What a ride

[bearbait]

I can only imagine the kind of shape you'd have to be in to handle this.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/u4D0yx4DvBk?rel=0

 

[ipz2222]

I was a crew chief on the F4 Phantom back in the seventies when the Thunderbirds flew them. I was NOT a crew chief for the thunder birds, just in a tactical fighter squadron in Germany. Saw many air shows with the Air Force and Thunderbirds, still get a chill watching them today.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

See the passenger guy grunting and gritting his teeth? It's the L1M1 maneuver. You tense up your leg muscles stomach and chest to keep the blood from going to your feet. It's called, "Getting a jump on the G's." Miss that chance and you can pass out. Not good if you are flying the plane.

Normal combat pilots wear "speed pants" which are chaps which have an air bladder in them. When the aircraft sense positive Gs, the bladder starts getting air pressure to do the squeezing for you. The first couple of times, they squeeze you, it feels weird because they really clomp down on you. But, they work.

I have naturally low blood pressure. In flight training, I had to really work on my G tolerance. The T-37 had no provision for speed pants so it was all "grunting." I got so I could handle 5-6 G's pretty well. If I didn't beat the G's, I would lose my color vision or lose my vision completely for a few seconds. In the next trainer, The T-38, we had speed pants and they really helped. We would pull 7+ Gs routinely. That is about what these guys were pulling.

One of my First Officers was the solo man for the Blue Angels for two seasons. One day, they were doing an arrival show at some base and it was really bumpy. Lee was the slot man which this video was shot from and on one of the passes, Lee felt a "BUMP." Lee hears the guy on his wing, in an excited voice say, "LEE, I JUST BUMPED YOU AND KNOCKED OFF YOUR RIGHT SLAB! IT'S GONE!"

The "slab" is the horizontal tail part and his whole part on the right side was gone. Being the typical cool guy, Lee says, "Thanks for the heads up. I think I'll go land now."
Lee brought the jet in for an uneventful landing.

The slab is essentially a chunk of airframe that pivots on a tube extending out of the middle of the tail. It had broken cleanly on that tube with no other damage to the plane. Thankfully, the 200+ lb chunk of tail fell into a non-inhabited area and no one was injured.

Lee said within four hours, their maintenance team had a spare slab installed and ready for the show later that day.

I like to think that is where every penny of MY tax money goes. (SALUTE!)

 

[bearbait]

See the passenger guy grunting and gritting his teeth? It's the L1M1 maneuver. You tense up your leg muscles stomach and chest to keep the blood from going to your feet. It's called, "Getting a jump on the G's." Miss that chance and you can pass out. Not good if you are flying the plane.

Normal combat pilots wear "speed pants" which are chaps which have an air bladder in them. When the aircraft sense positive Gs, the bladder starts getting air pressure to do the squeezing for you. The first couple of times, they squeeze you, it feels weird because they really clomp down on you. But, they work.

I have naturally low blood pressure. In flight training, I had to really work on my G tolerance. The T-37 had no provision for speed pants so it was all "grunting." I got so I could handle 5-6 G's pretty well. If I didn't beat the G's, I would lose my color vision or lose my vision completely for a few seconds. In the next trainer, The T-38, we had speed pants and they really helped. We would pull 7+ Gs routinely. That is about what these guys were pulling.

One of my First Officers was the solo man for the Blue Angels for two seasons. One day, they were doing an arrival show at some base and it was really bumpy. Lee was the slot man which this video was shot from and on one of the passes, Lee felt a "BUMP." Lee hears the guy on his wing, in an excited voice say, "LEE, I JUST BUMPED YOU AND KNOCKED OFF YOUR RIGHT SLAB! IT'S GONE!"

The "slab" is the horizontal tail part and his whole part on the right side was gone. Being the typical cool guy, Lee says, "Thanks for the heads up. I think I'll go land now."
Lee brought the jet in for an uneventful landing.

The slab is essentially a chunk of airframe that pivots on a tube extending out of the middle of the tail. It had broken cleanly on that tube with no other damage to the plane. Thankfully, the 200+ lb chunk of tail fell into a non-inhabited area and no one was injured.

Lee said within four hours, their maintenance team had a spare slab installed and ready for the show later that day.

I like to think that is where every penny of MY tax money goes. (SALUTE!)

A great story and very impressive, thanks for sharing Ray. Who know's, maybe in my next life. One thing for sure, I've always had the need for speed.

 

[RCW]

One thing for sure, I've always had the need for speed.

Bear - that made me laugh....

In my teens, I could do 65mph in the dirt with my Kawasaki KX dirt bike....
In my twenties, I could do 140mph on the road with my Yamaha Fazer.....
In my forties and fifties, my Harley never saw 90....
In my later ‘50’s, sold the Harley....
Now, a wide-open 7mph on the Kubota is SO satisfying......never had so much fun going so slow.....[emoji41]
I guess I have a need for speed, just a slower one....[emoji15]

Take care, my friend. You gave me a good opportunity to have a good chuckle at myself, and I’m okay with that![emoji41]

One thing I’ve always said is that we should never take ourselves too seriously..... life is too short....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lycomech96]

I just had lunch with a friend who had an L-39 that he used to give rides in, for a fee. He said he took 532 people on rides in the years that he owned it. I was showing him some of my carrier landings in a flight sim I have and he told me a 16 year old kid came for a ride and the father told the pilot he was very experienced in jet ops from his hours on the home flight sim. When the kid got back from his 6G ride the pilot asked him if it was anything like the sims he flew.
He just sat there with his mouth open, unable to form the words to describe the experience.

 

[bearbait]

Bear - that made me laugh....

In my teens, I could do 65mph in the dirt with my Kawasaki KX dirt bike....
In my twenties, I could do 140mph on the road with my Yamaha Fazer.....
In my forties and fifties, my Harley never saw 90....
In my later ‘50’s, sold the Harley....
Now, a wide-open 7mph on the Kubota is SO satisfying......never had so much fun going so slow.....[emoji41]
I guess I have a need for speed, just a slower one....[emoji15]

Take care, my friend. You gave me a good opportunity to have a good chuckle at myself, and I’m okay with that![emoji41]

One thing I’ve always said is that we should never take ourselves too seriously..... life is too short....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lol, yes we do tend to slow down with age just not sure it's by choice. Now that you've brought it up this tractor has given me far worst puckers at times then anything else I've ever driven but I guess that's how we know we're still riding the edge. As long as we're still around to laugh about it it's all good.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

What blows me away to this day is the miracle of military training.

In roughly 20 hours of flying a basic jet trainer, they let me go do it by myself. Then, you move on to a supersonic trainer and after about 25 hours, one day you show up and there is dashed line in the spot where your instructor's name should be. You are on your own. At this point, I think I had maybe 120 hours of flight time, total. After another 40 hours or so, you are cleared to fly formation solo. Yeah, there are at least two instructors in two of the jets but two of the sluggos can be on their own if they demonstrate the ability.

That STILL blows me away.

 

[RCW]

As long as we're still around to laugh about it it's all good.

You know what, that's the bottom line....[emoji41]

I've had many stressful aspects to Life this year.... Work (too much of it, and can only get away from it a few days a year), house projects/disruptions, mother-in-law's passing/estate/house to clean/repair/sell, weather and flash flooding damage, son wrecked his car..., etc., etc.....

I deal with that kind of stuff much better than the Mrs., just been accustomed to being the problem solver at home and work for a long, long time....

But as you say, hang tough and have fun![emoji3]

Sent from my QTASUN1 using Tapatalk

 

[bearbait]

What blows me away to this day is the miracle of military training.

In roughly 20 hours of flying a basic jet trainer, they let me go do it by myself. Then, you move on to a supersonic trainer and after about 25 hours, one day you show up and there is dashed line in the spot where your instructor's name should be. You are on your own. At this point, I think I had maybe 120 hours of flight time, total. After another 40 hours or so, you are cleared to fly formation solo. Yeah, there are at least two instructors in two of the jets but two of the sluggos can be on their own if they demonstrate the ability.

That STILL blows me away.

Hat's off to the instructors, I have a hard enough time being a passenger in a car, it's that need to be in control all the time.

 

[bearbait]

You know what, that's the bottom line....[emoji41]

I've had many stressful aspects to Life this year.... Work (too much of it, and can only get away from it a few days a year), house projects/disruptions, mother-in-law's passing/estate/house to clean/repair/sell, weather and flash flooding damage, son wrecked his car..., etc., etc.....

I deal with that kind of stuff much better than the Mrs., just been accustomed to being the problem solver at home and work for a long, long time....

But as you say, hang tough and have fun![emoji3]

Sent from my QTASUN1 using Tapatalk

Just remember life is short and too much stress is not a good thing. I sure hope things slow down for you soon my friend, work will always be there however loved ones may not.

 

[ipz2222]

Ray, when and where were you training in the t 38?? The last year ('73) I was in the Air Force was in Mississippi, worked on the t 38.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

ipz,

Right after the advent of electricity... 1981! Lol We were just kids back then weren't we? Holy MOLY! It still blows me away that the T-38 was designed and first flew in the late 50's! My dad was a civilian pilot and saw a prototype while taxiing out one day around 1957 at the Northrop plant. He was convinced they hadn't put the wings on it yet. LOL.

Thanks for your service! A friend of mine out here was a Tweet instructor at Columbus. While I was at Willy, I was a newlywed and my wife was a SSgt. She retired as a MSgt on a second tour at Willy only six years later. Seems like forever ago... Who ARE those kids in the pictures???

LOL....

 

[CaveCreekRay]

More kids and jets here in Phoenix at Luke AFB...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3SXOsQoiac

 

[bearbait]

More kids and jets here in Phoenix at Luke AFB...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3SXOsQoiac

Reminds me of the saying "the most fun you can have with your cloths on."

 

[CaveCreekRay]

A historical look back at The Blues. Hard to believe they flew a few seasons in the F-4. THAT MUST HAVE BEEN LOUD!!! Lol...

https://www.facebook.com/CrewOperations/videos/665871340144651/

 

[ipz2222]

In that first video, 1.24 min, that was what I did, strap the pilot in and send him out. Actually it was only a few seconds of the 10 to 12 hour days.
The Navy Blue Angels and the Air Force Thunderbirds flew the f4 Phantom at the same time until the F18 and the F16 came out. They were all impressive. My wife gets as excited as a little kid when they take off. I just get goose bumps.

 

[Lycomech96]

I watched the Blue Angles in 1972 at a local airshow when they were flying F-4 Phantoms. Four took off in formation and just after breaking ground the slot guy rolls inverted and climbs out with the gear and flaps still down (now pointing up.) I still can't believe they could pull that off.

One other demonstration that amazed me was a small stunt plane flying a perfect horizontal circle while rolling at the same time. I would like to see the stick and rudder movements required to do that.