F18 Question
- Thread starter genot
- Start date
Military fuel reserves are different than civilian ones. In fact, for USAF, IFR reserves are different from FAA for both fixed wing and rotary wing.
As far as the fuel question, don't know specifically for the Hornet, but for similar aircraft, 1000 pounds is something that if you're in the pattern and not using afterburner, you can get a pattern around, but you don't want to be hanging around up there at all. Jets I flew, average fuel burn was around 4000 lbs/hr total, and min fuel for VFR was about 1500. So 1000 is mission-complete light time from overhead the field.
///AMG
Well-Known Member
1000 lbs remaining is an emergency fuel state. How much time you have depends on altitude, whether you can make an idle descent to final, or if you are already dirty in the pattern. In the pattern, you probably have one go around and a second pass before you are at risk of flaming out. I've landed below 2k lbs, and that was a big enough pucker factor for me, though it involved an in flight emergency that occurred when I dirtied up.
Worst here was 400 lbs landing, after being a few hundred lbs on the totalizer, searching for the tanker in IMC with the needles resting firmly on zero and the master caution and both red "MAIN FUEL -LOW" lights illuminated.
Record shutdown for me is 9,700 lbs. Little bigger plane though. Gotta say, the most nerve racking I've had was actually a take-off with just over 14,000 lbs. Short hop, but seeing the LOW fuel and LOW PRESS on all the forward tank boost pumps during the roll was interesting.
Always fun taxiing out at Pax River on an "alert" launch and listening to the F-18 be asked if he has the fuel to go back out to radar to get us off deck.
Always fun taxiing out at Pax River on an "alert" launch and listening to the F-18 be asked if he has the fuel to go back out to radar to get us off deck.
Always fun trying to figure out where you're going to go if the you can't get with the tanker...
It just occurred to me.....are the E-6 pilots the only USN pilots who do boom AR, versus probe and drogue?
I do believe so... Almost wish we had probe/drogue sometimes. You can get some boom operators that like to fly your aircraft right out of the envelope.
All of our ARs are training missions, tied together with pilot training. Only time we've had "real" ARs were when we were doing a comm mission over Iraq.
I've had quite a number ARs where the pilots are having me run a bingo number and then deciding how many attempts they're going to have before we have to knock it off and head home.
C-182 flyer
Well-Known Member
Min fuel on deck for the Legacy is 2.0k pounds, and 2.3k for the Super. If you BINGO, the profile will take you below that, 1.5k/1.8k but still plenty safe. For reference, you can plan on about 400 pounds to make one trip around the VFR pattern and about 800 pounds to get around the bolter/wave-off pattern (essentially an instrument approach, and on shore that amount will vary with how you get vectored)
At the boat, when working "blue water ops", the legacy uses a tank state of 2.5k day and 3.0k night. If you can't get gas from the tanker for some reason, the barricade state is 1.7k, although my airwing adopted a policy to not barricade, but rather keep trying to get them aboard until the fuel state is so low the pilot would just fly next to the boat and make a controlled ejection. That never happened, thanks God.
So,long story short, 1.0k pounds in the tank would make anyone chew the seat cushion up. The fuel levels have been op tested though, and the guy I know that did it said the fuel gauges were very accurate, right up until the second motor flamed out on roll out after landing.
Like Mike said, the fuel reserve requirements are quite different from the FAA.
AMG, back me up on the Legacy numbers, it has been a while.
At the boat, when working "blue water ops", the legacy uses a tank state of 2.5k day and 3.0k night. If you can't get gas from the tanker for some reason, the barricade state is 1.7k, although my airwing adopted a policy to not barricade, but rather keep trying to get them aboard until the fuel state is so low the pilot would just fly next to the boat and make a controlled ejection. That never happened, thanks God.
So,long story short, 1.0k pounds in the tank would make anyone chew the seat cushion up. The fuel levels have been op tested though, and the guy I know that did it said the fuel gauges were very accurate, right up until the second motor flamed out on roll out after landing.
Like Mike said, the fuel reserve requirements are quite different from the FAA.
AMG, back me up on the Legacy numbers, it has been a while.
Curiously, what was the rationale for that? Only thing I could think would be not to foul the deck with a crash, but I would think the barricade jet would be last to recover anyway?
Also couldn't be for not wanting to damage the jet, as the controlled ejection option makes that moot.
C-182 flyer
Well-Known Member
Mike,
I believe it was a gamble. If you barricade, the jet is going to be torn up while the pilot still has to fly a decent pass to get aboard. They were betting that they could get someone aboard in the passes that 1.7k would allow. Probably only two looks at night, maybe a third with short hooks to final and quite a few during the day.
I believe it was a gamble. If you barricade, the jet is going to be torn up while the pilot still has to fly a decent pass to get aboard. They were betting that they could get someone aboard in the passes that 1.7k would allow. Probably only two looks at night, maybe a third with short hooks to final and quite a few during the day.
It's an interesting gamble. I was just wondering the thought of not barricading at all as a last ditch measure, and preferring the controlled bailout; as that even has many of it's own risks.....from the ejection itself, to landing in the water at night, to being lost at sea at night.
At the same time, if a guy is boltering multiple traps at night, I could only imagine the tension and stress of succeeding passes getting worse and worse, maybe not safe enough for a barricade?
Almost a darned if you do, darned if you don't.
That was the YF-17 Cobra.
Come out to Nellis son......I'll be here all week. If you can get your block 40 airborne, I will be glad to put you in the hurt locker.
And I set the rules for you two. No BVR crap.....hell, not even heaters. Guns kills only; tracking....no snap shots and no counters forward of the 3-9.
Guys up for it?