later. An F15 demonstrated what I believe they referred to as a Functional Flight Check where the pilot nosed the plane straight up and put it in afterburner. To this day it's hard to believe there was a human being in that plane; it took off like a bottle rocket, straight up.
An F15 used to do one of those to close the annual 4th of July airshow on the St. Louis riverfront. After some back and forth loopy stuff they'd come up the river with flaps and landing gear hanging out and probably just above stalling speed, then clean up the airframe while they pointed the nose straight up and hit the afterburner. The crackling, ripping canvas noise, that went right trough you while watching from the river bank, was an experience that can't be captured on video. (I always wondered how high the protected air space went for that event, because the plane pretty much just disappeared.) But as I recall from living with 'em for 4 years, that's what an SR-71 sounded like on every takeoff - from a couple of miles away.
Aug 4, 2022 16:22:58 #
PhotogHobbyist wrote:
There was a Federal Prison Camp on Eglin AFB in Florida where I worked for a couple years. My drive to work route (and then going home) took me past the end on the main runway for the base. There were many times an F18 was taking off or doing a touch and go just as I passed under them. When they hit the AB it sounded like I'd get blown off the road.
My last assignment in the Air Force was Eglin AFB. I am familiar with the Federal Prison Camp and the part of the runway that is near the road.
The prisoners worked all around the base during the day and I was taking night college classes and prisoners were in some of my classes. Well remember the part of the road near the end of the runway... my wife's car broke down exactly there... and they were having a busy flying time while she was broke down. I couldn't get it started so I just tied a heavy strap to the front frame of her car and the trailer hitch on my truck... and told her to keep a foot on the brake and not let it run in to me on the way home.
Aug 4, 2022 16:27:17 #
frankco wrote:
I watched the first F15s land in Germany about 45 years ago. They had a ceremony about a month later. An F15 demonstrated what I believe they referred to as a Functional Flight Check where the pilot nosed the plane straight up and put it in afterburner. To this day it's hard to believe there was a human being in that plane; it took off like a bottle rocket, straight up.
Yes... FCFs starting off straight up is what I saw here.
I was in Germany, at Spangdahlem and Bitburg, a few years before you... 4 years, '69 to '73
Aug 4, 2022 16:28:26 #
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